The Duchess's Daughters

Chapter 4

 ** Hey guys, thanks for being very VERY patient with me and putting up with my lack of updates, but I have good reason! My computer was down for awhile, there was some trouble with my account, and horses are taking up more and more of my time, so I have to try harder to update! Special thanks to my fan: YouHadMeAt_Believe , who hasn't abandoned me yet, after all that waiting! So special thanks to you, and make sure to check out her works too! Thanks everyone! Hope you enjoy, even if this chapter is a little short andreally, definately rushed!!**

Now, I don't know of anyone else that has had enough bad luck to be capable of placing themselves in a predicament quite like this one, but I'm sure I'd have been awarded some title by the queen, if such thing existed. It's so quiet, you could hear a pin drop, and we're all three still as statues, waiting for one or the other to make the first move.

That bloody grey feline and I have quite a history together, in fact, he's owned by the head cook, and his real name is not Ashtray, but he has deserved that title well. His real name is Kengsington, after the palace in London, but I'd pass up a dance with Prince Regent before I'd call a cat a name so royal. When I was quite young, and he was but a kitten, he had pounced off the banister and attacked me, ripping my pinafore to shreds. Weeks after that, I woke up screaming to that smashed face of a well-bred Persian haunting my dreams. Everyone else thinks he's an absolute angel, but I know the true Ashtray.

I'm about to take a step towards the window, and suddenly the cat jumps off the piano, triggering my dove friend to shreik and take off around the room, feathers flying everywhere. Ashtray takes off around the room after the dove, jumping across chairs and over desks, knocking a small vase off, which shatters to the ground. Now I let out some un-ladylike choice of words, and dash across the room, to try and catch the feline. At the first corner, I bend down, but Ashtray flits under me, just as the dove flies over. When they come around again, I jump and slide over the wood floor, grabbing the grey cat in my tight grasp. He hisses and claws at my face, and I squeal as his claw rakes my cheek, which only makes me tackle him harder, and soon he's in my very tight hold. I'm about to roll over on my back to get up, but just now I hear footsteps, and freeze, while Ashtray still spits and struggles, and the dove flies aimlessly around the ceiling.

I slide my head back, over the floor to see my sister standing in the doorway.