Rank and Respectability

- Chapter 23 -

The Baroness of Rosforte organized an opulent Christmas Feast followed by a New Year's ball, the guest list was pages long; Katherine Gray and Mrs Wheaton – who had been enlisted to aid with the planning and preparation – were overwhelmed. Among the guests were thankfully some they knew well; the Grays, Mr Routley, the new Mr and Mrs Harding (naturally), and Mrs Lestrand from Chatham; and some they wished they knew less, namely the Overtons.

Katherine Gray stood before the floor-length mirror in the room she had been given when she had first moved into Rosforte. That day now seemed so long ago. She stared at her black satin gown as Cecilia and Betsey played with her hair.

"Kat, dearest, whatever is the matter!?" Cecilia cried upon seeing her sisters' eyes well with tears.

"This might have been my first Christmas with Benedict, and my child...Instead I stand alone and in black. I do not wish to join a joyous crowd, counting blessings, being thankful, doing good deeds and giving good tidings. I hate them!"

"You do not hate them!" Betsey determined, joining Cecilia in wrapping Katherine in a tight hug "You are merely grieving, Love."

"I am..s-so unhappy!" Kat bawled. Her sisters cooed and petted and dried her tears, and led her down to dinner once she was fit to be seen.

She ate robotically through the greater duration of the grand feast, barely hearing the deafening volume of chatter around her. Cecilia, who sat just next, jostled her while reaching for a bun, bringing Katherine momentarily to the present.

"...And though the stewards house at Norcastle suits us well, it is Mr Harding Sr's home and he has been displaced until we can find a place of our own, so it would not be fair for us to dawdle. It is proving difficult to find anything nearby."

"Why Cecilia," Katherine cut in "Of course, you should take Landyn House!"

"We could not! That is your home!"

"I haven't lived in it long enough to consider it home, surely. That aside, I have been back at Rosforte these last few months more often than I have been at Landyn House, it wishes to be lived in once more."

"Are you certain Kat? What think you Harding?"

"I think if she is truly willing to sell it to us, no place would suit us better; it is only an half-hour ride from Compton."

"I am most willing!" Kat insisted with a very real smile, "You must have it! It is settled!" Her smile faded soon after however, and after dinner she retired to her room telling Miss Compton she suffered a headache.

~~~

Despite New Years being nearly a week away, the next evening brought with it the New Year's ball. Katherine hid easily in the shadows in her mourning grey; feeling too out of place to join the happy laughter and swirling red, blue, gold, and green gowns glittering in the bright light of the chandeliers.

She watched and listened to the music; finding a little joy mixed with melancholy in seeing Cecilia dance with Harding, and Betsey dance for the third time with a shy-ish youth who looked both besotted and overwhelmed as she talked with a constant, cheerful rapidity that could rival the early birds in spring.

Katherine plucked at her black satin gloves, bored and lonely.

Mrs Adalia Overton chittered to another lady nearby in audible tones. "How distressing it is not to have Bianca here with me, there are unfortunately few people I care to share company with here; the Baroness is always far too liberal with her invitations, and as a result her gatherings are too often packed with rabble. My poor dear sister." She lamented. The feathered lady next to her nodded consolingly. "She had such a difficult life, and her son gave her so little joy in the end with his gambling and shameful behavior; I was always amazed at her kind heart, it was too soft and she worried so; it's what took her in the end – wicked boy, he always took advantage of her."