Page 214 of The Long Road Back to Yesterday

“I heard your sister call you Kitty earlier. I understand your close friends use the name.”

“Yes, sir.”

“May I call you Miss Kitty?”

“Yes. Please do. I should like that.”

Her berry-stained handkerchief slipped from her hand.

Steven bent and retrieved it before she could.

“Here you are, Miss Kitty.”

He held it out to her.

“Thank you, sir.”

Their eyes met as she took it, and Steven smiled.

She colored.

Mrs. Goulding called to Steven from across the lawn.

He bowed. “Miss Kitty. Miss Darcy.”

He went to his mother.

Kitty watched him cross the lawn.

Georgiana took her arm. “He seems a pleasant gentleman. I wondered whether you knew him.”

“I have never met him before, but I should like to know him better.”

The two girls turned back to the berry brambles, eating blackberries as Kitty began listing everything she found attractive about young Mr. Goulding.

* * *

“Let us go to the retiring room, Georgie. My hands are sticky.”

Georgiana looked at her own fingers. “Mine are stained from the berries. I doubt soap and water will remove it all.”

As Kitty and Georgiana skirted the terrace, they passed small groups of neighbors sheltering from the sun while they watched several young boys compete at archery. Near Mr. Steven Goulding stood two other young gentlemen, and as the girls approached, Kitty heard one of them say, “That is Miss Kitty, is it not?”

“Yes, Miss Kitty Bennet,” Steven said.

“A pretty girl.”

“Very.”

The gentleman glanced after Kitty. “A pity Miss King is not so pretty. I heard your mother tell mine that she has chosen Miss King for you.”

Steven frowned. “My mother has chosen a great many things for me.”

“Ten thousand pounds must have made Miss King particularly easy for her to choose.”

Steven looked at him. “Ten thousand?”

“She inherited it from an uncle. Your mother has made no secret of her admiration for the match. Nor is she the only mother in the neighborhood to have noticed Miss King’s fortune.”