The Fall Of Kent

Journey To Court

My father always believed that a person was born into duty. Not the kind of duty where one leads battle or turns the course of the country for the better. It was a different kind of duty he believed in and it centered wholly on bettering the circumstances of one's family. A good son did what was best for the family and I was the sacrificial lamb.

I was the eldest, a boy, and my father's only heir. My three sisters born after me were paid no consequence by father who had quickly found suitable matches for them. He was wholly dissatisfied with his female off-spring who had no remarkable good looks to recommend them to men of higher status. With their matches set, our social status remained more less unchanged. I was father's last chance. Father lived voraciously through me.

Every mountain he hadn't climbed, every medal he hadn't won in every war he hadn't fought, he sought to claim it through me. He didn't see the world changing around him. No one really did.

'I have excellent news' father announced at the breakfast table. My youngest sister was visiting. She'd just had her third child and mother was wholly occupied with her. It did her considerable good since she only had father and his incessant complaining for company. At present, however, she had to pay heed to her husband.

'What is it, dear?' she said failing to hide the exhaustion in her tone.

'Lady Kent is going to court and she's agreed to take Edmund with her' my father announced as though I was about to be crowned King. I despised Lady Kent. She was an old woman who knew her friends were a result of her money and her connections. She knew she could make them do cartwheels if she wished. A gathering at Lady Kent's place was often a circus. I could still remember the many times my father had forced my mother to wait on her. To hear her insults and jibs with quiet dignity. Nothing was beneath my father if power came from it and if that meant letting Lady Kent insult his whole family, so be it.

'That's wonderful' my mother said giving me a troubled smile. She knew I despised Lady Kent.

'When do I leave?' I asked.

'Next week' my father answered tucking in to his porridge. He took a few spoons and grunted, 'I suppose you're going to wait until the last moment to argue it'

'I don't mind going' I answered. Father merely grunted again and ate his breakfast.

'It's duty' he said between spoons of porridge and I sensed his well-rehearsed, and oft-delivered speech coming. It got more and more zealous every time he gave it. Every time he wanted to send me some place, I resisted. I wasn't noble born but I wasn't a foot servant and he would willingly reduce me to it if it pleased him. Every time I resisted, I was reminded of duty. I wanted to remind him what dignity was but he was my father and I had little room to argue and even fewer things to say without disrespecting him.

'I know' I said shortly before he could get himself too worked up, 'I'll go. I have no objections'

We ate quietly after that, an unusual affair for the Burkenshire household. Father made a few comments about how my sister was doing a disservice to her husband by not birthing a single son after six years of marriage, and remarking that all his grandchildren were ugly but there was nothing of real consequence to be argued about that day.

'Will you really go?' my sister asked me later when we had found some reprieve from our father.

'Cathy, you say that as though I have a choice' I answered. Cathy was amazing. No matter what father said to her, she seemed unaffected by it. It didn't matter how many times father told her she was the dullest of his children. She still had her spirit.

'No but you're rarely this complacent about it' she said rocking my newest niece in her arms.

'Perhaps father is right' I said shrugging. Cathy nearly dropped the baby.

'What are you up to?' she demanded.

I shrugged, 'I am not up to anything, Catherine' I said, 'I just think father might have the right idea about this whole social climbing thing and perhaps Lady Kent is the perfect patroness for us'

I could see dread in Cathy's eyes as she heard me speak.

'What are you doing, Edmund?' she asked.

'Lady Kent has a daughter, you know' I told her, 'Ugly little thing but with enough fortune that people forget she's difficult to look at. Her mother forgets her altogether. She's very dull, and very...' I paused, thinking of the right word to describe Lydia Kent who was overshadowed and ignored by her mother, 'lonely'

'So?' Cathy demanded, 'what does that have to do with anything?'

'She enjoys my company' I said shrugging again, 'it's not father's doing that I'm going to court with Lady Kent. It's Lydia. From what I hear of it, she threw quite a tantrum when her mother refused to take me'

I grinned as I told Cathy of my conquest. Lydia was a stupid girl and she had received attention for the first time in her life. She didn't question it and it had caused Lady Kent considerable distress. Lady Kent probably lived in a delusional state where she saw her daughter marry into royalty. And now she had me to deal with. I had long been the object of Lydia's affections and she had made this known to her mother in a not so subtle way.

The image of Lady Kent, angry and powerless against her daughter was euphoric. The thought that I had outwitted my father was exhilarating. What Lady Kent would do to me once I was at court, how she would go about humiliating me and diminishing me in her daughter's eyes excited me as though I was about to go to war. Lady Kent would never win, that much I knew.

'That is dangerous' Cathy said, ever the sensible unambitious girl that she was, 'if father ever finds out...'

'He would encourage it and you know it' I said getting up, 'I'll write you Cathy, often. I will tell you everything and it will be our little secret. Our own little joke'

'I don't see what the joke is here' Cathy replied.

'The joke, dear sister, is Lydia Kent'