Keeping Katherine [Excerpt Only]

Prologue

Written: 4/1/2017

Edited: 4/2/2017 

Katherine Vane nervously tapped her fingers against the carriage bench, her nails creating a soft noise against the wood. Her mother's eyes narrowed at the movement, before she glanced up at Katherine's face, and scrutinized her daughter's expression.

"Katherine, stop tapping. Last thing I need is migraine before I have to listen to the ladies of the ton gossip like mindless fools," Her mother murmurs with a teasing smile. Katherine smiles at her mother her way of conveying a message of "don't be nervous, darling,"

"Constance, please," her father complains at his wife's blunt words. Her older brother rolls his eyes at his mother as Katherine and her sister, Isabella, share an amused look. Constance sighs, but decides to appease her husband by deciding to refrain from continuing to speak rudely about the women she is forced to associate with. She detested their gossip, but it was expected of her to tolerate them as she held the title Baroness Barnard.

Katherine understood that her parents did not love one another, and she accepted that because they did. They were friends, treated each other with respect, and would seek each other's advice when necessary.

Apparently, their marriage did not start out that way and her mother was a spitfire who loved a stable boy. They despised each other, until Constance fell pregnant with their eldest child, Robert. They both loved their child fiercely, and they both began to respect each other through their children. However, they irritated each other to no end- which Katherine suspected was a part of all marriages.

The carriage pulls to a stop and her father steps out of the carriage. Robert turns to his mother and sisters frowning.

"Behave yourselves," he commands sternly and their mother raises an eyebrow at her son. Her mother didn't like to be ordered around, and certainly not by her son.

"Would you also like for me to stay by your side so no rakes try and sweep me off my feet and ruin my reputation?" she mocks and he gives her a hard look as his sisters giggle. He climbs out of the carriage frustrated and her mother turns to her daughters. "You two are helping me marry him off to a wife that will soften him and make him want to tear his hair out," she decides and Isabella chuckles.

"Mama, he is only twenty," Isabella reminds her. Her mother waves off her daughter, glancing at her husband's hand which is extended for her to take.

"But he acts like he is forty," she murmurs before taking the hand and descending down the steps of the carriage.  The moment they are alone, Isabella whirls on her older sister, her blue eyes narrowed with suspicion.

"Who are you planning to meet here when our parents aren't looking?" she demands and Katherine blushes a bright pink.

"Isabella!" Katherine exclaims clearly embarrassed and Isabella gasps. She opens her mouth to pounce on her sister, when their father's hands extend once more and Katherine does not hesitate it to take it. She uses one hand to steady herself using her father as she shifts her skirts to prevent herself from tripping. She steps out onto the stone pathway, and her skirts sway slightly once she releases them.

"Katherine, dear, are you alright? You're looking flushed," her mother remarks and Isabella giggles as she descends the carriage.

"She's just excited, aren't you Katherine?" Isabella asks teasingly and Katherine contemplates whether or not her mother would be upset if she pushed her in the way of a galloping horse. Unfortunately, her answer was yes.

"Oh, well you both should be excited," her mother encourages. "You both look stunning," she remarks giving them both affectionate smiles.

Her mother was correct, everyone in the Vane family was dressed up in their best attire. Their father and Robert were dressed in nice coats, her brother wearing a dark brown one as her father sports a sharp grey coat. They both looked similar, they shared the dark brown hair that Katherine also inherited. All of the children inherited their father's dark blue eyes.