The Spying Cat (ONC 2023 Shortlister)
It's 1893, and eighteen-year-old Catriona "Kitty" Thackery is bored out of her mind at the countryside parsonage she was raised in. All eleven of her cousins have grown up and moved out, leaving her without an outlet for her youngest-child mischief. Until cousin Joey returns from America alongside his dashing benefactor, Mr Benedict Hawkins.
Educated at Eton, then at Harvard, the half-American Mr Hawkins is a worldly businessman and an only child, fascinated with the affectionate workings of the Thackery clan. He is warmly welcomed in their midst, and his exciting influence persuades the Thackery matriarch to break tradition and allow Kitty her London debut.
In London, Detective Inspector Tobias Thackery has made a spy network out of his family in an attempt to locate his runaway sister, who may or may not be involved with anarchists. Kitty ingratiates herself into this scheme, her sense of adventure stifled by polite society. The risks are real, and more personal than she expects, but on her quest to self-fulfilment, she begins to enjoy the dangers.
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ONC2023 shortlister! Prompt 51: The problem with red flags is that I'm attracted to them.
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Completed, ~40k words.
