Page 6 of One Bed for the Bluestocking
At least, that was what he hoped.
Nat stopped and nodded toward a particular building.“You can add your name to the books in there.Lectures start on Monday.Come by my office on Friday morning at ten.My first-year students will all be gathering, so I can go over your schedule.”
Kit nodded, clutching his sketchpad to his chest.“Friday at ten.Hopefully, by then, the first of the watercolors will be ready for your review.”
“Excellent.”Nathaniel inclined his head.“Until then.”
“Yes.Thank you, Mr.Sterling, sir.Goodbye.”
He watched Kit as he walked away.There was a spring in his step, lingering excitement from his encounter with Marigold, no doubt.
But he looked so very slight and meek.A part of Nathaniel couldn’t believe he was pinning his hopes and dreams on a boy who hadn’t even started to shave.
Shaking himself, Nathaniel turned toward his office.He had work to do.
Chapter4
Kate all but skipped through the cobblestone streets of Edinburgh’s Old Town, the castle looming above her.
It had been one of the most wonderful mornings of her life.She had never dreamed that she would have the opportunity to sketch a large predator like a puma, unless, perhaps, it was chained up in the Tower menagerie.The cat’s power and grace had been beyond anything she could have imagined, and to have the opportunity to observe it for so long, and at such close range, had been simply magical.She knew already that she would return to the Upper Museum again and again and would likely fill dozens of sketchpads with studies of Marigold.In addition to the watercolors she was going to make for Mr.Sterling, she would make one for her sister, Pippa?—
She stopped short as it occurred to her that perhaps this wasn’t a good idea.She hadn’t told any of her sisters the real reason she had wanted to visit Great-Aunt Agatha in Edinburgh.Given the chance, she might have confided in Clarissa, considering Clarissa was the one who had pressed her to apply for the position in the first place.But Clarissa had recently married and was off traveling the country with her husband, Rupert.
It was usually impossible to get anything past Kate’s eldest sister, Eleanor.But, in addition to her new duties as the Duchess of Norwood, Eleanor was with child, and although she was managing her pregnancy with the quiet stoicism that was her signature, her attention was now divided.
As for Kate’s youngest sister, Pippa, she was a guileless girl who did not tend to question things, so Kate’s professed desire to visit Great-Aunt Agatha had not seemed suspicious.
Kate considered the problem at hand as she resumed her walk.She could probably send the drawing.Her sisters would hardly expect her to have stopped sketching.And the university’s natural history museum was open to the public.The sketch would not raise suspicion so long as she omitted a few pertinent details.
Speaking of omitting pertinent details, Kate was almost home.Slipping down a side street, she came to a small mews.Most mews would be bustling with stable hands, but this was where Great-Aunt Agatha’s neighbor, Mrs.Douglas, kept her horse and carriage.Mrs.Douglas only used the conveyance to attend Sunday services, so it was usually quiet.
She slipped into the room where the glossy black coach was stored, then reached into the box beneath the coachman’s seat and removed the day dress she had stashed there that morning.She changed into the dress and stuffed her male clothing into her satchel.
The fact that students did not wear robes at the University of Edinburgh was a complication.She had been counting on the baggy robes to conceal her figure.She had a whole trunkful of male clothing that she had found in the attic of Askwith Hall, the ducal mansion belonging to her brother-in-law, Jasper St.James.Based on their size and cut, she assumed the clothes had once belonged to Jasper’s younger brother, Felix.Felix was now a man of four and twenty, and the garments wouldn’t fit him today.But they fit Kate reasonably well, and she had commandeered them all.
Now, she would have to see if adding some carefully placed padding to the coats would be sufficient to conceal her figure.If not, she supposed she could still wear the academic robes.She was given to understand that university students were often eccentric.Perhaps she could pass it off as the quirk of a young Englishman who had always dreamed of attending Oxford.But this would not be her preferred option.She was trying to blend in, and dressing differently from every other student at the university would only make her stand out.
She managed to slip from the mews unseen and returned to the main road, smiling as she spotted the bay window that marked Great-Aunt Agatha’s house.
After their father abandoned them, Eleanor wrote to every relation, friend, and casual acquaintance the Weatherby sisters possessed, seeking aid.Out of the three dozen letters sent, only Great-Aunt Agatha had offered to take them in.At the time, she had lived in a miserable two-room hovel and had been every bit as poor as the four sisters.
Once Eleanor married the duke, Great-Aunt Agatha’s generosity had not been forgotten.One of Jasper’s first acts was to purchase her a house of her own.He had wanted to set her up in one of the stately townhomes being laid out on the north side of the castle.Great-Aunt Agatha would have none of it.She had lived in Old Town her whole life, and in Old Town she intended to stay.Jasper had therefore been forced to settle for a house on Lawnmarket, which he had staffed with two maids and a manservant.
Kate was glad Great-Aunt Agatha had insisted.She much preferred Old Town’s twisting cobblestone streets and hodgepodge of buildings from every century since the tenth.Most people preferred New Town with its pristine squares and symmetrical townhouses designed by architectural luminaries such as Robert Adam.But the gritty chaos of Old Town was the very thing that appealed to Kate.She supposed it was her artistic sensibility.New Town might be beautiful, but Old Town was picturesque.It also reminded her of York, the closest city to Boroughbridge, the village where she had grown up.York, too, had an ancient town center with cobblestone streets, castle walls, and a stately cathedral.Kate loved the feeling of a medieval town.She much preferred the grit and grime, the wear and tear, the feeling that life had happened here, to a pristine Palladian crescent.She loved to picture the people who had walked those streets in centuries past, and to now be a part of that history.
There was something about Edinburgh that moved her beyond the sum of its many fascinating parts.Kate couldn’t quite explain it, but from the moment she had stepped from the carriage upon her arrival, she had known.
It felt like home.
She shook herself.This was but a temporary respite from her real life.Eleanor might be distracted at the moment, but she doubted very much that her sister would allow her to remain in Edinburgh permanently.Besides, she had been here all of ten days.The feeling might very well pass.
Still, Kate couldn’t shake the feeling that she was on the cusp of… something.
She smiled at Great-Aunt Agatha’s manservant as he opened the door.“Thank you, Jamie.”
She hurried upstairs to her bedroom and carefully stowed her male garments at the bottom of the trunk containing her art supplies, then spent a few minutes neatening her dress.Once she was satisfied that her appearance passed muster, she tucked her sketchbook beneath her arm and went in search of her great-aunt.
She found her seated next to a window in the first-floor parlor.“Katie!”Great-Aunt Agatha cried, looking up from her knitting.“I thought ye might be Mrs.Douglas.I’m expecting her for tea.”She gestured to the seat across from her.“What did ye get up to this morning?”
