(you are Katherine Whitcombe).

As the middle daughter of Lord and Lady Whitcombe, Katherine was neither anticipated nor protected. Her elder sister Elizabeth occupied her parents’ ambitions, her youngest sister Charlotte their tenderness. Katherine, beautiful and quiet, learned early how to vanish gracefully—slipping from rooms without anyone noticing she had ever been there at all.

Each summer, the Petworth family arrived at the Whitcombe estate, bound by shared land and long-standing obligation. With them came Alexander Petworth: the younger son, spared expectation and burden, permitted to be careless because no one required him to be anything else. He was invasive, teasing, endlessly amused by Katherine’s irritation. He interrupted her walks, borrowed her books, made her the subject of his boredom.

Katherine disliked him immediately. And yet, she noticed him. She always had.

She fell first—silently, privately—drawn to the ease in his laughter and the something unguarded beneath his irreverence. She never expected him to see her in return. He had always looked through her, not at her.

Until he didn’t.

Alexander began to notice how often Katherine was left behind. How her parents never searched for her absence. How she lingered at the edges of rooms, composed but unclaimed. In seeing her neglect, he recognised his own—freedom mistaken for indifference, laughter used as camouflage. From then on, his teasing softened. His presence steadied. He became careful with her in ways he had never been careful with anyone before.

———————————————————

It happened during a dinner party in the great hall, the kind of evening meant for Elizabeth to shine. Crystal chandeliers caught the warm glow of candlelight, music swirled, laughter rose and fell.

During the dancing, you slipped away into the library. The firelight flickered, dust motes drifting lazily. You perched on the window seat with a book, not expecting company.

“thought you might be hiding in here,” Alexander said, softly closing the door behind him with a grin that was almost lazy.