"You'll be back in a few days," Royce said, correctly reading her thoughts. "This is supposed to be a pleasant weekend excursion, not a chore."
"I know. And Marianne is so excited, I couldn't back out now."
"Were you thinking of backing out?"
"Well, I'm not really sure why I agreed to go."
"Because Marianne and Julia are your friends and because there was no reason for you not to accompany them."
"Yes, but they both think of this weekend as an escape. I have nothing to escape from, thus I really have no desire to leave." She put her face against his jacket and felt his strong hand come up to stroke her silver hair.
"Then don't go, darling. Kate and I will certainly miss you!" His free arm was around her waist.
She sighed again. "We've never been separated before."
"No."
"But I have my tickets and all the reservations and plans have been made. And Marianne and Julia might not forgive me. It'll be fun." She didn't sound entirely convinced. "I suppose I'm not accustomed to making weekend excursions with women friends just for the fun of it."
"You'll learn."
"Perhaps. I don't want to become one of those 'society' matrons."
"You? Never."
She put her face up for his kiss, then crawled into bed, holding the covers up for him to follow.
~~~
The next morning, Kate clung to her mother's legs and howled. Victoria immediately produced a handkerchief and blotted the tearstreaked face. "Kate! Kate darling, it's all right! Mother will be back very soon, and with a present for her little Kate!"
Kate looked interested at this last bit of information. "A present?"
Victoria nodded. "Now you be a good girl while I'm gone. You're the lady of the house this weekend."
"Butbutbut...who will read to me?"
"Papa will, naturally!"
She mulled this over and seemed to decide that Victoria's answer would suffice. "Alright."
Victoria bent, kissed the round cheek and righted her daughter's wayward red curls. "I'll see you Sunday night." Turning to Royce, she murmured, "I don't know what you'll do for three days without me..."
"Let's not discuss it," he replied briskly, making her laugh. After kissing him and giving Kate a last squeeze, Victoria swept out the door to the waiting surrey.
~
"Well, Precious, what would you like for lunch?" Royce asked his six-year-old. She had just finished dressing herself for school and was now sipping her juice between bites of bacon and egg with ladylike precision. Royce, dressed in a dark blue business suit, was assuming Victoria's job of preparing Kate's lunch.
She regarded him carefully. "A blueberry muffin, if you please, and two sugar cookies, a peppermint stick and some lemon drops."
He seemed to take all this in, and it wasn't until he had reached for her lunch pail with the muffin in hand that he said, "Aren't those all sweets, Precious?"
"I suppose so, Papa."
"You know what Mother says about too many sweets."
"Just this once?"
"How about if I give you a sliced carrot along with everything else? Then you'll have your vegetables and Mother won't wear on my conscience all day."
Kate nodded happily.
"And I'll put in enough lemon drops for you to share."
That night, after dinner, Royce gave Isabel the night off. Kate had had her bath and was ready for bed when Royce came in with a book of fairy tales. After listening to Rapunzel from her father's lap, she allowed herself to be tucked into bed with promises for a fun-filled Saturday ahead.
The next morning, Royce made pancakes, scrambled eggs and sausages and he and Kate feasted in style.
"Papa, I didn't know you could cook!" Kate exclaimed through a mouthful of pancake.
He smiled secretively. "Neither does your mother!"
"You cook very good."
"Thank you, Precious. Oh, the coffee's ready!" He shot a glance at his daughter, who, ever since he could remember, had relished the sips of coffee he sneaked past Victoria's watchful eye. "Would you like a cup of coffee this morning?"
Kate's eyes grew to saucers. "Papa! May I pour?"
"Certainly."
With carefully practiced elegance, Kate poured two cups of coffee. Royce tried to stop her at half-full for her own cup, to leave room to dilute it with milk, but she insisted that she wanted to drink hers black like he did. When she did so without flinching, he was duly impressed.
Later that morning, they went to the doll shop and Kate selected new outfits for several members of her family. Out on the corner, two children were sitting with a box of kittens, trying to find homes for them.
"Oh please, Papa, may I have a kitten?"
"I don't see that having a kitten would harm anything."
"Will Mother be angry?"
"I can handle Mother," Royce assured with an air of confidence.
Kate bent over the box and peered at the kittens. There were two left, both with brown and gray stripes and blue eyes. "Are they boy kittens or girl kittens?" she asked the boy sitting beside the box.
"Girls. We kept one but Ma said we had to give the rest away."
"I couldn't take one and leave the last one all alone!" She lifted her sea-foam green eyes to meet her father's.
"Well then, I suggest you take both of them. Surely a kitten needs a companion its own size!"
She hastily handed him the parcels with her dolls� clothes and picked up the mewing kittens. �Hello, kittens,� she said softly, cuddling them in her jacket.
�We�ll take good care of them,� Royce assured the two children who had been manning the kitten box.
By the time father and daughter arrived home, the new members of the family had been christened Cristobel and Heloise. Royce helped Kate pour a saucer of cream for the hungry kittens and then prepared a nice plate of turkey leftovers. From her collection of hair ribbons, Kate tied a pink bow around each tiny feline neck, and then set about making them a nest from Victoria�s rag basket. Satisfied that her charges were comfortable, she brought several of her dolls down to the parlor to try on their new outfits. When this was done, Royce helped her drape large flannel sheets over the dining room table (secured on the top by heavy books) to make a fortress, which they furnished lavishly with pillows and a small throw rug.
By dinnertime, Kate�s lair was quite impressive. Royce enthralled his small daughter by allowing her to help him cook a campout meal over the fire in the den. They roasted meat on long forks, boiled potatoes in a hanging pot and promptly decided that the best place to consume this feast was by lantern light in the table-fort. Cristobel and Heloise, replete with their earlier feast, had managed to unfasten their bows and were chasing them through the living room.
Sleepily, Kate leaned against Royce�s arm. �Do you think Mother will like our fort?�
�Ah�I�m sure she�ll agree that we have been most �creative. You don�t think you�ll be tired of this by tomorrow night? We could have it all put away by then��
�Oh, no! I want Mother to have dinner in here with us! May we cook over the fire tomorrow night?�
There was a pause. �We�ll see, Precious.�
Kate fell asleep amongst the pillows while Royce was cleaning up from dinner, so he carried her upstairs and tucked her into bed, wondering how he was going to explain all of this to Victoria the next day.
Sunday morning dawned chilly and clear, and Kate sat up when Royce crept into her room to light the gas heater.
"Papa?"
"Good Morning, Kate Precious."
"I miss Mother[rr]."
"So do I, but she'll be home today!" He came over and sat on the edge of the bed.
"When?"
"This afternoon."
"Do you think she'll like my kittens?"
"I think that once she's used to the idea, she'll love them."
"May we cook campout food for her tonight and eat in my hideout?" Kate asked earnestly, drawing her knees up under her chin.
Royce paused a moment, not sure how to explain that Victoria may not be as enthralled with the whole idea of the hideout as she was, and decided to change the subject. "It's time to dress for church, Precious. Since you are a very fine lady and can dress yourself, what say I leave you to it and go fix breakfast? You know which are your church clothes."
"All right, Papa. Will you feed Heloise and Cristobel for me?"
"Certainly." He was on his way out the door when Kate's voice stopped him.
"Papa?"
"Yes?"
"Who'll braid my hair for church?"
"Ah--I suppose I could."
Later, Royce made no mention of the fact that Kate picked out a red jumper with a pink blouse and yellow stockings, he just tied his lopsided braid with the proffered purple ribbon and helped his daughter into her soft rabbit coat.
After church, they lunched elegantly at Le Monde. When they were home, Royce read aloud from his chair in the den while Kate played with her kittens on the soft rug in front of the fire. It was a little after two when the door opened and a familiar voice called "Royce? Kate?"
"MOTHER!!" Kate squealed, flying to the hall and slamming into Victoria.
"Easy, darling!"
"Victoria, my love." Royce swept her into his arms and kissed her soundly. "What a weekend we've had," he intoned. "How was yours?"
"Very pleasant, but I was ready to come home." She went to the stairs and sat, pulling Kate into her lap. "My, you're certainly colorful today," she said, observing her daughter's hand-selected wardrobe.
Kate was only content to be cuddled for a moment. She squirmed away, saying excitedly, "Wait 'til you see Cristobel and Heloise!!"
"Who are--" she began, noticing that Royce averted her eyes suddenly. She didn't have time to complete her sentence, because Kate deposited two furry beings into her lap. "This one is Cristobel," she said, pointing, "And this is Heloise."
"Kittens?"
"Yes Mother, kittens."
"Two kittens?" This was directed at Royce.
"We couldn't take one and leave the other all alone!"
Victoria sighed dramatically, then stroked the small, warm bodies and smiled. "They're very sweet," she said. "Have you fed them?"
"Yes and I made them a nest out of your old nightdress! And Papa and I are going to make you dinner over the campfire in the den and we're all going to eat together in my hideout in the dining room and then I'll show you all the new clothes for my family and it's been a most wonderful weekend!"
There was a long pause, during which Victoria seemed to process all the information Kate had shared. Slowly she turned her head, shifting her gaze from her daughter to her husband.
"Royce."
"Victoria?"
"You have a lot of explaining to do."
From the Journal of Dr. Katherine Barkley Wardell:
I never heard Papa's "explanation" for allowing me to wreak havoc on the house that weekend, but I do know that we cooked over the fire again that night and that Mother (rolling her eyes when I wasn't looking, I'm sure) ate with us, under the dining room table. Papa protested that we had already done that and we really didn't need to do it again, but Mother reminded him that one is only young once and that in a few years hideouts and fortresses will have lost their charm. I had nearly forgotten about that weekend until years later when Vicky was six and asked me to help her build a hideout. John, being the oldest and the man of the family, tried to talk her out of it, but instead, we talked him into it. The hideout stayed up for a whole week, just like it did when I was six.