Free Kitty Bennet's Diary (Pride and Prejudice Chronicles) by Anna Elliott Page B

usually courtesy of Lizzy or Jane.
     
    Lavender blue and Rosemary green,
    When I am king you shall be queen;
    Call up my maids at four o’clock,
    Some to the wheel and some to the rock;
    Some to make hay and some to shear corn,
    And you and I will keep the bed warm.
     
    By the time I had finished the last verse, Jane was truly asleep.  And I realised something else: at some point, the muffled sound of Amelia’s screams from the dressing room had stopped.  I got up from the bed and tiptoed across the room—expecting to find that Amelia had finally exhausted herself enough to fall back to sleep, as well.
    But when I reached the door, I heard a murmur of voices.  And opening it, found Mr. Dalton sitting on the floor opposite a slightly wary-looking and tear-streaked Amelia.  She had stopped crying, though, her big blue eyes fixated on a small rabbit that Mr. Dalton had made from a folded-up pocket handkerchief.
    “Here.  You can keep him, if you’d like.”  Mr. Dalton held out the rabbit to her, and Amelia immediately snatched it from him, hugged it tightly—then yawned and put her thumb in her mouth.
    “Goodness,”  I said in an undertone.  “You must be a magician, Mr. Dalton.  I never thought you would manage to actually make her calm.”
    Mr. Dalton gave me a brief, lopsided smile as he rose to his feet.  “I admit young Miss Bingley and I got off to a slightly rocky start, but we eventually struck up a truce.  I promised to make her a rabbit, and she agreed not to shatter my eardrums.”
    I bent and picked up Amelia.  She was yawning again and rubbing her eyes, and felt limp and heavy as a bag of sand in my arms—the way children do after they are completely and thoroughly tired out.  “All right, sweetheart, into bed with you.”  I lowered her into the small cot and pulled the blankets over her.
    Amelia gave a slight whimper of protest, but I bent and kissed the top of her head.  “I happen to know that that is a very special, magical rabbit that your friend Mr. Dalton was kind enough to make for you,” I told her.  I nodded to the handkerchief creature still clutched tight in her arms.  “Anyone holding him will have only the very nicest, sweetest of dreams.  Will you promise to hold him tightly all night long?”
    Amelia’s eyes grew round, and she nodded, hugging the rabbit tighter.  “Good, then.”  I kissed her again.  “Goodnight, Amelia.”
    Amelia’s eyelids were already beginning to flicker shut, but she gave me a small murmured, “Night-night.”
    I drew Mr. Dalton with me out of the little dressing room.  One glance at the bed told me that Jane was still sleeping peacefully, too, so I stepped out into the hall, Mr. Dalton following.
     I pushed loosened hair back from my face and said, “Thank you, Mr. Dalton.  Truly.  I do not know what I should have done if you had not arrived when you did.”
    Mr. Dalton shrugged.  “It was nothing, Miss Bennet.  And really I ought to credit my brother—he was the one who taught me that trick with a handkerchief when we were young.”  He gave me another quick smile.  “We were trying to find ways of passing the time, because … well, to be honest, we had been confined to our room for a week.  Our mother having proved remarkably unenthusiastic over our plan to use her bathtub to house our collection of newts.”
     I laughed despite myself.  “I collected newts as a child!  Except that I stored mine in the kitchen in our biggest soup tureen.  And nearly frightened our cook into fits when she tried to use it to make oxtail stew.”
    Mr. Dalton laughed, too.  And then he sobered and said, “How is your sister?  She is no worse, I hope?”
    Now that the danger seemed to have passed, a little of the clenched feeling inside me had eased.  And yet I felt abruptly almost like indulging in a fit of crying myself.  Which was ridiculous. 
    “I believe my sister is out of danger—for now.  It does not seem as though