Kat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis Read Free Book Online Page B

hair was specked with gray, and he was beginning to go bald; I thought he must be even older than Papa. “What’s done is done,” he said, “and we cannot change the past now, even if we might wish to.”
    I lifted my chin. My head still hurt, but outrage helped me ignore the pain. “Why exactly would you wish to change that?” I asked. “Are you by any chance insulting my papa?”
    “Humph.” His eyes narrowed; I thought I saw the corners of his lips twitch, but it happened so quickly, I couldn’t be sure. “No need to take offense, my dear—ah—what is your name?”
    “Kat,” I said, and then thought better of it. “Katherine Ann Stephenson,” I said, as haughtily as I could.
    “Her youngest daughter, then.”
    “Yes.” I frowned at him, but he looked away, folding his pocket handkerchief.
    “Am I to understand, Katherine, that you believe we are all inside your mother’s, er, magic mirror at this very moment?”
    “Yes,” I said. “Of course we are. I heard your voices coming from the mirror. That’s why I opened it—I could tell someone was trapped inside. I was going to help you escape.”
    The lady rolled her eyes in a very unladylike fashion, but the gentleman smiled.
    “A kind instinct, my dear. But, fortunately for all of us, it is entirely unnecessary. Neither of us was trapped here any more than you are now.”
    I glanced around me at the vast, empty hall. If there was a way back to my family’s sewing room, I couldn’t see it.
    The gentleman followed my gaze and said, “No, the way out is not marked any more than the entryway was. But you may take comfort in the fact that anyone who could not find their way safely back out would never have found their way inside in the first place.”
    “I’m not afraid,” I said. But I wasn’t sure I was relieved by his words either. I hadn’t found my way into the mirror; I’d been swept inside and knocked flat out of my wits as it happened. I decided it was safest not to admit that, though.
    If there was one thing that growing up with two older sisters had taught me, it was that the best defense in any dangerous situation is a good, vigorous attack. So I narrowed my eyes at the gentleman and said, “If neither of you is trapped here after all, then what exactly are you doing in my mother’s mirror?”
    “Oh, for heaven’s sake,” said the lady. “Aloysius, will you please do something?”
    “Why, there is only one thing we can do in these circumstances,” the gentleman said. “I believe it is time for us to welcome a new member.”
    Her eyes flared wide in shock. “You must be jesting. After what her mother did?”
    I blinked. What? But before I could ask any questions, the gentleman replied.
    “Miss Katherine is not her mother. You know we always planned that when the time came for Olivia’s child to take her place—”
    “I do not recall ever joining into any such unlikely plans,” the lady said. “What I do remember is that Olivia Amberson’s famous curiosity was exactly what started all her mischief in the first place. And thus far, her daughter seems to take after her exactly in that regard.” She swept me with a scathing glance and then turned back to the gentleman, dismissing me. “Olivia was the worst thing that ever happened to our Order, even before she went quite mad. You can hardly—”
    I gasped. “Mama was not mad!”
    “No, of course she was not,” the gentleman said. “Really, Lydia, such extreme language …”
    “Not mad?” She arched her narrow eyebrows. “Whatever else could possibly have caused her to behave in such an outrageous manner? If her daughter is even half so mischievous and irresponsible—”
    “Stop insulting my mother!” I shouted.
    Her eyes flared open. “Good Lord, what vehemence! Whoever’s attempted to teach you manners—”
    “Ladies!” The gentleman’s cough this time sounded like a crack of thunder. “Disputes about the past may wait until a more appropriate moment.