Victorian England

*

Kitty shivered in anticipation. It was a warm summer's day but she was excited at the thought of going to London.

Her mother looked sullen however.

"Please don't look so glum Mama."

Her mother tried to smile but failed. "I am very pleased for you my dear but Lady Dona has a reputation so I'm a little worried."

"You still haven't told me why mama," Kitty replied.

Her mother sighed. "When we were debutantes your aunt and I met Dona when we went down to London. She was our age but married to a much older gentleman from Spain or somewhere who was very wealthy and was um... later arrested for blackmailing people into giving him information he could later use for investment."

"Oh my gosh," replied Kitty, "but if she was the same age as you back then how could that have been her fault?"

Kitty's mother cringed remembering the time she'd walked in on Dona and her sister. "It's not so much that my dear. It's just..."

"Oh my gosh, blackmail - you don't think that was how she got the Baron to agree to the divorce?"

Kitty had been married to a local aristocrat when she was just eighteen who although initially appearing very charming had turned out to have very large gambling debts and wanted her family's stud farm as a dowry. Their two year marriage had been unpleasant but somehow this Lady Dona had managed to persuade the Baron to agree to a divorce after coming to the country to visit her aunt but this was the first time blackmail had been mentioned.

"I don't know my dear," replied her mother, almost certain that was how Dona had done it "but maybe."

"Gosh, how cloak and dagger," gushed Kitty.

"The thing is my dear," her mother said, "I know you're grateful to Lady Dona but don't be too grateful."

"Too grateful? What do you mean?"

Her mother looked away, embarrassed at the memory of the time when, curious after seeing Dona with her sister she'd had a bit too much to drink at a party and let Dona take advantage of her.

The judge at the trial disapproved of divorce and as a condition specified that Kitty wouldn't get the stud farm dowry back until she was twenty one and in the meantime specified Dona as her guardian. He did it to spite Dona because she'd opposed the suggestion when he mentioned it in a private meeting beforehand but Kitty's mother was more worried about Kitty being grateful in a way that could harm any future marriage prospects.

The train whistled. It was time to go so Kitty hugged her mother and got on the train before her mother could think of a reply and they waved goodbye as the train left the station and Kitty settled into her seat.

Her mother left the station and entered the family carriage where her husband and sister waited. She scowled at her sister who turned to look out the window but squeezed her husband's thigh as thinking about that time with Dona twenty years earlier always made her want sex.