Kat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis

Author:Stephanie Burgis
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Europe, Juvenile Fiction, Humorous Stories, Fantasy & Magic, Historical
ISBN: 9781416994480
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2010-01-01T22:00:00+00:00

Twelve

I stared at Mr. Gregson. He stared back.

“I thought we had agreed that you would stay in London unless I called for you,” he said. His shocked stare was rapidly becoming a grim scowl.

I pulled myself up to a sitting position on the floor and swallowed hard. Even my throat felt different. Longer. Thinner. And my chest …

I blinked and shifted my shoulders to adjust myself. Lady Fotherington had a very different shape from what I was accustomed to. I felt as if I were carrying weights on my chest just by breathing. My—her—chest was only barely covered by the same dark green, low-cut gown she had worn when I saw her several days ago. I hoped Mr. Gregson was too much of a scholar to take notice of the fashion mistake. I was almost certain that anyone as elegant as Lady Fotherington would never dream of wearing an evening gown at eleven o’clock in the morning, at a country house party.

Even as I thought that, I caught sight of Mama’s books in the corner of my vision. They had fallen to the ground just by the bed, hidden from Mr. Gregson’s line of sight. I lunged forward, swept out my arm, and shoved them all the way under the bed as I pushed myself up off the floor, hoping that the whole movement looked natural. From the way Mr. Gregson’s eyes widened, I hadn’t succeeded in looking anything but deranged. I tossed my head back, flinging the fallen hair out of my eyes and trying to look coolly dangerous and invulnerable.

“I decided to come and see for myself,” I said. “Quite understandable, don’t you think?” I smiled as thinly as I could, trying to replicate Lady Fotherington’s customary sneering smile. The problem was, I hadn’t actually seen her smile much at our meeting. When I smiled, Mr. Gregson blinked and stepped farther into the room.

“Are you quite all right?” he asked. “You look rather …”

“I fell,” I said. I rose to my full height, which was quite a bit taller than it had been five minutes earlier, and smoothed down the front of the green evening gown, resisting the urge to tug up the bodice. I felt as if I were about to spill out of the top of it. How on earth did she manage it? Surely, no matter how low-cut the current fashion might be, it wasn’t possible for even the most stylish gowns to entirely escape the bonds of gravity.

“I can see that,” said Mr. Gregson, and it took me a moment to realize that he was talking about my fall. He frowned, looking back through the open door. “This is not a safe place for us to be discovered. Shall we find somewhere more private for our discussion?”

My absurdly overextended chest clenched at the very thought of it. But I didn’t see any other choice.

“What a good idea,” I said.

I would have to hope that this spell, at least, wouldn’t disappear without warning, like its forerunners.

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