Welcome to Novel PASTimes, Miss Grenville. We are pleased you stopped by today.
You are very kind. Though I suspect you may find my answers less agreeable than expected. Please don’t tell Grandfather I’m here. He’d be appalled to know I’m sharing family secrets.
Tell us something about where you live.
At present, I reside in London for my first Season. It is beautiful, certainly. Filled with grand houses, glittering assemblies, and a society that prides itself on order and propriety. But I was not raised here. My earliest memories are of the white marble palace in Hyderabad, India. I remember the scent of spices in the air, my mother’s sparkling veils, and a sense—difficult to describe now—that I
belonged entirely to that place. London has never felt the same. I cannot view my beloved stars through a telescope at night as I can in the English countryside.
Is there anything special about your name?
My name is Katherine Grenville. I am called Kitty.
There was a time when I was called something else. I am not allowed to utter that Indian name. After I was brought to England, I was forbidden to speak the language I had known—Urdu—or to refer to anything that connected me to India. My grandfather believed it necessary that I become, in every outward respect, entirely English. Names, like languages, can be…taken.
Do you have any occupations? What do you like or dislike about your work?
I am expected to marry. That is not, I think, what you mean by occupation, but it is the only one permitted to me. My grandfather has arranged my engagement to Mr. Sebastian Sinclair. I met him once as a child. He was insufferable, and I slapped him for it. I did not imagine I should one day be expected to marry him. He now works for the East India Company—the same entity that profited from the circumstances which removed me from my home. I find that difficult to overlook. Besides, he resembles a pirate with that long hair of his. No fashionable man wears his hair in such a dated style.
Who are the special people in your life?
My brother, though we have not always been allowed to remain close. He’s incorrigible as of
late, running around with a wild set and acting very mysterious when I ask him questions.
And my mother.
Though I have not seen her in years, she is not absent from my life. Not truly. She gave me the love of the stars, pointing out each constellation.
What’s your family like?
My grandfather is known as the Iron Colonel. The name suits him. When I was a child, he took me from India and brought me to England. I was told it was for my own good. What I lost in the process was not discussed. He governs my future now as he governed my past. My engagement is only the latest of his decisions. I don’t care how handsome or charming Sebastian Sinclair is. I refuse to marry him!
What is your heart’s deepest desire?
To find my mother. I do not believe she simply vanished, as I have been told. Too many things have been concealed since my childhood, and too many of my questions dismissed. I intend to uncover the truth, whatever it may be. But the East India Company has many secrets. I do not think they will like my investigation.
What are you most afraid of?
That I shall succeed. That I shall do everything expected of me—marry as I am told, behave as I am instructed—and in doing so, lose the very part of myself that still remembers who I was before.
Your grandfather sounds rather rigid. Is it possible you harbor a grudge?
Yes. Though I am told it is not a proper sentiment for a young lady. I cannot separate my own story from the actions of the East India Company, nor from those who have benefited from its reach. If not for my best friend who shared her faith with me, I doubt I could forgive so easily.
Do you have a cherished possession?
My books and telescope—particularly those on astronomy. Oh, and a well-loved copy of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen! Have you read her? I do adore a good romance and a detailed star chart. My mother once spoke to me of the stars. When I study them, I am reminded that the same sky stretches over India as it does over England. That what was taken from me has not been entirely lost.
What do you dream for your future?
I dream of choice. Of a life not dictated entirely by my grandfather’s will. And of answers long denied regarding my
mother’s fate in India.
Is there anything you’re afraid people might find out about you?
That I am not as compliant as I appear. That I question more than I should. That I have already begun to consider defying what has been arranged for me. London society demands I fit in.
What have you learned about yourself in the course of your story?
Perhaps that obedience and righteousness are not always the same. Sometimes we must refuse the demands of those closest to us to find the path that God would have us take. And that truth, once glimpsed, is not easily ignored. My best friend reminds me that I am not truly lost. Indeed, God arranges the stars and our affairs. Still, I must admit that I struggle to trust His leading.
Is there anything else you’d like people to know about you?
Only this:
I intend to find my mother and rebuff this arranged marriage to Sebastian Sinclair. He is quite a rake, even if he protests that he has reformed. And I do not believe my grandfather—or anyone else—will be able to prevent me.
Jenelle Hovde writes regency romance, cozy mysteries, and Biblical era fiction. She especially loves antique stores and vintage books. Often found writing at the Florida beach, she navigates homeschooling with her family and manages two saucy cats who insist on interrupting her creative endeavors.
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