Intermission: Letizia’s First Visit to the Northland House
“ARE you sure it’s okay for me to just come over unannounced?”
“Yeah, it’s fine. Oh! Mom, Dad! I’m home!”
Amy, Letizia, and Rosalind stepped into the entrance hall of the Northland house and immediately saw Isabelle, carrying flowers to decorate the interior with, and Joshua, although it was unusual for him to be home from work so early.
“Welcome back, Amy!” Isabelle greeted her daughter. “It’s nice to see you again, Rosalind. Oh…? You’ve brought another friend too…?”
Isabelle’s large eyes turned perfectly round when they landed on Letizia, and the flower basket fell from her hands. Joshua swiftly caught it before it crashed on the floor.
I knew Letizia would remind Mom of that one celebrity…
“I-Is this Broadway? Why would such a famous stage actress grace our presence?!”
“Because she’s not a famous stage actress,” Amy added quickly. “Trust me, I understand why you made the connection, but she’s not. Just take a deep breath, Mom.”
“But…but…!”
“Broad…way…?” Letizia repeated the foreign word.
“Oh!” exclaimed Joshua, sounding impressed. “She must have come to talk about the Load Lightener, for all those heavy theater props! The tool’s still in the prototype stage, but word must travel quickly!”
“Dad, no! She’s not a theater actress!”
“Praaps…?” muttered Letizia, tilting her head.
Amy had invited her to come to the Northland house to meet Tigger. Letizia was immediately put at ease by Amy’s parents’ complete lack of pretension or intimidation so often found in aristocrats, but she had no idea what in the world they were talking about.
Letizia felt thoroughly welcomed, but it was a different reception than she normally got from other families as the daughter of a marquess. She was a bit bewildered but not displeased. Although the countess’s rush of excitement had been a little unexpected…
“Someone, quick, I’ll need costumes! Fetch me a military uniform and a rapier! And for Rosalind, a red…no, a pink dress would probably be best. With lots of frills, ribbons, and don’t forget the bell sleeves! And then—”
“Mom, please…” Amy groaned.
“No costumes? Then how about we just choreograph a big dance number down the stairs, with bells and—”
“Mom!” Amy loudly interrupted. “Letty came to see Tigger.”
Going to the theater was one of Isabelle’s biggest hobbies in her previous life. She would make Joshua go with her, and he had become quite fond of it, too. One of their biggest regrets was not being able to go to the bigger theaters in town because they lived so far away.
Even during the belated introductions that followed, Isabelle’s gold eyes sparkled as she fixed her gaze on Amy’s friends. Amy gave a small shrug in defeat—she had reacted exactly as Amy had predicted.
“Do make yourselves at home,” said Isabelle. “Ah… The Rose of Versailles herself, holding Tigger… Pinch me, dear, I’m dreaming!”
“Get going, Amy,” Joshua urged. “Tigger’s waiting for you, isn’t he?”
“You’re right,” said Amy. “Let’s go, guys!”
“Y-Yeah.”
The three girls quickly left the entrance hall, leaving behind Isabelle, gazing up at the ceiling, lost in her own daydream, and Joshua attempting to bring her back down to earth.
✦ ✦ ✦
🐾🐱🐾
AMY opened the door to her room. The moment Tigger saw her, he impatiently darted out from under the cushion and started his “welcome home” greeting routine.
“So…this is Tigger…”
“Yeah!” said Amy, glowing with happiness at Tigger’s attentions. “Isn’t he cute, Letty?”
“He really is huge,” said Letty, eyes wide. “I’d heard he was big, but I didn’t expect him to be this big.”
His paws were massive, his tail was long, and his long, fluffy fur made him look even bigger than he was. The flash in his golden eyes almost reminded Letizia of a wild cat. As Amy kneeled on the ground and Tigger pushed against her, clinging to her, Letizia almost thought he was attacking her.
He was behaving the same way her own cat, Mimi, behaved, but Letizia was shocked at how his size alone made it all seem so much more dangerous.
“Tigger might look scary, but he’s a very gentle cat,” Amy explained. “He didn’t know what to do with himself when he saw how energetic Portia was.”
“Really?”
“Yeah,” said Rosalind, explaining that she had brought Portia over a few times before. “Portia wouldn’t stop bugging him to play with her.”
Whether or not his placidity came from his size or was just a natural part of his personality, Tigger had spent most of their playdates glued to Amy’s side, tail lazily swishing as he watched Portia running around like a lunatic from the corner of his eye.
Tigger seemed to show his comparative dignity by standing only after being invited to play by Portia several times and being goaded by Amy.
Portia would run in circles around him like a ball of energy, and then Tigger would put a foot out to stop her. He’d retract his foot, she’d start running around again, and then he’d put out his foot in a never-ending cycle… Amy and Rosalind looked on fondly whenever they played like that.
“I know he looks kind of wild, but he’s very docile,” Rosalind said.
“That’s right!” Amy insisted. “When he plays with me, he never uses his claws, no matter how crazy we get! He does play-bite sometimes, though.”
“Really?”
Letizia was shocked—even Mimi had scratched her a few times when she was a kitten.
But even if Mimi had sometimes scratched her, Letizia hadn’t wanted to shunt responsibility of her off to the servants. After a while, Letizia simply got more used to handling her, and Mimi didn’t hurt her anymore.
The girls sat down on the sofa at Amy’s urging and continued their discussion of cats.
“What’s Mimi like?” Amy asked.
“She’s not quite as calm as Tigger, but from what I’ve heard, not as hyperactive as Portia, either.”
“I bet her coat is totally luxurious and that she acts like a princess!”
“A princess… Yeah, I guess I’d put it that way.”
“I wonder how they’d act if we got all three cats together to play!”
A vision immediately popped into their minds.
Mimi, sitting demurely and comfortably on top of an embroidered cushion… Tigger, dozing on a windowsill a short distance away… Portia, sprinting back and forth between the two of them…
The three girls sighed in unison and squealed, “It’d be so cute!”