Intermission: International Cat Day
Intermission: International Cat Day
“OH my word! I can’t miss this opportunity… Gramps!”
The elderly head butler came over to the Duchess of Coverdale, who had been reading the Cat Club magazine in the drawing room of her home. She suddenly stood up and started firing off instructions to the butler.
“…I see,” said the butler, nodding along as his mistress’s intentions became clear. “It would be my pleasure, Your Grace. You can leave everything to me.”
Both the butler and the maids in the room brightened with anticipation at the duchess’s plan.
“And don’t forget to prepare her favorite sweets, okay?”
“Not to worry, Your Grace.”
“Why don’t we invite Alec, too? Oh, yes… August 8 will be very exciting, indeed!”
The duchess scurried off to the letterpress at once. When the letter had been prepared and several copies had been drawn up, the duchess looked over them with a satisfied smile.
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“SO…it’s International Cat Day?”
“You didn’t know about it either, Isabelle, so it must not be widely known! Actually, I only learned about it from this column here,” said the duchess, flipping open the magazine.
Camilla, the Duchess of Coverdale, and Isabelle, the Countess of Northland, were sitting elegantly together in Camilla’s cat room, enjoying tea together.
Isabelle’s daughter, Amy, had for some time now been hidden from view, surrounded by partition screens. They could occasionally hear her cry out in protest, “Hey, wait!” or “You’ve got to be kidding me!” or “Th-This can’t be real!”
But her protests were dwarfed by the encouraging voices of the maids saying, “It’ll be fine!” or “You look perfect!” or “Come now!”
Outside of the partition screens, neither the duchess nor Amy’s own mother looked like they were going to put a stop to things. The only one who looked concerned was Tigger, who paced anxiously around the enclosure of screens, looking for Amy.
It was then that Alexander, the duchess’s son, entered the room.
“I’m home, Mother. Hello, Lady Northland. So…why did you want me here?”
“Oh, Alec! Put this on,” she said, casually handing him a thick gold ribbon.
“Mother…?” Alec said doubtfully.
“Nice! Very pretty,” said someone. Edward suddenly poked his head out from behind Alexander. “I heard there was something fun going on here, so I followed him!” he added cheerfully.
Edward’s and Alexander’s families were related by blood, and as childhood companions and playmates, the two of them had gone over to each other’s houses so often that it was not unusual for one of them to pop up unannounced.
The duchess became even more pleased and thought this surprise addition to the party was perfect.
“I’ll fetch something for you to wear, too, Your Highness! Gramps, we have another one, don’t we?”
“Yes, Your Grace. It’s right here.”
He bowed and handed the prince a black ribbon. Both ribbons had matching accessories attached to them—two bouncy triangles.
The triangles on the gold ribbon were an orangey-brown color, and the black ribbon had triangles of dark brown. They looked just like large cat ears with incredibly realistic fur attached to them.
“Mother, could you please tell me what on earth is going on?” Alexander asked. Although he was smiling, the corners of his mouth twitched.
The duchess simply wafted her folding fan elegantly, looking completely unbothered.
“Well, today is International Cat Day, after all.”
“This is the first I’ve heard of such a thing. And?”
“I figured we ought to do something to help spread awareness about this day and the cause of rescuing cats, so I thought I’d have a painting commissioned of some cats! But just an ordinary painting would be a little boring, don’t you think?”
Following the duchess’s eyes toward the back of the room, the boys saw a hired painter standing quietly, art supplies in hand.
“I see what you’re getting at, I suppose, but I absolutely refuse to— Hey! Gramps! You can’t just put that thing on me without permission!”
In the blink of an eye, the crafty butler had slipped behind Alexander and firmly secured the cat ears to his head. Alexander’s blond hair matched the ribbon so perfectly it seemed to vanish, giving the impression that bright tawny cat ears had magically sprung out of his smooth, golden hair.
“It looks so good on you!” cooed the duchess. “Though I’d expect nothing less from the best designer in the royal capital! It will be fine, dear… I’ll have the painting done in a way that no one can be identified.”
“You’ve got to be jokin— Ed?! Have you lost your mind?!”
Refusing the mirror that was handed to him, Alexander caught a glimpse of the Third Prince of Luducia chipperly tying the ribbon on his head.
“It looks lovely, Your Highness,” said Isabelle.
“Thank you, Lady Northland.”
The saddle brown ears complemented Edward’s dark blond hair perfectly. Absolutely dumbstruck by the sight of his childhood friend, who seemed rather pleased by this whole thing, Alexander collapsed onto the sofa. He finally resigned to the fact that there was no point arguing about anything his mother said regarding cat-related matters.
As he gazed at the scene from the couch, something stood out to him.
“Wait…if Lady Northland is here, then does that mean…?”
“Th-This is terrible! I can’t possibly be seen like this!” a familiar voice rang from behind the partition screens, half warbled with tears.
“That’s right!” said the duchess. “Amy’s not just wearing the ears, though—I had her wear the whole thing!”
Whole thing? What’s the “whole thing”?
The duchess flashed a bright smile and started giggling to herself, and Lady Northland sipped calmly at her tea. The spasm returned to Alexander’s cheeks.
The maids started trying to mollify Amy one by one.
“It’s not terrible, Amy!”
“That’s right, it’s perfect!”
“It’s actually precious!”
It was clear that each of the maids truly believed what they were saying, but their encouragement didn’t seem to get through to Amy—they heard her grumbling back in response.
Amy had finished changing into her costume some time ago, but she hadn’t shown any sign of coming out from behind the partitions.
“I put on ears, too, Amy.”
“Is that Ed? Wh-What is he doing here at a time like this?! This just gets worse and worse!”
There was a loud clatter from behind the screens as Amy was startled by Edward’s voice. It seemed as though Tigger’s patience had run out, as he then got on his hind legs and put his front paws against one of the screens, which started wobbling precariously.
“Watch out!”
“Ah!”
Edward managed to grab Tigger, but Alexander, who rushed over, was just too late to catch the screen in time.
It fell over with a clatter, revealing the scene behind it to the rest of the party.
The maids who had protected Amy from the falling screen quickly moved out of the way when they were sure she hadn’t been hurt, revealing Amy, teary-eyed and hunched over on herself. She had covered her head with her hands in surprise, but when she removed them, she revealed two triangular ears, the same shade of black as her hair.
She wore a short-sleeved black dress with a round neckline that hugged her collarbone. Her soft, snow-white upper arms were totally uncovered. Her gloves came up to her elbows and even had pink cat toe pads on the fingertips. The lightly billowing skirt only reached her knees, and the rest of her legs were covered in black tights. There was an upright cat tail coming out of her lower back.
With so much black in the ensemble, Amy’s golden eyes, wet with embarrassment, and the red choker around her neck especially stood out.
“My goodness, it’s so cute!” Camilla squealed. “You capture the haughty nobility and the mysterious charm of a black cat perfectly! I was torn between black velvet and a gold bell for around the neck, but Isabelle’s suggestion was best after all!”
“A female black cat needs a red ribbon—that much is nonnegotiable,” said Isabelle, nodding along with the duchess.
Edward and Alexander couldn’t take their eyes off Amy either, but perhaps for a different reason…
“M-Mom…! Duchess Camilla!” Amy groaned.
Wh-What do I even hide?! My ears? Tails? Legs? Arms?
She let out a whine that unintentionally sounded just like a cat meow, covered her beet-red face with her cat-paw hands, and slumped down on the floor.
For a while, Edward and Alexander just continued to stare at Amy with dumbfounded looks on their faces, but they both turned the same shade of red when they remembered that they were standing next to each other.
“U-Uh… That, um…looks good on you, Amy,” Edward stammered.
“That’s crazy. You really look like a black cat,” said Alec.
“I…might just die of embarrassment…”
Both boys took a step forward at the same time to help Amy to her feet.
At that moment, their path was blocked by a large object as Tigger slipped out of Edward’s inadvertently loosened grip and rushed out in front of them.
Hopping up on Amy’s lap, Tigger rubbed his body against her and meowed sweetly.
“Ah, this is just what I needed!” said Amy. “This is the best!”
The composition was perfect—a girl dressed up as a soft, chubby black cat was hugging a cat roughly her size. The duchess gave the scene a standing ovation, the maids in the room squealed with shrill voices, and even the old butler cracked a smile.
When the boys noticed the painter running over with his supplies, eyes sparkling, they swiftly grabbed each side of the fallen partition screen and raised it, blocking his view. The duchess complained loudly at this spectacular feat of teamwork.
“Boys, you just hid Amy!”
“It’s no good, Mother.”
“Ah—he doesn’t mean you’re not good, Amy, just that painting this isn’t good. Because it’s too adorable,” Edward explained to her over the screen with a smile. Amy turned bright red again and tried to hide her face in Tigger’s fur.
“What? We can’t paint it?” asked the duchess.
“I don’t think the Earl of Northland would agree to it being painted either,” Isabelle said reasonably.
“I think she’s right,” said Edward.
“You can’t paint it,” said Alec.
With that final swing of the hammer, the duchess slumped back down, dejected.
“And after I went and made everyone look so cute…”
“It’s water under the bridge now,” said Isabelle. “Let’s forget about the painting and focus on committing this moment to our memories instead! Amy, aren’t you glad these cat boys were here to save you?”
There was a cry in response from the other side of the partition, but no one was sure if it came from Amy or Tigger.
Alexander suddenly remembered with a start that he was still wearing the orange cat ears and ripped them off. By contrast, Prince Edward looked happily on, musing that the cat ears matched his coloring very well. On that day, August 8, the party enjoyed the rest of their evening in the duchess’s cat room.
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THE painter slumped his shoulders, overflowing with creative energy but with nowhere to channel it. Several days later, however, the Duchess of Coverdale may or may not have been presented with a certain painting in secret…