July 8, 1800, Lavender Boat, @thexreluctantxviscount
Kate had been on the boat for less than an hour, getting settled in for the trip, making sure she knew where everything was, trying to locate her book, only to abandon it in favor of a few peppermints to keep any nausea at bay. There was a frenetic sort of energy to the voyage, an anticipation that seemed to crackle through the air like ozone just before a lightning storm, and she was not immune to it. It felt like every moment she needed to be moving, to explore, to wave at the people left behind, to gaze ahead at the opposite shore, cultivating a landscape painting in her mind. Then, of course, the most dreadful of horrors: the bow of her bonnet, freshly loosened after her mother’s ministrations, was loosened further by a sudden breeze. Then the breeze got stronger, and suddenly the bonnet was gone, flying haphazardly across the deck of the boat, carried on that dreadful, clandestine wind.
This was the worst case scenario: her mother had been right.
Absolutely and utterly mortified, Kate took off after it with all due haste, her eyes wide in near panic, because good god, if it were to fall in the river, she’d never hear the end of it from her mother. Besides that, she’d have to dig one of Elizabeth’s old ones out of the attic and refresh it, and she’d worked so hard on this one. She was not quite quick enough, however, hampered by her skirt as she was, and the breeze carried it barely over the railing. Just as she was sure she was about to witness the drowning of her poor bonnet, a gentleman’s hand snapped out with all the quickness of a striking snake, snatching it neatly out of the air with only moments to spare. The ribbons hadn’t even gotten wet. Kate skidded to a stop, sagging with relief, her face flushed with embarrassment, and looked up to thank her savior, only blink and then smile, broadly. Dahlias. “It’s you!” She said, delighted, before catching herself and shaking her head at her horrible manners. “Thank you for saving my poor bonnet,” she smiled, still flushed as she spoke. “My mother would have scolded me for weeks if I’d lost the thing.”