Flora's Redundant Matchmaking
One-shot
Ever since the recently promoted Major Gillan had been reassigned to a casualty clearing station, Flora had noticed a change in Kitty's behaviour. Lately the VAD had been fairly subdued, granted she had never been the cheeriest of people, but ever since Thomas's departure she had seemed even more morose than usual.
It had taken a few days of deep thought for Flora to begin to understand, but eventually she did come to the realisation that Kitty was behaving almost exactly like Flora herself had acted when Charlie had been sent back to the front. Unlike Flora's situation though, there was no way that Kitty had acted upon her feelings with Thomas, Kitty was far too prim and proper to behave so inappropriately.
Flora decided that her next pet project would be to help Kitty realise her obvious feelings for Thomas. That way, when they war ended they could both declare their devotion for each other, get married and live happily ever after, and then Flora could tell their children that she was the reason their parents became a couple in the first place. Terribly proud of having made this discovery, Flora's first action was to consult Corporal Foley on his opinion of the news.
"I am not gossiping about our co-workers with you," was Peter's only response to the information.
"It's not gossiping." Flora replied indignantly. "I was just informing you that Kitty is in love with Captain Gillan."
"Major Gillan, and that is gossiping."
"You're no fun, Peter." Flora complained. "And don't you think it would be really sweet if they became a couple? They could be grumpy cynics together!" Something that she said seemed to amuse Peter because he was smirking. "What is so funny?" Flora demanded crossly, she hated not being in on the joke.
"Nothing. Are you planning on trying to match-make them then?" Peter asked casually.
"Well yes, those two will never get together if they are left to it themselves." Peter made an odd sound before clearly trying to cover it up with a cough.
"Good luck then." He quickly walked away before Flora could question him, shoulders quaking with every step he took. How decidedly odd, Flora thought to herself.
A few days passed before Flora could actively continue with her plan. Cleverly, she had decided to try to be subtle when convincing Kitty that she was in love with Thomas, so she had been careful not to mention anything about him, even though she badly wanted to pester Kitty about it.
Seeing that Rosalie had been given the responsibility of distributing the mail that day, Flora spied an opportunity and quickly sidled up to the VAD.
"Hi Rosalie!" Flora said brightly.
"Flora." Rosalie acknowledged suspiciously.
"So…." Flora started slowly, doing her best to sound unconcerned. "Does Kitty have any mail?"
"Yes, why?" Flora felt a small burst of excitement at having her guess confirmed, but did her best to quell it knowing that if Rosalie became more suspicious she would not help with the next part of Flora's plan.
"I have a shift in the same ward as her, so I could deliver the letter for you and save you some trouble." Flora lied, quickly praying to God for forgiveness for her deceit, it was for a good cause after all.
"No you don't, Flora, I have a shift with Kitty and you were not on the rota for that ward." Flora cursed her rotten luck.
"Please, Rosalie." Flora wheedled. "I just want to see Kitty's letter." Rosalie looked at her in astonishment.
"I can't just let you look at her mail! That's such an invasion of her privacy."
"I don't want to read the actual letter," Flora quickly explained, "I just want to see the envelope." Rosalie carefully considered her options and sighed loudly.
"If I don't show you the envelope you will pester me about it forever." Flora nodded cheerily in agreement, Rosalie sighed again. "Fine, you can see it, but then I'm taking the letter straight to Kitty."
Flora snatched the pack of letters out of Rosalie's hand as the final word only just left her mouth, she quickly flicked through until she found the letter addressed to 'Miss Catherine Trevelyan'. She carefully examined the writing at the front and squealed when her hunch was confirmed.
"What's happened now?" Rosalie asked, already tired of the secrecy. The envelope was promptly shoved into her face.
"Do you recognise the handwriting?" Flora asked excitedly, Rosalie briefly glanced at it.
"Yes, why?"
"It's Captain Gillan's handwriting! The same handwriting as the notes he made about patients on the clipboards."
"It's Major Gillan now Flora, and what about it?" Flora was disappointed that Rosalie hadn't joined the dots together yet.
"Well Major Gillan is sending letters to Kitty. Can't you see what that means?" Flora demanded, Rosalie just stared at her incomprehensively and shrugged. Flora shoved the pack of letters back into Rosalie's hands. Of course Rosalie wouldn't understand, Flora thought to herself, she had never been in love so she wouldn't see the significance, but Flora would find someone who did.
"He sent Kitty a letter?" Miles asked incredulously. "He hasn't sent me a letter."
Miles had been fairly easy to find and even easier to manipulate into the conversation Flora wanted to get into. All Flora had to do was casually asked him if he had received any news from Thomas, and when Miles had replied in the negative she had informed him of Kitty's letter. His reaction to the news gave Flora renewed hope for her matchmaking plans, if Thomas was sending letters to Kitty more often than Miles that must mean that Thomas cares deeply about Kitty, definitely more than just as a friend. Flora started planning how she could use this new information to help Kitty come to terms with her feelings when Miles started speaking again.
"I can't believe Thomas didn't send me a letter too." Miles whined.
"Oh shush." Flora chastised. "Don't you see what this mean? It means he is interested in Kitty!" Miles gave her an odd look.
"Well yes." He said slowly, still looking at her strangely. Encouraged by someone else agreeing with her that Kitty and Thomas should get together, Flora spun on her heels and immediately marched off to find Kitty before Miles could say another word.
By the time Flora managed to find Kitty, her target was reading the much discussed letter, which made Flora very excited as she had a small chance of getting a glance at the contents and see whether Thomas was pining after Kitty as much as she was pining after him.
Flora slowly started to creep up to Kitty from behind, intent on peaking over her shoulder at what she was reading. Once she was a few steps away and was just close enough for the writing to become legible, Kitty spun around suddenly and clutched the letter closer to her, eliminating any possibility of it being read by any other pair of eyes.
"Flora." Kitty said with her eyes narrowed.
"Hi Kitty! What do you have there?" Flora asked lamely, it was eerie how similar Rosalie and Kitty could be at times. They both had the same look of suspicious disapproval, if Flora didn't know any better she would have guessed that they practiced facial expressions together.
"A letter from Major Gillan, but you already knew that since you pestered Rosalie about my letter this morning." The glare emanating from Kitty felt like it would melt Flora to the ground.
"Oh, did Rosalie tell you about that?" Flora laughed nervously, already planning revenge on the VAD that should have been loyal to her and kept her mouth shut about the incident that happened earlier that day.
"Yes, she said you have been acting strange."
"Well Rosalie is strange so she would think that," Flora idly brushed away Kitty's concerns, "anyway… what did Captain Gillan have to say to you? You know, he hasn't sent a letter to Captain Hesketh-Thorne yet, he must really want to speak to you."
"That's Major Gillan now, Flora." Kitty corrected, pointedly ignoring Flora's other comments, which Flora put down to Kitty being in denial that Thomas felt the same way towards her. Before Flora could question her further, Kitty quickly spoke up. "My break is over now, so I will see you later." She quickly walked away, leaving a pouting Flora behind her.
Flora spent the next few days sulking somewhat. She had been unable to make any more progress with her matchmaking plan and she had been told off by Matron for avoiding her duties. Flora had tried to find the letter amongst Kitty's things (she justified such behaviour since she was trying to help Kitty, not invade her privacy), but the other woman had craftily hidden it, meaning Flora was still clueless as to the letter's contents.
Flora figured that, the best way for her to further her plans, would be to try to recruit others to help, she had since managed to forgive Rosalie for giving her away to Kitty, resulting in Kitty becoming more secretive to the detriment of Flora's plans. She also figured that Rosalie would be a valuable asset, if only she wouldn't be so dismissive of what Flora had to say.
"To be frank, Flora, Major Gillan and Kitty's relationship is none of your business." Rosalie responded, after Flora had asked her what she thought about the two of them. Peter had been snickering away to himself since the conversation had started and waved off any attempts Flora had made to try to include him in the discussion.
"Of course it's my business, Kitty is my friend and I want her to be happy." Flora explained.
"Rosalie, let Flora have her fun." Peter suddenly joined in the conversation. "If she wants to try to match-make the two of them, leave her to it." He looked at Rosalie significantly, who only stared back in confusion before slowly nodding, still staring at him questioningly.
"Miss Marshall!" All three immediately stood to attention at Sister Quayle's sudden high-pitched shriek. "Don't you think you have dawdled enough this week? Get back to work, the inventory will not sort itself." Discontented, Flora stormed off to work, leaving Rosalie and Peter alone.
"Does Flora really not know that Major Gillan and Kitty are already in a relationship?" Rosalie asked Peter disbelievingly.
"She doesn't seem to." Peter replied, no longer bothering to hide his amusement. "Which is funny because everyone else at the hospital already knows."
"Well, why haven't you told her?" Rosalie asked, not even surprised that everyone knew about the 'secret' relationship, Kitty and Thomas had hardly managed to be subtle.
"When Flora has her nose in somebody else's business, she usually stays out of ours. I've quite enjoyed the peace and quiet this week, haven't you?"
Late one night, after another week of failed matchmaking, Flora debated with herself as to whether she should abandon her understated attempts at convincing Kitty to declare her love for Thomas and simply come out and talk to Kitty about it. Now would be a good time, Flora thought to herself, after all Rosalie was asleep and Kitty would probably be awake since she had such bad insomnia. Mind made up, Flora hissed across the beds.
"Kitty, are you awake?"
"No." That was rather rude, Flora thought with a frown, managing to completely disregard that she was pestering someone trying to get some sleep.
"Kitty…." Flora whined.
"Fine, what do you want?" Kitty said in defeat, giving up any attempts at sleep and sitting up.
"Do you like Captain Gillan?"
"Major Gillan, and yes he's a good person." Flora rolled her eyes at Kitty's answer.
"No, do you like like him?" Flora asked, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. Kitty looked at her as though she had sprouted antlers. Seeing her bemusement, Flora decided to continue speaking because she assumed that Kitty didn't know what she was talking about. "I just think you would be a really cute couple-"
"Flora…" Kitty tried to interject, but was cut off by Flora.
"-and I mean, he must really like you too because he's never as grumpy and mean to you as he is to the rest of us-"
"Flora."
"- he was always shouting at me to shut up, to be honest I don't see what you see in him but you're kind of grumpy too so I figured-"
"Flora!" Kitty practically shouted, before quickly glancing at Rosalie to see if she had woken her up. Rosalie seemed to be slumbering peacefully, and Flora had finally noticed that Kitty had something to say.
"Yes, what is it?"
"There is no need for you to try to convince me that I should be in a relationship with Thomas," Kitty said, "because we are engaged." Flora's look of utter stupefaction made Kitty's confession completely worth it. Just as Kitty was congratulating herself, she saw the warning signs of Flora about to shriek in excitement, and with incredible speed slammed a palm over her hand to muffle the sound.
"Sorry!" Flora said sheepishly when Kitty glared at her and glanced meaningfully at the sleeping Rosalie. "I'm just so happy for you!"
"Congratulations on your engagement, Kitty." Rosalie spoke up from her bed, causing the two other VADs to spin around in surprise.
"You're awake?" Kitty asked, feeling a little guilty that her and Flora's discussion had disrupted her sleep.
"Of course, you two are loud enough to wake the dead."
"Could both of you please keep the engagement secret, I would rather the entire hospital not know." Kitty pleaded with the two of them.
"There really isn't much point in keeping it secret," Rosalie told her, "the entire hospital already knows about you and Major Gillan." At Kitty's shocked expression, Rosalie quickly explained. "Your attempts at sneaking off to meet each other were pretty obvious, it has been a bit of a running joke for the rest of the staff."
"How come everyone else knew, and I didn't?" Flora asked, sounding completely outraged by the idea.
"No offence Flora, but you wouldn't notice if an elephant came in as a patient." Rosalie consoled her.
"So everyone knew but me. I'm the worst matchmaker ever." Flora said disconsolately.
"You are, but we love you anyway." Rosalie got out of bed and went over to the other two so that all three of them could hug.
"God, I can't believe everyone knew." Kitty said sullenly. "I feel like such an idiot."
"At least not everyone knows you're engaged." Rosalie pointed out. "I hope we are invited to the wedding."
"Of course you will be." Kitty promised. Beside her, Flora brightened up as she suddenly had an idea.
"So I'm with Charlie," she began, "and Kitty is with Captain-"
"Major." Kitty and Rosalie corrected at the same time.
"- Major Gillan. That only leaves you, Rosalie, without a true love!" Flora said, smiling manically and already thinking of people that Rosalie might be compatible with so that she could match-make them together.
"Oh God." Rosalie groaned, causing Kitty to laugh and pat her sympathetically on the shoulder, content that at least the attention would be off her for a while.
AN: I hope you guys enjoyed this one-shot. It is directly linked to my other recently uploaded one-shot 'Temporary Separation'. Poor Flora, always the last to find out, and always forgetting Thomas has been promoted :P .
I've also written an outtake based on the short scene with Flora and Miles which I couldn't use in the actual fic because the dialogue too modern and I didn't think it was an appropriate thing for Miles to say considering gender equality in the early nineteenth century, but I still think the scene is fairly amusing so I thought I would include it below. It is fairly different from the scene in the fic above because it was based upon the first draft of the scene.
OUTAKE
"He sent Kitty a letter?" Miles asked incredulously. "He hasn't sent me a letter." This news gave Flora renewed hope for her matchmaking plans, if Thomas was sending letters to Kitty more often than Miles that must mean that Thomas cares deeply about Kitty. Flora started planning how she could use this new information to help Kitty come to terms with her feelings. Miles had started speaking again but Flora was only half listening.
"I can't believe Thomas is breaking man code again." Miles whined. "The first time was bad enough, but now he has broken the cardinal rule of bros before hoes."
"What on earth does that mean?" Flora asked with a frown.
"Among men it is generally accepted that friends should be prioritised over love interests." Miles informed her, Flora gasped.
"So you agree that Kitty and Major Gillan would make a cute couple?" Miles gave her an odd look.
"Well yes." He said slowly, still looking at her strangely. Encouraged by someone else agreeing with her that Kitty and Thomas should get together, Flora spun on her heels and immediately marched off to find Kitty. Before she could take more than a few steps, she abruptly remembered something else that she wanted to say and turned back around to face.
"Miles, you know that 'bros before hoes' thing?"
"Yes."
"You should probably get rid of that rule." Flora advised him. "Women don't generally like to be put second, and I don't think 'hoes' is the most complimentary of terms. If you're not careful you are going to get punched and never end up in a mutually respectful, contented relationship." Flora smiled brightly. "Bye now!" She cheerily walked away leaving a baffled Miles behind her.