Chapter 7

Catherine Ramsey had not liked Bath at first. When she and her husband first entered the city, it had been after a fortnight spent with his family in Salisbury, who, although they might not be quite so well-mannered as the company Catherine had become accustomed to, were every bit as jovial as her husband and enjoyable to be around, particularly after one had got used to them.

Compared to those happy homes in Salisbury, Bath had seemed a cold, unfriendly place to her, the facades of all its fine buildings dripping with rain more often than not. They had come into town having made that nearly insurmountable error of society – coming into a place in which they had no acquaintances, and were not of such a standing that people immediately wished to be acquainted with them.

The theatre had been fine enough, in their first week there, but Catherine had hated going to the Upper and Lower Rooms and dancing only with her husband, or the Pump Room, where they would drink a glass each of foul-smelling water and then stroll around, recognising and being recognised by no-one. She had begun to wonder how long they should have to stay before she could suggest they go somewhere – anywhere – else, although she thought Andrew was beginning to sense her dissatisfaction with the place and might suggest it himself. Such thoughts saddened her, because Bath had always been his plan as a place for them to settle after marrying. When he had put it to her, it had sounded like a good one, but it was approaching the point of failure.

Then one morning, as they had been walking in the Pump Room, Andrew stopped abruptly and waved to an acquaintance across the room, leading Catherine over to that acquaintance.

"Elliott, how do you do?" Andrew asked, shaking his hand energetically, and even before he had introduced Elliott as Captain Elliott, with whom he had served as mid on HMS Centaur, Catherine had already come to expect the man was a naval acquaintance.

Captain Elliott was of the same sort of good humour that Andrew was, and never short of amusing anecdotes of the sorts of trouble the two young boys had got up to together as midshipmen. Yet his greatest quality in Catherine's eyes was that he had married an outgoing, amiable young lady, Louisa Elliott. As Catherine was also of an outgoing temperament, the two young ladies had made overtures of friendship even before the two couples had agreed to dine together that evening.

How very different Bath was, with female companionship! Louisa – the young ladies had rapidly come to address each other by their Christian names – enjoyed shopping every bit as much as Catherine, and they spent their mornings after the obligatory turn about the Pump Room in this pursuit. As Catherine had married more quickly than anyone had expected she would – her father had been ill, and she and Andrew were the best choices to assist her family at Longbourn, but could only travel together if married – she had acquired very little in the way of a wedding trousseau, but had been promised by both her mother and her husband that she should have one, even if it was belated. She and Louisa, therefore, had a true purpose to their outings, and if Captain Elliott complained his wife was accumulating a second trousseau, in finding things she simply could not live without while accompanying Catherine, the amused look of his countenance indicated he was not too serious in his complaints.

Other acquaintances followed: more men of the navy and their wives, although Catherine thought Louisa should always remain her particular friend, and even some who were introduced to them through the Masters of Ceremonies, Mr. King and Mr. Heaviside. While the Ramseys were not of a standing as to move in the top echelon of Bath society, they came to be known as connected by marriage to the Cheshire Stantons and the Derbyshire Darcys, and beyond that, they were said to be lively, pleasant company, so that within a month of being at Bath, they had gathered a substantial acquaintance.

They were, of course, still a married couple on their honeymoon, one that enjoyed marital relations more, perhaps, than other couples, and one morning when they had finished their most recent instance of such, Andrew kissed his wife and said, "How do you like Bath now, my pretty Cat?"

"I like it very much."

"I am glad of it. I believe it was a near-run thing when we first came here. I do not believe you liked it so much, then."

"I cannot say that I did, but I am in a fair way to loving it, now," Catherine replied.