For the past three days, Kitty had been avoiding Thomas. She was still angry at him but more so at herself. People had been telling her all along that he was a nasty piece of work but she had refused to believe them all. Stupid girl, she chastised herself. She had only just met Thomas; she didn't know him. But the people who had lived and worked with him for years did. If anyone knew who he really was, it was them.
And she dealt with it all by ignoring him. Which only made her feel worse because she was further annoyed at herself for not facing it. Kitty spent her time discreetly leaving rooms that Thomas was in, spending her tea breaks outside in the courtyard when Thomas was inside, or spending them inside when Thomas was smoking outside. It wasn't difficult in such a big house where everyone was busy to both evade someone and do so unnoticed.
Mrs Hughes was the only person other than Thomas and Kitty who knew anything was up; no-one else had noticed, except for maybe that Thomas was more irritable than usual. No-one put it down to anything other than he was having a bad week and tiptoed around him. But the housekeeper had sharp eyes and she missed nothing.
"You know, avoiding him isn't going to fix anything," Mrs Hughes said, catching Kitty once again leaving a room Thomas had just entered. There were plenty of people passing by, but the conversation would mean nothing to anyone else unless names were mentioned. And both parties were discreet enough not to.
"I know, I know. I'm really irritated with myself," Kitty sighed, "but I can't bring myself to face him yet. I don't even know how to start any kind of conversation with him."
Mrs Hughes looked at her kindly. "Maybe you should let him, next time he tries, instead of walking away."
"I fairly sure he doesn't want to talk to me," Kitty replied shortly.
"How do you know? When you won't even look at him?"
"Well...well...oh, Mrs Hughes! Leave me alone!" Kitty huffed and stalked off with far more anger than she felt. Because she knew, really, that the housekeeper was right. She decided not to dwell on it too much and busied herself with work, offering to do the harder and more time-consuming jobs. It seemed, though, that fate wasn't just going to let it lie.
A/N: Okay, this one is short because I wanted to ask your opinion on something. Yes, you, dear reader. But first I want to say another thank you to the reviewers! I had thought that I'd just get abuse for this story because everyone seems to hate Thomas so much, so thank you for your kind words.
Now, what I want to put in the next chapter is a reconciliation of sorts. However, I don't want to rush things in terms of the story. So what I wanted to know was: (a) Should I have Thomas beginning to change and reveal to Kitty that she makes him ashamed of his actions for the first time ever? And (b) is it too soon to make physical things happen between them? Small things, like a hug or a kiss on the back of the hand.
Oh and one last thing - this thing with Kitty does not mean that suddenly Thomas is no longer gay. Kitty is just the one girl that ever had an effect on him, it's completely out of his control. It could apply to any one of us. For instance; me, a completely straight female, could only ever find one girl in my life that ever attracted me in that way or, alternatively, I could not. It's just chemistry and we have no say in it. Does that make sense to anyone at all?