A/N: Thank you to everyone who has favourited, followed, reviewed and read this story. Your continued support is greatly appreciated. Apologies for this chapter coming a little later than I'd planned. Personal life took a bit of a nose-dive, and I was really struggling in figuring out in what direction this chapter was going to go in (blame Kitty, if the title of this chapter didn't already clue you in to that. XD). But I got there in the end. Either way, there's not much for me to say this time, but I do hope you enjoy Cordelia's one-on-one interaction with Kitty and the little surprise I threw in there courtesy of the Button House Archives (which, by the way, made me go back to Chapter 2 to tweak some things in regards to some of the ghosts' ages) and the cliffhanger. XD

Chapter 14: Curiosity Killed the Kitty

Cordelia departed from the cellar and moved through the labyrinth of corridors of Button House's ground floor at a steady jog, her mind buzzing as though it had become the home to a hive of bees. She'd decided to retreat to her bedroom for the time being to properly sift through her thoughts and to keep out of the way of the upstairs ghosts for the time being. Unfortunately, that hadn't stopped the pestering hand of pondering from pulling her in prematurely while she made her way to her intended destination.

'Upon reflection, Patrick had the correct idea. Conversing with Alison calmly about the future of Button House will allow the living and deceased residents to come to a mutual understanding benefitting everyone, allowing me to help Alison and make sure Button House is saved. But as it stands, Alison is still under the belief that we only exist inside of her head, which is a great hindrance. And that is without taking into account which plan the others have chosen and the stress Alison is already under as a result of her… accident.'

As Cordelia got closer to the farthest rooms of the west wing, she slowed her jog into a gentle stroll and rested an elbow on her palm, her other one cupping her cheek.

'As cavillous as the Captain can be, his repetitive rambles of tactically reading your enemy's movements to determine your own ring true in my predicament. Before I can even begin to ponder my next move, it is vital I remain informed on how they plan to conduct themselves. This will not only ensure I can move in tandem to avoid overwhelming Alison, but to also stay out of range of suspicion. After all, if the Captain was to uncover my motives, he would most certainly do everything in his power to put a stop to it. Though how I can find out what is going on without pretending I am willing to aid their cause is going to be a tricky feat.'

The Victorian ghost shuddered upon recalling the last two times the pressure of the situation had gotten to her over the last twenty-four hours alone, the most recent one being this morning, of course.

'I have almost cracked twice under the pressure at present, should this become a frequent occurrence, I do not doubt the perceptive and sly minds amongst our little menagerie will eventually sniff my deceit out without falter—Julian, Lady Button, the Captain, perhaps even Robin or Catherine with their emotional intelligence…'

Cordelia's train of thought trailed off when she rounded the corner into the corridor that led to her bedroom. But then the sight of burgundy up ahead paused the Victorian woman in her tracks and directed her attention to her bedroom door, a familiar cheery and almost posh sounding female voice calling her name following shortly after.

"Cordelia?!"

A couple of forced blinks from the addressed ghost revealed the voice belonged to Kitty, who was standing before Cordelia's bedroom door with the upper half of her body phased through and the skirt of her gown visible.

'Oh dear.' Cordelia's eyes drooped as she allowed both of her arms to fall limp at her sides. 'Speak of the Georgian lady and she doth appear.' She couldn't help smirking in amusement for a few seconds at her silly little joke there; perhaps the plague ghosts' humour was rubbing off on her. 'But jesting aside, what is Catherine doing there?'

Cordelia quickly got her answer when Kitty stood upright again in the corridor with a puzzled frown, tapping a finger to her chin and staring at the wall while mumbling to herself absentmindedly; a common habit of hers.

"How peculiar. Cordelia isn't in her room either." Kitty swayed a little from left to right. "I wonder where else she could be…"

"Ahem."

Cordelia loudly cleared her throat, causing the biologically older ghost to perk up with a wide blink and turn her head to the other end of the corridor. The second she registered it was Cordelia standing there, a wide smile broke out on the young woman's face.

"Oh, Cordelia!" she cheerily greeted with an enthusiastic wave to match. "Good day to you!"

"Catherine," Cordelia replied calmly and briefly bowed her head in acknowledgement, politely returning the greeting upon straightening up. "Good day to you too."

"How are you doing?" Kitty enquired as she approached with a bit of a spring in her step, eventually slowing to a stop to lean in close to the biologically younger blonde's face with a slight squint. "Much better, I hope! The colour has returned to your cheeks. And it doesn't sound like you're wheezing when you speak."

Cordelia recoiled a little with the hunch of her shoulders to Kitty invading her personal space, awkwardly averting her gaze to the nearby wall for several seconds.

"Yes, I am very well, thank you." Cordelia took two steps back to create a little more space between them with a quick inhale and exhale through her nose. "Though while I appreciate the concern, you should know it is unwarranted when I am not in the common room."

"Oh, yes, of course!" Kitty exclaimed upon righting her posture and bringing her hands back to her front. "Sorry! I always forget your ailments are related to where you died!"

Cordelia's left eye twitched at the unnecessary reminder, but she pressed her lips into a thin line to avoid a sarcastic retort from slipping past them. After all, next to Humphrey, Kitty was one of the kindest and most honest ghosts whose company Cordelia could tolerate on occasion. Unfortunately, that kindness and honesty stemmed from an overall sense of naivety, which (like just now) led to the Georgian woman saying certain things without full awareness of how they could affect the other person. Though Cordelia couldn't deny that in this case, she technically deserved it, evidenced by the guilty ache that blossomed in her chest.

'Ah. Greetings, Guilt. You have returned in light of my recent deception once again feeding into an acquaintance's unnecessary concern for my wellbeing.'

"No need to apologise," Cordelia quietly reassured after a short silence, pausing to sigh softly. "But enough about myself. Is everything all right with you?"

Kitty smiled at the shorter Victorian woman so widely, her skin stretched and bunched up round by her cheeks, exposing her gums. "Why, yes, it is! Thank you for asking!" she replied in an over-exaggerated jolly tone.

Cordelia couldn't help squinting at the taller ghost for a moment and look her over from head to toe. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something about that smile and tone of hers seemed… off. "Are you quite sure, Catherine?" she carefully asked.

"Of course!" the Georgian woman asserted with the further widening of her smile into an unnatural-looking grin, the sight of which made Cordelia involuntarily (and thankfully unnoticeably) shudder at the small chill that trickled down her invisible spine; outside of not looking right on Kitty's face in general, the Victorian woman found that grin made her feel like an antelope staring into the ravenous face of a lioness. "Everything is just wonderful!"

"Really?" Cordelia pressed and craned her neck round the other woman to peek at her closed bedroom door at the other end of the corridor. "Because I could not help but notice you were standing outside of my bed chambers a moment ago."

"Oh, that?" Kitty dismissively waved Cordelia's concerns off with a hand. "I was just looking for you!"

"On behalf of the Captain, I presume?"

Cordelia couldn't think of any other reason why Kitty would voluntarily seek her out. While the Georgian woman was known to unintentionally disregard personal space and boundaries, she usually didn't come looking for her of her own free will.

This was soon proven by Kitty's short nod of the head, resting her chin on the tip of her index finger. "Yes, actually! He wanted me to tell you that everyone agreed to go with Pat's plan after you left the common room earlier."

Cordelia recoiled a bit with a shocked blink to match, immediately reminded of her pondering over her small dilemma not too long ago, the one where she'd been struggling to figure out how she was going to come upon this particular information without looking suspicious.

'Well then. It appears my accidental summoning of Catherine has resolved part of my problems— Wait.'

"Everyone?" Cordelia repeated with a sceptically cocked brow upon properly processing what Kitty had said, earning herself an enthusiastic nod from the taller woman. "Does that include the Captain?"

"It was his decision!" Upon seeing Cordelia frown out of disbelief, Kitty clapped her hands together in front of her chest with a proud smile. "I know! I couldn't believe it either!"

"What changed his mind?"

Kitty casually shrugged. "I'm not sure. Though, I think it was when he was saying that us befriending Alison was something he found very annoying, because it was after that."

Kitty's last words caused the imaginary candle within the confines of Cordelia's head to alight, the provided context slotting everything together like a completed jigsaw and causing the young woman's disbelief to melt away with the slump of her shoulders.

'I should have expected the Captain to have identified that allowing the masses to do as they please will benefit his goals more so than theirs.' She mentally sighed and imagined her inner self smacking a palm to her forehead to ignore her ever growing urge to faceplant through a wall. 'How troublesome. But that would explain Catherine's exaggerated excitement. I imagine she is bursting at the seams under the naïve belief she will be befriending Alison any time soon.'

"I see," Cordelia said upon allowing the silence that had fallen between them to drag on for a moment longer. "Then I am glad to hear the matter was resolved without issue."

"As am I!" Kitty clasped her hands together under one of her cheeks with a contented sigh. "What Julian did to Alison was terrible, of course, but I'm certain this is a sign that she and I are fated to become best friends! We're the same height, you know!"

'And there it is.'

"Are you now?" Cordelia remarked with forced emphasis, trying very hard to sound sincerely interested and hide her disbelief at being correct with her previous assumption (though, admittedly, she was a little curious as to how Kitty discovered she and Alison were the same height, should her words be believed).

However, Kitty seemed to take Cordelia's tone in a completely different way to what she had intended, prompting the biologically older woman's happiness to disappear with a wide blink and the lowering of her hands.

"Oh, that doesn't mean I have forgotten about our fated friendship, Cordelia!"

Cordelia raised a quizzical brow and cocked her head to the side a little. "I beg your pardon, Catherine?"

"I've still held the belief since you first became a ghost that we were fated to become close companions too! After all, you and I died at the same age!"

Cordelia's eyes drooped with a small huff upon hearing this, lightly facepalming her forehead without making her dismay too obvious for Kitty's sake. "I am one year your junior, Catherine."

"You're still the closest in age, and a lady ghost as well!" Kitty asserted. "I refuse to believe that is a mere coincidence!" But then she frowned and tapped her chin a couple of times with her fingertip while pursing her lips and narrowing her eyes. "Though, I'm surprised you didn't already know that. Have I ever told you any of this before now? I feel I might have."

Cordelia narrowed her eyes in turn and cupped a hand to her cheek, mentally feeling Kitty's words tugging at the back of her mind like someone attempting to straighten out a worn rug. This was a feeling Cordelia was very familiar with, coming to recognise it as a sign of something she had encountered in the past but had likely forgotten, the reason of which usually eluded her. Though, given her circumstances and the fact so little went on in her ghostly life even after over a century and a half, that reason was always an obvious one.

"I admit I am sensing some déjà vu with your statements, so it is possible you may have said such in the past," Cordelia mused as she lightly rapped her fingers against her cheek, closing her eyes after a few seconds. "But as I am struggling to recall it exactly, I fear this may have occurred during my junior years as a ghost on the estate. My memory during that time was hazy for the most part."

'Considering the trauma I had undergone, however, I am not in the least bit surprised my recollections of those years are foggy,' Cordelia thought to herself, feeling it was best not to say that out loud.

Kitty gasped out of realisation and lightly smacked her palms to her cheeks. "Yes, I think you're right! I recall you always looked to be in a daze whenever I tried to talk to you."

Cordelia hummed in agreement. "Indeed." She gave the taller ghost a brief bow of the head. "Please forgive me, Catherine. It appears it was I who had forgotten."

"Oh, please don't trouble yourself, Cordelia! I understand!" Kitty immediately shook her head and waved Cordelia's apology off with a reassuring smile. "Besides, Pat says you can have more than one close friend! So once Alison and I become close friends, I can start doing the same with you! Heehee!"

"… Of course," Cordelia replied through gritted teeth, forcing a teeth-bearing smile to stave off the dread that was now crawling about her invisible stomach like a group of spiders had nested inside of it.

'I have nothing against Catherine's company, by any means. Compared to some of the characters amongst our little menagerie, she is one I consider to be tolerable in small amounts because of her usually polite, kind and friendly demeanour. But at present, I do not feel the desire to spend time in the company of another, hence the dread I now bear. She means no harm, of course, yet my emotional response would have been the same should another ghost have said what Catherine did.'

Hence why the Victorian ghost was willing to put up a brave face for the Georgian woman.

After several seconds, Cordelia loudly cleared her throat and lightly patted at her sternum with her palm a couple of times. "But returning to the Captain taking charge of Patrick's plan, is there anything specific that I should be aware of? Assuming that I am expected to partake in the latest operation alongside everyone else."

And Cordelia had every right to expect such. Up until now, the Captain had (against her will) forced her to involve herself in their ridiculous schemes and shenanigans even if there was little for her to offer outside of ideas. Even when she'd excused herself from the meeting earlier, the Captain's frustrated response to her departure was clear as day that she was expected to be there alongside everyone else. So, it wouldn't be out of character for her to ask about it and make sure she was up to speed with everything, would it? Even though she planned on manipulating this information to her advantage at some point down the line. And who better to enquire with on the subject than the ghostly resident who would not only not be suspicious of her behaviour, but who would also happily give her the answers she sought for with very little prompting?

"Hmmm," Kitty hummed thoughtfully and tilted her head to the ceiling with a faint frown, a hand absentmindedly stroking its fingers against her chin. "That is a good question. The Captain said we'll be taking it in turns to talk to Alison and that he'd give out further instructions as we went along, as he wants us to start right away. But he has yet to mention you at all."

"Is that so." Cordelia frowned a little out of suspicion. "Am I best enquiring with him on the matter directly then?"

"Maybe. Although, I wouldn't worry about it." Kitty returned her gaze to Cordelia with a shrug. "He might be being thoughtful and giving you an extra day to rest because of what happened in the common room."

"Perhaps, yes," Cordelia muttered out of agreement, even though inwardly she highly doubted that possibility. 'Or perhaps it is more accurate to assume he feels I am not needed at present. Either way, Catherine is right: it is not a matter I should be troubled over for now.' "Thank you nonetheless, Catherine. I shall take the matter up with the Captain tomorrow morn."—a tiny blatant lie, but it's not like Kitty was going to be affected by it—"Was there anything else?"

"Um…" Kitty uttered and squinted towards the floor with a finger tapping at her cheek, falling into deep thought for the second time since their interaction had begun. After about a minute (or at least, that's how it felt to Cordelia anyway) of silence had passed between them, the biologically older ghost smiled and shook her head. "No, I think that was all I was supposed to tell you."

"Then if that is all, I shall take my leave, should that be agreeable with you." Cordelia rubbed a hand against one of her eyes with a weary blink. "I do not mean to be impolite by cutting our discussion short, but the events of today thus far have wearied me and I am in need of a good respite."

Kitty smiled politely and shook her head dismissively. "Don't worry, Cordelia! I understand. Though, I must admit you did a good job pretending your wound wasn't bothering you for as long as you did." She winked. "You certainly had me fooled!"

A bead of sweat rolled down the side of Cordelia's forehead as she forced an awkward laugh at Kitty's comments, doing her best to fend of the discomfort she was feeling from that guilty ache in her chest from showing on her face. "Yes, well, I would not let it bother you. I am sure I had everyone fooled."

"I am sure you did!" Kitty took bunches of her skirt into her hands and pulled it up slightly as she went to curtsey and bow her head. "Do take care, Cordelia. It was nice to speak with you today. Hopefully we can do it again sometime."

"Hopefully, yes," Cordelia replied with a bit of emphasis to avoid being rude, hiding the involuntary shudder her body gave in response to the bitter aftertaste lingering on her tongue with a quick bow of the head. "But thank you for keeping me informed on the plan, Catherine. Enjoy the rest of your day."

"You too, Cordelia! Farewell!"

And with one last giddy giggle and grin to match as she straightened up, Kitty skipped her way past Cordelia and down the corridor, all while Cordelia watched her go with an over-the-shoulder glance and heard the biologically and chronologically older ghost loudly humming a random, upbeat tune to herself.

'Well, it would appear that luck is finally coming my way this day. The group have unanimously decided to take it in turns confronting Alison.'

Cordelia waited until Kitty disappeared behind the wall and her skipping started to die away before she faced forwards and resumed her earlier walk, heading straight for her bedroom door with her hands clasped within the folds of her skirt.

'As everyone believes I am still recovering from the earlier incident in the common room, I should make myself scarce for the rest of the day and see how the situation progresses. Until I am certain of the roles the Captain has instructed everyone to play, I cannot determine a counterattack. It would be reckless of me to act without this knowledge in the unfortunate case I worsen the situation for poor Alison.'

Cordelia furrowed her brows at the last thing she thought and came to a stop just before the wooden door, rubbing a hand against the front of her shirt at feeling the ache intensify and spread out to the further sides of her chest like plants stretching towards the sunlight.

'Though, I must admit I do feel guilty for leaving Alison in their hands. I am sure that after what happened with Julian, there should not be another dangerous situation that exceeds one such as that, yet I cannot help but empathise with her upcoming plight. I have struggled in vain to adapt to the follies of my invisible acquaintances one at a time for the last century and a half. Goodness knows how Alison will fare for a day. And then we have the Captain, who I do not doubt is going to cause Alison further distress on purpose to send her and her husband away for good…'

Cordelia sighed heavily and closed her eyes, flattening her palm against her chest through her shirt's material.

'I cannot help but wonder if I am taking the correct path. But I suppose I won't know for sure until tomorrow morn, will I? In the meantime, all I can do is wait out the storm that is inevitably going to brew.'

And perhaps she was just being paranoid and cautious because of previous events, Cordelia concluded; Surely, Alison could handle the ghostly antics of Button House's invisible inhabitants for a day…

… right?

For the remainder of the day, Cordelia stuck to her word and didn't leave the confines of her bedroom once and, surprisingly, went undisturbed by the other ghosts in the process. She didn't see hide nor hair of either them or Alison as daytime gradually blended into night, and that stayed so even when the Victorian ghost settled down to sleep, lying upon her back with her arms wrapped across her abdomen. It seemed that Cordelia's worries had been for naught, after all; perhaps Alison had more willpower against the stubborn and annoyingly persistent apparitional adversaries who were her acquaintances at best than she thought. Either way, alongside the mental drain brought on by today's events, it was enough to relax Cordelia's spectre body with a deep and loud inhale through her nose and exhale out of her mouth, her eyes closing at allowing the silence to submerge her senses and pull her into the unconscious void awaiting her underneath her eyelids.

Of course, as Cordelia expected, her doze did not last. Three loud and muffled chimes from the corridor outside of her bedroom roused her and yanked her straight back to the conscious world with three forced blinks, met with the sight of her moonlit bedroom ceiling and the darkness that lingered about her.

A tired groan escaped Cordelia's lips as she groggily rolled over onto her left side and bent her knees and arms as close to her body as she could muster, squeezing her eyes shut tightly in a desperate attempt to fall back into the clutches of sleep as soon as possible.

'Oh, I despair. Once again, I find myself at the mercy of Change and its cruel larks. To this day, I still cannot fathom how the mere arrival and presence of Lady Button over the last century has made a simple task such as sleeping so difficult for one such as myself!'

Before Fanny's death over a century ago, night-time at Button House was a peaceful affair for Cordelia. Instead of being woken up around the same time in the dead of night to the sounds of traumatised screaming and bone-cracking collisions with the ground outside of her window, she was lulled into slumber to the lullaby of hooting owls and occasional chirping crickets, noises of which she could still hear nowadays in the distance if she focused hard enough. She recalled how her ghostly body clock used to routinely follow her old schedule under her former employment at Button House, awakening her at 6o'clock in the morning and then having her slumber at 11o'clock in the evening on the dot; a full seven hours of undisturbed respite. But once Fanny came along, she spent the next century readjusting her routine, the disturbance at 3o'clock every morning forcing her to sleep-in an extra two hours to recuperate the time she lost settling down again.

And now, here she was again, being forced to adjust to yet another change in her sleeping schedule that she knew her ghostly being was going to take a while to adapt to.

'Hitherto, I have routinely awoken to the deathly screeches of an elderly Edwardian noblewoman enduring the trauma of her unfortunate demise upon these very grounds, often accompanied by the unsuspecting chimes of the grandfather clock residing outside of my sleeping quarters. Yet henceforth, despite consciously knowing I will not be greeted by Lady Button's distressed cries, still I am forced to bear the clock's chilling chimes as a reminder of what once was the custom.' Cordelia paused in her thoughts to bury the side of her face into the pillow and hunch her shoulders, a muffled huff sounding shortly after. 'Though, I will concede that it makes for a nice change to not be greeted by the dreaded sounds of a troubled ghost reliving their demise so late into the night.'

But no sooner had Cordelia allowed that comment to pass through her thoughts, a muffled and familiar high-pitched scream echoing close to the corridor where her bedroom was situated snapped her eyes open with a wide blink, sending an electrified jolt of adrenaline through her body and bringing life to her weary limbs.

"As I live and breathe!" Cordelia exclaimed as she shot up into a sitting position and whipped her head towards her bedroom door, a hand going straight for her chest the moment her (non-existent) pulse began to harshly pound from within. "What in Heaven's name is going on?!"

Unfortunately, the poor Victorian woman wasn't given at least a second to recover from her temporary scare. A single pair of unfamiliar footsteps pounded through the adjacent corridor, gradually accompanied by rough and heavy breathing when they entered Cordelia's corridor and approached her bedroom.

'What the deuce?!'

By the time the footsteps briefly stopped outside of her bedroom door, Cordelia was crawling to the edge of her bed and leaping to her feet without a second thought, instinctively backing up towards the far-right of the room to get as far away from the door as she could. She did not recognise the sounds of those footsteps, and in her weary-minded state, her imagination was already running wild with very outlandish explanations for what was happening—an unexpected emergency, a cruel prank, perhaps Robin coming to wake her up because of his over-excitement about something he had to tell to somebody (and yes, Robin actually did do that once related to his 'mouse family', as he affectionately called them; that was not a good night for Cordelia). Yet regardless of the outcome, Cordelia's blue eyes stayed trained on the wood of the bedroom door bathed in the faint streaks of moonlight, awaiting for the culprit causing the racket to phase through the door as she always expected them to.

Except they didn't.

The doorknob rattled. The door flung open. Then a pink and brown blur darted inside the room, slamming the door closed with a resounding bang and leaving Cordelia frozen in place, the spell only broken by the involuntary flinch she gave in response to a noise she never expected to hear.

The blonde-haired Victorian ghost stared dazedly and speechlessly at the doorway with repeated blinks, her mind struggling to comprehend what she had just witnessed. The shaky and ragged breathing of the newcomer, however, brought Cordelia's attention to the trembling brunette-haired woman pressing her back against the wood of the door, still dressed in the same outfit and the unfamiliar neckwear Cordelia had seen her wearing this morning underneath a pink dressing gown. But her identity wasn't confirmed for the Victorian woman until a solid thirty seconds passed and the woman dared to let her gaze wander about her current surroundings, her green eyes almost bulging from their sockets with the drop of her jaw the moment they locked with the wide blue eyes that belonged to Cordelia.

It was Alison.

Alison was in her bedroom.

A/N: And there you are, folks. You all know how old Cordelia is now biologically, and oh my gosh... that made me laugh. XD The Button House Archives revealed a lot of the ghosts actual biological ages, and much to my surprise, Kitty is actually a year older than Cordelia, with Thomas being seven, officially making Cordelia the biologically youngest of the ghosts. All of this was coincidental, of course, and yet it makes her sassy interactions with the rest of the group all the funnier (for me) at least. XD So, not only is Cordelia officially the shortest ghost of the cast, but she is now the biologically youngest to boot. Either way, ya'll know how old she was when she died, though she will be officially confirming her age at the end of the second episode as well. And then as for the cliffhanger at the end of the chapter... Well, I'll keep quiet on that one for now, I think. XD