Chapter 1

Haru stared in surprise for a moment, looking at the scroll in the letterbox. Taking it out and unrolling it, Haru tried to decipher the pictograms of the Cat Kingdom while her other hand absently collected the other letters and her feet carried her back through the front door and into the kitchen.

Dumping the regular mail on the table in front of her mother, Haru sat down absently and continued staring at the hieroglyphic-like text. She recognised the symbol of the prince of the land from the last time she had received such a document from them. She really hoped that they weren't making her another offer, but that picture was in the middle of other "text", so it probably wasn't Lune offering his firstborn kitten's paw in marriage to her.

"Haru, who's B?" she heard her mother ask from the other side of a letter addressed to her.

"Baron!?" she almost yelped the name. Haru snatched the letter away and opened it, the scroll from the Cat Kingdom forgotten. Anything from the Baron left everything else by the wayside.

"Dear Haru," she paused, not getting any further than that opening line in the letter. He was a gentleman, how else would he being a letter? Nevertheless, he had called her Dear and her heart pounded. The young woman continued to read the letter silently.

He understood that Yuki and Lune had invited her to the christening of their first litter – which would explain the scroll – they had invited him too. He wanted to know if she would like to go with him… together. He and Toto would be waiting for her at the Crossroads come high noon, if she wanted to go with them.

Haru looked sharply at the clock. She had an hour to get ready and reach the Crossroads.

"Mum, I'm going to go out. I might be away overnight, okay?" Haru asked, eyeing her mother across the table.

"Only if you tell me who this Baron is," Naoko answered, an eyebrow raised high over the rim of her spectacles.

Haru sat back in her chair shyly. Wondering what she could tell her mother about the whole thing – when she had come back from the Cat Kingdom, she had told her mother she had been with a friend overnight and apologised for not calling. Now she had to either admit to lying about that, or come up with something else. Haru didn't like lying to her mother; it left her feeling a little dirty on the inside where she couldn't scrub.

"A guy," she said at last.

"I guessed that much," her mother answered. "Where do you know him from?"

"We kind of met by accident," Haru said, working her way through the truth to leave out the bits that would leave her mother thinking she was nuts. "A friend of mine introduced me to a friend of his, and then I met him we and started talking." Haru thought some more, trying to think of a way to get her mother to let her go. "He's a gentleman Mum, and he can make me waltz, properly so that I don't hurt five other people when I do it."

"You can go," Naoko said, impressed that anyone could take away the need for a nurse to be on hand when Haru walked onto the dance floor.

"Yes! Thanks Mum!" Haru said, leaping up from the table and bounding for the door. She had to change.

"But Haru," Naoko said, calling her daughter back from the stair. "You're not to let this gentleman sweet-talk you into being a harlot," she warned when Haru had stuck her head back into the door to listen.

"He wouldn't do that anyway Mum," Haru objected. "I'd be lucky to get more than a kiss on my hand from him I think," she added, leaving the kitchen behind again.

Haru was out the front door in half an hour, wearing her swimsuit underneath a simple green shirt and yellow skirt. She remembered that there was a lake in the Cat Kingdom, and the thought of going for a swim was appealing, since it was well into summer, and therefore quite warm. There was also a camera in her bag – with her towel and hairbrush. It would be nice to have a picture of all her friends in the Cat Kingdom.

Haru went via the park to get to the Crossroads. It was such a lovely day, she didn't think she would be able to bear walking through streets. She wanted to be surrounded by flowers and birds singing.

Passing the fountain in the centre of the park, Haru heard a tomtit singing its "willow-tit-willow" in a tree, and smiled sadly when it stopped singing to drink from the fountain.

"On a tree by a river, a little tomtit sang "willow-tit-willow-tit-willow", and I said to him: "Dicky-bird, why do you sit singing 'willow-tit-willow-tit-willow'? Is it weakness of intellect, birdie?" I cried, "Or a rather tough worm in your little inside?" With a shake of his poor little head he replied "Oh, willow-tit-willow-tit-willow"." Haru sang, remembering the sad song from the time her father had taken her to see The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan.

She left the park behind, nearly at the Crossroads, still singing that sad little song.

"He slapped at his chest as he sat on that bough, oh willow-tit-willow-tit-willow, and a cold perspiration bespangled his brow, oh willow-tit-willow-tit-willow. He sobbed and he sighed and a gurgle he gave, then he plunged himself into the billowy wave, and an echo arose from the suicide's grave: oh willow-tit-willow-tit-willow."

Checking her watch, Haru realised she had reached the Crossroads with a little extra time, so she sat down in front of the café where she had first met Muta and went on singing the last verse of the song.

"Now I feel just as sure as I'm sure that my name isn't willow-tit-willow-tit-willow, that was blighted affection that made him exclaim "oh willow-tit-willow-tit-willow" –"

"Now if you remain callous and obdurate I shall perish as he did, and you will know why, though I probably shall not exclaim as I die "oh willow-tit-willow-tit-willow"." A male voice interrupted her singing, but she sang the final willow-tit-willow-tit-willow anyway, searching for the fine tenor that had taken over the last line of the song.

A crow landed on the back of the chair beside Haru. It was Toto, with Baron on his back. They were both smiling.

"You have a lovely voice, Miss Haru, but why such a sad song?" asked the crow, tilting his black head as he looked at her.

"I heard a tomtit singing as I walked through the park on my way here… Um, did you see who was singing just then?" she enquired, shy.

"That was me," answered the gentleman cat. "How are you Miss Haru?"

"Very well, thank you, and yourself?" Why, Haru wondered, did the conversation feel stifled? Perhaps it had something to do with their parting words and that last line about dying without love…

"Quite tolerable," answered Baron. "Shall we be going then?"

Haru nodded, picked up her bag and followed the stone bird and wooden cat through town until they reached the Bureau, where a portal into the Cat Kingdom awaited them.