Kitty Freebody

**Katherine** “Kitty” **Freebody** is a main character in the Murder Most Unladylike series, and one of the only rapports of Daisy Wells, Hazel Wong and Rebecca Martineau, nickname ’Beanie’, and Lavinia Temple.

## Kitty Freebody

### Alias(es)

Kitty (by everyone)
Freebody Major (by Deepdean mistresses)
Detective Freebody (by Daisy)
Assistant Freebody (by Daisy)
Perfect Kitty (by Binny)

## Traits

### Age

13 (Murder Most Unladylike)
14 (Arsenic for Tea, Jolly Foul Play)
15 (Top Marks for Murder, Death Sets Sail)

## Personal Status

### Marital status

Previously in a relationship with a boy called Hugo

### Friend(s)

Daisy Wells
Hazel Wong
Beanie Martineau
Lavinia Temple

## Personality

Kitty is seldom seen to be tranquil or to smile, and she trusts her four friends, but she can be standoffish, mocking, has the characteristics of an adolescent, which she is, and she is in a hurry to grow up. Despite this, she is intelligent and far more mature than the adults, who do illicit things in clandestine, and after

Arsenic for Tea, when she joined the Detective Society, she began taking detecting very seriously. She loves gossip, cares about dorm pride, and is good at sports-the typical Deepdean pupil.

## Appearance

Kitty is described as having smooth, light brown hair (said in Arsenic for Tea to be very thick) and masses of freckles. According to Beanie, she is very pretty. She uses eyelash curlers and cares about fashion. According to Daisy, she has no upper body strength.

## Childhood

Kitty was born during 1921, probably in Belgravia. A year later, a younger sister, Binny, was born (Kitty claimed to having tried to 'bump her off' plenty of times when she was a baby), and when she was fifteen her mother revealed she was pregnant again. At the end of Death Sets Sail Mrs Freebody is in hospital waiting to give birth, although it is unknown if the baby survived or not, and if it was a boy or a girl. Kitty lives in 'a big white house in a place called Belgravia...the colour of cream lace. It has three floors and a basement, which is where the kitchens are, and a garden behind it with a shed and lots of trees...Behind the garden is a lane, and behind that are more gardens and houses.' The house is staffed by a maid called Louise who is described by Beanie as 'a proper grown up,' and Mrs Summerscale, a disagreeable cook who thinks the Freebodys are far too lax with their children. According to Hazel, Kitty's father is 'middlingly rich.' Kitty joined Deepdean at the age of eleven, and was originally friends with Clementine, until they had a big argument. She became friends with Beanie, and, halfway through their second year, Hazel arrived.

## Storylines

### Murder Most Unladylike

Kitty is introduced as 'a Friend of the Detective Society, though she is still not allowed to know about it.' When Daisy and Hazel missed dinner, she, Beanie and Lavinia made their debut coming in and questioning where the girls had been. When Miss Bell didn't show up at assembly, Kitty assumed she and Miss Griffin were going to enter together to announce she had got the Deputy Headmistress job, and was surprised when this turned out not to be the case. Kitty was also present at Daisy and Hazel's midnight feast/seance, and she was the one who directly communicated with 'Miss Bell's spirit.' According to Hazel, she always liked to be the one to make contact with The Other Side. She soon spread rumours about Miss Bell's murder after the seance. Hazel also mentioned that Kitty once created a secret society dedicated to the worship of Mr Reid, 'The One.'

### Arsenic for Tea

Hazel mentioned at the beginning that the Detective Society had investigated The Case of the Frog in Kitty's Bed during the spring term at Deepdean. Kitty and Beanie arrive at Daisy's house, Fallingford, for Daisy's birthday in the Easter holidays. Kitty goggled at Uncle Felix, and got 'quite giddy' when he kissed her hand. She also thought Mr Curtis very handsome. When they played Hide and Seek, Kitty and Beanie found that Daisy and Hazel had broken their word and were hiding on a lower floor. She was at the fatal tea party, and, when Daisy and Hazel decided to let her and Beanie into the Detective Society, she revealed that they had known about it for months but did not take it seriously. She joined in the investigation and proved herself a rather clever detective, challenging Daisy's leadership and contributing to the detection. She suggested Aunt Saskia as a suspect, the motive being her kleptomania and desire for Mr Curtis' gold watch.She was not, however, part of the final denoument.

### First Class Murder

Kitty is present at the very start of First Class Murder, when Hazel's father arrives to take Daisy and Hazel on holiday. She makes a comment about Elizabeth being chosen as Head Girl, and tells Hazel her father has an 'awfully nice car.'

### Jolly Foul Play

After the murder, at toothbrushes, Kitty elbowed Beanie and was winking at the others in the mirror. That night, in their dorm, Kitty told Daisy and Hazel that if they were going to be detectives again, she and Beanie should be too, and that it wasn't fair otherwise. At their first Detective Society meeting, she stated that Elizabeth died on the sports field, and was hit on the head by a rake. She questioned Daisy about her guesswork and '(proved) herself a rather smart detective.' Throughout the book, she helped them solve the case, despite losing track of the suspect she was supposed to be trailing and going into raptures over Lettice's coming-out dress. When the Detective Society searched the Five's dorm, she found a photograph of Una's grandparents, and Daisy pointed out that there was a menorah behind them, showing they were Jewish-and since Una was German, this was a crime. When Binny disappeared, Kitty was distraught but tried to hide it, and when they found her, the first thing she did was give her a hug. Hazel saw a tear on her cheek, but decided not to mention it, as Kitty would never forgive her if she did.

### Cream Buns and Crime

Kitty is present in The Case of Lavinia's Missing Tie (in which she tells Lavinia that she thinks she is stupid), The Case of the Blue Violet (in which she correctly identifies from the look on Daisy and Hazel's faces that they have solved a mystery), The Case of the Deepdean Vampire (in which she disbelieved Clementine's gossip about Camilla's undead status, and told a ghost story about a haunted doll who killed a girl), and primarily The Mystery of the Missing Bunbreak, in which she and Beanie replace Daisy and Hazel as the main detectives. Beanie and Kitty are spending the holidays at her house in Belgravia, along with Mr and Mrs Freebody and Binny, when food mysteriously begins to go missing from the kitchen. Mrs Summerscale, the cook, thinks Binny is to blame, but Kitty and Beanie suspect there may be something else going on - and when they stumble upon someone's hideout in the shed, they know there is. In the end, it is Beanie who solves the case, realising that the thief is Lavinia, who had run away from home and was camping out in the garden, too nervous to go round the front and ring the doorbell, in case she was turned away.

### Death in the Spotlight

At the very end of Death in the Spotlight, Daisy and Hazel telephone their friends back at Deepdean. Kitty tells them school has been awfully dull without them, and that when they get back, they'll try to 'arrange a nice murder' to welcome Daisy and Hazel back to school. When Matron tells them to get off the phone, Kitty hisses '*Detective Society Forever!*' and hangs up.

### Top Marks for Murder

Kitty, Beanie and Lavinia come rushing up to Daisy and Hazel when they get back to Deepdean, and hug them. Hazel states that Kitty smells of contraband perfume. Kitty tells Daisy and Hazel about her new boyfriend ('I met him at a dance during the Easter hols! His name is Hugo. *Don't* tell Binny.'), about the new girl ('Her name is Amina, and she's terribly glamorous. I wish my hair looked like hers!'), and tells them that they have changed, as Hazel was telling Daisy what to do. During dinner, Kitty wouldn't stop talking about Amina, which made Daisy very cross and jealous. Kitty helped investigate the murder, screaming when she trod on a dead mouse skeleton on their trip to the woods, thinking it was human bones, and identifying that the hat they found was the latest Parisian fashion, showing the victim had recently been to Paris, but discovers something very upsetting about her parents: they are having another baby. Kitty is disgusted at this, saying that at thirty-three her mother is far too old for children, and lamenting the thought of another Binny. Hazel sympathises with her, having discovered exactly the same thing in the spring in Hong Kong with her new brother Teddy. When Beanie's father tells the girls that Beanie's mother is terminally ill, Kitty, distraught for her best friend, basically calls Mr Martineau a liar to his face. Hazel waits for him to put her in her place, but he just sighs. When Mrs Freebody comes up with the perfect plan to save the school-spreading a rumour that Princess Elizabeth was going to start as a pupil in the autumn-Kitty tells her it's genius (later admitting her mother would have been an excellent detective when she was younger) and promises to forgive her about the baby.

### Death Sets Sail

Kitty, Beanie and Lavinia visit Fallingford at the end of Death Sets Sail, after Daisy's 'death.' Kitty is excited to meet Alexander and George at last, and Hazel thinks it is very unfair that she is able to think of anything but Daisy. At lunch, Kitty chattered charmingly to Alexander, but he was barely responsive and when she turned to George, he was busy talking to Lavinia about communism and falling in love with her. When Mrs Doherty lost her brooch, Kitty was the only one who didn't join in the hunt for it, claiming it was 'childish.' She read a fashion magazine instead. When Hazel asked what was wrong, and if it was the baby, Kitty denied this, but when Hazel asked if it was 'boys', Kitty questioned how Lavinia, who she claimed had bushy eyebrows and an unflattering figure, managed to get herself a boyfriend in two hours. Whereas it took her months to get Hugo and, the previous week, he had 'jilted' her, and she said now nobody would even look at her. She confessed to having taken the brooch, thinking if she wore it she would be noticed by Alexander, but realised he only had eyes for Hazel.

## Trivia

* She lives in Belgravia, London
* Like her father, she enjoys trifle, whilst Binny and her mother do not
* She thought Alexander was handsome after seeing his photograph, but realised he was in love with Hazel
* She apparently is skilled at typing, as she typed up Beanie's story, *The Mystery of the Missing Bunbreak*
* She was born in 1921, as, at Christmas 1936, she made a comment to the Detective Society about them being 'almost sixteen,' implying she herself was still fifteen
* Interestingly, Kitty appears to be Daisy's 'replacement best friend,' as it is always Kitty who Daisy hangs out with to make Hazel jealous when they have a fight (like in Murder Most Unladylike and Jolly Foul Play). This suggests that Daisy likes her the most out of her, Beanie and Lavinia