Cousin Kate is a Regency romance novel by Georgette Heyer. The story is set in 1817 and 1818. Plot summary Kate Malvern is a beautiful orphan who is forced to become a governess when her father dies. However, due to her youth and beauty she loses the job and has to go to her old nurses' house whilst looking for a new position. Despite the fact that she is a lady she thinks of becoming a lady's dresser or opening her own shop and Sarah Nidd, her nurse, decides to take action. She writes to Lady Minerva Broome, Kate's half-aunt, who comes and takes her away to Staplewood. From Aunt Minerva's description, Kate imagines Staplewood to be a warm welcoming home whereas it turns out to be cold and uninviting. Although Aunt Minerva's husband, Sir Timothy, is the very opposite of the lady, he is an invalid and allows Lady Broome to do what she wishes. Soon after arriving in, Kate meets Torquil, the beautiful Broome heir. He is very temperamental and tells Kate how he would love to drown in a lake. Kate soon discovers Aunt Minerva to be controlling even to the point of always having Torquil watched. Everything in Staplewood is very formal, with Sir Timothy in one part of the house and Torquil in another. Soon she begins to notice strange things however. Torquil seems to be afraid of his mother and always does what she tells him. In the middle of a storm one night, Kate awakes and finds her door locked. Then she hears a man scream. When she asks her aunt the next morning Lady Broome is not able to give a satisfactory answer but merely replies she must have heard Torquil who is afraid of storms. Yet, the scream did not sound like Torquil, but rather more like a full grown man. Then Mr Phillip Broome arrives, Sir Timothy's beloved nephew. Yet Aunt Minerva seems to hate him and Torquil, before he comes hates and fears him, but when he sees Phillip is delighted to see him. Phillip immediately seems to take a dislike to Kate, though she does not know why, but after getting to know each other, Kate learns that his only reason for disliking her at first had to do with her Aunt. When Kate does not receive any letters from Mrs Nidd she becomes worried. She begins to