Do you think Katy Carr was pregnant at the end of the "What Katy Did" series?

[SlothBear]

Of course she was Katy Worthington then.

I always felt a bit sad by the end of In the High Valley when Clover and Elsie had children, and virtually the whole of the family except Katy were settled down in the valley together, and Katy still didn't have any children despite having been married for about eight years because Ned keeps buggering off to China.

But I just reread ITHV, and noticed this at the end -

***

"Katy," cried Clover, looking at her sister with eyes that seemed to drink her in, "I had forgotten quite how dear you are! it seems to me that you have grown handsome, my child; or is it only that you are a little fatter?"

"I am afraid the latter," replied Katy, with a laugh. "No one but Ned was ever so deluded as to call me handsome."

     <strong>*</strong><strong>*</strong><strong>*</strong><strong>*</strong><strong>*</strong><strong>*</strong><strong>*</strong><strong>*</strong><strong>*</strong><strong>*</strong><strong>*</strong><strong>*</strong><strong>*</strong><strong>*</strong><strong>*</strong><strong>*</strong><strong>*</strong>

Sooo... do you think that "a little fatter" could be Victorian speak for pregnant, or is it wishful thinking on my part? It just seems odd that the author would have left Katy childless at the end of the series when she was so great with children...

(If you don't know Clover and In the High Valley they are available on Amazon, and free / cheap on Kindle. I thought the series ended with "What Katy did next" for ages, because the last two books aren't well known. Interesting article here cassandraparkin.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/adventures-in-trash-clover-and-in-the-high-valley-by-susan-coolidge-possibly/ )

I think most girls would have grown out of them by then

My local library was small. My book budget also small. Any book that I owned got re-read multiple times, even after I was "too old".

So I could easily write that I read these books in my teens, when I meant that I read them repeatedly between 10 and 16, or whatever. I most recently read them in my teens.

(that's not actually true, I most recently read them last year when I discovered that the lat two existed and that I could get them all free on my Kindle)

I'm afraid I thought not, about her being pregnant. I think it would have been referred to in a different, less vulgar way, than 'fatter'

Nine little Goslings is another connected to the Katy books. Probably available on Kindle for free now, though mine cost a fortune years ago

I think there's a reason the latter two books, Clover and In the High Valley, weren't so readily available. They're not a patch on the first three.

'Fat' was also often used in a complimentary way. Fat babies and so on, it also denoted good health.