Lady Susan was made after the same model, elegantly dressed even after a three hour carriage ride, lovely and impeccable in a traveling dress that wrapped around her perfectly, with high cheekbones and a dismissive gaze. She was universally acknowledged as one of the best dressed women in theton, though she also was rather silly about matters unfashionable.
Hartwood and his wife made a happy pair, with three children, and they always overran Hartwood’s allowance by a little due to their joint expenses on clothing.
“My lady,” Hartwood said to Elizabeth, making a florid bow before Darcy could begin the introductions. “Creature of beauty, delightful angel — the one who has captured my dear cousin’s soul! I am delighted to meet you, we have heard so little about you that I feel as though I will only come to know you through conversation and actually meeting you, which is less poetic by far than if my soul simply understood yours — and I suppose I ought to have let Darcy introduce us before introducing myself.”
Lady Susan came up, to curtsy and be introduced toElizabeth, but it was exactly as Darcy had imagined. Lady Susan’s eyes studied Elizabeth and judged her clothes and her appearance and her manners, and the way she held herself decreed that she found Elizabeth to not quite the crack, and nothing out of the common way.
And then, Hartwood’s six year old daughter, Julia, tilted out from behind Georgiana’s skirts and exclaimed, “Is she the fortune hunter?”
Lady Susan held her hands to both sides of her face dramatically, though Darcy could tell she was not actually blushing. “No, no, no, dearie. Don’t say such things.”
Georgiana frowned at Julia. “Elizabeth is very nice.”
“I heard you married Uncle Fitzy because he was so very, very rich!”
Darcy hardly dared to glance at Elizabeth, to see how she took this. She was suppressing a smile, and her eyes were crinkling in amusement.
He began to relax and tried to figure out what he could say to the children that would not be overbearing, but would clearly deliver the message that such things should not be said or believed, in a way that a six year old might respect.
In truth, Darcy had no sense of what six year olds respected.
Julia asked Elizabeth again, “Was it because you married Uncle Fitzy?”
“You call him Uncle Fitzy?”
“La! I do!” the little girl said quickly. “Because his first name is Fitzwilliam, even though he doesn’t use it, and my last name is Fitzwilliam, and we are all Fitzwilliams, and when you have a child are you going to call him Fitzwilliam?”
“No,” Darcy said firmly. “If we have a son, he will be Bennet, and if we have a daughter, she will be Anne.”
Elizabeth looked at him with surprise. “Your mother’sname?”
“And your father’s.”
She frowned, sparks of something going through her face. “You need not honor him so far, not for my sake.”
“It is our tradition.”
“And then I’d call him Uncle Benny!” Julia hopped up and down.
“No,” Elizabeth replied, grinning at the child, “he would be Cousin Benny.”
“Oh. Oh, right.” Julia paused.
“Do you like to throw snowballs?” Elizabeth asked the girl seriously.
“Oh, very much.” She glanced at her mother. “I mean no, it is not very ladylike.” And then Julia said in a perfect imitation of the tone of the most distinguished member of Almack’s, “It is not the done thing.”
“That is too bad, because I love to throw snowballs very much,” Elizabeth replied. “And there is so much snow all about here.”
The whole party hurried into Pemberley to get out of the cold. Julia followed Elizabeth and Georgiana, while Lady Susan stepped next to Darcy, and said, “Itoldyou to send her to Madame Genevieve’s. If this is how she looks during the season, Lady Thorne and Mrs. Booke will laugh, and laugh, and laugh at me.”
“She is only your cousin,” Darcy replied coldly.
“I always make our dear Georgiana dress so well —shelistens. When she comes out, she’ll be a credit to us all, and—”
“For my part, I am not pleased,” Darcy took her arm and slowed her to let the rest of the party tramp towards the drawing room ahead of them, “that it seems your daughter thinks that the correct way to refer to my wife is as ‘the fortune hunter’.”
“Oh that.” Lady Susan laughed and flapped her hand. Shedid not bother to fake embarrassment for him alone. “It does show why she must dress very well. Then everyone else will see that there is nothing to the rumors. Besides, she has an eccentric sort of beauty that might be polished by themodiste’sart.”
