The next morning when Lord Matlock arrived with his wife, his heir, and his heir’s wife, Elizabeth quickly decided that she liked the older gentleman. He was bluff and friendly, and quick witted while serious.
She understood more of Colonel Fitzwilliam’s manner from him.
Lady Matlock had a more skeptical attitude towards her, and Elizabeth rather suspected that she would have received most pointed questions from that woman if Darcy had not been present and already known to fiercely defend her.
The viscount and his wife were clearly of the fashionable set, and at one point his wife offhandedly said that Elizabeth’s dress was stylish but not made quite to the present mode.
Elizabeth said, “I have had many dresses made in the towns about here, to supplement the few that I had made in London.”
“Oh, but all of the best dressmakers are in London!” The viscount’s wife, Lady Cecelia said, “Surely Mr. Darcy gave you enough pin money for that.”
From the way that both Lord and Lady Matlock immediately looked towards Darcy when their daughter-in-law said that, Elizabeth was even more confident that he had made something in the nature of a threat to ensure good behavior. Elizabeth made a point of looking at Darcy with a smile and saying, “Oh, you cannot blame Mr. Darcy in this—hepositively encouraged me to go shopping—but I was not yet quite ready to go on a great shopping expedition. It takes time, you know, to do properly. And I was quite busy in London. But I have made a virtue of this by buying from the local dressmakers and praising them. I have received a great many pieces, and some local friendship.”
“Yes, but to really be fashionable,” Lady Cecelia insisted, “one must always buy from London.”
Lord Matlock put a hand on his daughter-in-law’s shoulder and said, “Yes, yes dear, but—”
“I am not insulting Mrs. Darcy. Everyone knowsthat. Oh, I so wish that I could go to Paris every year, like everyone did before that awful revolution. Even today, the Parisians are so much more fashionable thanweare. You can see it in every magazine or fashion plate that is smuggled in.”
“Do cease to worry,” Elizabeth grinned at them. “I have made Mr. Darcy promise to only become angry at his relations on my account ifIgive him leave to do so first. You see, I had made him promise before I agreed to marry him that he would see to it that I was treated with respect. I have seen the pain it can cause someone to be treated poorly by the family they married into. But I do not worry about that at present, and my sense of honor is not nearly so prickly as that of my delightful husband. I beg you to speak a little more freely—we are family, and I cannot stand too great formality amongst family.”
“Humph,” Lord Matlock said. “That is hardly how we usually do it.”
“Might I ask, what is Lady Catherine ordinarily like—” Elizabeth said. She shrugged. “I am most curious. The one time I met her was under extraordinary circumstances.”
“Confident. She always is extremely confident in all her opinions,” Lady Matlock said. “And yet, somehow, even more confident than that.”
Elizabeth laughed. “I hope matters will one day be patched with her. From that description I rather think I would enjoy the acquaintance.”
“I wish,” Lady Matlock said, looking towards her own husband with what Elizabeth thought was amusement, “you to have all the joy I have in the connection, and more.”
Lord Matlock smiled at his lady. “I confess my sister can be difficult, but we do love her. I hope to convince her to offer an apology—might I write to tell her that you said so much? I think she would not be opposed to reconciliation. Even she knows that while one might tilt against the windmills, charging the tides themselves is without purpose.”
“By which you mean to say,” Elizabeth said, “that she will have a natural curiosity as to how Mrs. Darcy manages the kitchens and staff. Even though, of course, the bearer of that title is wholly unworthy to it, and far inferior to the candidate that she had proposed.”
Lady Matlock laughed, and Lord Matlock’s grin widened. “I dare say,” he said, “that I shall like you.”
“That is my hope,” Elizabeth said. She looked up at her husband’s face to make sure that he was not unhappy with the course of conversation, though she could feel from how he held himself on the sofa next to her that he was by no means tense.
He was smiling. “I of courseexpectedthat all my family would come to like you. You are likeable, after all.”
Georgiana had an expression of anxiety, as she knew that they would come to talk about her in time.
“But do freely ask any questions you might have about our marriage,” Elizabeth said with a smile. “I had several inducements to matrimony—but I think that if he had not loved my children already, none of that would have mattered. I assure you that I amnota fortune hunter, because first I did not hunt for it, and second—”
“Oh, Richard told us all aboutthat,” Lord Matlock said.
Elizabeth laughed. “Is he the most suspicious of your children?”
“The most pragmatic,” Colonel Fitzwilliam said for himself.
“Well then. Let me just say, I am delighted to be married to your nephew due to his character, his loveliness with my children, and his, ah—general delightfulness.”
Elizabeth looked at Darcy with a mischievous smile that made him chuckle.
“Darcy laughing! In company?” Lady Matlock said. “A miracle truly has happened. And what doyouhave to say about why you married her? How did it all come about?”
“Elizabeth is an excellent creature, and I am blessed beyond measure that she accepted my offer. That is my true opinion.”
