“She is twenty as of last month,” he said slowly—a curse on his soul that he even knew that about her without having to be told. “She is of a good family and well-educated. She speaks multiple languages, claims to play chess as well as whist, and is—”
Bennet held up a hand. “My dear Darcy, I do not need her qualifications for a governess. I need to know if she is tolerable company.”
Darcy stopped short.
Tolerable company.
A question for which he had no ready answer.
“I—” He cleared his throat. “She is… independent-minded.”
Bennet looked delighted. “That is to say, impossible.”
Darcy scowled. “She is well-bred, if occasionally prone to—” He hesitated. “Vexation.”
Bennet grinned. “Ah. A young lady with opinions. You know, I have an entire household of those.”
“I had noticed.”
“Well…” Bennet mused, tapping his fingers against the arm of his chair. “I suppose my Jane could do with a companion. If the lady is amiable.”
Darcy hesitated. “I—”
He considered Lady Elizabeth Montclair’s quick temper, her stubbornness, her ability to argue in three languages.
And yet—he had seen flashes of warmth in her. More than he cared to recall at this moment. He had seen the way she worried for her maid, how she had taken note of Georgiana’s discomfort.
It was not amiability… exactly. But it was something.
“She will make do,” he said at last.
“And her name?”
Darcy swallowed. “I am afraid, sir, the only name I can give you by which you may call her is ‘Elizabeth.’”
“Elizabeth. Hmm.” Bennet shrugged. “Very well, then. I shall inform my household that we are expecting my uncle Daniel Bennet’s daughter for the summer.”
Darcy narrowed his eyes. “And is this Daniel Bennet a real person?”
“Oh, yes.” Bennet waved a hand airily. “A distant cousin, several times removed.Hisson might have been my heir, if he had one—alas, he did not. The last I heard, he was in America growing tobacco.”
Darcy’s jaw clenched. “And your wife is unaware of this fact?”
“She is unaware of many things, sir, and I prefer it that way.”
Darcy exhaled slowly. It would have to do.
He stood. “The lady is waiting for me in Meryton. I shall retrieve her at once.”
Bennet gave him a pleasant smile. “Do be careful. You look rather peevish today, and I do hate when people frighten my carriage horses.”
Darcy ignored him and left.
ThevillageofMerytonwas a most charming place indeed.
Elizabeth swayed slightly as she took another handful of warm, salted nuts from the paper cone in her hands, nibbling thoughtfully as she peered into the window of a milliner’s shop. Inside, an array of modest but well-made bonnets sat prettily on display.
She rather liked bonnets.
