Darcy bowed.
She offered him the least uncomfortable chair. He declined tea. He accepted a biscuit. He instantly regretted it.
The Misses Hartfield exchanged glances. Miss Lavinia attempted a comment about the weather.
“It is very bright,” she said, as if accusing it of ruining her complexion.
“Yes,” said Darcy.
A silence followed. The sort that made clocks tick louder and polite death seem like an appealing option.
Miss Eugenie cleared her throat. “Do you ride, Mr. Darcy?”
“Most gentlemen do.”
Another pause. This one came with a draft.
Mrs. Goulding leapt into the breach with heroic determination. “My nieces have always been fond of the country. Of course, Cheltenham is far more refined, but there is something so invigorating about Meryton in November, do you not find?”
Darcy considered several answers, most of them words a gentleman ought not utter before ladies. “It has been temperate.”
Miss Lavinia nodded with the determined zeal of a person who once ate a leaf and called it adventurous. “I enjoy temperate things.”
He nearly asked what that meant. He refrained.
There was a tray of embroidery between them, untouched.
A clock ticked.
Miss Eugenie picked up a book from the side table—halfheartedly, as if it had been planted there just for him to notice. “Have you read any novels lately, Mr. Darcy?”
“I do not often read novels. I prefer something with more weight and intelligence.”
“Oh.” She blinked. “I enjoy the gothic ones.”
He nodded. He could think of no suitable response to that.
“Some are very informative,” she added.
“Instructive,” corrected Lavinia.
“Quite.”
A brief pause followed. One of them shifted in her seat; the other adjusted a ribbon at her sleeve—rose-colored and slightly askew.
Darcy’s eye caught on it. The same hue Elizabeth had worn at Lucas Lodge.
For no reason he could name, the thought unsettled him.
He shifted slightly in his chair and said nothing.
In the corner, Mrs. Goulding began listing their acquaintances in London. He recognized none of them. That did not stop her.
At some point, a cat appeared and yawned at his boots.
He had been there less than a quarter hour.
Darcy stood.
