Lady Catherine swatted at her, pressing her lips together as she did when she did not want to admit Elizabeth’s humor had softened her strictures. “Tease me all you like my dear, at least I am sensible of your worth! I hope you shall learn to be,for you and Jane are the finest girls in England! So pretty, so accomplished, and each of you with your own style of charm. Some may prefer Jane’s gentleness and serenity, and others may appreciate your lively wit. But you both certainly deserve the very best. I promised Fanny, all those years ago.”
Elizabeth squeezed her mother’s hand for a moment. “You have already done so much. Jane and I are very happy, in our own different ways, to be in London – to content ourselves with family as well as to meet so many new people. But on only the second evening of our time here, surely we need not quarrel over anything serious. I only wish to meet new people and have interesting conversations.”
“I suppose it is all a part of your moving more in the world, as you ought to do.” Lady Catherine let the matter rest after this, and she had taken up a game of cards with Rebecca and the dowager countess by the time the gentlemen entered the room. She at once bid Rupert to join them, repeating her request as he moved directly to Jane, and then louder a third time, until he obliged her. Content to see Jane left with Richard while Rose assumed the pianoforte and Mr. Bingley turned the pages for her, Lady Catherine discreetly watched Elizabeth resume her conversation with Mr. Darcy.
Elizabeth did her best not to be bothered by this. She could hardly do otherwise than speak with him, when everybody else was occupied. And really, though the earl had said but little directly to her at supper, he stared at her from the card table in a far more distressing manner than her mother did, and Elizabeth could hardly lament the companion she found herself partnered with.
When Rose quit the instrument, Mr. Darcy expressed a wish to hear Elizabeth play. He could be no less gallant than his friend, and he remained at the instrument to turn the pages for her, though she selected a song she knew well.
“I shall warn you that I am not as fine a performer as my sister and cousins.” Elizabeth ran her fingers over the keys, plucking out something jaunty before she began to play properly. Despite this, she acquitted herself well enough, making up for what was lacking in proficiency with what Mr. Darcy commended as exquisite feeling.
“I could listen to you all evening, Miss Elizabeth.”
“I shall certainly not punish our companions in such a dismal way,” Elizabeth quipped, surveying the room as she reverted to idly plucking at the instrument. “Jane is the musician of the family, she and our cousin Georgiana.”
“You have said you prefer painting,” Mr. Darcy said, and Elizabeth was gratified that he remembered.
“Yes, when I have the patience to sit still and apply myself. Mamma calls my paintings very modern, which is a generous way of saying that I make hasty swirls of color rather than dignified attempts at detail and accuracy.”
“Those merits you save for your powers of observation; it is a fine thing she has brought you amongst environs where you might apply such talents as often as you choose.”
“Oh, yes,” Elizabeth agreed with a smirk. “I shall begin directly.” She studied him with mock scrutiny.
He leveled an imperturbable gaze at her. “I am not afraid of you.”
She grinned. “I would not have you so, Mr. Darcy; I should much rather you remain in my thrall as you seem to be. I am glad you comprehend me so well. Shall we resume our study of these fine specimens of human folly? There is one in our midst we have not had the liberty of discussing at leisure – does the earl not make a fascinating case?”
Whatever they said of the earl was no better than he had deserved, and Elizabeth thought it a mark of how truly she felta part of the family that she could make sport of her lecherous cousin; it was just the sort of banter she liked. She was in absolute agreement with Rebecca that they were an assortment of characters in considerable possession of follies and foibles enough to delight her at leisure. Happily, Mr. Darcy proved an ideal companion for being carried off by the levity her kin inspired, and yet treating their subjects with a satirical sort of gravity that led to a stimulating discussion of human nature in all its flawed and fantastic glory.
As impressed as she was with his turn of mind, Elizabeth was confident that she inspired the same impression in Mr. Darcy, for he gave every sign of being as desirous of furthering their intimacy as she had been since the moment she learned his name.
Content as Elizabeth might have been to pass every night in London so agreeably engaged, Lady Catherine could not be satisfied with their household set for long. Over the next few days, she and her daughters paid morning calls all over Mayfair. Lady Catherine’s circle of acquaintance was large, and varied in affability if not in quality, for she associated exclusively with the wealthy and titled of the ton. She was singularly adept at maneuvering them all, and she procured enough praise of her wards and invitations to dinners and parties that she ended their first week in London exhausted but smug with the triumph of securing her girls so many grand introductions.
She had grand plans for her daughters, and they seemed to inflate with each passing day. She was sure that both her girls could find a titled husband with fortune, connection, and property, and she resolved that they must be spoiled for choice.
Elizabeth bore it all with far more amusement than she had anticipated, and she had already expected the ordeal of being paraded through the great drawing rooms of the first families to be excessively entertaining. She was nearlyas mortified as her sister at all the praise Lady Catherine demanded on their behalf, but she was compensated with ample sources of amusement as she met all manner of simpering swains, matchmaking matrons, and preening heiresses. A few she wished to know better, and a great many strained her efforts of keeping a civil countenance, but she liked them all for their ability to hold her interest as she studied them.
Any discomfort was more than compensated by providing her ample fodder to discuss with Mr. Darcy in the afternoons, when the ladies returned from their calls and then walked in the park or explored galleries and museums with their companions from Matlock House. And each night before bed, Elizabeth began to fill the pages of her diary with a fantastical recounting of all she had seen and heard – as well as the wondrous feelings that had begun to stir in her heart.
Chapter Four
Every day for the last week, Bingley’s sister had called at Matlock House. On each occasion, the family had always been fortunate to be away from home, but eventually their luck ran out. Caroline was something of a joke amongst the gentlemen, for her brother was rather afraid of her, but William and Richard comprehended her well enough to find her amusing.
She was not a humorous creature, but generally those without any sense of humor are the most worthy of being laughed at; the dignity and audacity of this tradesman’s daughter were laughable indeed. William had the good fortune of being seated beside Elizabeth during Miss Bingley’s visit, and the pair managed to communicate discreetly, sharing private looks that spoke their complete agreement in their assessment of this unwanted visitor. Elizabeth radiated such sheer glee that William was actually pleased when the dowager countess graciously accepted the invitation for the residents of Matlock House to dine with the Hursts the following evening.
The Hursts had a fashionable house in Portman Square, though their dining room was a little cramped with so many guests. They invited a few extra gentlemen to round out thenumbers, and William was dismayed to find Lady Catherine so pleased with the selection of beaux for her daughters.
“I never supposed Miss Bingley to be so clever,” Richard said to him, lingering near the back of the parlor as Elizabeth and her sister were paraded about the room by their mother and their fawning hostess. “She has ingratiated herself quite thoroughly with my aunt.”
“Yes, but not with your mother,” William quipped. “The dowager countess knows Miss Bingley has been after you for years – or rather, after Pemberley. Your mother is far too pleased by how vigorously you have been falling at Miss Bennet’s feet this last week; she will see that Miss Bingley means to push your fair lady at one of these great coxcombs and clear her own path to you, poor chap. I should offer to be of service, but I have my own worries.”
William furrowed his brow as he watched Elizabeth speak with his own longtime friend, Sir Rolland Moore. She laughed at something that was said, and Sir Rolland looked pointedly at William, mouthing, “Darcy?” William knew Sir Rolland was secretly pledged to his cousin, Miss Delphinia Darrow, but it appeared his old friend was keen to needle him. He grimaced.
“On the contrary, my good fellow; Mother may be relieved that at last she has found a young lady of fortune to take Rupert off her hands.”
Together they watched as Miss Bingley simpered and smiled at the drunken earl, who could not possibly be saying anything pleasing, given the state of him. He was capable of praising a woman only in a very particular way, which no gently bred girl could possibly wish to hear – but then, Caroline Bingley was no gentlewoman.
Happily, she had always ignored William completely, for in company with her there was generally some greater prizeto command her calculating attentions, and tonight was no different. She seated him in the center of the table, deeming him not important enough to be nearer the host or hostess. Since Elizabeth was similarly slighted, William could hardly repine his own insignificance.
