“I trust your mother employs adequately capable footmen who may inform them of where we may be found,” Lady Catherine sniffed. “It is not far.”
“But we shall still see one another a great deal,” Elizabeth said, patting her cousin on the shoulder. “I could hardly endure the marquess without your japes to make his company palatable.”
“Have a care, Lizzy,” Lady Catherine said archly. “Rebecca’s behavior will only render your own manners vastly more desirable in any gentleman’s estimation.”
Rebecca screwed up her face, fidgeted for a moment, and then turned away, leaving Elizabeth perplexed. She could not ask why Rebecca would pass up a chance to boast of her talent for repelling men in droves, for Jane came down to join them.
When Lady Catherine informed her that they would be removing to Lady Findlay’s house that afternoon, Jane’s shoulders sagged, but she nodded. “I suppose it would not be right to reside under the same roof as cousin Richard, now that he and I are courting in earnest.”
“Precisely,” Lady Catherine said, though Elizabeth knew that had little to do with it. Her mother would happily let Jane and Richard share a bedchamber if it brought their union about faster. No, she wished to separate Elizabeth from Mr. Darcy, but it was useless to protest. Elizabeth was cleverer than that.
“I hope I have enough space in my trunk for all the new gowns I have acquired. Perhaps you would help me pack, Rebecca?”
“Can you not ask a servant?” But when Rebecca looked up at Elizabeth, who was already on her feet, she raised a brow knowingly. “Oh, very well.” Rebecca stood, glanced down at her plate with longing, and then shoved an oat cake into her mouth before trailing after Elizabeth, grumbling through her mouthful of pastry.
Upstairs, Elizabeth hurled herself onto the bed and pressed a pillow to her face before letting out a very satisfying shriek of frustration. She put the pillow back in place, and gave it a thump of her fist for good measure. “Just when things are finally right between Mr. Darcy and I! She knows we are in love, and wishes to take me away from him because he is not up to her exacting standards.”
“In love! You have been acquainted three weeks,” Rebecca cried. “How can you be in love already? Were you not exceedingly cross with him for one of those three weeks?”
“Well, we are progressing expeditiouslytowardfalling in love, and that is quite the same thing – though I suppose that makes it a greater tragedy, for I fear we shall never quite getthere if we are torn apart like this.” Elizabeth fidgeted for a moment, and then gave her cousin a wicked look. “Although, I suppose there is another way….”
Rebecca returned her twinkle of mischief. “My dear cousin, there is always a way around one’s overbearing mother.”
“Will you help me?”
Rebecca flopped down on the bed beside her. “What, do you mean to meet with him in secret?”
Elizabeth needed only a moment to consider. “Absolutely! Indeed, I daresay it will be vastly romantic! His very name arouses such ardor in me – that he has been forbidden shall only make it sweeter – I am surprised Mamma does not realize this.”
Rebecca sat up and folded her knees into her chest as she gave Elizabeth an odd look. “I suppose if you require some reason to be often visiting Matlock House, you may claim the excuse of helping me with wedding planning.”
“What?” Elizabeth scrambled to sit up properly, but she leaned forward with interest. “Who is getting married? Has Rose had a proposal and not told me? The cheek of it!”
“No, Lizzy – it is me.”
“No!” Elizabeth tensed a little as she regarded her cousin. Rebecca had sworn never to marry; she jested about it constantly, and had always diverted Elizabeth with her glee in tormenting the opposite sex. “What happened?”
“I accepted a marriage proposal – that is generally what happens before one is required to plan a wedding, Lizzy.”
Elizabeth grabbed her cousin with both hands. “Who??”
Rebecca pursed her lips and gave Elizabeth a satirical smirk. “Lord Douglas – Oscar, I am to call him, now. If you have thought me wicked as the daughter of an earl, I shall be insufferable as a marchioness!”
“Lord Douglas! But, he is... I thought you said… the rumors about Rupert….”
“Which makes it all the more convenient for Oscar, I suppose. And it can be nothing to me; I should hardly want him inmybed.”
“But how? Why? I am all astonishment.” Elizabeth leaned back against the pillows, ready to hear her cousin’s shocking account.
“Well, Oscar Douglas may be debauched, and he may have his particular preferences – including an unaccountable fondness for my brother – but he is not a stupid man. He could see that you were not interested in becoming the lively bride who would distract society from his… singularities… and so he turned to another bold personality.”
“You danced with him twice at the ball,” Elizabeth said, considering that in a new light.
“Yes; he broached the subject of marriage during our second set. It was pleasantly unromantic. I did inform him that I must speak with you before my acceptance was final; I trust you have no objection?”
“Not at all, but it is kind of you to think of me. Rebecca, are you quite sure it is what you want?”
Rebecca shrugged her shoulders. “I should rather have a house of my own than live with my mother forever, and I have no wish to still be at home when the money runs out. Perhaps Oscar might even talk some sense into Rupert, and convince him to cease his profligate spending. He has already done enough damage that one of the daughters of this house must marry well, and it hardly seems fair that it should fall to Rose, who might really make a love match. I am not capable of that, I do not think, and so I shall be the sacrificial lamb on the altar of prudence.”
