Lydia bound from her seat and rushed to the officers. She grabbed Wickham’s hand, but he said, “As much as you delight me, I wish to take a walk in the garden with your sister.”
Insulted, Lydia pursed her lips and stomped to her chair, pointedly sulking her displeasure over Lizzy monopolising the attention she deserved for being the livelier Bennet daughter. Lydia watched through narrowed eyes as Wickham led Lizzy from the drawing room.
MrWickham gallantly offered Miss Elizabeth his arm. “Miss Lydia does not seem pleased with you at the moment!”
Elizabeth laughed. “Lydia is at that trying age where if the attention is not on her, then she is displeased with everyone.”
“Ah! I am sure she shall grow out of it.”
She smiled up at him. “I am sure she shall.”
He grinned, an action that should make her weak at the knees. Instead infuriatingly MrDarcy’s face crept up in her mind, the vision smiled as Lizzy recalled that MrDarcy had dimples. “Is Colonel Forster keeping you busy?”
“You cannot know how gruelling it is to wake up while it is still dark and toil all day when one is meant to have a more sedate life. I am certain that the employment of the church would have been a good life for me.”
She frowned. “Are you sure you cannot seek legal redress?”
They strolled around a bend in the path that bordered what would be a bed of roses in the summertime. He led her to a bench against the wall of a modest folly. “I am not built for confrontation, Miss Bennet, nor do I have the funds to fight against men of Darcy’s calibre.”
“I sympathise.” She sighed. “I could help you gain your living?”
“No, Miss Bennet. Save your funds for you and your sisters.”
Again, Elizabeth was impressed by her new friend’s equanimity. “I could not be as forbearing as you in the same circumstance.”
“I understand you are for Hunsford in a few weeks?”
“I am indeed,” she said. “I am invited by my good friend Charlotte to visit her and my cousin, her husband, MrCollins.”
“The vicar under Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s patronage?”
“Quite so.”
In the weeks to follow, Mr Wickham visited Longbourn often, particularly Elizabeth, a situation that vexed Lydia and perplexed Elizabeth.
Darcy spent the intervening months in London brooding over a pair of fine eyes in the face of the handsomest woman of his acquaintance. Even with his cousin Wessington tied to the Bennet family, Darcy could not countenance the thought of MrsBennet as his mother!
His cousin Richard returned from the wedding still under the influence of the gay festivities and swaggered into Darcy House, whistling a jaunty tune. His constant grin and laughter annoyed Darcy. “What makes you all sunshine and smiles?”
“What makes you storms and scowls?” Richard said carelessly. “I liked Meryton well indeed, full of lovely young women. I met one. An heiress. Further, she was marvellously pretty and has Mother’s approval. You even know her.”
Suddenly, lead filled Darcy’s stomach at the thought of Elizabeth Bennet with his cousin.
The colonel let out a long, wistful sigh.
“Yes, Miss Elizabeth Bennet is a handsome woman,” Darcy managed to say.
Of all the women, his favourite cousin had to fall for Elizabeth!Instead of speaking more of the enchanting Miss Bennet, Darcy added, “I understand Lady Catherine was not pleased with your brother’s wedding!”
“Neither were you, if you could not even attend, I suppose. Honestly, Fitz, you should marry Anne. I am sure Aunt Catherine is the perfect mother for you, so alike in pride.”
“You know that will never happen.”
“You have to marry somebody, might as well be Anne. By the by, when do we leave for Rosings this year?”
Darcy dreaded that journey.
How could he face his aunt in his ill humour? He could not trust himself to speak without giving offence, for each mention of that wretched, so-called engagement to his cousin Anne set his teeth on edge.
