Mr. Darcy entered and was introduced to Mr. Bennet. The two men shook hands. Mr. Darcy saw that Miss Elizabeth took after Mr. Bennet, as they shared dark hair and dark eyes, while Miss Bennet resembled her blonde-haired and blue-eyed mother.
“Please browse at your leisure, Mr. Darcy. My collection is not appreciated as often as it deserves.”
Mr. Darcy soon agreed, for he readily saw that Mr. Bennet had many volumes that he himself would have liked to possess.
“You have a library as well, I take it?” Mr. Bennet enquired.
How to answer without sounding like he was boasting? “I do, sir. I am fortunate that my family has been collecting books for several generations.”
“Indeed!” Mr. Bennet’s eyebrows winged up. “And where is this wonder of wonders?”
“In Derbyshire.”
“Ah. Too far for me to visit, then.” The man sounded deeply disappointed. Then he perked up. “What think you of this volume of Chaucer? It is in its original Middle English, which I am currently working on translating. Lizzy and I have spent considerable time studying Middle English, and…”
As the conversation continued, Elizabeth studied Mr. Darcy as he spoke with her father. He was an extremely handsome man; of that she had long been aware. But when he was engrossed as he was now, not thinking about his family’s tragedy, he was even more captivating.
She still felt that she could not really know him. Who was he when he was not devastated? That he had been proud she could not doubt. Even tragedy could not mask the way he held himself, the way he strode into a room as if he owned it, the way he sat his horse, the way he – heavens, her heart was beating faster justthinkingabout him! Stop it, Lizzy, she told herself sternly.
Mr. Darcy was very much enjoying his discussion with Mr. Bennet, but was also noting that Miss Elizabeth had inherited more than just dark hair and dark eyes from her father; she had inherited her quick wit and sharp intelligence from him as well. But Elizabeth – when had he stopped thinking of her asMissElizabeth? – was captivating in her own right. Her sparkling eyes, the way one eyebrow would quirk up when shewas amused, her light step, her womanly figure – stop it, Darcy admonished himself, you are speaking with the lady’s father!
When he and Miss Elizabeth returned to the parlour, he was introduced to three additional young ladies, all sisters of Miss Elizabeth and Miss Bennet: Miss Mary, Miss Kitty and Miss Lydia. Mr. Darcy noted that Miss Mary was silent, but her reticence was more than made up for by the liveliness of the two younger girls.
It was not long before he felt that the liveliness could more accurately be termed bad manners. Truly, had these girls never been taught how to behave in company? Based on their hairstyles and clothing, they were “out,” though they were far too young to have been granted that privilege.
Mr. Darcy shook his head. This was not a family that a Darcy of Pemberley should – no, hold. His own sister had eloped with the steward’s son. Had he any right to judge these girls? He thought not.
***
When the gentlemen finally left, Mrs. Bennet could not stop smiling. Not only was Jane being wooed by two gentlemen, but it seemed that Mr. Darcy was interested in Lizzy. Knowing better than to exult in front of the two girls in question, she headed for Mr. Bennet’s library, knocked on the door and immediately entered. “Mr. Bennet!”
“Mrs. Bennet,” her husband responded, equably.
“You will never guess!”
“I think I shall, though,” was the unexpected response.
“What?” Mrs. Bennet was taken aback.
“You have come to tell me that Mr. Darcy is interested in Lizzy.”
She put her hands on her hips. “How could you know that?” She was disappointed not to be able to surprise him, but also quite curious.
“I saw them together, here in this very room.”
“And, Mr. Bennet?”
“And what, Mrs. Bennet?”
He really was the most annoying man! “How could you know that he was interested in her?”
“Why, you must think me the blindest man in the kingdom, not to be able to recognise love offered and love returned when it is displayed before me.”
“You think he loves her?”
“Without a doubt.”
“And she loves him?”
