Lady Catherine said, quickly, “Anne gets a headache when she reads.”
“Perhaps eye-glasses would help,” Richard interjected. “My mother learnt that the headaches she experienced when reading were due to a problem with her eyes. She found a medical man in London who made eye-glasses for her, and they have cured her headaches entirely.”
“Anne will never wear eye-glasses,” Lady Catherine pronounced, irritably.
“Why is that?” Mr. Darcy asked.
“Because highborn ladies do not wear eye-glasses!” her ladyship snapped.
Richard frowned at her. “My mother is a Countess, Lady Catherine. If she can wear them, I think Anne can safely do so as well.”
“I do not like to read in any case,” Anne said, tossing her head. “It is tedious.”
Tedious? Reading was tedious? “Very well,” Mr. Darcy said, hastily. “What do you like to do, then? What occupies your time?”
“Well, I – I – “ And here she looked to her mother for help.
“Anne does not need todoanything, Darcy. Heavens, all these questions, it is as if you are interviewing her for a position in your household!”
Richard looked outraged. “But that is exactly what he is doing!”
“Richard, it does not matter,” Mr. Darcy said, quickly.
“Does not matter isright! Arrangements have beenmade! They willwed!” Lady Catherine punctuated each sentence by thumping her stick on the rug.
“Arrangements have certainly not been made, Aunt,” Richard insisted. “It has been discussed by you and Aunt Anne, but Darcy here has made no formal offer of marriage.”
All eyes then turned expectantly to Mr. Darcy. He took a deep breath and opened his mouth to make the formal offer of marriage that he had agreed to make and that his aunt and cousin were expecting
But much to his surprise, his throat closed up and no words would come out. Finally, he heard himself say, as if from a distance, “I beg you will excuse me.” Then he rose, bowed politely, and walked out.
Chapter Five
Colonel Fitzwilliam found his cousin occupying a stone bench in the gardens behind the mansion, staring at the clouds overhead. “Move over,” he said.
Mr. Darcy complied, and the Colonel sat beside him. In silence, they watched starlings flying overhead and squirrels running up and down tree trunks. Two squirrels began quarreling and one turned and ran off. Both men laughed aloud.
“He probably refused to propose to his cousin, poor idiot,” Mr. Darcy said. “And then ran away like a coward.”
“Poor idiot? No, probably lucky idiot,” the Colonel replied. “And certainly no coward.”
“What happened after I left?”
“Aunt Catherine pronounced that you had simply decided to wait for a more romantic setting; Anne agreed that she would prefer you to be on bended knee when you begged for the honour of her hand.”
Mr. Darcy sighed heavily.
Richard continued, “Tell me, please, that you have come to your senses and have decided not to marry Anne.”
“Richard, how can I not? It seems everyone’s happiness depends on my doing so.”
“Truly?Everyone’shappiness?”
Mr. Darcy ticked off names on his fingers. “My mother. Aunt Catherine. Anne. Probably my father’s ghost, which is floating about somewhere, waiting for me to do what is expected of me.”
“Andyourhappiness?”
“When has that ever mattered, Richard?” Mr. Darcy spoke softly.
