Georgiana pulled back, her face bright with happiness. “I had no idea you were coming!”
“Nor had I, until three days ago,” he replied.
Lady Anne approached more sedately. Richard bowed to her with affection rather than ceremony. “Aunt Anne.”
She smiled gently and kissed his cheek. “How have you been, Richard?”
“Quite well,” he replied. “And grateful for your last letter. The recipe you enclosed caused considerable excitement in the barracks.”
Lady Anne’s brows lifted slightly. “Oh?”
“I persuaded the cook to attempt your almond cake,” he explained. “The results were… respectable.”
“Respectable,” Lady Anne repeated with amusement. “High praise indeed.”
Everyone chuckled, and she added with a small smirk, “Anything for my favorite nephew.”
Richard laughed outright. “A distinction of very limited competition, I fear,” he said. “As your only other nephew is my elder brother.”
He pinched his nose between his fingers, lifted his chin into the air with exaggerated hauteur, and declared in a pompous voice, “Viscount Reginald Fitzwilliam.”
The room erupted in laughter.
Richard dropped the pose and clapped Darcy firmly on the shoulder. “And you, cousin—congratulations on finally settling down in your old age.”
Darcy raised an eyebrow. “The two years I have upon you ought to inspire a greater respect for your elders.”
Bingley chuckled. “You have six years on me, Darcy, and I assure you I respect you immensely.”
“Oh?” Richard asked.
“Yes,” Bingley continued gravely. “Particularly his height. Though I no longer fear him as I once did.”
Georgiana blinked. “Fear my brother?”
Bingley grinned sheepishly. “Well, when we first met—”
Richard groaned. “Oh no. This story again.”
But Bingley was already warming to it.
“You see,” he explained to Georgiana, “your cousin here had just introduced us. I had been struggling rather dreadfully with society in London.”
“Because you were being preyed upon by every sharper and fortune-hunter in the city,” Richard added.
“I was merely… generous,” Bingley protested.
“Gullible,” Richard corrected cheerfully.
“In any case,” Bingley continued, “Colonel Fitzwilliam decided I required supervision. When he received his orders to go to the Continent, he introduced me to Darcy.”
Georgiana listened attentively.
“And Darcy,” Bingley said with mock solemnity, “was very tall. And six years older than I. He seemed terribly wise.”
Darcy snorted softly.
“But then,” Bingley went on, “we spent a Sunday evening together with absolutely nothing to do.”
