A Match for Mary Bennet by Eucharista Ward Read Free Book Online Page B

stared at Elizabeth, who seemed in a trance, her letter resting on her sorry excuse for a lap. “What is it, darling?” Worry crept into his voice.
    Elizabeth looked up and smiled. “Oh! I was still doing it homage. Here.” She held out the short note. “I believe I am ordered to serve you a son.” She watched, amused, as Darcy read his aunt’s note, his teeth growing tighter and his face darker as he read.
    â€œWhat kind of reply is this?” he thundered.
    Elizabeth put a gentle hand on his. “After all, it is an answer, even an acceptance. When we have been ignored for two years, this has to be an improvement. Let us enjoy the progress.”
    Colonel Fitzwilliam looked from one to the other. “An acceptance? What does she say?” Then he flushed and asked pardon for his boldness.
    Darcy put him at his ease, cleared his throat, assumed a stance of despotic authority, and intoned, “‘Finally you give my nephew an heir. Anne and I will arrive to see the boy on the Wednesday before Christmas. Prepare the orchid room for me and the gold room for Anne. Our two maids and a footman need rooms above us, and Mrs. Jenkinson will stay next to Anne, as always. We stay until Candlemas. Have your son christened during that time. Lady Catherine de Bourgh.’” In his own voice, still determined, Darcy added, “Those rooms are taken.”
    Elizabeth, laughing at his performance, shook her head playfully. “No. Mama will like to be nearer our rooms, and Lady Elliott will never know she has been moved.”
    Darcy held the note cushioned flat on his hand and relegated it ceremoniously to the grate, where it burst into flame.
    Elizabeth gasped in mock horror. “Have you no respect for my letter?”
    â€œOf course. I merely assured that it adds warmth to our home.” He relaxed, sat to drink his tea, and told them both of his choice for vicar of Kympton. “Young Oliver will stay until year’s end in the gardener’s cottage. I will be glad to have it occupied again.” He turned to Fitzwilliam. “Brooks, you know, married a widow last year, and now resides with her in Lambton, coming daily to tend my gardens.” He looked again at Lizzy. “Oliver can use Billum to reach Kympton as often as he wishes to consult Reverend Wynters and acquaint himself with the parish.”
    Elizabeth thought briefly of the choice, praying that Mr. Oliver would prove better for the parish than Mr. Darcy senior’s choice, Wickham, would have been. Then she read her father’s letter, learning of Mr. Collins’s concerns for his daughter, as if the raising of her would not be principally Charlotte’s responsibility. Somehow that sensible Charlotte managed to quietly keep Mr. Collins from realizing how little the household order depended on him. What a clever woman she was! As Lizzy finished her letter, she laughed aloud, and Darcy looked up in interest. She responded to his unspoken question, “Papa says he gave Mary one of Pope’s essays to read, hoping she might profit from the line, ‘To err is human, to forgive, divine.’ He deplores her habit of ignoring Lydia as if she did not exist. But he says that as she read, she found many snippets to note and quote, but that one was not among them. Finally he came out and asked her what she made of that line. She said, quite solemnly, ‘Forgiveness is the prerogative of God Himself and of Him alone.’ Papa felt properly foiled in his attempt to guide her reading.”
    Darcy shared the humour of the item, and then, reminded of his own sister, he said, “Lizzy, you would enjoy watching Georgiana as she entertains visitors on your at-home days. I almost think she has studied your manner to imitate it. She tells me you warned her about the acquisitive Miss Johnstone, and she has calmly helped Mrs. Reynolds to confront her on two occasions, rescuing a vase and a small mirror. I