Mr. Darcy's Dream by Elizabeth Aston Read Free Book Online

yourself, Miss Louisa, if I may say so. Sit down, do, and can I fetch you a glass of water?”
    Louisa sat down with a grateful sigh. “Oh, Phoebe, I am so very glad to see you. I am sorry to be such a weak creature, but you know how travelling in a closed coach sometimes affects me, and I came in our old coach, which does sway so!”
    â€œYou’ll feel better in a trice,” Phoebe assured her, and she turned on the footman who was watching the proceedings with interest, hopeful that Miss Louisa might fall down in a swoon.This was more drama than they’d had at Pemberley for many a long month. “Thomas, summon Mrs. Makepeace this instant.” She turned to Betsy. “Has she her smelling salts?”
    â€œShe did have them when we set out,” said Betsy grimly. “Until we reached Bakewell, whereupon she lowered the window and threw them out into a ditch, declaring she never wanted to see them again.”
    â€œI can’t bear the smell, and they make me even more light-headed than I am already,” said Louisa, who looked to be reviving a little.
    Mrs. Makepeace arrived and shook her head at the sight of Louisa. “Well, you look as though you’ve had quite a turn. Your room’s all ready for you, Miss Louisa, with a good fire blazing away. That’s where you should be, lying down on the sofa there, and I’ll have a cup of good hot broth brought up for you directly, just the thing for a stomach made queasy by travel.”
    Despite Louisa’s protests that she had not the slightest desire or need to lie down, this practical plan was immediately put into action, and she was escorted upstairs to her room, a pretty chamber with rose-coloured hangings, and settled on a sofa. “You’ll be wanting to have your lunch in here, Miss Louisa, on a tray,” Betsy said, but Louisa had had enough of this fussing.
    â€œNo, I won’t. It is merely the motion of the coach, I shall be completely well again as soon as I’ve eaten.”
    Mrs. Makepeace promised an immediate luncheon, and went to give her orders, pausing at the door to say, “And I expect Miss Verney will be joining you—she isn’t one to stay upstairs if she can help it.”
    â€œIs Miss Verney the governess?” asked Louisa.
    â€œShe is. She would have been my sole companion had you not decided to sacrifice the season and join me at Pemberley.”
    â€œIt was no sacrifice. What is she like? Mama met her in Paris when she was staying with Georgina, and she told me she found her a pleasant enough young woman.”
    â€œYour mama finds fault with no one,” said Phoebe. “I never knew her to say a harsh word about anyone, and you are nearly as sweet-natured as she is. What can I say about Miss Verney? She is older than both you and me, I should say she must be six-or seven-and-twenty, and is the daughter of émigrés. And she feels the disadvantages and what she sees as the unfairness of her situation too keenly.”
    â€œYou do not like her,” said Louisa. “I can tell. You make up your mind about people so quickly, Phoebe. My mama may have a propensity to like everyone, but isn’t that better than disliking everyone the minute you meet them?”
    Phoebe coloured. “I do not dislike everyone. That is, I like some people well enough—”
    â€œYes, those you have known for ever, and your family. But even there, you have too demanding a standard, you are too rigorous in your judgements. You do not give time for people’s virtues to grow on you, you are so quick to dismiss them that you never find out their true worth.”
    â€œOh, as to virtues! Most people have few enough of those, I believe. Very well, I will control my natural instinct, as you describe it, to dislike people, and I will say no more about Miss Verney. But I can’t emulate you, you will feel sorry for her, I am sure, and that, for you, is always the