Page 68 of A Practical Man
“Since the first moment I saw her,” I whispered back. “Now do me a service, Georgie, and cleverly arrange to take Miss Bennet’s arm while I step in to take her place. But first, you had better lower your eyebrows and assume the easy smile you have so lately learnt to use.”
After blinking several times and looking between Elizabeth and me, she managed to pretend I had not just shocked her, and very soon she contrived to make it quite natural for me to step forwards to accompany her friend. Elizabeth looked at me as she would a co-conspirator, and we soon found ourselves taking slightly ambitious strides ahead of our party.
“I am still a little cross,” she warned.
“Still? I own I thought of the two of us, I am more likely to hold a grudge than you. When might I anticipate being forgiven for indulging your mother?”
She waved that offence away. “You misunderstand me. I am nowannoyed because once again, you were right. Ididneed a walk, Mr Darcy.”
“If it is any consolation, I did not suggest it for your sake but for mine.”
“Oh? In that case, should I emulate you when you are provoking and remark in the most caressing tone that I hope your ruffled spirits are soothed?”
“I have been many things in your presence, butsoothedis not one of them,” I said pointedly.
She obliged me with a seductive chuckle, and before I knew it, we were fairly sailing down the path. The breeze lightly tormented the bare branches of the trees beside us, the clouds that dotted the brilliant sky raced above our heads, and as we kicked the leaves on the path ahead of us, I could sense her thrill to be moving so briskly in concert with nature—as though she were nature herself.
“Lizzy, you walk too fast,” Miss Bennet called sweetly from somewhere behind us.
I came abruptly back down out of the clouds and turned to ascertain my companion’s pleasure. “Should we wait here or turn back to join them?”
“You forget how poor I am at fashionable strolling, Mr Darcy,” she said. She then took an even stronger possession of my arm, and we went swiftly down the lane until we had left our party well and truly behind us. As we rounded a bend that led to a rarely travelled footpath, I glanced behind us and saw that my clever sister was leading Miss Bennet to a bench by the pond.
“Are you happy?” I asked looking up to the sky, still captivated by its brilliance.
“Me? Of course I am happy. I am in London with my dearest friend, enjoying every possible entertainment.”
I knew she was teasing me, and I indulged her. “You make it sound as if your sole cause for happiness is diversion.”
“I disagree. Did I not first mention my dearest friend? Not only is she a delight to me, but she has a brother who is very good at walking.”
“That might be all he is good for.”
“Are you perhaps begging for a tepid, half-hearted compliment? I am not so good at it as you.”
“Then you must practise. I await your praise—faint or otherwise. Though when all is said and done, I am only a farmer from Derbyshire.”
“Take heart, Mr Darcy. Even a farmer from Derbyshire can havesomethingto recommend him.”
“Such as his farm.”
“Such as hischaracter,” she said firmly.
“He sounds a regular church-going chap. Does he take his wife to chapel in a mule cart?”
“No. He has at least one hundred pounds a year, and he has agig,” she said with false reverence. “Hetakes his lady to the fair.”
“That he can squire a woman from one place to another is no great recommendation. He sounds a tin-pot sort of man to me. What actual good do you know of him?”
“Well, he once broke with his family in defence of a lady.”
“She must have been shocked.”
“She was shocked indeed. And, do you know? She could not forget the moment he roared at his relation that the lady she had insulted was his own sister’s equal.”
“Was she also a farmer’s daughter?”
“Yes! How did you know?”
