Page 43 of Mr Darcy’s Inconvenient Wife

Elizabeth was untying her bonnet strings. He folded the letter.

“My aunt, Lady Catherine, is coming to London. My cousin Anne is coming with her.”

“Oh.” She took off the bonnet and held it by its ribbons. “You may have forgotten, Mr Darcy, that I have already had the misfortune of meeting your aunt. At Hunsford she gave me her opinion on my playing, my upbringing and my father's want of a son. She did not seem to think well of any of them. I cannot suppose she thinks any better of me now.”

“No. I do not suppose she does.”

“Then what are we to do?”

“We shall get through it.”

Elizabeth had put her foot on the bottom stair. She stopped there, with one hand on the rail, and turned back.

“We?”

He did not answer. He was not sure the word had been his to use.

She waited a moment longer. Then she went on up the stairs, and he stood in the hall with his aunt's letter in his hand. He listened to her steps, and to Georgiana's scales, until a door closed somewhere on the first floor and there was only the music.

Chapter Twenty-One

Elizabeth

“Georgiana, you have grown since Easter. Anne, has she not grown? Stand up, child, and let me look at you.”

Georgiana stood up. Her aunt looked her over from the top of her head to the hem of her gown, and said she was a full inch taller and a great deal too pale. She must walk in the park every morning before breakfast. Anne walked at Rosings whenever the weather allowed, her ladyship said, which in Kent was hardly ever.

Elizabeth stood by the fire and waited for her own turn. She had put on her grey silk, the most serious gown she owned, and she had spent two days getting her answers ready. Lady Catherine had come into the house like a woman arriving to read a will she had already contested. Elizabeth did not expect to be spared.

“Mrs Darcy.” Her ladyship gave a small nod. “You are looking well. London suits you better than Kent did, I think. You were forever walking about the lanes at Hunsford. I remember I remarked upon it.”

“You did, ma'am. You were kind enough to warn me that I should wear out my boots.”

“And so you would have. Sit down, sit down. Georgiana, come and sit by me.”

Elizabeth sat down, far more surprised than she let herself look. Mr Darcy caught her eye across the room and then looked at the carpet, which told her nothing at all.

By the time the soup was taken away, she had begun to understand it. Her ladyship's good manners worked very reliably, but they worked for Georgiana alone. When Georgiana spoke, Lady Catherine smiled on the whole table. She asked whether Elizabeth found the house convenient, and was pleased to agree with her about the new trees in the square. When Georgiana turned to her brother or bent over her plate, the smile went out, and her ladyship looked at Elizabeth as she might have looked at a bill she did not mean to pay. It came back the moment Georgiana looked up.

Elizabeth did not mistake it for kindness. Every civil word was meant for one listener, and that listener was not her.

Miss de Bourgh ate almost nothing. She was wrapped in a heavy Norwich shawl, though the dining room was warm, and she did not say a dozen words all through dinner. More than once Elizabeth felt herself being watched from that end of the table. Each time she looked, Miss de Bourgh was attending to her plate.

The ladies had not been long in the drawing room when Georgiana stood up.

“I must go up and set out my music, or I shall be in a dreadful muddle when you come. Fitzwilliam, will you help me? The instrument is too near the window, and it will not stay in tune in that draught. I cannot move it by myself.”

He hesitated. It was only for a moment, and Elizabeth was not sure anyone else noticed. Then he bowed to his aunt and followed his sister out.

Lady Catherine waited until their steps had gone past the landing.

“Now, Mrs Darcy, we may speak plainly.”

“I did not know, ma'am, that we had been speaking any other way.”

“Do not be impertinent with me. I have not come all the way from Kent at this time of year to be answered with impertinence.” She put down her cup without drinking from it. “You know perfectly well why I am here. You were meant for Mr Collins. I told him myself to look for a wife among his cousins, and I told him you would do very well. A respectable clergyman, a comfortable parsonage, and my own advice whenever you needed it. That was a match suited to your station. It was more than a young woman in your situation had any right to expect.”

“It was very good of your ladyship to take so much trouble over my future. I am only sorry the trouble was wasted.”