Page 32 of An Accidental Meeting
Uncle Hugh laughed. “Wonderful story, though as I recall you did not tell it. One of the earl’s boys did.”
“Colonel Fitzwilliam. He is a military man, and even he was impressed.”
“As well he should be. If it is true, Hurst is a legend. One of those you use to frighten children back to good behaviour.” He reeled his line in and cast it out again. “You certainly have interesting friends, Fitzwilliam.”
Darcy reeled in his line. “Not as interesting as my relations.”
“Ha!” Uncle Hugh exclaimed, likely scaring off any fish who might have had a mind to nibble. “I shall take that as a compliment.”
“Do,” Darcy said, casting his line out to the middle of the stream. “Do.”
Chapter Nine
Elizabeth and her aunt were involved in a most engaging conversation with Miss Darcy over their favourite composers, debating the merits of Clementi over Mozart and Hummel, when two women sauntered into the room.
Sauntered was the only word that came to mind, for Mrs. Hurst entered the room with Miss Bingley as thoughtheywere the owners of Pemberley and not Mr. Darcy.
Elizabeth could feel the instant the air in the room turned frosty—it was the precise moment the eyes of those august ladies fell upon her.
“What areyoudoing here?” Miss Bingley inquired, and Elizabeth smiled when she recalled that Mr. Darcy had asked the same question, though not in quite the same way.
“Mrs. Gardiner and Miss Bennet are my brother’s guests,” Miss Darcy said, her voice low but clear. “Just as you are yourselves.”
Aha. Miss Darcy did have a temper after all. Elizabeth was glad to see it.
“My brother informed me that you all met Miss Bennet in Hertfordshire,” Miss Darcy continued. “Mrs. Hurst, Miss Bingley, are you acquainted with Mrs. Gardiner?”
“Not at all,” Mrs. Hurst began, and Elizabeth seethed.
“Oh, but we do know one another,” Aunt Gardiner said pleasantly, “for you called on my eldest niece, Miss Jane Bennet, when she was lately at our home in London.”
One would never know that Aunt Gardiner thought this insult anything but a lapse of memory. Mrs. Hurst’s frown said that she would rather deny it all, and Elizabeth was sure they would blame her aunt for their embarrassment somehow.
“I do beg your pardon, Mrs. Gardiner,” Mrs. Hurst said. “It is such a slight acquaintance that it quite slipped my mind.”
A rather weak sally when one was facing an opponent such as Aunt Gardiner.
“It was rather a short visit,” Mrs. Gardiner replied agreeably.
Miss Bingley’s eyes bore into Elizabeth’s.
“How did you come to be at Pemberley?” Miss Bingley asked Elizabeth at last. “I was not aware Mr. Darcy expected other guests.”
“He did not,” Elizabeth said cheerfully. “We met by chance as I was touring the gallery.”
“You came to Pemberley as tourists?” Miss Bingley asked and sniffed in disdain. “How droll.”
Elizabeth smiled. “We did. Through a series of unlikely events, we were invited to dinner last night as well.”
“Elizabeth,” Aunt Gardiner said in a gentle warning.
Mrs. Hurst’s hand flew to her chest. “You had dinner with Mr. Darcy? Without a hostess?”
Elizabeth wished to look upward and pray for patience, but she refrained. As if her relations would have allowed such a thing, evenhadMr. Darcy made such a request.
Miss Darcy cast a look at Mrs. Annesley, who nodded. “My Aunt Darcy was here,” the girl reminded the Bingley sisters, her voice quiet but firm. “My brother would never do anything improper.”
This sent the two into a mild state of panic.
