Mr and Mrs Darcy 02 Suspense & Sensibility by Carrie Bebris Page B

discussion with
his brother as they entered, but Robert was examining the room through his
quizzing glass as if he had not just been in it a couple of hours ago.
    Darcy trailed in last. His gaze immediately sought out Elizabeth and
warmed at the sight of her.
    "I missed you," he said softly.
    She handed him a cup of tea. "Was your gentlemen's time as bad as
all that?"
    "Actually, no. Robert Ferrars so occupied himself with the
mechanics of opening his new snuffbox one-handed that the rest of us were able
to talk intelligently."
    "I envy you. Our discourse in here was not intelligent, merely educational."
    She sipped tea from her own cup and surveyed the room. Harry had risen
from the sofa and was subtly backing toward Kitty under the assault of Lucy's
chatter. Fanny had commandeered Edward's and Elinor's attention and presently
expressed outrage on some matter. Robert now used his quizzing glass to study
the tea service pattern, an inspection Regina aided by clearing a plate of tea
cakes three at a time.
    "How
long will it be," Elizabeth asked, "before everybody decides that we
have endured enough of one another's society for the evening?"
    "I
suspect that once one person makes good his escape, the rest will soon scatter."
    "We all
spent a good part of the day traveling. Do you suppose you and I could leave
now with propriety?"
    He consulted
his watch. "Unfortunately, it is early yet."
    "But I
am ready to retire."
    He regarded
her with concern. "Are you fatigued from the journey?"
    "I
believe I am." She coyly broke their gaze and scanned the room once more. "At
least... hypothetically."

Eight

    "Nothing should prevail on him to give up his
engagement. He would stand to it, cost him what it might."

    - John
Dashwood to Elinor and Marianne,
    Sense and Sensibility, Chapter 37

    By the night of
Harry's grand birthday fete, the rain had cleared, and Norland reverberated
with the sounds of youthful merriment. Harry, it seemed, had left no
acquaintance uninvited, and as the house and grounds filled with school chums
and club friends, frivolity ruled. The billiards room never emptied, the air
echoed with shots at game birds, and the hunt was pursued with a wildness and
intensity that rivaled any fey legend.
    Fanny accepted the invasion with surprising graciousness. Though by law
the house officially belonged to Harry since his father's death, it remained
very much hers in essence. Elizabeth suspected Fanny's indulgence of Harry's
rambunctious friends stemmed from a hope that their antics would distract him
from Kitty.
    If that were indeed her design, however, Harry himself thwarted it. When
a young man's vision is filled by only one lady, all the entertainment in the
world cannot divert his attention from her. Though he played the generous host
and partook of the fun, he
distanced himself from its more frenetic activities. Despite his mother's
none-too-subtle encouragement to spend as much time as possible with his gentlemen
friends - in lieu of the young ladies of fortune who one by one had been
discounted by Lucy Ferrars - Harry eschewed their companionship for that of
Miss Bennet. Not that the besotted Kitty was herself anything approaching
staid, but Elizabeth observed in them a growing seriousness that met her
approbation.
    Darcy noted
it, too. "I think Mr. Dash wood is even more of a changed man since our
arrival at Norland," he said as they watched Harry lead Kitty to the
center of the ballroom for the first dance. Elizabeth stole a glance at Fanny,
who appeared about to choke on her own bile at the sight of Kitty being
accorded the honor of opening the ball.
    "Yes.
He seems very much to desire not only Kitty's approval of himself and his
estate, but ours, as well. I never would have thought of Kitty as a settling
influence, but I am glad for it."
    "You do
approve of him, then? We have spoken of my thinking of him as a brother, but would
you also welcome him as such?" He offered Elizabeth his hand, and they
joined the couples