The Darcy Code
Miss Anna Gosforth longed for love. She longed to fall in love and to marry before the end of this, her first London season. After all, she was already nineteen and had been obliged to wait, languishing in the country until her older sister, Sarah, found herself a husband. How ashamed she would be to finish this year without a husband in view.
So far, she was having a wonderful time, revelling in the balls, the soirées, the routs, the outings. It was delightful to go with her mother to all the most fashionable modistes and milliners and thrilling to have so many new clothes; walking dresses and carriage dresses, muslins for parties, satin and gauze for balls. She had an elegant new riding habit, hats for every occasion and all the fripperies essential to her well-being.
Thank goodness the years of careful upbringing, with a strict governess and an all-too-quiet life in the country, were over. She had dutifully acquired the requisite accomplishments: she could play the piano and sing, she could speak some French and knew some Italian, she could locate most countries on the globe, and could set stitches to sew a sampler or hem a handkerchief.
But now she was out of the schoolroom; her governess was at home in Northamptonshire, exerting her power over two younger sisters, and since Mama was chiefly concerned with Sarah's approaching nuptials, she made no effort to insist on music practice or an hour or two with a French grammar.
For the first time in her life, Anna's natural liveliness and sparkle and sense of fun was not frowned upon. She could be as merry as she liked, and laugh and flirt and only the most prim-faced matrons disapproved, and what did she care for them. Away with such stuffiness.
Mama did her duty as far as chaperoning her to balls and all the other parties, but Anna was happy that she did not keep quite such a close eye on her as she had done with Sarah.
Anna thought nothing of Sarah's betrothed, "He is so pompous and so solemn," she said to her best friend, Henrietta. "And Sarah will soon be just as dull as he is."
"Then they are well-suited."
"Oh, it maddens me to see how Sarah behaves with him. She is serious-minded, as least that is what Papa calls it, and she is convinced that as a married woman, she must accept her husband's opinions on everything." Anna might not have much worldly wisdom, but she couldn't help feeling that this wasn't going to be the basis for a good marriage. "Besides, I have every reason to dislike him, I overheard him say to Sarah what an empty-headed and frivolous creature I am."
Not that Anna cared a button for what either Sarah or her betrothed thought of her, not now that she had, at last, fallen in love.
She first saw Mr. Standish at the theatre. He was in a box a little way along from the one she was in, and she noticed him as he stood up and moved aside to let another member of his party come forward. She couldn't take her eyes off him, and while fluttering her fan to try and hide the fact that her gaze was fixed on him, she whispered to Henrietta, who was sitting next to her, "Who is that man in the box there, the tall one?"
"You mean the quiz with the red hair? That is Richard Freeling, they say he has the best manners of anyone in England , but he is an ugly fellow."
"Red hair? Ugly? Oh, no, not that box, the next one along."
Henrietta laughed. "Haven't you met him? That's Mr. Standish, said to be the handsomest man in England ."
"Is he married?"
"Oh, oh, in ten seconds your mind has turned from a first sighting to marriage?"
Annoyed, Anna scowled at Henrietta, she didn't care to be made fun of upon such a subject. "Do you know him?"
"I have met him, and I had a friend, Miss Amelia Norton, the loveliest creature on earth, who was very much in love with him, but nothing came of it and she was distraught. She was ill, oh, such sighs and misery, her sufferings were truly severe. In the end her parents had to send her away, to
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