“I would not be surprised to learn he pretended to go and hide,only to go straight to the library and sit down to read,” Miss Bingley giggled.
“True, though I can easily imagine him tucked behind a bookshelf, attempting to finish a chapter in peace while the rest of us scramble about.” Elizabeth peeked into a darkened alcove where a gentleman could be hiding.
“That does sound like him. Once upon a time I would have followed him there, and declared his reserve admirable, for I did not understand it then,” Miss Bingley confessed.
“Have you truly resigned to giving up on him?” Elizabeth asked curiously.
“Entirely,” Miss Bingley insisted, ducking her head behind a door. “When I finally came to understand him, I realised that we want completely different lives. We should be perfectly miserable together. I prefer to find someone who welcomes my smiles; someone who wants what I want.”
“I hope you find success here,” Elizabeth said sincerely.
“I wish you the same, Miss Elizabeth. You know? You may have a point about the library. Let us go and search there.”
The two ladies linked arms, and went to the first floor, where they found Mr Darcy, just as they suspected, sitting in the open and reading a book.
“You found me.” He smiled as he stood when they entered the room together.
“Mr Darcy, you are entirely too predictable,” Elizabeth laughed.
“Not always, Miss Elizabeth. I am only so predictable when Iwishto be found.” He grinned at her.
Miss Bingley looked over from where she was snooping around the bookshelves, and said, “If the two of you have finished flirting, Mr Darcy, I will pay you a shilling to tell me where Lord Chesley is hiding.”
“Miss Bingley, I would never stoop so low as to turn on my fellow man.” Mr Darcy’s eyebrows rose as he tilted his head at a nearby curtain.
Miss Bingley burst into giggles as she pulled the drapes back toreveal Lord Chesley. “You are brave to play such a game after your experience last night, my lord. One might think you would be hiding with a great deal more purpose.”
“I chose my companions with care. Darcy would never abandon me,” Chesley laughed.
Suddenly there was a sneeze from the far end of the room. “Aha!” Miss Bingley cried triumphantly as she rushed behind a bookcase. “Defeated by your susceptibility to dust, Brother!”
“I have no desire to be found byyou,Caroline! Go away and ensure Miss Bennet finds me,” they heard Bingley’s voice from behind the stacks.
With a peal of laughter, Miss Bingley returned, and said to Elizabeth and the other two gentlemen, “What shall we do while we wait for the others?”
“I am certain we are meant to return to the drawing room and wait, butmust we?” whined Darcy. “We are such a merry party here.”
Miss Bingley looked at him with a strange expression, “I am certain that must be the nicest thing you have ever said to me, Mr Darcy.”
“I meant every word, Miss Bingley.” Then, to Elizabeth, “Perhaps if we close the door, it will take them longer to locate us.”
Just before anyone could comply, Mary and Jane entered the room followed by Mr Elwood. “We are trying to help Jane find Mr Bingley. Has anyone seen him?” asked Mary, pink-cheeked.
“Mary!” Jane objected in mortification.
“Oh no! You found me, Miss Bennet, what a shame the game has ended so quickly.” Bingley tumbled out from behind the stacks and bowed before Jane. “Quickly, someone lock that door, before anyone spoils our charming group.”
“We are not meant to close the doors,” Elizabeth worried.
“With a group as large as ours, and I am a participant, all should be well,” Darcy insisted, going to lock the door himself. “Now, how should we entertain ourselves?’
“We could read from a play,” suggested Lord Chesley. “Shakespeare?”
“Everyone always wants to read from boring old Shakespeare.” Caroline went to a shelf that Elizabeth had visited when she selected reading material. She pulled out a novel. “We should read from Mrs Radcliffe!”
Elizabeth doubled over in laughter. “Miss Bingley, I take it that you found something acceptable to read from the selections we chose?”
After a hilarious hourspent reading from “The Mysteries of Udolpho,” they heard screaming from far down the hall.
