A Tuesday Afternoon in Kent
“Charlotte,youarebeingridiculous!”
“One is not rendered ridiculous by simply having a different opinion from your own.”
Elizabeth rolled her eyes at Charlotte’s smug opinion.She sat across from her friend in the parsonage’s small parlor, drinking tea and discussing the previous evening at Rosings.
“One may not be rendered ridiculous by a difference of opinion, but one is certainly rendered ridiculous by belief in the absurd.”Elizabeth raised a brow triumphantly and sipped her tea.
“Only you would be proud of believing a man in love with you to be an absurd notion.”
Elizabeth’s mouth dropped open and she set her teacup down with a clank.Charlotte resettled herself in her chair, looking every bit the proud matron.
“Do you think it will rain today?”Charlotte looked out the window and stretched her neck to look up into the sky.
“Charlotte!”
“I suppose not.It has been rather warm lately.”
Elizabeth sighed in frustration.“Very well.I will take your change of subject as a signal that you recognize the absurdity of your assumption and move on.How is Mrs.Selton?Is she feeling any better?”
Charlotte turned to face her friend.“Eliza, I know we may joke about it, but as your friend, I cannot allow you to continue to believe that a man being interested in you romantically is a ridiculous notion.Thatis ridiculous!”
Elizabeth sighed again.“It is not that I think a man finding me attractive to be impossible, but this man in particular.”
“And why is that?”
“He said himself I am merely tolerable!”
“And can a person not grow in attractiveness once one knows them better?”
Elizabeth looked frustrated.“Of course, but that is hardly the case here.”
“Is it not?How can you know that?”
“Because it is not!”
Charlotte took a deep breath.“What did you say the first day you met Colonel Fitzwilliam?”
Elizabeth was thrown by the change of topic, but recovered and said, “I thought him friendly and amiable.”
“And handsome?”
Elizabeth opened her mouth to respond, then snapped it shut.“Well, not at first,” she said slowly.
“When he left the parsonage, Maria said he was good company, but it was a shame he was not in a red coat, for it would improve his looks immensely.”
Elizabeth stared silently at her friend.
“And you agreed with her.”
“I was being silly!I should have held my tongue had I known you would throw it back at me this way!”
“And how do you find the colonel’s looks now?”
Elizabeth was thrown again by Charlotte’s question.“He is perfectly agreeable.”
“Do you find him attractive?”
