Darcy shook his head.“I believe Miss Bennet would disagree with that assessment.”
“Darcy, you have little experience with women and would not know how to flirt with a lady if the fate of Pemberley depended on it.”
Darcy merely looked heavenward and mentally counted to ten.There was no talking to his cousin.Why would he not go back to his apartments and leave them be?Darcy did not want him around Georgiana, and he really did not want him near Elizabeth.He might scare her away entirely.
“Gentlemen,” said Sir Daniel, his sonorous voice filling the room.“Miss Bennet is here to support her sister and meet what will likely become her future family.Let us attempt to make a good impression, shall we?”
“Thank you, Uncle,” said Darcy quietly.
Lord Hopewell looked away, a bored expression on his face.Lord Winters was not so easily silenced.
“Is Miss Bennet engaged?”he asked.
“No,” Darcy bit out.
Winters waggled his eyebrows.“Then the field is open.”
“You do not mean you would truly pursue her?”Darcy cried in frustration.“Do stop being ridiculous!”
Winters straightened his coat and pulled at his lace cuffs.“I might do.”He winked at his father.
Darcy grit his teeth.“Miss Bennet is soon to be my sister and as such, you may consider her under my protection.If you harass her, you must deal with me.”Darcy turned to his uncle.“And why did you not speak to her at all throughout dinner?”
“These upstarts must be made to understand their place, Darcy.I was doing you a favor,” said Lord Hopewell with his nose high in the air.“They must understand they are not to importune us if you continue on this foolish path.”
Darcy took in a deep breath and clenched his fists.“Miss Bennet is a gentleman’s daughter and a guest in your home.Furthermore, she is a worthy lady in her own right.”
Lord Hopewell looked doubtfully at Darcy.“Minor gentry, Darcy.They are hardly of the first circles.”
Winters laughed, at what nobody knew, and leaned back in his chair, looking more inebriated than he had when he arrived.
“I will rejoin the ladies,” said Darcy in disgust as he passed by his cousin and uncle.
The ladies fared only slightly better.Lady Hopewell was clearly enamored of her son, foppish boor though he was, and she insisted on regaling them with stories of his “adventures.”Elizabeth rather thought they sounded like stories of a foolish young man with no regard for himself or others, but her ladyship would only see him as a hero.
Lady Clara came and sat next to Elizabeth, sighing heavily.
“He is dreadful, but Mother will not see it.She thinks everything he does is merely the high spirits of youth.He is five and twenty.His spirits must come down some day.”
Elizabeth smiled.“My mother says the same of my youngest sister.She is only fifteen and I fear she cares little for rules or anything she deems not enough fun.”
“She sounds like Albert.Perhaps we should introduce them?”
“Perhaps,” she said with a teasing smile.“They might grow irritated with one another enough to see a reflection of their own behavior.”
Lady Clara looked thoughtful for a moment.“I doubt it, but it might be fun to observe.”
Elizabeth could not help the laugh that bubbled out of her at that pronouncement.
“I heard you met my cousin in Kent?”
“I did see him most recently in Kent, yes, but I met him the first time in Hertfordshire last autumn.Mr.Bingley rented an estate near my father’s and Mr.Darcy was his guest.”
Lady Clara nodded.“Did you meet Colonel Fitzwilliam while you were in Kent?He usually travels with Darcy.”
“Yes, I did meet him.He is an amiable gentleman,” Elizabeth answered with a bright smile.
“Were you in company with him often?”
