“Mr Darcy, you cannot stop the rain, for all your glowering,” Elizabeth said. He had not noticed that she had drawn near.
He sighed, knowing she was right. “I might just be arrogant and conceited enough to think that I can stand here and argue the rain into stopping,” he said in a low voice.
She smiled, as he hoped she would. “No, you are not.” After a pause she added, “Your manner is too gentlemanlike.” She gave him a quick look and then gazed out the window, likely seeing as little as he could. His heart now resided somewhere in his throat, making it hard to breathe.
Elizabeth seemed equally incapable of speaking further. She esteemed him now, but was there any love there along with it? Could he excite genuine love in her heart?
Elizabeth gave him a more playful smile than the sweet one she gave him a moment ago. “Perhaps you can be an obstinate man, but in the case of the weather, I do not think you will win your point in the end. Come, join the game?”
He bowed, and they joined the others when he had much rather tell all of his guests to go to bed so he could have five more minutes alone at the window with Elizabeth.
Mrs Annesley and Mrs Lanyon were handing out long lengths of coloured ribbons whilst Bingley held the other ends. Elizabeth stood next to him as they collected theirs. It appeared that Bingley had nominated himself to be their conductor of sport.
“Each person being provided with a piece of ribbon holds one end of it in his or her hand,” he said. “Now, form a semi-circle around me and I shall tie the ends together and hold them in my hand. When I say ‘Hold fast,’ let go of your end, and when I say ‘Let go,’ hold fast.”
Darcy looked across the circle at Georgiana. “That is it?”
Georgiana shrugged, but Mrs Bingley said, “We have played at Longbourn, and whilst it is more fun to catch out one who has never played before, it is not so easy.”
Utterson, who was holding his end of ribbon between his thumband first finger with an attitude of the whole being tiresome, said, “This is a great simplicity, and you shall have no forfeits when all is said and done.”
“Aye, that is just like you to think of the forfeits!” Balfour cried. “You wish we could play Le Baiser à la Capucine as a forfeit?”
“I think there are too many siblings amongst us for that,” Darcy said flatly as Utterson humourlessly sputtered that was not at all what he meant.
“Hold fast!”
All but Hurst dropped their ribbons.
“With no offence to Miss Darcy, this is too simple a game,” Utterson said as they gathered up their ribbons.
“Any who harbour such an opinion ought to prove it to be so,” said Miss Bingley, with a simpering smile to Georgiana. Darcy hated to see his sister courted for his sake.
“Let go!” Bingley cried. None dropped their ribbon.“I shall add a challenge, then. You must all talk, and I shall at times call out ‘let go’ or ‘hold fast.’”
“Since you are the conductor of the game, give us a topic,” Elizabeth said.
“Very well. Since the ladies outnumber the men, and I have recently entered that happy state, you should talk of marriage. Let go!”
Mrs Lanyon let go, and gave an embarrassed laugh before picking her end of ribbon off the floor.
“Louisa,” Elizabeth said, taking up the game, “how long have you been married and what advice do you have for Jane?”
“Three years in January. And she ought to establish separate rooms because Charles has snored since he was a child.”
The room laughed, and for a while Bingley was too indignant to conduct the game.
“Ladies, what is the proper age a woman ought to marry?” Utterson asked in a grumpy tone to move things along.
“When she is one-and-twenty and needs no permission,” Elizabeth said, laughing.
“I have a riddle none of you shall guess,” said Hurst. “What are the two rings of marriage?”
“The wedding ring and the suffering,” Darcy answered, to Hurst’s dismay and to the shaking heads of Mrs Lanyon, Bingley, and Mrs Bingley. He noted that Mrs Hurst showed no opinion.
“Let go!”
Everyone held fast, and Bingley frowned. “None of you are properly distracted. Mrs Annesley, what manner of man would you wish to marry?”
