“I must say,” she began, looking about her with contentment, “that the weather has turned out far better than I expected. And such a pleasant walk before us! Mr. Darcy, you must be quite accustomed to such exercise. I daresay you prefer it to being confined indoors.”
Darcy inclined his head. “I find it very agreeable, madam.”
“Yes, yes, I am sure you do. And it is very good of you to join us so often of late. We have scarcely seen such attention paid to our family before.”
Elizabeth cast her mother a quick glance, but Mrs. Bennet continued without the smallest suspicion of impropriety.
“I declare, it quite puts one in spirits.”
Jane, who had been walking beside her, looked as though she might gently redirect the conversation, but finding no easy means of doing so, allowed it to pass.
Kitty and Lydia, meanwhile, had not been idle observers.
“Oh! Is that the same horse, Mr. Darcy?” Kitty asked suddenly, with unusual hesitation.
Darcy turned toward her. “It is. You have an excellent memory, Miss Kitty.”
Kitty coloured slightly. “You said his name was… Bramble, was it not?”
“It is.”
She tried to touch it from the side. So Darcy made him stop. “Here. You can stroke him.” He showed her. “He likes to be stroked between his eyes. Like this.”
Kitty tried to imitate the motion.
“Would you like to ride him?”
“She cannot ride,” Elizabeth said worriedly.
“If that is the case, it should be remedied. But for now, Miss Kitty may sit sideways on it just to have a feeling what it is like.”
Kitty looked at him in astonishment. “May I?”
“Certainly.”
“Iwant to ride the horse.”
Before Lydia could press her own claim more loudly, Darcy had already turned, steadying the horse and offering his hand.
“Do not be afraid,” he said, in a tone of quiet reassurance.
Kitty hesitated only a moment before placing her hand in his.
With a care that was both natural and unassuming, he lifted her into the saddle and helped her arrange herself on it.
Elizabeth watched the movement with some surprise. There was nothing of display in it – only ease, and a kind attentiveness that she had not before seen so openly expressed.
Lydia, however, was not to be excluded. “Well! If Kitty is to ride, then I must as well,” she declared.
Darcy turned toward her. “I believe, Miss Lydia, that a more important office may be entrusted to you.”
Lydia paused. “More important?”
“Yes. You may lead him.”
This, Lydia considered. “Well – that is something, at least,” she said, seizing the reins with satisfaction.
The small procession reformed itself with new animation.
