“Ihaveknown you to have more courage,” I said with a wink.
“But what shall we do about Lady Catherine? Must we submit ourselves to her tyranny or might we outwit her?”
“I have thought long and hard and have come up with a few solutions, none of which are agreeable to me.”
“Oh?”
“We could misdate the invitation so that she arrives on her mission of outrage one day too late.”
She laughed. “That is an entertaining solution, but it will not serve. You forget that she is patroness to my cousin Collins, and he will also be invited, as will my friend Charlotte. I cannot in good conscience play such a trick onher.”
“I abhor those tactics in any case.”
“What else?”
“I could place Sam at the entrance to the church to bar her from entering.”
“Oh, by all means. No one would notice a scuffle in the vestry. No doubt she would also be screeching.”
“No doubt.”
“Perhaps you should write to personally invite her, urging her to come and share in your joy.”
“What?”
“Well, you might draw inspiration from Mrs. Edmonton’s first introduction to my uncle by describing the suitability of Meryton’s inn for exclusive guests. Complaints with regard to mice chewing in the walls—you must strongly reassure her—are utterly unfounded. And you might offer further enticements by adding that the public room on the night in question is unlikely to be as loud as it normally is.”
“Interesting but risky. She may insist upon Sir William Lucas’s hospitality and be aided in her imposition by her dominion over his son-in-law, Mr. Collins.”
“Poor Sir William!”
“Do you know, Elizabeth? This conversation has been most curative. I see clearly what I must do.”
“And what is that?”
“I must act the part of the man you would like me to be, visit Lady Catherine in Kent, and pay a call on my uncle in town. I shall, on both occasions, model myself after someone I admire greatly and arrive in a fully confident state, brisk with the expectation they will be overjoyed by my news, and then I shall overwhelm them with—well, I do not know what to call your method.”
“Do you mean a scattershot of questions, comments, observations, and miscellany? My father calls it friendly grapeshot.”
“Ah yes. And if that fails, I shall make known my expectations—”
“Will you be standing at your full height and scowling as you do so terribly well?”
“I shall, and they will be told you must be made welcome and given the respect my wife is due.”
“What—no threats of a family rupture?”
“There will be no need for that, but I intend to station Sam at the church door,” I said on a chuckle, “just in case.”
The following day brought Bingley in a fluster of anxious anticipation. He, too, must have been shocked by my letter of explanation—that I had become reacquainted with Elizabeth Bennet and offered for her, that she and her eldest sister were guests of Georgiana in Brighton, and would he care to join us?
He did care, and by all appearances, he cared a great deal. I had never seen him so unable to refrain from colliding with walls or stammering through his speeches. Jane had been amenable to the visit, but she held herself ever-so-slightly aloof, which caused his admiration to flare into appalling proportions.
Upon this mortifying display, Georgiana applied her newly sharpened perception of people, and she once caught my eye with a look of bemused alarm as Bingley raved over Miss Bennet’s embroidery. We shared a secret grin, and she then took it upon herself to manage two sets of lovers—one declared and the other still in question. Mrs. Annesley, who was no less astute, also made herself useful by creating circumstances for us to at least be close to one another, such as pairing us for cards.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Into this admixture breezed Colonel Fitzwilliam at his dashing military best.
