He crossed to her, taking her hand, "My lady," he murmured, bowing over it.
"I had begun to wonder whether you intended to make me wait another thirty years."
"I thought it only courteous to allow you time to recover from my performance in the sack race."
She laughed immediately. "My dear boy, you came a most respectable second from last."
"Only because the other gentleman had overindulged in port and couldn’t see straight."
"The races are not what I remember, you know."
"No?"
"I remember our conversations." She smiled at the recollection. "For one whole week I had the most intelligent and insightful discussions I had enjoyed in years. You were one of the onlyyoung gentlemen who seemed more interested in the world than displaying himself in it."
Mr Bennet gave a small, self-deprecating smile. "That may simply have been because I had very little to display."
"Nonsense. You possessed the rarest quality of all." She patted his hand. "Curiosity."
Only then did she turn to Jane and Elizabeth, lifting her pince-nez from the gold chain about her neck and settling it upon the bridge of her nose before examining them closely. "So these are your daughters."
There was nothing hurried about her inspection of them. She looked first at Jane, whose quiet composure never deserted her even beneath such close examination. She regarded Jane thoughtfully for a moment. "You are astonishingly beautiful, my dear."
Jane’s gaze found the floor and a blush rose high on her cheeks.
"Forgive an old woman for observing what everybody else will be thinking. Fortunately, beauty is not the most interesting thing about a person."
Jane looked up. "No?"
"No." Lady Hortensia smiled kindly. "I think yours is your gentleness." She patted her cheek.
Lady Hortensia's attention drifted to Elizabeth. "And you are a beauty too," she observed after a thoughtful pause. "Though perhaps not quite so gentle."
Elizabeth could not help smiling. "My mother would agree with you entirely, my lady. She has more than once described me as an ungovernable hoyden."
Lady Hortensia let out a delighted bark of laughter. "Has she indeed? My own dear departed mama favoured ‘wild creature’. I spent a considerable portion of my youth being pursued through this house by an exasperated governess determined to improve my deportment."
Elizabeth’s eyes flashed with amusement. "Did she succeed?"
"Not nearly often enough to cure me of my impertinence. Although once a lady reaches my age, it starts being described as eccentricity." Lady Hortensia lowered herself once more into her chair and motioned to her guests to sit. "Tell me, Miss Elizabeth, what occupies your time when you are not alarming your poor mother?"
Elizabeth considered the question only briefly. "It might be easier to say what does not. I read whenever I can—novels, science, philosophy—almost anything somebody has thought worth writing down. I enjoy walking. I play the pianoforte tolerably enough. And quite often I dream up the adventures Imay have if I could visit the far-away places I have only travelled to in my imagination."
"Never lose that habit, my dear. There are an alarming number of people who cannot imagine a world beyond their front door."
Outside, another carriage rolled across the gravel, followed by the sound of cheerful voices beneath the open window.
Lady Hortensia glanced towards the garden. "That must be almost all of them." She rose, leaning lightly upon the arm of her chair rather than accepting Pritchard's offered assistance. "I am afraid I must attend to my other guests. There will be plenty of time for us to become better acquainted over the coming week."
She smiled first at Jane and then at Elizabeth. "I trust neither of you intends to make it easy for the gentlemen."
Elizabeth straightened her spine. "We shall certainly do our best."
"Excellent," said Lady Hortensia. "Between ourselves, I have rather high hopes for the ladies this year."
Chapter Five
Darcy took another sip of his lemonade and wished—for the third time in ten minutes—it were something stronger.
