Page 134 of Twice Chosen

That distinction changed everything.

She met Captain James Howard at Pemberley during a summer house party. He had recently sold out after a leg injury left him unable to remain on active service. He was thirty, possessed a modest inheritance, a dry sense of humor, and a face handsome enough that Elizabeth distrusted him immediately.

Darcy found this hilarious.

"You are prejudiced," he told her after the first dinner.

Elizabeth stood before the mirror in their dressing room removing an earring. "Be quiet."

"He has done nothing."

"He is handsome."

"So am I."

She turned. "You were dangerous."

Darcy looked pleased. "Were?"

Elizabeth threw the earring cloth at him.

Captain Howard did not adore Lydia instantly.

This fascinated her.

Their first disagreement concerned horses. Lydia declared one of Darcy's young mares too spirited for ordinary riders. Howard said the mare was merely poorly exercised.

"You are wrong," Lydia informed him.

Howard looked at the animal and then at Lydia. "Possibly. But not because you say so."

Lydia stared.

Elizabeth, watching from the terrace, nearly choked on her tea.

Howard explained himself. Lydia argued. He listened. She argued better. He changed half his opinion and said so.

That evening Lydia came to Elizabeth's room without knocking, threw herself into a chair, and announced, "Captain Howard told me I was wrong."

Elizabeth looked up from a letter. "How dare he?"

"Exactly."

"Was he right?"

Lydia frowned. "Partly."

"Disgraceful."

Lydia laughed. "He explained himself."

Elizabeth smiled slowly. "Dangerous indeed."

Howard courted Lydia for a year.

Not continuously. They quarreled twice. Once Lydia refused to speak to him for nearly three weeks because he had criticized an officer friend too sharply. Howard later admitted he had been jealous and apologized without pretending jealousy excused him.

That mattered to Elizabeth.