Page 87 of Twice Chosen

Darcy looked pained. "I feared you would say that."

"You must listen to more horses."

"Cruel woman."

"Improvement requires sacrifice."

Lydia's coming Brighton invitation hovered over Elizabeth long before it arrived. That was the trouble with remembering. An ordinary letter from Mrs. Forster could become a loaded pistol before anyone else knew it existed.

Elizabeth began watching Lydia too closely.

Lydia noticed.

"Why do you keep looking at me?"

"I don't."

"You do. At breakfast. In Meryton. Yesterday when I talked to Lieutenant Carter."

Elizabeth folded a handkerchief. "Perhaps you are interesting."

Lydia snorted. "You used to think I was annoying."

The truth hurt.

"Sometimes I did."

Lydia looked startled by the admission.

Elizabeth continued, "Sometimes you were."

"Lizzy!"

"So was I."

Lydia laughed. "You still are."

"Exactly."

The ease returned, but Elizabeth kept thinking afterward about the line between watching and hovering. She knew the shape of Lydia's old disaster, but Lydia did not deserve to spend a year under suspicion for a mistake she had not made.

So Elizabeth changed strategy. Instead of warning Lydia away from every officer, she invited her on walks where they spoke about attention, attraction, and what Lydia actually wanted from society.

The conversations were rarely profound.

Once Lydia said, "I want everyone to think I am the prettiest girl in the room."

Elizabeth laughed. "Everyone?"

"Most people."

"And if they don't?"

Lydia considered. "Then they have poor taste."

Elizabeth laughed harder.

But another day Lydia admitted, "I hate when Kitty is noticed first."