Page 236

“I am sure anybody might be impatient after so long a journey,” Mrs. Bennet said. “Where is Jane? Is she well? And the dear child?”

“Both well, Mama. Jane is waiting in the drawing room.”

Lydia and Kitty descended from the second carriage before their mother’s maid could collect her belongings. Elizabeth received two more embraces, a complaint about the cold, and a demand to know which window was hers.

“The window will wait,” she said. “You must meet Mr. Darcy.”

Lydia turned at once. Kitty looked suddenly conscious of her bonnet.

Darcy greeted each of them with a composure which Elizabeth admired more as Lydia’s questions multiplied. Was the lake frozen? Might they walk round it? Had the Colonel arrived? Was that the dog?

Sir settled the last question by appearing upon the threshold and pushing his nose into her muff.

“Oh! He is enormous.”

“He has been told so,” Elizabeth said. “It has done nothing to check him.”

Darcy called the dog back. Sir obeyed for long enough to allow the visitors inside, then followed Kitty’s skirts with an interest which she found flattering until Elizabeth explained that he had once discovered a biscuit in a visitor’s pocket.

“I have no biscuit.”

“He likes to be certain.”

Mrs. Reynolds appeared to conduct the servants and luggage upstairs. Elizabeth saw her father’s gaze move from the housekeeper to Darcy, then rest upon her. He smiled, and she went to him while her younger sisters were occupied by the staircase.

“Well, Papa?”

“You appear to have managed without us.”

“Only with great difficulty.”

“I am glad to hear it. Your letters had begun to suggest that you were quite happy.”

She put her arms about him again, though she had kissed him at the door.

“I am. But I wanted you here.”

He held her a little longer than usual.

“Then we must make the most of our visit before you remember how peaceful the house was.”

The drawing room supplied no opportunity for peace. Jane received her sisters’ congratulations as though the baby were a recent arrival for which she could take no more credit than for a guest’s journey. Charles, who had no such reserve, described his son’s improved ability to look at people until Lydia asked whether he had been refusing to do so before.

Mary bent over the child with a tenderness which made Elizabeth wish she had been there sooner. Kitty whispered that his hands were so small. Lydia wanted to hold him and was persuaded to sit down first.

Colonel Fitzwilliam entered during the negotiation. He made his bow to Mrs. Bennet, greeted Mr. Bennet, and waited while Elizabeth introduced her sisters.

Lydia examined him with immediate approval. “We had heard you were coming.”

“I hope you were given a favourable account.”

“Lizzy scarcely described you at all.”

“She had not met me.”

“She might have asked somebody.”

“I shall endeavour to repair the omission in person.”