Read Mr and Mrs Darcy 02 Suspense & Sensibility for Free Online

said, "which I am glad to witness
after the troubling events that transpired right after your marriage. Do you
still have the amulet?"
    "Indeed, yes. I would not part with such a generous present."
When she'd first met the professor, he'd carried a silver pocket-watch with
ancient protective symbols he'd specially commissioned engraved upon it. Following
their ordeal at Netherfield, he'd given it to her.
    "Do you carry it on you?"
    She felt a pang of conscience. "No," she confessed. "But
please don't think it goes unvalued. I keep it safely in a drawer. I am afraid
my husband does not care for the sight of it."
    Randolph chuckled. "I am little surprised. He does not seem to be a
man who possesses much tolerance for things he does not himself believe in."
    "Either that, or he prefers gold timepieces to silver." They
shared a smile. Then she added, "Mr. Darcy, like many people, trusts only
what he can observe with his own five senses."
    "And you?"
    The arrival of tea prevented immediate reply. She was more willing than
her husband to accept the inexplicable, to concede that science had limitations
and that sometimes the ability to see a thing had nothing to do with eyesight.
She had long relied on instinct in addition to reason when forming judgments
and making decisions. In her experience, an impression unsupported by objective
evidence could nevertheless be accurate. But she'd also seen some of her
impressions proven false in the end, and so hesitated to place all her faith in
them.
    "I believe in intuition," she said when the servant withdrew, "but
I know it is not infallible."
    "Many people - women especially - are perceptive," the
professor said. "But you seem unusually so. It may merely be that your acknowledgment
of the unknown makes you more aware of subtleties that can be observed
but that go unnoticed by those who do not look. In any event, don't be afraid
to trust your intuition. Or to carry the amulet, if it won't cause trouble with
Mr. Darcy. You never know when it might come in handy - if only to keep track
of the hour."
    The sound of another carriage pulling up brought the breathless entrance
of Kitty a moment later.
    "Lizzy, he is here!" Kitty stopped short upon realizing that
the archaeologist was still in the room.
    "Miss Bennet." Randolph rose and bowed.
    She made a hurried curtsy. "Lizzy, Mr. Dashwood climbs the stairs
even now!"
    "Gracious, Kitty With you to announce all our callers today, I
should have given Mrs. Hale the day off."
    The long-anticipated gentleman appeared at last in their drawing room.
He greeted Elizabeth warmly, then had eyes only for Kitty. He took her offered
hand. "It is a pleasure to see you again, Miss Bennet. I would have come
sooner, but my mother summoned me to Harley Street this morning and has
occupied me all afternoon. I hastened here directly I concluded with her."
    Kitty's smile suggested that she would have forgiven Mr. Dashwood a
detour to the moon, now that he was finally come. "Of course your mother
has a superior claim on your time." She went to the sofa, where he sat
down beside her. "I was so happily occupied in recalling our dances last
evening, I hardly noticed the hour."
    Elizabeth refrained from observing that Kitty's serene reflections on
the previous evening's entertainment had nearly worn out the carpet. She instead
introduced Mr. Dashwood to Professor Randolph. "Mr. Randolph is an
archaeologist with the British Museum," she said.
    "Indeed?" With apparent reluctance, he withdrew his gaze from
Kitty to afford the archaeologist something that passed for polite interest. "Do
you dig up old bones? Mummies? That sort of thing?"
    "I prefer to leave the dead at rest. My interest lies primarily in
art and ritual objects."
    "Why, then, I should have you out to Norland sometime to have a
look through my attics. There are all sorts of musty old items gathering
cobwebs up there."
    "I think his studies tend toward more ancient artifacts,"
Elizabeth said. "Do they not,