Read Second Glances: A Tale of Less Pride and Prejudice Continues (Tales of Less Pride and Prejudice) for Free Online Page B

to reject him?”
    “Al I suggest is that it would render my task easier, but I am trying to contain such unworthy instincts. I have known the man, through Sir James, for many years, yet at the moment I am afraid that I quite want to wring his neck.”
    “The essential point is that you do not,” smiled Elizabeth. “Sometimes I wonder if we parted with Mrs. Annesley too soon. The task of chaperoning is a great deal more complex than I had imagined.”
    “You are too tired,” he questioned, studying her closely.
    Surprised, she replied, “Not at all!”
    “Good! You are doing an excellent job, you know,” he reassured her, “and Mrs. Annesley is extremely content with her new charges. Did you read her letter to Georgiana?”
    “Yes, and she does sound very well situated.”
    “Her pupils are just the right age to benefit from her expertise. I am very pleased we found her such a suitable situation, but do not think you have diverted me: what specifically did Sir James do to so quickly reveal himself a “merry wanderer of the night” to you?”
    “I never implied anything of the sort,” Elizabeth defended herself. “He just seemed to take a rather cold delight in Kitty’s schoolroom manners, or at least I first supposed, but Georgiana caused me to wonder if there wasn’t something more to it. Could they have met before?”
    “Sir James has been rather retired from society these past years, preferring travel and the company of his horses to town. He does have an aunt living near Bath, but I can’t imagine him parading through the Pump Room and taking the waters, if that is what you had in mind. What makes you think they have met?”
    “There seemed to be something known only to the two of them, like a private joke, only Kitty did not find it in the least amusing.”
    Mr. Darcy frowned. “His manners can be disconcerting, though I have always known him to be a thorough gentleman.”
    “Yes, he very civilly asked Kitty to dance at the Huntington’s ball. I just hope she comports herself better than she did this morning.”
    “Kitty will do very well,” he reassured her. They went on to discuss other matters of little import, one unspoken subject always bubbling beneath the mundane, but potential excitement aside, Mr. Darcy was determined to be perfect in his responsibilities to Miss Bennet, and it seemed this required close observation of her interactions with Sir James. He trusted his friend, but he also had great faith in his wife’s power of perception. If something was amiss, he wanted to be sure it did not take him by surprise.
     
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    The ladies rose early, anxious to get on with another long day of shopping. They had already made such good headway on gowns, both morning and evening, and purchased so many bonnets that Kitty feared writing to Lydia – and, by extension, to her mother – on the subject, so as not to incur her jealousy, though it was just what both would find most interesting. Two redingotes, three pelisses, several pairs of slippers and two pairs of the loveliest half-boots Kitty had ever seen: in summation, they had accomplished all the most diverting shopping the day before, leaving an intimidating list of underthings, outer things, and countless accessories to still be conquered. They also set about procuring Kitty a very fine riding habit. It set her off her quite well, she knew, but feared such finery was ill-suited to a display of her inferior skills upon horseback. She was used to riding only Nelly, a thoroughly sedate creature, when her father could spare her from the farm. It was not until she visited Pemberley, the previous summer, and once more since on an outing in Bath, that she had ever encountered a highly bred steed, and she did not believe Hyde Park the most comfortable setting to test her seat once more. But, if she must make a spectacle of herself, and Georgiana was insistent that she should, it was somewhat reassuring to know she would at least make a