Read Suspense and Sensibility Or, First Impressions Revisited: A Mr. & Mrs. Darcy Mystery for Free Online

know you came here from America, but I did not realize you were so well traveled." Upon reflection, there was much she didn’t know about Professor Randolph.
    "This would mark my third expedition to the sites of those ancient civilizations."
    She rang for tea. As they waited for the refreshments, he enquired after her and Darcy. She reported that they’d enjoyed a quiet sojourn at Pemberley since the archaeologist had last seen them.
    "You appear happy," he 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