Chapter 39 Letters to Tomorrow #2
Miss Thorne looked from Darcy to Elizabeth before offering her hand.
“Then I must congratulate you, Miss Bennet. You have taken me quite by surprise. I had not heard Mr. Darcy was courting anyone.”
“Thank you, Miss Thorne. The engagement is very recent.”
Her mother joined them, and they were introduced.
“My daughter has known Mr. Darcy since she was a child. His mother was my close friend, and our estates share a border.”
Miss Thorne added, “Mr. Darcy and his cousins were always doing far more interesting things than I was permitted to do, Miss Bennet. Naturally, I followed them everywhere.”
She looked at Darcy. “I was eight, and you were ten, but I was as tall as you were and a better rider.”
Darcy laughed. “I remember it rather differently.”
Miss Thorne laughed with him.
Someone claimed her attention, and she and her mother excused themselves.
Elizabeth watched the young woman cross the room. She was not pretty, but there was something attractive in her frank manner, and Elizabeth found herself wishing to know her better.
“She is very pleasant, sir. Perhaps someday we will be friends.”
Dinner was announced soon afterward.
Elizabeth was seated close enough to Mr. Darcy to speak with him without neglecting those around her. She had not seen him among his Derbyshire neighbors and found herself watching him.
An older gentleman sought his opinion about drainage on one of his farms, and their host spoke to him about a horse he had recently acquired. A woman farther down the table asked after Georgiana.
These people had known Darcy since boyhood. He was at ease among them and clearly well respected.
During the second course, he glanced toward Elizabeth’s plate.
“You have eaten very little, Elizabeth. Do you dislike oysters?”
“I do, sir, and I have been trying not to look at them.”
Darcy moved the oysters to his other side and reached for the salmon. “Would you prefer this, darling?”
“Yes, thank you, sir.”
He served her before returning the dish. His eyes lingered on hers.
“It is my pleasure, Elizabeth.”
When she turned her attention from him, she found Miss Thorne watching them with fixed attention. Elizabeth acknowledged her with a slight inclination of her head before taking a bite of the salmon.
The conversation turned to books, and one of the gentlemen mentioned a recently published work. Elizabeth had read a favorable account of it but had not yet read the book herself.
“You have not read it yet, Elizabeth?” Darcy asked.
“No, sir, not yet.”
“I have a copy at Pemberley. Perhaps we can read it together.”
“I should like that very much, sir.”
His lips curved slightly.
When Elizabeth returned her attention to her plate, she noticed Miss Thorne across the table. The young woman was watching them again, but this time her expression was more thoughtful than curious. Their eyes met, and Miss Thorne lowered hers to her plate.
After dinner, the ladies withdrew to the drawing room. Miss Thorne sat beside Elizabeth.
“I hope you will forgive me for speaking plainly, Miss Bennet. Our families have known one another for years, and I have been at Pemberley more times than I can remember. Mr. Darcy’s mother was very kind to me when I was a child.
I suppose I always imagined Mr. Darcy would marry someone from Derbyshire. ”
She looked down at her hands.
“When I was fourteen, I decided that someone would be me. My mother knew what I hoped for, and I believe she hoped for it as well. There seemed no reason it could not happen, except that Mr. Darcy never gave any indication that he had considered it.”
Elizabeth began to understand.
Miss Thorne smiled a little. “You need not look so concerned. I am not about to weep over a hope I abandoned years ago. I am only surprised by what I have seen tonight.”
“I am sorry if the news of our engagement caused you pain.”
“It did not, though I confess it has shaken my pride. For years I wondered whether I might become the sort of woman Mr. Darcy would admire. I tried speaking less when he was near and once attempted to read a dreadful book because I had seen him carrying it.”
Elizabeth listened intently.
“I did not get beyond the fourth chapter. Eventually, I abandoned both the book and my efforts to become someone else.”
“I think you were wise.”
“I stopped expecting Mr. Darcy to notice me years ago. What surprised me tonight was discovering that I had been wrong about him.”
Miss Thorne raised her eyes to Elizabeth’s.
“I thought perhaps he was simply a cold, reserved man who paid little attention to such things because he considered them beneath his notice. But he does care, and he is thoughtful.”
“I have yet to meet a more thoughtful man than Mr. Darcy. He is an excellent brother to Georgiana, and I have every reason to believe he will be an excellent husband to me.”
Miss Thorne glanced toward the dining room doors.
“I used to think there must be something wanting in me because he never looked at me as I hoped he would. Tonight I discovered there was nothing wanting in either of us. He simply did not love me.”
The gentlemen began to enter the room, and the two women turned to watch them.
Darcy appeared among them, listening while their host spoke to him. His gaze moved across the company until he found Elizabeth.
He smiled and excused himself from his host.
Miss Thorne watched him cross the room.
“I spent years wondering what I might do to make him look at me in just that way. Now I know there was nothing I could have done.”
She rose before Darcy reached them.
“I hope we shall meet again, Miss Bennet. I believe I shall like you very much.”
“Thank you, Miss Thorne.”
Miss Thorne went to join her mother as Darcy took the chair beside Elizabeth.
Elizabeth placed her hand beside his on the settee and slipped her fingers beneath his.
Darcy looked down at their joined hands before closing his fingers around hers.
They remained that way while the conversation continued around them.
When the company rose to move to the music room, Darcy offered Elizabeth his arm, and they followed the others.
He led her to a place near the far end of the room and sat beside her. Elizabeth slipped her hand into his, and they fell into quiet conversation, giving no attention to anyone around them.