Easter. I suspect it was to put me on my guard, and warn
me that I must not expect an offer from him.’
‘What arrogant men we are! Both of us thinking you
wanted an offer from us!’
‘Perhaps I did want one from the Colonel,’ she teased
me.
‘My love, I warn you that I am a jealous husband. I
will ban my cousin from Pemberley unless you tell me
this minute that you did not want an offer from him,’ I
returned.
‘Very well, I did not. But Anne, I think, does.’
‘It might not be a bad thing,’ I said. ‘In fact, the more
I think of it, the more I am pleased with it.’
‘Lady Catherine, too, will be pleased.’
‘So you are encouraging it to please Lady Catherine?’
I asked her innocently.
‘Mr Darcy, you are becoming as impertinent as your
wife!’ she teased me.
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‘But I am not so sure Lady Catherine will approve,’ I
said thoughtfully.
‘She cannot complain about his birth.’
‘Perhaps not, but he is a younger son, and impoverished,’ I reminded her.
‘But Anne’s fortune is big enough for two.’
‘My cousin has no house.’
‘He will live at Rosings,’ she said.
‘Sending Lady Catherine to the dower house.’
‘Whereas, if you had married Anne, she would have
been the mistress of Pemberley, and Lady Catherine
would have continued to be the mistress of Rosings.’
We both of us imagined how Lady Catherine would
react when she learnt that she would have to move to the
dower house.
‘Do you think Anne will find the courage to stand up
to her mother?’ I asked.
‘It will be interesting to see.’
Thursday 25th December
Little did I think, when I celebrated Christmas with
Georgiana in London last year, that the next time I celebrated it I would be married. Pemberley is looking very
festive. Greenery is twined round the banisters, whilst
holly, thick with red berries, adorns the pictures and
mistletoe hangs from the chandeliers.
We awoke to a smell of baking, and after breakfast
we attended church.The weather was so fine that Elizabeth, Jane, Bingley and I decided to walk to the church
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whilst the rest of our guests were conveyed there by
carriage.
‘This reminds me of the walks we took when Jane and
I were newly engaged,’ said Bingley, as we crunched the
frost beneath our feet, ‘although then it was not so cold.’
‘You and Jane were in the happy position of being
acknowledged lovers.You could spend your time talking
to each other and ignoring everyone else, whilst Elizabeth and I could not even sit together.’
‘But you managed to become lost in the country lanes
whenever we were out of doors,’ said Bingley with a
smile.
‘The lanes were very useful,’ said Elizabeth.
‘And our mother helped you a great deal, by insisting
you occupied that man,’ said Jane.
‘I have never been so mortified in my life,’ said Elizabeth, but she was laughing as she said it.
We came to the church and went in. Our guests were
already assembled, and no sooner did we enter than the
service began. It was lively and interesting, full of the
good cheer of the occasion. Lady Catherine complained
about the hymns, the sermon, the candles and the prayer
books, but I am persuaded that everyone else was uplifted
by the service.
We had a splendid dinner, and afterwards we played at
charades. Caroline chose Colonel Fitzwilliam as her partner, but Elizabeth thwarted her efforts to claim his attention later in the evening by inviting him to open the
dancing with Anne. They made a lively couple, and
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disproved Lady Catherine’s dire warnings that Anne
would suffer a coughing fit.
Kitty danced with Mr Hurst, and even Mary was persuaded to take to the floor, though she protested that
dancing was not a rational activity and declared that she
would much rather read a book.
When all our guests had retired, we went upstairs.
‘Tired?’ I asked.
For answer, she lifted her hand above her head, and I
saw she was holding a sprig of mistletoe.
Monday 29th December
Our party broke up this morning. Lady Catherine and
Anne were the first to leave, accompanied by Colonel
Fitzwilliam. Elizabeth had hoped to hear of an engagement, but although Fitzwilliam and Anne have spent a
great deal of time in each other’s company, nothing has
been said.
The Bennets went next. Last to leave were Jane and
Bingley.
‘You must come and visit us at Netherfield,’ said Jane.
‘And bring Georgiana,’ said Bingley.
We have promised to go and see them before too
long.
At last we had the house to ourselves.
‘It is very pleasant to have guests,’ I said, as the last carriage departed. ‘But it is even better to see them go.’
We returned to the drawing-room. Georgiana and
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ple we had seen. Georgiana ventured a humorous remark
about Lady Catherine and then looked at me to see if I
had been offended. On seeing my face, her own relaxed.
She has lost much of her shyness, and is on the way to
becoming an open and confident young woman. For
this, as for so many things, I have to thank Elizabeth.
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March
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Wednesday 4th March
Mr and Mrs Collins arrived this morning, and are to stay
for a week. They thought it best to leave Kent as Lady
Catherine is in a rage. She has just learnt that Anne is to
marry Colonel Fitzwilliam.
‘Her ladyship was not unhappy with the idea at first,
although she graciously confided in me that she would
rather have had a man of fortune as a son-in-law. But the
estimable Colonel has an old and revered name, and she
magnanimously thought it fitting that he should ally
himself with her own, most esteemed, branch of the family. She was condescending enough to give her
