Free An Autumn Accord: A Pride and Prejudice Novella Variation (Seasons of Serendipity Book 4) by Elizabeth Ann West Page B

had on previous occasions.
    There could be little doubt if Mr. Bingley had opened his home, his sister must be in residence to play hostess. After spending the previous summer in Hertfordshire, Georgiana was less excited to visit again so soon and ruminated on how she might once again make apologies to her brother for her impertinent behavior.
    Elizabeth Darcy stoically gazed at both girls with a raised eyebrow, wondering what had occurred to make her husband change his mind about bringing them along to Meryton. She had yet to receive a straight answer from any of them and she would not let her pique over the change in accommodations diminish her desire for the truth.
    As she extended her hands in her lap and looked down at her midsection, Elizabeth did at least have the sense to realize she never told her husband about the particulars of Jane calling off her courtship with Mr. Bingley. But why had not the Matlocks shared the intelligence with him? Elizabeth’s heart ached as she wondered how Jane was faring so far away in Scotland. Her guilt distracted her so that the carriage arrived at Netherfield quicker than she had anticipated.
    The Darcy party, fussed over by both Bingleys, was heartily welcomed into a home all too familiar to Elizabeth. Nearly one year ago, she had walked through the same entryway with her skirts several inches deep with mud to inquire about Jane’s health. The toll that illness took on her family and the rest of the county still cut to the core of too many hearts. She and Jane both survived, thankfully, but lost their beloved father.
    As if perceiving emotion overwhelming her, Darcy gently grasped his wife’s hand as though to assist her up the many flights of steps. She had become so absentminded of late. She had utterly missed the discussions and arrangements for the two younger girls who were a surprise for both Caroline and Charles Bingley. Where the brother had taken it in stride, Elizabeth Darcy caught the last remnants of a sour look on Caroline’s face as she left the merry party to give instruction to the house staff to ready two more rooms.
    “ Mrs. Darcy, I must say you wear marriage well, Madame.” Charles Bingley greeted the wife of his closest friend without the slightest hesitation. Quite shocked he would grab her hand and bow over it, Elizabeth hastily pulled it back and glared at the man she once thought suitable for her older sister’s hand.
    “ We thank you, Mr. Bingley, for such hospitality with little warning. It is most kind of you to offer such amends.” Elizabeth said through clenched teeth, not caring for the effect of her words. The tips of Bingleys ears turned red and her husband made apologies for her exhaustion. Whisked above stairs to rest, Elizabeth Darcy pursed her lips as her husband fussed over her and gave instructions to her maid. The man’s officiousness was becoming quite clearly out of hand, but Elizabeth was not yet certain how to address it.
    “ Charles says we are to dine in two hours. I suspect there shall be a toasting to Caroline’s engagement with Lord Bergamot who I understand is also in residence but not present when we arrived.” Darcy said, gazing down at his diminutive wife.
    Elizabeth murmured a small noncommittal response, nodded to her husband and entered the chamber for her own use during her stay at Netherfield. While she would say she did not precisely close the door in Fitzwilliam’s face, the coldness of his wife was not unnoticed by Fitzwilliam Darcy.
    Clenching his fists outside of the door, he only moved when his valet poked his head out of the adjoining chamber to check upon his master’s progress. With more matters on his mind than Elizabeth’s anger at staying at Netherfield, Fitzwilliam Darcy decided the best course of action for such a stressful day was to restore his own mood, and then seek out restoring the mood of the women around him.
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    A timid knock on Catherine Bennet’s door