Free Mr. Darcy's Daughters by Elizabeth Aston

father’s appointment in the Gazette. So you are left in Lady Fanny’s care, are you? She knows how to go on well enough and will keep a close eye on your sisters, you may be sure, if one is needed.”
     
    No one mentioned the name of Busby at dinner, although Camilla felt sure it was on the tip of more than one tongue, and Fanny could hardly eat a mouthful for fear that something would occur to overset Letitia’s admirable poise; surely she was too serene, too well behaved, such a contrast to the scenes upstairs.
    For Camilla’s part, she had no worries about Letty while she was in company. Her sister had a slightly tragic look about her, the air of one acquainted with suffering, but only when she was not being addressed, and she felt quite sure that her party manners would carry her through the evening—at least they would if everyone behaved as well as they had so far. For she was sure they all knew the story, and that they were all, overtly or covertly, eyeing Letty to see how she was bearing up.
    Camille gave Fanny a reassuring smile and turned her attention back to Mr. Portal, who was being most entertaining about elephants. Dinner drew to a close, the covers were drawn, and finally the ladies left the men to their port and withdrew to the drawing room on the first floor of the house.
    Fanny headed off Lady Warren, who had made a beeline for Letitia upon their entering the room. Mrs. Rowan took in the situation at a glance and moved over to join Letitia on the sofa. The twins headed for the pianoforte at the far end of the room and began to play duets in a careless way, quite uninterested in impressing such an exclusively female gathering.
    With another sharp glance in Letitia’s direction, Lady Warren came across to Camilla, whose heart sank as her disagreeable companion resumed her interrupted interrogation. She felt that it would be almost impossible to stem the tide of impertinent questions and assertions from this clever, determined woman, with her pushing and forceful ways; impossible, that was, without replying to her in such a way as must horrify Fanny. Lady Warren was, after all, a guest in this house.
    “Your father, of course, was quite one of my beaux in the old days. Your mother is related to the Gardiners, is she not?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “One may meet the Gardiners everywhere these days, or almost everywhere. I do not believe their daughter has vouchers for Almacks, although I may be mistaken; I do not recall ever having seen her there. She is engaged to Mr. Wytton, a good catch for her, I must say, an old and distinguished family, and there is the abbey, of course.”
    For a moment, Camilla lost the thread of what Lady Warren was saying. Abbey? Gothic visions of hooded monks crowded into her mind, and then she pulled herself together. Was Mr. Wytton rich enough to buy an abbey, as the saying was, or did he possess one? She didn’t like to ask, but Lady Warren soon enlightened her. “In the family since the time of the Dissolution; of course, I wonder how Miss Sophie will go on in such a place, it is hardly what she has been used to.”
    Vulgar woman! she thought, answering with no more than a polite smile.
    Lady Warren didn’t care to see her arrows go astray. “They say Wytton’s mother is not happy with the match, not happy at all. There is no more to it than the money, so they say.”
    “I believe Mr. Wytton to be very sincerely attached to my cousin,” she said coldly.
    “Ninety thousand pounds is a consideration indeed. He is a rich man on his own account, but they say he neglects his estate to go on these jaunts abroad, and he mounts expeditions, you know. To out-of-the way places, and underground, too.”
    “Underground, ma’am? Does he indeed go on expeditions underground?”
    Lady Warren’s eyes were icy, her laugh tinkling. “I mean, he sets men to digging up old pots and relics. It is very costly, digging up such things.”
    “But rewarding from the point