A Continued Affection

Part 6

"...and then, I think we should take tea by the river, followed by the assembly..." Lydia was reading aloud from a paper that listed all the entertainments she sought to cram into their short visit to London.

"Yes!" Kitty agreed, leaning closer that she might view the list herself and offer her own suggestions. Lydia elbowed her sister away, angling the sheet so that it was just out of reach.

Sensing a fight was about to break out between his two youngest daughters, Mr Bennet looked up from the corner he had occupied all morning, laying down his book just long enough to fix his eye upon Lydia and suggest that she might care to consider occupations that might improve her mind as well as her social circle.

"Quite so, Papa," Lydia agreed, shooting a wicked look in Mary's direction. "There is a lecture on Tuesday, we must work that into our plan."

"Really?" Kitty frowned, surprised to hear such a suggestion come from merry Lydia's lips.

"It is about the service unmarried women might offer to society - Mary, something that will surely appeal to you!"

Both Kitty and Lydia burst into enthusiastic laughter and Mary kept her eyes fixed on her sewing, trying to ignore the sting of her sisters' teasing. Mr Bennet harrumphed, the closest he would come to a reprimand, for he was no disciplinarian, particularly where Lydia was concerned.

"Mary." Mrs Gardiner was seated beside her on the settee, and whilst she did not speak out in her defence, she sided with her shy niece in the face of such mockery from her sisters. "What should you like to do with your time in London?" She watched her stitch in silence for a moment before continuing, as if the thought had only just occurred to her. "There is bound to be some concert or other taking place. Lydia, perhaps you would be kind enough to look for us, for I am sure I should like some new music and perhaps I might persuade Mr Gardiner to take us both, Mary, if your sisters are not interested..."

"What use is music unless one may dance to it?" Lydia asked, breathless from laughter. Still, she obediently turned the page and listed off a selection of concerts and musical recitals that were to take place all across the city in the next few days, offering her own, unsolicited, opinion over which should be preferable.

"There!" Mrs Gardiner smiled, and Mary at last laid down her sewing to attend to her. "Which of those appeal to you, my dear, and I shall ask Mr Gardiner to get us tickets?"

"I do not know," Mary hedged. She would happily go to any - or all! - but something held her back from agreeing to anything that would keep her long from home. She would not say as much within hearing of Lydia or Kitty, for any admission of her true motive for being in London would doubtless merit teasing, at best, or interference, at worst. Secretly, Mary wished to be at home in case of callers, for she dared to hope she might have one. If not Mr Egerton, then perhaps his sister, and it was so rare that anybody should call wishing to see Mary that she certainly was not about to miss the opportunity to receive them.

"Mary shan't wish to stir from home for a moment," Lydia declared, with a sly smile adorning her catlike features. "Not when there is the possibility of gentlemen callers!"

"Oh?" A smile haunted Mrs Gardiner's lips as if she detected some news she was not yet privy to. One glance at Mary's reddening cheeks wiped the expression, though, and she frowned at her Lydia before turning bodily away from her, placing herself physically, as well as metaphorically, between her two nieces.

"I did not realise you had friends in London, Mary! Well, in that case certainly do not let us make too many plans." She paused, tilting her head to one side. "I dare say you should much rather attend a concert with them than with your ageing aunt, in any case -"

"Oh, no!" Mary protested, straightening in her seat and hurrying to answer her aunt with enthusiasm for the kindness she had shown. "I should like to attend a concert with you, only, I do not know which you would prefer." She smiled, grateful for the support Aunt Gardiner offered her, surprised and a little pleased to be singled out for a treat. "You choose, Aunt, and I will happily accompany you to any."

"Wonderful!" Mrs Gardiner brightened, then, dismissing Lydia's teasing as merely that, and trusting that, if there were secrets to be shared, she would successfully wheedle them from Mary's lips when they were together, without an audience.

There was a knock at the door, then, disturbing the relative peace of the parlour only long enough for a servant to bring in a small stack of letters that Mrs Gardiner expertly sorted through, leaving most for her husband but lifting one, addressed to herself and a second, addressed to the Bennets. She noted the matching handwriting on each, and broke the seal on hers, scanning its contents with a strange half-smile.

"What is it, Auntie?" Lydia asked, deploying the same cloying sweetness she usually reserved as penance when she had been caught in some wrongdoing and wished to win back favour. "Good news?"

"An invitation!" Mrs Gardiner declared. "And it looks as if one has come to you, too. Mr Bennet?"

"Oh, let Mary read it." Mr Bennet had hidden once more between the covers of his book and cared little to be disturbed.

Lydia huffed at not being allowed to read it herself and was composing some speech about the cruelty of life that all treats should come to Mary, who did nothing at all to deserve them, when Mary, whose quick eyes had digested the contents of the note in half a moment, let out a gasp.

"Well, you might share what it says with all of us," Lydia exclaimed, unable to conceal her irritation any longer. "The note was addressed to Papa, wasn't it?"

"It is Mr Darcy," Mary declared, reluctant to speak of him without Elizabeth, Jane and their mother present. "Or rather, Miss Darcy." She squinted at the elegant hand, determining it did, indeed, belong to a young lady whose existence they had before now only speculated over. "She writes to invite us to dine with herself, her brother and some friends." She glanced at her aunt, frowning shrewdly. "Did you receive the same invitation?"

Mrs Gardiner nodded, smiling at the promised enjoyment.

"I did not know you were acquainted with Mr Darcy, Aunt!" Kitty remarked, at last seeing her chance to prise the newspaper from Lydia's vice-like grip and moving away so that she might devour its contents unmolested.

"I have met him once or twice," Mrs Gardiner said, vaguely. Her expression clouded a moment before brightening. "Of course, I knew his father. Pemberley is not so very far from Lambton, you see -"

"So we are to dine with Mr Darcy and his sister," Lydia sighed, caring little to hear of Mrs Gardiner's childhood, or of any other Darcy than the one she knew, and did not much like. "What a dull evening that shall be! And we have so few evenings here to spare." She pulled a face. "What a pity!"

"He is to entertain friends as well, Lydia," Mr Bennet said, sharply. "I am sure you shall find one amongst them to please you. And you have not yet met his sister. Perhaps she will be of one mind -"

"One mind with him, I don't doubt. How dreary!"

"I think it will be a fine evening," Mary said, stoutly. In truth, she rather dreaded it, herself, for Mr Darcy's perpetual scowl frightened her. But she thought of Elizabeth and how she had privately planned to match her sister with the austere but clever Mr Darcy. This might be the very opportunity she had wished for! And if he was to invite friends, that would surely include Mr Bingley, too. She brightened, thinking that this would be a valuable use of one of their evenings, indeed. Far more so than dancing and drinking, as Lydia would prefer.

"Mary! How much improved you look at the promise of this dinner. Why, if I knew that was all it took to have you smile, I might have suggested we invite your friends here!"

Mary's smile dimmed considerably at this suggestion, but not before Lydia looked her way, her lips curving upwards in a curious smile.