A Continued Affection

Part 10

Mary held her breath. She was crouched in a corner, slouched low in a high-backed chair which afforded her complete privacy, as she had intended, and the ability to eavesdrop, unnoticed, on the two other occupants of the Gracechurch Street parlour, as she had not.

She did not believe she had ever heard her sister sound so downcast. I dare not hope any more, Aunt. I do not believe I could survive a second time to see it come to nothing. It was so unlike Elizabeth to speak with such melancholy that Mary could not even dare to rejoice in the fact that her suspicions were proved accurate. She had imagined Elizabeth and Mr Darcy to make a good match - she had never dared to think they had already once known each other!

She blinked, slowly, turning over this new detail in her mind and trying to imagine what might have happened. They had met before, then, she was left to deduce, but when? How? Then, slowly, the pieces began to fall into place. Elizabeth had spent a month in London as a guest of their aunt and uncle, some years ago now. That would explain Mrs Gardiner's knowledge of their acquaintance. But what, then, had happened to part them, if they were once so happily matched? Mary reached up a hand to her forehead, smoothing out the lines that thinking generated and realised she would have no way of understanding the whole from the little she knew. Gathering her courage, she decided that her only way forward would be to emerge from her cocoon and ask. Elizabeth would be angry, she supposed, and think that Mary had intended to spy on them, hiding away with the direct intention of listening to conversations that did not concern her. This was enough to halt Mary in her tracks and make her fold herself even tighter into her chair in an effort to remain invisible. She had been on the receiving end of Lizzy's temper too many times to seek it out, especially this evening.

No, I will remain where I am, she thought, straining to listen to the two ladies, who had, it seemed from the direction of their voices, stood and walked towards the door. As soon as they fell out of her hearing, Mary peeped around the arm of the chair and assured herself that they were gone. She might now step into the light and, if discovered, claim that she had just entered the room.

Her limbs were numb from being cramped into the chair and she took a circuit of the small parlour while feeling slowly came back to her feet and ankles, grateful for the movement that allowed her thoughts to flow with a little more clarity.

If Elizabeth and Mr Darcy were in love once before, they might be again, she thought. And this evening might be the very opportunity for it to happen! It would provide her with a useful distraction from her own concerns.

Nerves fluttered in her stomach at the thought of seeing Mr Egerton again and of being introduced to his second sister. Having found so firm a friend in the younger she could not help but fear the elder would dislike her, for Mary's life was one rife with disappointment and she could not help but half-expect one to find her now.

"Mary!" The door opened again and Mrs Gardiner stepped inside, stopping in surprise at seeing her niece before her. "I did not see you come in here! Oh, do not look so fearful! I am pleased to have found you. The others are congregating in the hall while my husband sees to our carriage. Dear me, you look a trifle pale, dear, are you quite well?"

"Yes," Mary said, her voice thin through lack of use. She swallowed and tried again, pleased to sound more like herself on a second try. "Yes, I am quite well. Aunt -" She felt a fleeting wish to confide all in her aunt, to admit that she had overheard the conversation that had lately passed between her and Elizabeth and ask her about it, but at the last moment her courage failed her and she said nothing.

"What is it, my dear?" Aunt Gardiner smiled, taking a step closer to her and lifting her eyebrows in curiosity. She darted a glance over one shoulder but satisfied herself that the rest of their party were fully occupied. "Is something the matter?"

"No," Mary said, with more decision than she truly felt. "I am merely a little nervous for this evening, I think."

"Nervous?" Mrs Gardiner laughed. "Whatever for? By all accounts, we shall know everybody present, and if Lydia and Kitty are to be believed you have made firm friends with these Egertons I keep hearing so much about." Her lips quirked in a smile, and she looked at Mary as if she understood, at a glance, where the problem lay. She slipped a companionable arm around her niece and steered her towards the door. "I should like you to tell me about them, for you know I am fond of meeting people and making new friends, particularly those who I have heard spoken of so highly. Mr Egerton has a sister, I believe."

"Two sisters," Mary said, grateful to have some topic other than Elizabeth to speak on, and hopeful that this would serve to promote a sense of companionability between her aunt and herself. She might ask Aunt Gardiner alter for some summary of what occurred between Elizabeth and Mr Darcy, if she had the opportunity. "I have only met one, the younger, although she is quite charming and very agreeable."

"A fine friend!" Mrs Gardiner exclaimed, hugging Mary a little closer. Mary reddened, thinking that her aunt seemed to know, without ever being told, that Mary had been often lonely as a child. Kitty had Lydia and Elizabeth had Jane, but she, Mary, was often left without a companion either within her family or without it. To have found a firm friend in Sally Egerton had been fortunate indeed, and that was even without her handsome, charming brother...

"And Mr Egerton. What of him?"

"Oh, he is..." Mary could not begin to put into words all she could say about Sidney Egerton. She did not need to have worried, though, for her aunt was looking at her very carefully and seemed to read in Mary's expression all she could not find the voice to explain. "He is very agreeable, too."

"Then I shall look forward to meeting them," Mrs Gardiner said, sweeping them both into the crowd of Mary's family, who were all speaking at once, fussing and fidgeting and certainly very ready to be on their way.