Page 84 of What Change Entails

“Cowardice.”

Elizabeth smothered a laugh quickly, shoulders shaking.

Darcy accepted defeat.

Half an hour later, even Miss Bingley had been forced into the game by Bingley’s persistence. She performed elegantly and without enthusiasm. Lydia applauded with enough vigor to border on insult.

Then came reading aloud.

Rain darkened the afternoon steadily until lamps were lit despite the hour. The party gathered in the smaller drawing room where the fire burned hotter and conversation carried more intimately through the space.

Mrs. Gardiner worked embroidery. Mr. Gardiner dozed intermittently. Bingley stretched across one sofa like an overgrown schoolboy. Georgiana sorted sheet music near the pianoforte. Lydia occupied the carpet beside Horace.

Elizabeth sat near the fire with a book open in her lap.

Darcy tried not to watch her.

He failed.

The firelight transformed her completely. Her face was bathed in warmth and shadow. Loose strands of hair escaped near her temple where the damp weather had defeated stricter arrangement. Occasionally, she pressed one finger absently against the corner of the page while listening to the conversations around her.

Miss Bingley noticed his distraction, eventually.

That was inevitable.

“Miss Eliza,” she said smoothly, “you have scarcely spoken this half hour. The novel must be very compelling indeed.”

Elizabeth acknowledged her calmly. “It improves considerably when uninterrupted.”

Bingley barked laughter.

Miss Bingley’s fan snapped open.

Darcy lowered his head to hide amusement.

Lydia abandoned the carpet. “What is the novel? Is there murder?”

“There is inheritance.”

“That is much the same thing in novels.”

Mrs. Gardiner coughed delicately into her handkerchief.

Georgiana crossed toward Elizabeth then, sheet music in hand. “Would you turn pages for me later? Miss Lydia insists I must play the Scottish air.”

“It is because she butchered it yesterday,” Lydia added.

“I improved the ending.”

“You lost the melody halfway through.”

“I replaced it with confidence.”

Darcy watched Elizabeth accept the music pages from Georgiana.

Their hands brushed lightly.

Nothing remarkable.