The Second Mrs Darcy. Elizabeth Aston

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       Chapter Five

      The next morning Octavia received an early visitor. She was still in bed, drinking a bowl of thick hot chocolate while Alice bustled about laying out her clothes for the day. Her visitor was a lively young woman, with a head of dark curls, roguish brown eyes, and a determined little chin.

      “Do you remember me?” she said, swirling into the room and perching herself on Octavia’s bed. “I’m your niece, Penelope.”

      “Heavens,” said Octavia, looking at the modish young lady. The last time she had seen Penelope was when she was a baby.

      “When you were in London doing the season, I was away in the countryside at a stuffy old boarding school,” said Penelope. “I’m eighteen now, and this year is my come-out, did Mama tell you?”

      Theodosia had mentioned it, saying that it was going to be a busy season for her and Augusta, with daughters to bring out. Where was Penelope? Octavia had enquired, to be told that she was paying a brief visit to the country, staying with Lord and Lady Osterby, in fact, whose daughter was Penelope’s friend. And now here she was, very grown up and assured.

      “Lady Adderley’s daughter Louisa is coming out as well, is she not?”

      Penelope frowned. “Yes. It’s a pity, since she is a great bore, apart from being so very beautiful, which I am not. That annoys Mama, although not Papa”—her face lit up—“who says he likes me just as I am, and so will any man of discernment and sense. Only,” she added, “I’m not sure I want to marry a man of discernment and sense. Your husband was a naval officer, was not he? It must be so exciting to go to sea!”

      “Yes, however I never did so, except to and fro across the ocean to India on East India Company vessels, which is not quite the same.”

      “I am sorry you lost Captain Darcy,” said Penelope, suddenly serious. “And when you had been married only two or three years, Mama said, and hardly seeing him all that while; that is the disadvantage of being married to a naval man, of course, although I know that Admiral Verney’s wife goes everywhere with him, she says her sea legs are better than her land ones. Oh dear, there I go again, mentioning legs, which Mama says I ought not to do.”

      “Why ever not?”

      “There are all kinds of things I mustn’t say and subjects I may not talk about. You’re going to stay with our cousin Ackworths, are not you?”

      “I am.”

      “I was there, in the autumn.”

      She fell silent, and Octavia wondered whether her experience of Hertfordshire had been a good or a bad one.

      Penelope soon told her, her face alight with the memory. “Oh, it was the greatest fun, although I had been ill and that was why I was sent there, to recover my health and spirits; Mama thought I would simply sit indoors and do nothing and go nowhere until my cough went. It was a shocking cough which irritated Mama’s nerves; in fact, that was why I was sent away, not really from any concern for my health. Mr. and Mrs. Ackworth are excellent people, very kind and not at all stuffy.” She gave Octavia a swift look from beneath her eyelids. “You do not know them, Papa says, and I dare say you are wondering if they are like—well, like Uncle Arthur or Aunt Augusta, but you need not fear, they are not. They go about a good deal, they know everyone, and I met … oh, such interesting people.”

      “In a small town in Hertfordshire? Is not society there somewhat—I should have thought it would be a limited circle.”

      Penelope was blushing. “Oh, there were not so many people there, but it was agreeable company, and I went to the assembly ball, which made Mama extremely cross when she heard of it, for I was not officially out, however Cousin Jane said a small-town assembly was neither here nor there and it would do me good to practise my dancing in company, for it is not the same as with the dancing master, not at all. And I danced every dance, it was delightful.”

      “So your cousins—our cousins—do not lead such a quiet life as your mama supposed?”

      “Oh, well, in comparison to London, of course—but I prefer the country. I would rather live in the country than in town.” She paused, biting her lip, then smiled. “Cousin Jane was used to be fond of dancing when she was young. She took me through the steps of the quadrille, again and again, so that I am now quite an expert. She said she and Cousin Hugh loved to dance, and she only wished they had had the waltz when she was a girl, as she thought it looked most exhilarating, much more enjoyable than minuets and country dances.”

      Octavia blinked. Why was Theodosia suggesting she go to Hertfordshire, to be out of the way, if the Ackworths were as Penelope said?

      “Mama and Aunt Augusta have no notion of what they are like,” Penelope confided. “They never visit there, for they think Meryton provincial and our cousins countrified and unfashionable. They are useful, to send us young ones down into the country when our mamas want to be rid of us, but they don’t realise what fun it is there. Louisa only went once, and she didn’t like it at all, she says the cousins are provincial, but I do not think they are, not at all.”

      So Penelope had a mind of her own, did she? And, although she said nothing that went beyond the line of what was acceptable, she clearly had no illusions and judged for herself. Octavia warmed towards her niece, with her blushes and her eyes bright with the memory of dancing and pleasure.

      Penelope slipped off the bed. “I can hear Grindley’s steps, she’s my maid. I expect Mama wants me to go out shopping or some such thing, and has left instructions as to what I am to wear. I have a new hat I bought myself, which I like very well, but she will say it is hideous, I dare say, and will be angry for me spending my allowance without her permission.”

      She whisked herself out of the room, leaving Octavia with her chocolate grown cold and her thoughts in a whirl. That chit had met someone she cared for in Hertfordshire, that was obvious, although she doubted if Theodosia had any inkling. But what she had to say about her cousins cheered her no end; she had been afraid of another Augusta, another Theodosia, and was relieved that they sounded quite unlike her sisters.

      Octavia rose СКАЧАТЬ