Page 35 of The Cherry Trees of Rosings
Colonel Fitzwilliam simply “hmm-ed”.
Then he said, “Perhaps I shall tell him once I have satisfied my curiosity. You could act as our intermediary, could you not? I would like to ask him a few questions first.”
Elizabeth sighed.
“Yes, I can do that. But I do not know when Mr. Darcy will appear.”
“Well then, one can only hope Darcy will make an appearance sooner rather than later.”
Elizabeth rolled her eyes and looked away.
Colonel Fitzwilliam very much still believed she was a fraud.
Chapter 23:
Idyll
Later that day when Elizabeth had a moment to herself, she leaned against the window in her room and chewed on her lips.
Mr. Darcy had made an appearance near the end of her walk. But the task of being an intermediary had not gone as smoothly as she had hoped.
…not between Colonel Fitzwilliam’s open suspicion of everything she conveyed and Mr. Darcy’s rapid frustrations at his “pig-headed cousin”.
But she had bigger problems.
Lady Catherine had sent new summons as usual.
She wished everyone at the parsonage to join her at Rosings later that evening and stay for dinner. Elizabeth was certain she would create a spectacle of the grandest proportions—with thehelp of Mr. Collins’ endless sycophantism—to convince Colonel Fitzwilliam to take her and Miss de Bourgh wherever Mr. Darcy was hidden away. Elizabeth did not wish to suffer through hours of that.
Not that she had a choice.
Her mind wandered to the unfinished letter for Miss Darcy.She was beginning to have an awful suspicion in the depths of her stomach. Especially with Mr. Darcy’s appearances so unpredictable these days.And so much shorter.
Colonel Fitzwilliam’s tight-lipped stance did not bode well either. Elizabeth was afraid that she would see Mr. Darcy for the last time any day now.
She squeezed her eyes shut.
The perfect idyll outside her window was no longer comforting.
Chapter 24:
Crescendo
“But that is unacceptable!”
Lady Catherine stabbed the carpeted floor repeatedly with her walking staff. Her voice was rather shrill that day, though it had not lost any of her domineering strength.
“I have never been subjected to such mistreatment! And you know right well, nephew, I will not begin now!”
“There is always a first time,” Colonel Fitzwilliam said.
He was the picture of nonchalance.
In fact, he looked so unbothered that Elizabeth wondered if he was truly bored or simply putting on an act. She eyed him from her seat on the opposite side of the parlour.
Perhaps it was to be expected. Lady Catherine was more than what most could bear.
“On my life, I have never!”
