Suspense and Sensibility by Carrie Bebris

Author:Carrie Bebris [Bebris, Carrie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2009-01-15T05:00:00+00:00

A Dashwood indeed called at the Darcys’ townhouse the following day, but not Harry. Mrs. John Dashwood arrived as early as was socially acceptable, demanding to see Kitty. Elizabeth, who had been completing needlework in the parlor with Kitty, remained with her sister for moral support despite Fanny’s request for a private interview. Fanny’s displeasure, obvious upon her arrival, was compounded by Elizabeth’s polite unwillingness to abandon Kitty to a cozy tête-à-tête with her future mother-in-law.

Mrs. Dashwood accepted Elizabeth’s invitation to sit, but perched so far on the edge of her seat that Elizabeth mused whether enough chair supported Harry’s mother to keep her from sliding to the floor. Fanny managed, however, to maintain her balance, aided, no doubt, by the ramrod reinforcing her back.

“I have just left Harry in Pall Mall.” Apparently, this declaration ought to have furnished the sisters with sufficient explanation for Mrs. Dashwood’s present visit. They, however, required more clarification.

“I hope you left him well?” Kitty asked.

“I should say not!” Fanny scowled at Kitty as if she’d had something to do with it. Kitty melted into the sofa, holding her embroidery frame before her like a shield. Unfortunately, it lacked the power to deflect self-righteous indignation. “Oh, he was in high spirits, to be sure. But not well. Not behaving well at all!”

After the performance they’d witnessed the night before, Elizabeth could only imagine how Harry had treated the mother with whom he was already at odds. That was an exchange she wished she could have overheard.

“Since I returned to town, I have heard nothing but what a scapegrace my son is making of himself. I will not have him dragging the Dashwood name through the gutters of St. James’s, to become the latest on-dit at Almack’s. And I told him so. His aunt Lucy was there when I arrived, telling him the same thing.”

How delighted Mr. Dashwood must have been, to have two harridans descend upon him in the early hours to continue Darcy’s conduct lecture where it had left off the night before. That Lucy had taken it upon herself to correct Harry surprised Elizabeth, as she presumed Mrs. Ferrars was still trying to maneuver her daughter into his affections, but perhaps hope that Regina would one day share the Dashwood name had motivated her desire to preserve it.

“The whole house was at sixes and sevens!” Fanny continued, apparently neither requiring nor desiring another participant in the conversation. “Workmen coming in to dig some sort of larder under the cellar! They continually interrupted us. You would think, from the amount of instruction Harry was obliged to offer, that he had just hired them this morning to start the project! Then two footmen brought a portrait of that dreadful Sir Francis down from Harry’s chamber and on his orders started hanging it immediately—while we were sitting there conversing. The place was such a jumble I could scarcely hold his attention!”

“Mr. Dashwood has hung the portrait in his drawing room?” Elizabeth asked. She was starting to think Harry obsessed with his ancestor.

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