A Wife for Mr. Darcy

both broad abeam.”
    “I have never met Lady Catherine,” Lizzy said, ignoring the colonel’s comment about his aunt’s girth, “but I might possibly in the near future, as my good friend, Charlotte Lucas, is to marry her vicar in a week’s time. I understand he is invited to Rosings Park every Thursday for the purpose of editing his sermons, and he is asked to stay for supper.”
    “Good God! You are a relation to Mr. Coggins?”
    “His name is Mr. Collins, and he is my father’s cousin. I do not know him very well as he has visited Longbourn only a few times.”
    “This is astounding!”
    “That your family and mine have a connection through Mr. Collins?”
    “No, that his sermons are edited—certainly not for length.”
    “Colonel Fitzwilliam, you are making me laugh when I should not.”
    “You must understand, Miss Elizabeth, that one needs a sense of humor in order to have an aunt such as Lady Catherine. I have never met anyone who knows so little about so many things and is more than willing to speak about them at length, and her influence is felt far beyond Rosings Park.”
    “Is she in the commission of the peace?”
    “No, but she is an active magistrate in her own parish, and whenever her tenants are quarrelsome, discontented, or too poor, she goes forth into the village to settle their differences, silence their complaints, and scold them into harmony and plenty.”
    “Mr. Collins shared a great deal about your aunt and Miss de Bourgh during his visit to Longbourn.”
    “If Mr. Collins was truthful, then you know that mother and daughter are like night and day, Anne representing the day. Unlike her mother, Anne knows a lot about a lot of things and has a wonderful wit. Unfortunately, she is very frail and travels little. I hope you will have an opportunity to meet her because you would get on very well.”
    By that time, Darcy signaled that they might proceed, and he helped Lizzy to get on Sugar. “Squeeze the saddle with your legs if you feel as if you might fall off,” and after handing her the reins, he added, “and tighten up on the reins. You hold them too loosely.”
    Well, this was a great start as it appeared Mr. Darcy was already annoyed with her, and they had not even arrived at the cave. Just as well, she thought. “I don’t want to talk to you either.” But Darcy was not annoyed with Lizzy, but with his cousin.
    “Richard, when we have an opportunity, you will have to explain to me how your flirting with Miss Elizabeth advances my cause.”
    “Because if she is talking to me, then she is not looking at your scowling face,” Richard quickly rebutted, “and I readily admit I am attracted to her, but not in the way you think. We are kindred spirits as we both must wait for events to come to us. As a woman, she may not speak freely, and because I am a younger son, I am dependent on the kindness of my relations to keep me out of poverty. And please do not think me ungrateful because your allowance permits me to live in some degree of comfort, but sometimes this dependence on others sticks in my craw. But enough of this complaining. Today is a day for exploration, so onward to the cave!”
    The first half mile of the trail allowed for two horses to ride in tandem, and so Richard took the opportunity to ride next to Lizzy. Scanning the expanse before her, she asked if all this land was a part of the Darcy estate.
    “Most of it. What is not Darcy land belongs to the Ashtons, and Lady Ashton is Darcy’s aunt. However, if you go back in time, you will find the Darcy family’s holdings were in Hampshire, not Derbyshire, along with a barony. But the Darcys are a stubborn family, which cost them greatly, and that is why I am grateful that I am a Fitzwilliam.”
    “May I ask what happened to cause the loss of the title and properties?”
    “When it was wise to be a Protestant, the Darcys remained Catholic, an act of conscience and admirable, but they paid a price for it. Because of that, their properties in the south were confiscated during the Commonwealth and never returned to them after the Restoration of Charles II as other people, more important than the Darcys, wanted it. Instead, thousands of acres here in Derbyshire were substituted. But at that time, it was a wilderness, and the family had to start from scratch. As for the title, it went to another.
    “Will is no different than his stubborn ancestors and continues the contrarian tradition. When it would serve him