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Eleanor looked pensive. “Let’s wait until tomorrow to see if she improves.

For now, let her rest… and for heaven’s sake, try to convince your sister not to trot her around like a prize filly on the block until she’s recovered.

” The Countess took her husband’s arm. “Henry, you heard Catherine’s claims that Anne is the picture of health, just as I did.

I don’t know if the woman is blind or so deluded that she honestly believes she can force reality to conform to her fantasies. ”

The Earl grunted. “I suspect it happens all too often at Rosings, regardless of how ridiculous her demands are.”

Eleanor sighed. “If there was some way for Dr. Macmillan to examine Anne or even speak with her companion about her symptoms…”

“You don’t think she has been looked at by a physician?”

The Countess gave her husband a withering look. “Do you truly believe that Catherine would tolerate any doctor who would dare disagree with her opinion?”

Thinking of his sister, Henry let out a loud “humph” and stopped at the next landing to give his wife a serious look. “If you believe it to be necessary, summon him and I shall deal with my sister.” With a look of mutual understanding, the Fitzwilliams parted in the hall.

Although Miss de Bourgh was allowed to rest for part of the afternoon, her mother swept into her bedchamber at precisely six o’clock in the evening and immediately began ordering servants about.

In short order, a soft peach gown that might have actually complemented Anne’s coloring had been rejected in favor of a lavender confection that made her already sallow complexion appear even more so.

Even after her daughter was tucked and pinned into her gown, Catherine demanded three alterations in hairstyle before the maids were finally dismissed.

Anne’s mother had calculated their approach to the drawing room for maximum impact.

In this, Lady Catherine succeeded, for all conversation ceased when she and her daughter were announced.

However, although her mother might be oblivious, Anne sensed that their appearance was met with something other than the reverence to which she was accustomed in Kent.

Indeed, had she not known better she might have thought that her female relations were trying to suppress laughter when their aunt demanded that they admire Anne’s fine new gown.

Miss de Bourgh was quite overwhelmed by all of the introductions to her various cousins (few of whom had ever visited Rosings) and their spouses (none of whom she had ever met).

Eventually, she managed to avoid her mother’s pointed attempts to attach her to Darcy and instead settled into a comfortable chair off to one side of the room.

When Mrs. Lucy Wallace sat down beside Anne, the look she received from her cousin was not particularly welcoming.

However, the youngest Fitzwilliam daughter was too good-natured to be frightened away.

“I’m Lucy, in case you don’t remember—that was an awful lot of introductions.

To be honest, I can’t recall the last time when we Fitzwilliams were all together.

But then, you probably remember my older brothers and sisters from your visits to Derbyshire when you were younger? ”

Unaccustomed to such lively conversation, Anne managed only a small nod but it did nothing to dampen Lady Lucy’s spirits.

“Did you have a chance to rest this afternoon?” At Anne’s halfhearted shrug, her cousin continued, “It’s so nice to be in the country—I quite despise London in summer.

Sometimes I feel as if the air is so thick that I can’t take another breath and that’s to say nothing of how dirty one’s clothes get! ”

Lucy paused long enough to decide that Anne wasn’t going to respond beyond another small nod.

“That’s a very pretty color. Your mother said it was a new gown?

” There! she thought. Mother would be proud of me.

I did not lie—it is a pretty color, even if it does nothing for Anne—and I said nothing about the dress itself, which is hideous.

Mrs. Wallace had chosen her compliment well. Miss de Bourgh smiled with obvious satisfaction and idly smoothed a wrinkle in her skirt. “Thank you. Mama had a new wardrobe made for me before we left Kent.”

“What fun! Did you have a modista come out from London?”

Anne grimaced slightly at the memory. “We did, but Mama decided that her patterns were unsuitable.”

Lucy giggled. “My best friend at school had the same problem with her mother. She was the only daughter in the family and when she arrived at school our first term, all her dresses were completely out of style. Her mother had had them made according to the fashions of when she was a girl, can you imagine?”

Miss de Bourgh blinked several times and, in her own slow way, finally identified what had been bothering her.

The dresses that she and her mother wore were quite different from those of her cousins.

Surely as the daughters of an Earl they could afford to purchase fashionable gowns?

She looked more closely at Lucy’s clothing. “Yours is much plainer than mine.”

Lucy was kind enough to recognize that the other lady was merely tactless rather than purposely offensive.

“I do love the shorter sleeves, and these looser, high-waisted styles are so much more agreeable to wear, especially in the summer. I had to wear a corseted dress with crinolines like yours when I was presented to the Queen, of course, but I’m very glad not to wear them every day.

” Lucy stopped there, having been as blunt as she felt she could be with a cousin she barely knew.

Anne had just enough time to note how much more comfortable the other lady’s clothes appeared when compared to her own before Lady Catherine’s strident voice demanded the attention of the entire room.

“But Henry… you must listen to me! I shall not be gainsaid in this!”

The Earl was holding on to his temper by a thread. He took his sister’s elbow and turned her toward the door. “Come, Cathy. Now is neither the time nor the place for that particular discussion. Let us enjoy a pleasant evening with family.”

Lady Catherine allowed herself to be led to the dining room and was slightly mollified when he guided her to the seat of honor at his right hand.

Anne trailed the group with Lucy who whispered, “I wonder what your mother was talking about; Darcy looks furious.”

It took little imagination for Miss de Bourgh to guess that her mother had brought up her plans for a Darcy-de Bourgh marriage.

Anne remained silent, however, and soon found herself placed between Lucy and the Countess.

They were positioned at the opposite end of the table from her mother, but Lady Catherine’s words were still clearly audible.

“Rosings is doing extremely well, of course. We shall have an excellent harvest although some of the tenants came groveling for relief from the rents. The cheek of these peasants! I sent them away with an earful, of course; if they had followed my instructions for the plowing and seeding, they would have had a prodigious harvest regardless of the lack of rain. Well, they’ll not be back begging for handouts anytime soon.

I suppose such people will always be lazy—with such low breeding one cannot expect any better.

As I told my steward, they must be made to understand the consequences of their sloth. ”

Anne noticed Darcy and Colonel exchange looks. When Richard discretely rolled his eyes, she was suddenly struck by the strange idea that her two cousins did not agree with the way her mother ran the estate although they visited every Easter so faithfully and ostensibly agreed to all her plans.

While Miss de Bourgh was grappling with this novel concept, the Earl decided it was time to move the conversation on. “How is your new vicar getting on? The old one passed on two years ago now, am I right?”

“Yes, indeed. The Bishop recommended a young man named Collins. I have taken him on as a curate for now.”

“And is he doing well?”

Lady Catherine took another sip of her soup. “Reasonably. He takes direction well enough.”

Lord Henry was beginning to appreciate just how autocratic his sister had become.

His younger son and nephew often commented on it after their annual visits but Matlock had always dismissed their opinions as that of young men disappointed when their recommendations were not accepted.

He began to wonder just what sort of condition Rosings Park was actually in.

“And is this Collins fellow married?”

Lady Catherine motioned for a footman to remove her dish. “He was not when he arrived, but he is now.”

“Married a local girl, did he?”

“Certainly not. I would never allow that—it would have bred too much familiarity among his parishioners—and certainly I couldn’t have had him to dinner if his wife was some innkeeper’s daughter from Hunsford.

Mr. Collins has a relation with an estate in Hertfordshire, of all places.

I sent him to choose a wife from among his cousins but he came home engaged to one of the neighbor’s girls. ”

“Indeed. How long have they been married?”

“Since December. Mrs. Collins is a sensible woman; she will make him a proper wife. Quite unlike her father or younger sister—they visited Kent at Easter. Sir William Lucas is a fool and the younger girl a useless simpleton.” Catherine sampled the fish and was forced to nod approvingly.

She might not like her brother’s wife but she was forced to admit that the woman set an excellent table.

Preferring to think on other subjects than her sister-in-law, Lady Catherine returned to her previous topic and added, “Mrs. Collins’ friend also came with the party; Miss Elizabeth Bennet is a pretty, genteel sort of girl, reasonably well-read and intelligent, though far too outspoken for one so young. ”