The Exploits & Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy Read Free Page B

Fanny,” said Belinda, smoothing her skirts as she sat down. “For although I am a gossip to my fingertips, I also know how to be discreet when the need arises. Alethea is a connection of yours; I like her as well as pitying her from my heart. Young love—a first attachment, I suppose?—yes, how well one remembers the anguish. I can be of great use in suppressing scandal, but I must have the full story.”
    Fanny took a deep breath, and told her friend both what she knew and what she suspected.
    Belinda Atcombe gave a tsk of annoyance. “Why ever did she fall for the worthless fellow? She is well rid of him, let me tell you.”
    â€œThey made such a handsome couple, it seemed a perfect match.”
    â€œNonsense. Alethea has far too much character and wit for a dolt like Penrose. It hardly takes a great intelligence to realise that he will live under his mother’s thumb until she mercifully goes to her grave, and that he will meanwhile turn into just such another obstinate, narrow person as she is. His father was little better, the dullest man in Christendom. Is Alethea sighing and weeping about the house? Lord, how difficult girls are at that age. You could send her home to Pemberley, of course, if she’s inconsolable, only that will merely fuel the gossip and spite. What do her parents say about it, do they know how fond she has become of the young man?”
    Fanny shook her head. “I wrote to Lizzy, and said that Alethea greatly liked Penrose, but I didn’t like to make too much of it.” She hesitated, then added, “In truth, I do not think that Mr. Darcy would be impressed by Penrose Youdall.”
    â€œI am sure of it, and there are others who do not care for him. I correspond with Hermione Wytton, who presently resides in Venice, you know, and she says that her son was dismayed to learn of his sister-in-law’s attachment to Penrose.”
    Alexander Wytton, Lady Hermione’s eldest son, was married to Alethea’s favourite sister, Camilla.
    â€œIs he acquainted with young Youdall? I should not have thought they had much in common.”
    â€œEnough, one gathers, for Alexander to despise him. I dare say he will think that Miss Gray is a better match for him.”
    The two women spent a happy few minutes discussing the many shortcomings of that young lady, before Belinda Atcombe took a deep breath and said, “That’s all very well, but now we must consider what is to be done for Alethea to keep her good name, and not be the object of scorn and derision for wearing her heart on her sleeve.”
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    Alethea had plans of her own. Fanny had been right in saying that pity was what she most disliked, and she had no intention of showing her distress to an interested world. Summoning all her will, she forced her numb nerves into obedience, and went back into the social world that she had come to hate, armed with dignity, cool indifference, and what a catty fellow debutante called that ridiculous Darcy haughtiness. She defied anyone to feel sorry for her, danced every dance at every ball, bought and wore new clothes, rode at the fashionable hour, said the right things at the right time, and fooled virtually everyone except Fanny and Figgins.
    Fanny’s admiration for Alethea was beyond expression. “She is behaving beautifully,” she told her husband.
    â€œCold-hearted, if you ask me,” said Mr. Fitzwilliam.
    Figgins had the worst of it, when Alethea let her guard down, allowing her maid to glimpse the depths of her misery and anger. Emotions that cooled, as time went by, into an indifference that Figgins found even more alarming. It was like the colour had gone out of Miss Alethea’s life, she told Dawson, to which Dawson merely sniffed and said that the sooner the young lady was married and had a family to think about, the better. “That Mr. Napier will do well enough, he’s showing her a good deal of attention, and