Amanda Grange & Jacqueline Webb Read Online Free PDF Page A

the figure in the pictures.
    â€œAnd who is Cousin Edward, young lady?” asked Sir Matthew, looking more interested in all of them now.
    â€œMy husband’s cousin, Edward Fitzwilliam,” explained Elizabeth, taking Margaret’s hand.
    â€œWould this be the Honourable Edward Fitzwilliam, with whom I believe I have an appointment imminently?” Sir Matthew asked, examining a pocket watch as he spoke.
    Elizabeth smiled. “Indeed. He is looking forward to it very much. Edward has a great hunger for all things to do with Egypt, as my daughters will testify.”
    â€œThen I look forward to meeting him,” said Sir Matthew.
    Elizabeth sensed the unspoken comment that he had not been looking forward to meeting her young cousin before, which would explain why he was alone in a room devoid of nearly all decoration rather than trying to interest Edward in funding his trip.
    â€œYes, we must not detain you, Sir Matthew,” she said, leading Margaret and Beth out of the room and into the light again.
    Sir Matthew followed them, saying, “Good day to you, Mrs Darcy, ladies,” and disappeared up a flight of stairs toward a set of rooms marked Private.
    â€œMama, we’re over here,” shouted a voice, and Elizabeth turned to see William waving to her.
    Darcy and John were marvelling at a huge sculpture of an Egyptian pharaoh, but on seeing Elizabeth, Darcy moved across to her.
    â€œThe artefacts are fascinating,” he said. “I’ve seldom seen all our children so captivated.”
    â€œIt is good for them to see that matters educational do not have to be dull,” Elizabeth agreed. “And yet I have to confess that this trip to the museum, far from satisfying my desire for an adventure, merely makes me want more. Darcy, you will never believe who we just met!”
    â€œTell me, my love.”
    â€œSir Matthew Rosen himself. Margaret found a picture of the doll Edward gave her and while we were looking at it, Sir Matthew arrived.”
    â€œSurely he should have been at the meeting with Edward,” Darcy said with a frown.
    â€œHe has just left to meet Edward. I rather felt he was reluctant to speak to him. We assumed that he was desperate for funds and prepared to do anything to obtain them, but it must be tedious to have to flatter those who think only of self-aggrandisement. I think Sir Matthew will be pleasantly surprised when he meets Edward, for Edward does not have a haughty bone in his body.”
    She placed her arm through his and was about to speak further when they were distracted by a museum attendant who was staring in alarm at Laurence and Jane. Both children were engrossed in a game which involved them touching the long, doglike snout of a statue of Anubis and then running away shrieking with laughter.
    â€œOh dear,” she said.
    She joined her husband in rescuing the room from the worst of their children’s excesses, before organising an orderly departure from the museum.
    As Edward had asked them not to wait, for he expected to be with Sir Matthew some time, they returned to Darcy House in the carriage, leaving the phaeton for his return.
    ***
    â€œCongratulate me,” Edward said as he burst into the ground floor sitting room much later on that afternoon.
    â€œCongratulations, Cousin Edward,” Laurence and Jane chorused together.
    â€œEdward, at last.” Elizabeth looked up from the pianoforte where she was engaged in giving Beth her lesson. “We missed you at luncheon. Did everything go well at the museum?”
    â€œIt went splendidly, dear Elizabeth,” he said in exceptionally high spirits. “Where is Fitzwilliam? I have so much to tell you all.”
    â€œI saw Papa in the garden earlier. Shall I go and fetch him?” Laurence asked, but he and Jane were off even before their mother had nodded her assent.
    â€œSir Matthew is the most interesting man I have ever met,” Edward declared,