Mr. Darcy's Daughters Read Online Free PDF Page B

Gardiner’s great wealth came from trade, a disadvantage somewhat ameliorated by Sophie’s forthcoming match with the highly eligible Wytton.
    Here was Mr. Gardiner; having done his duty as host, he now came to join them. After congratulating him on Sophie’s betrothal, Camilla was happy to hear about his recent voyage to Bombay, a city which Pagoda Portal also knew well.
    How lucky men were to have such control of their lives, and go off to Bombay or wherever they chose, provided they had the means at their disposal, with never a domestic care to bother them.
    Mr. Gardiner laughed when she told him so. “No, no, Camilla, you must not say such things. Why, whatever would we men do if we didn’t have our wives and children and comfortable homes waiting for our return? Women need not despise their role. Indeed, we men would achieve nothing without the love and support of our families; we rely on that, I do assure you.”

Three
    A floorboard was slightly loose, and every time Letitia trod on it, it squeaked.
    Camilla was not usually affected by the small irritations of daily life. The squeak was not in itself offensive, only she did wish that Letty were less on the fidget. A firm pacing to and fro would have been preferable to these little dashes about the room. However, since Letty was in a fretful mood, it was no doubt inevitable that her body would mirror her agitation. It was a pity, though, that the cause of all this fuss and bother had its existence only in her sister’s head.
    Georgina and Belle were expected hourly. They were breaking their journey from Worcestershire at Oxford, where they were to dine and spend the night with friends. Letty’s mind was full of calculations of distances and times; she knew the route by heart and had fixed on all the most likely places for the various disasters certain to overcome her sisters.
    “They may be taken ill.”
    Camilla looked up from her book, not for the first time. “Who is ill?”
    “No one is ill. Georgina and Belle may be taken ill, however.”
    “Neither is prone to being affected by the motion of the carriage.”
    “One of them could have the headache, or a fever coming on. I thought Belle had lost some of her bloom before we left Pemberley. It is only to be expected; she will feel leaving her home very acutely. She will not be looking forward to London, her sensibility is too delicate for city life.”
    Camilla went back to her book. She had no fears for Belle’s health, nor for Georgina’s. They had fallen ill with the usual childhood ailments, had suffered the measles and the chicken pox, had endured heavy colds and passing fevers and bounced themselves back into perfect health in no time at all; their physician in Derbyshire declared them a wonderful advertisement for his skills. It would take more than a coach ride and the prospect of dizzying delights in town to affect their well-being.
    Letitia took up her embroidery again, but hadn’t set more than half a dozen neat stitches before she laid it by. “Hark, is that a carriage I hear?”
    “Letty, a carriage is to be heard in the square several times an hour. The twins cannot possibly be here yet, not unless they left Oxford before dawn, and why should they do such a thing?” Considering how reluctant Belle and Georgina were to rise at any hour of the morning, this hardly needed to be said.
    “However, a wheel may come off the coach, have you thought of that?”
    Letty’s flow of irrational fears was interrupted by a servant coming to tell them that a luncheon had been laid in the morning room, and Camilla was spared the effort of a reply. She made quickly for the door; Letty came after her, shaking her head and sighing in a most depressing way and still murmuring about horses going lame, being bitten by horseflies and driven wild, abduction, highwaymen and other improbable dangers.
    Fanny was already standing by the table, looking ruffled and pink-cheeked from a romp she had been enjoying with