Read Online A Match for Mary Bennet by Eucharista Ward - Free Book Online Page B

were in regimentals.”
    â€œFor shame, Kitty. I thought you had stopped being enamoured with officers. Surely after…” Mary stopped short. She had almost mentioned Lydia! She merely shook her head and frowned, hoping that one day Kitty would get redcoats out of her head. Perhaps her unhappy stay at Otherfield had set Catherine back, rather than helping her. “Come on; let me show you my private entrance to the library. We’ll be very quiet, in case the man is still there.”
    Kitty was glad to follow her through the impressive ballroom. She looked around in awe at the high-ceilinged room that stretched over nearly the whole front half of the mansion. “Without Christmas decorations, this room is enormous! I hardly recognized it! Is the library in here?”
    â€œNo, but the door is.” Mary walked with her through the hall to the unobtrusive small door leading to the balcony, and she opened it noiselessly. Catherine peeked over the polished mahogany railing and saw the gentleman sitting near the fire and chuckling softly while reading his book. Mary, standing behind her, heard the snort followed by a low-pitched laugh, and she looked too. Kitty watched intently, as if willing the man to look up, while Mary whispered, “Come along, Kitty. We must go.” Mary turned, expecting her sister to follow.
    Instead, Kitty leaned over the ornate railing and said, “Good afternoon, sir.”
    Mary fled through the door, embarrassed to be seen there and ashamed for Kitty’s boldness. Just before the door closed, she heard a pleasant “Afternoon, miss,” from below.
    In the corridor near her own room, Mary spied Elizabeth pulling her pelisse around her shoulders. Lizzy smiled invitingly. “Mary, if you are not otherwise engaged, would you walk out with me? Papa is tired, and Mama is arranging things in his room. The sun is so invitingly warm for this time of year, I simply must go out. But I may need an arm to lean on.”
    Mary was not loath to humour her sister, especially the one who had sacrificed so greatly as to marry such a man in order to provide for her sisters. She slipped into her room to don her spencer and came right out, calling, “I cannot read this afternoon at any rate. A strange man came into the library.”
    Elizabeth laughed, and when Mary joined her near the large stairway, she said, “The ‘strange man’ is Mr. Oliver, who is soon to be the vicar of Kympton. He means to read the whole of Saint Augustine’s works, but Reverend Wynters keeps him busy most days. He is free to come here only on Tuesdays.”
    Though glad of that, Mary sniffed. “Well, he could not have been reading anything by Saint Augustine just now, Lizzy. He was laughing!”
    Elizabeth regarded her quizzically as they descended to approach the side door. “And saints are not funny, I suppose?”
    â€œCertainly not!” Mary could not even imagine such a thing.
    They crossed the garden to enjoy the autumn wood and dying witch hazel near the trout stream. Elizabeth pointed out a favourite tree, now a graceful fan of limbs with twigs stark against the pale blue sky. “In summer it spreads like a perfect green umbrella, shading the hillside.” She did not add that it was the very tree under which Darcy had surprised her when she and the Gardiners first visited Pemberley. It seemed long ago now, but the tree remained precious to her, though she had been heartily embarrassed at the time. She inhaled the sharp air appreciatively. “How I have missed the woods and hills these last weeks!” She strolled ahead and almost burst into a run as she used to do, but bethought herself and waited to take Mary’s arm. “I forget I am no longer a carefree girl. Imagine my being a mother! Will I ever become used to it?”
    â€œOh, I imagine you will.” Mary skirted a briar that reached out over the path. “And just think, Mama