Lydia Read Online Free Page A

him. Everything we passed compared badly to the grand de Bourgh estate – our bridge is smaller than Lady Catherine’s bridge, our lanes are not so well kept, our very trees are not so tall.
    â€œThough to be sure it is a pleasant county,” he gabbled when Lizzy told him we were happy here.
    We stopped on the bridge to watch a kingfisher hunting in the stream, and he seized the opportunity to educate us.
    â€œWhat you see here, dear cousins,” he said, “is a magnificent specimen of the female Alcedo atthis . The name is Latin, of course, but as Miss Mary would doubtless be aware it derives from the Greek ‘halcyon’. We know her to be of the fairer sex by the colour of her lower mandible, which is of an orange-reddish hue, with a black tip. Is not that a fascinating fact, Miss Lydia?”
    â€œFascinating,” I sighed as the kingfisher flew away.
    No, the day did not start well and the mile to Meryton never felt so long, but within minutes of arriving nothing mattered any more – nothing. For there outside the library was Denny returned from London. And standing beside him . . .
    The gentleman standing with Denny was most definitely athletic. He has just joined the regiment, and is tall and strong but also slim and elegant in his dark riding coat, and when he took off his hat I saw that his hair was light brown and thick and just a little bit messy. He has a lovely smile, and a dimple in his left cheek, and his mouth is wide and generous – the mouth of someone who likes to laugh and eat and drink, and his eyes are a sort of golden hazel, and when he talks to you he makes you feel you are the most important person in the world.
    Denny introduced us. I was last, as usual. That is what comes of being the youngest.
    â€œLydia.” The handsome gentleman smiled. “I once sailed on a ship of that name, all across the Mediterranean.”
    â€œWhat were you doing on a ship?”
    Lizzy said, “Lydia, don’t ask questions!”
    â€œI should like to see the Mediterranean above all things,” I told him.
    â€œWell, then you must,” he said.
    That was all, but it left me in a daze.
    â€œWhere is the Mediterranean?” I asked Mary when we came home.
    She huffed and said she could not believe I didn’t know, but Jane took pity on me and showed me on Father’s globe. It is a very small sea, but it touches an awful lot of countries – France and Spain and Greece and about a hundred more Ihave never heard of.
    The officer is coming to Aunt Philips’s card party tomorrow evening. I don’t know how I shall survive until then. I think I may die in my sleep – if I sleep at all, which is unlikely. It is past midnight and my eyes are no heavier than when I first saw him this afternoon. They are still too full of him. My pen is flying across the page.
    His name is Lieutenant George Wickham.

Wednesday, 20th November
    F ather gave us the carriage, and we arrived early at Aunt Philips’s. The officers were still dining with my uncle, while we ladies and Mr. Collins waited in the drawing room. Interminable wait! Mr. Collins talked incessantly, though I haven’t a notion what about. Lizzy and Jane and my aunt murmured appropriate responses, while Mary read a book, Kitty played at solitaire and I sat in unaccustomed silence upon the sofa, wondering that my heart did not leap out of my mouth at the slightest sound from beyond the doors. There were other ladies present, but I hardly know who – some of the officers’ wives, I think. I wore my lightest spotted muslin (the very pale green with the pink trim), my arms and chest were bare, and yet still the room felt so hot I could not breathe.
    He entered. His beauty in scarlet regimentals was overwhelming. The world went black and I thought perhaps I had died, but then Kitty nudged me and I realised that I was alive, but had merely closed my eyes. Still, I kept them closed a few