The music room contained Elizabeth and the two young ladies and two young men who, Kitty presumed, must be the ones Elizabeth spoke of. They rose when she came in and were very solicitous after her well-being, and were indeed introduced to her as Mr. Knott and Colonel Fitzwilliam; the taller, pale lady was Miss Darcy, and the one with the deep brown hair and reddish complexion was her friend Miss Pratt.
Miss Darcy was as beautiful as Kitty had heard that she would be, and already seemed to have established a rapport with the others in the room; Miss Pratt immediately established herself as friendly and talkative. It was Kitty who would be the odd one out. She did not wish to dwell on that reality. The other two ladies were sitting together on a sofa, but moved to nearby chairs so Kitty would have somewhere to sit where she could put her foot up.
Mr. Knott was tall, and seemed all angles and awkwardness, although he had a very kind face. He smiled warmly at Kitty, asked after her well-being, and seemed genuinely concerned with her response, but not exceptionally conversational. Besides, he was a clergyman, and therefore uninteresting. Colonel Fitzwilliam, on the other hand, was everything that was gentlemanly and friendly, and was very jovial with her to take her mind off her injury. Even though he was not dressed in his red coat at the moment, Kitty liked him immensely. She imagined that the effect could only be improved by a uniform. And as to fortune, well, perhaps her wealthy brothers would be willing to contribute something to her portion if it meant she would be able to marry a man she truly loved. She felt suddenly much less hopeless.
"Well, Miss Bennet," said the Colonel as she was getting settled, "I suppose you are immensely disappointed that you will not be able to attend the assembly tomorrow evening."
Kitty's heart dropped. "There is to be an assembly tomorrow evening? Oh, Colonel! How dreadful!"
"Aye, there is indeed, and we had planned to surprise you and take you to it, had we not, Mrs. Darcy?"
"We had discussed it," Elizabeth said with a halfhearted smile, "but I was by no means resolved to do it. I think it will be better for Kitty to have a chance to adjust to life at Pemberley before we provide the excitement of a public gathering, and though I am very sorry that the choice should be made for us in such a manner, I do not pretend to regret this result."
The hesitation in her sister's voice did not escape Kitty, but as it did not matter whether Elizabeth would have told her about the assembly, or allowed her to go, she did not dwell on that aspect. "I am exceedingly sorry that I should have injured myself at all, but to have missed an assembly because of it is absolutely dreadful!"
"Do not fret, Miss Bennet," Miss Darcy said softly. "We will find plenty of other ways to amuse ourselves. Perhaps I could read to you? I have been reading some very good novels lately and I think you would enjoy them very much. Miss Pratt and I have just begun The Absentee."
Kitty had not heard of The Absentee. Still, a novel of any kind was a good prospect, although this did very little to redeem the loss of the assembly.
"Do you know, I have been wanting to read that myself," Mr. Knott said. "Would you object to my joining you, and reading with you?"
"We could take turns with it," Miss Darcy said. "Miss Pratt and I were talking of reading it aloud anyhow, rather than trading the book back and forth."
Kitty was less certain that she would like this outcome. She was no great reader, and reading out loud did her no favors. "Thank you, but I am not certain I could focus on the page for long enough to read it aloud," she said. There were, perhaps, some benefits to being an invalid.
"Never mind that; the rest of us will take turns reading it to you, and you only need to sit back and listen. That will help you to keep your mind off your ankle anyway, and we can talk over what we have read afterwards, and make prodigious fun of the fools in the story, for they always are immense fools, I find," said Miss Pratt, laughing.
"That sounds lovely," Kitty said with a genuine smile.
The following day was, accordingly, not nearly as miserable as Kitty feared it would be. Miss Darcy gave her one of her old bonnets and asked her to trim it new for her while they read, having been informed by Elizabeth that this was a pastime which Kitty enjoyed and was reasonably good at, and they spent a good portion of the morning reading The Absentee together. Kitty quickly learned that she liked Mr. Knott's reading best. He did different voices for every character and often had them laughing till their sides hurt, regardless of the story's tone. They decided to stop, however, when Elizabeth came in to join them, and indicated that she had news for them.
"There is another gentleman who will be joining us in the next few days. His name is Mr. Johns, and his family has owned Edgepark, a small estate nearby, for many generations. However, it is in need of serious repairs, which he has chosen to undertake, and he needs a place to stay until the house is fit to live in. He will probably not be here often, as he will be spending most of his time at Edgepark. I expect that we will see him only for dinner in the evenings, if that."
"My brother agreed to this?" Miss Darcy asked, frowning. "That doesn't sound like him."
"He was the one who proposed it, in fact. Edgepark has been all but a ruin for a very long time. If Mr. Johns is interested in restoring it, Mr. Darcy is happy to encourage him to do so."
Kitty made a little face. "Restoring a ruin sounds like an awful lot of work."
"Yes; aren't you glad we don't have to do it?" said Miss Pratt. They shared a laugh.
"I think it is a very good thing. It is never good for a place to fall into disrepair, and it will greatly benefit the village to have someone established there again," Elizabeth said.
"And the gentleman who chooses to take on such a task cannot be unwilling to work on improving the whole region, if necessary, and not just the house," Mr. Knott added. "Everyone will benefit from his interest. When does he arrive?"
"He intends to come on Tuesday or Wednesday."
Kitty was happy to spend the rest of the morning speculating about the newcomer, and she and Miss Pratt, who showed a similar inclination, found themselves sitting together and wondering over him while the others talked of other things.
"Do you imagine he is handsome?" Kitty asked.
"Who knows? He might be old and ugly, and married already. Mrs. Darcy did not seem to know much about him."
"Except that he's a good man for coming in and repairing that house."
Miss Pratt shook her head. "I don't see what the fuss is about that. It's probably good that he wants to fix the house, of course, and I would dearly love to see how he finishes it! Can you imagine the fun you would have in decorating an entire house new?"
"How freeing it would be! I believe the only trouble I would have is keeping myself from spending every farthing I have. But is it really possible that no one here knows anything of him?"
"It must be, for I have not found out anything other than that he his coming down from London, which is no great surprise. Where else should he live?"
"He must be very fashionable, if he can live in London and renovate an entire estate."
"And very rich," added Miss Pratt, her eyes growing wide as her smile.
Kitty beamed too. "Fancy if he should fall in love with one of us!"
"It must be you," Miss Pratt said, "for given the choice between us, I think you are the more eligible, assuming that Miss Darcy would not be interested, and I do not believe that she would, somehow."
This brought a frown to Kitty's face. "Why not?"
Miss Pratt leaned in closer and lowered her voice. "I cannot find out that she is at all interested in marrying. I get the impression that she would rather reach her majority, inherit her ridiculously large sum of money, and go on living a single woman forever, entirely self-sufficient."
"Indeed!" This was a completely novel concept to Kitty; Miss Darcy's fortune was considerable enough that she could afford to be choosy when it came to marriage, but it had never occurred to Kitty that it might be impetus to remain unmarried altogether. "Why on earth would she not wish to marry?"
"I do not know! I have hinted and schemed as much as I know how, but so far I have been able to learn nothing. The odd thing is, I do not believe that she is entirely opposed to the idea of matrimony; she is only convinced that she does not require it. And is quite happy that it should be so."
Kitty shook her head and glanced over to where Miss Darcy was talking quietly with Colonel Fitzwilliam. "I cannot understand it, certainly."
"Nor can I, but I have made it a mission of mine to learn to understand, if I might."
"Oh, yes," Kitty said, and added that she might adopt that mission herself.
Miss Pratt looked over at Miss Darcy and the Colonel. "And what do you think of him?" she asked, her voice even lower.
"The Colonel?" Kitty asked, matching her tone. Miss Pratt nodded. "He is very pleasant. But I do wish I could see him in his uniform. He may be more handsome in it."
"I think he is quite handsome enough without it, but I will own, it would add a dash of something essential."
Kitty looked back at him briefly, but her initial impression remained: he was charming enough, but not at all handsome. She looked back at Miss Pratt with her eyebrows raised.
"Do not look at me so! I can well see that you do not like him as well as I do. I suppose I should thank you for that, since it means I will have no competition." She winked.
"Ah." Understanding dawned and Kitty smiled. "In that case, I will do one better for you; I will help you win him, if he can be won."
"Would you indeed? I should be ever so grateful!"
Kitty, feeling all the satisfaction of a person in the position to help a potential new friend, said that she would.