His grin infected her, small as it was and she could’t stop her own from blossoming onto her lips.

❝ I assume she believes it to be all my doing. ❞ Her admission was one that she was sure they both knew well, his aunt far from liked her and given that she’d accepted his offer of marriage the morning after her row with the woman it was in the very least understandable from where the old woman sat. The crone thought herself jilted–as though the man before her held no choice in the matter–and had far from made her opinion known, if only to Elizabeth herself.

Of course, she wouldn’t dare offer such crass accusations to her nephew, and Lizzie supposed that the baroness believed she wouldn’t tell him of what she so often said. But she had, and now it was far too amusing to the both of them.

❝ Though if she is so disappointed, it would give us the opportunity to avoid her invitation all together… ❞

What had once been a smile quickly slipped from his face, 
placed instead with a stern expression. Thick brows pull
together for a moment and his lips draw downward with
something of a scowl. He had been ready to laugh at her
first statement! It seemed, though, that it would not come
to pass. It was true that Lady de Bourgh laid the blame
solely at Mrs. Darcy’s feet. But surely it no longer hurt
his Elizabeth when so many of his acquaintances more
than made up for the approval of his incorrigible aunt.

Still, he found that he had to jump to the defense of her.

    “ You know just as well, Elizabeth, that we must welcome her here. ”