Now here she was, brushing her hair out and wishing her husband would come to her but surprised at wishing it. It had been years since they had engaged in such activities, but it was not as if they were in their dotage. She would not be forty until October and she fancied herself still an attractive woman.

He should be happy to be received by her! Mrs. Goulding wasn’t half as pretty and a good five years older, and Mrs. Bennet knew for a fact that her husband still visited her regularly. And her sister Phillips, two years her senior, received her husband almost nightly, if her complaints were to be believed. Surely she was a great deal more attractive than either of them! And Mrs. Long! She was over fifty if she was a day! Mrs. Bennet still had beautiful hair and color in her cheeks. Mr. Bennet should appreciate what he had and show his wife the respect she deserved, or at least her beauty deserved.

And so Mrs. Bennet went back and forth between indignation and attraction, wishing her husband would arrive and berating him for not coming. At one point she talked herself into believing that he was showing her respect by not coming to her. After all, everyone knew it was dreadfully unpleasant and only something to be put up with by a dutiful wife. But, after she had decided he was being most kind in not importuning her, she felt a niggling doubt in her mind, in the place she tried to ignore as much as possible, telling her that she really did want him to come, at least for a little while.

Deciding it was better to feel flattered by his respect for her in not coming, and knowing she would be equally flattered by his unconquerable desire if he did, she climbed into bed but left her hair down, just in case.

~

Mr. Bennet was in a quandary. His wife had been looking very fetching of late. The sea air brightened her complexion and her eyes were almost always soft and happy now, not frantic and angry like they so often were at Longbourn. She had been less shrill and more patient. She had been a good listener and a fine companion. When he had suffered a headache several days before, she read to him in a soothing voice and placed a cool cloth on his brow. It was quite endearing.