Just like on DAY 1, it was so great to find some many great guesses!
Congrats to the winners once again!
So, the DAY 2 answers:
I'll start with the third question, where the consensus of opinion was A: 'lace caps'. Oh, yes, we love our universally acknowledged JAFF truths, and one of them is that Elizabeth's hair is too beautiful and glints too prettily to be covered with caps, so Mr Darcy would much rather she never wore them. Rather than expanding on the conversation between Elizabeth, Mr Darcy and Mrs Gardiner, I thought you might like to see an earlier fragment that leads up to it:
'His words came in a rush, disjointed and barely comprehensible between burning kisses, but he continued to intersperse them nonetheless – not that Elizabeth could have wished him to do otherwise. “Why do you imagine… that I took myself away… for hours on end… and two nights in a row?”
She drew back then.
“Why?” she asked, searching his eyes.
“Because I could not bear to be near you and not come to you, and I could not come to you when you were so clearly against me. Because in the midst of the harshest reproaches flying between us I could not tell if what I wanted most was to throttle you or kiss you.”
Her warm laughter rang between them.
“Oh, I would say kiss me. Definitely kiss me, if those were the only options.”
“Not the only options. Not by a fair margin,” he playfully growled back, and did kiss her again, not needing further prompting.
Their breaths came in ragged gasps when they stopped for air, still clinging to each other.
“Should you not go? You will be late,” she offered eventually, when she discovered she could speak.
“Go? I am not going anywhere!”
“Foolish man,” she tenderly admonished. “You must. Your uncle is expecting you.”
“What I must do,” he said showering her face and head with a much tamer smattering of little kisses, “is have a word with that girl of yours, Sarah, and bribe her into throwing all these godawful caps away. Whoever has devised them? The devil’s own invention, I call it. I love your hair. Why must you cover it?”'
The second question: Napkin? Fork? Spoon? I LOVED your comments about how Lizzy might or might not want to inflict the most damage :D
I guess this would make:
The fork - the weapon of choice
The napkin - the sensible alternative
The spoon - the middle ground
In the end it was C: a spoon, but only because they were having soup at the time. The context was that, halfway through their disagreement:
'Her husband dabbed his lips.
“If you must.”
What she must do is set the spoon down before it left a dent into her palm, Elizabeth thought grimly, and did so. Quietly. Lydia would have let it fall into the bowl with a loud clatter. Then she was far worse than Lydia, for she had the strongest urge to throw it across the table or, better still, at him. She resisted it. Just as she resisted giving her husband the upbraiding he richly deserved in the presence of the two blank-faced footmen who served their dinner. She wondered in passing if they were so well trained as to remain blank-faced, were they to hear what she had to say.'
Which leaves the question 'What did Colonel Fitzwilliam find?'
Gentle and ever so decorous ladies, I hope you won't be too shocked to hear it was C - a frilly chemise:
'He sought to rearrange the pillows, only to discover a frilly chemise tucked between the top mattress and the headboard. He tugged at the frothy garment till it was displayed to its full length and glory, to his cousin’s acute mortification.
“Well, then,” Fitzwilliam grinned as he tucked it back where he had found it, “a pity this is not Miss Elizabeth’s bedchamber, otherwise I would have gladly offered you the token.”
A pillow flung forcefully at his head was Darcy’s prompt response to the remark, and a low growl followed:
“Hold your tongue, will you, and just go to bed!”'
Would you still like to play?
For the third and last day of the GUESSING GAME, I'll keep it short (but not exactly sweet ;) ):
DAY 3 - WHODUNIT?
Rita Deodato ('From Pemberley to Milton') said the funniest thing when she was reading the ARC for 'Mr Bennet's Dutiful Daughter':
"This can’t get any worse, can it? Who am I kidding, this is Joana Starnes, of course it can get worse!"
So, what do you think?
Who throws the biggest spanner in the works? Is it:
a. Mr Wickham?
b. Lady Catherine?
c. Mrs Bennet?
and
At what point in the book does it happen?
a. 50%?
b. 70%?
c. 90%?
Hope you had fun with the GUESSING GAMEs! The Day 3 good guesses will be entered into the Rafflecopter, just like the others, but I think this time I should keep the answers under wraps, so that I don't give the game away much too soon. I hope you'll enjoy reading the whole story. See you tomorrow for the Cover Reveal at:
Babblings of a Bookworm
Diary of an Eccentric
From Pemberley to Milton
Just Jane 1813
More Agreeably Engaged
My Jane Austen Book Club
My Kids Led Me Back to P&P
Obsessed with Mr Darcy
and
So Little Time
Huge thanks again, Ceri, Anna, Rita, Janet, Maria Grazia, Tamara, Mira and Candy for kindly co-hosting the cover reveal, and especially to you, Claudine, for everything!