With that, they came to the open fields. Smiling at each other, the girls spurred on their horses and were soon lost to everything but the sunshine, pounding hooves and desire to best the other.
“Shall you come into the house and protect me from the interfering opinions of some of my guests?” Georgiana asked after they had handed over their horses to the grooms.
Linking her arm with Lizzy’s, she steered them towards the hill which would take them to the house. Elizabeth paused their progress before they passed the turn which would take her to Barlow Hall.
“I am afraid not,” she sighed. “I must get home and help my aunt prepare for the dinner tomorrow. She insists on havingone of her old gowns remade for me. So in addition to making place settings and arranging flowers, I will be pinned and poked for the rest of the day at least.”
“I should trade places with you if you let me,” Georgiana teased, turning them so Elizabeth faced Pemberley, and she stepped on the path towards Barlow Hall. “William,” Georgiana said, looking over Elizabeth’s shoulder. “Where are you coming from?”
Elizabeth took a breath and willed her heart to calm as she listened to his answer, “I was at Barlow Hall talking with your uncle and Mr. Barlow. We were arranging the details for the fishing we mean to do tomorrow.”
By his words Elizabeth imagined he was looking at her, but she did not know this because she had yet to raise her eyes to his. The bonnet she had donned after they returned from their ride provided a much-needed barrier.
“Well, I wish you would convince our friend to come and take tea with us rather than return home directly,” Georgiana said.
“We mustn’t press her, little one. I am told there is much to do at Barlow Hall, and I have no doubt Miss Elizabeth’s opinion is needed to confirm all the details necessary to host a large party.”
It was a reasonable reply. A reasonable reply, moreover, that essentially restated her own words of just a few minutes earlier and yet it made her angry. Perhaps it was Georgiana’s use of the word “friend” and how much she felt he had abandonedany pretence of that being their connection that she did not want to agree with him in anything.
“Indeed, I am certain my aunt has things well in hand, and I will be more in the way than of use.”
She did not miss Georgiana’s look of confusion or her own tone of petulance, but her patience with handsome men (or a man) who held her heart, knowingly or not, and kept her at arm’s length for their own purposes was at an end.
Georgiana hesitated before asking, “Then you will stay?”
“No, I am sorry. I do need to return home.” Elizabeth sighed, hoping her friend understood, which was unlikely as she herself did not.
“I will escort you.”
He did not ask; he did not even seem to entertain the possibility that his company would be unwelcome. His confident assurance that she would take the arm he offered fuelled her anger. However, before she began an argument he would no doubt refuse to lose, she decided subjecting him to half an hour of silence was a punishment he had earned.
“Thank you, as always, for a wonderful afternoon, my friend,” Elizabeth said. The smile she offered Georgiana was a contrast to the scowl she gave Mr. Darcy as she reluctantly took his arm.
Though it was immensely difficult, Elizabeth did manage to maintain the silence she promised herself. Mr. Darcy was the one to break it after several minutes.
“You are enjoying your summer thus far?” he asked in his most formal tone.
“Yes, quite,” she answered in hers.
“Have you resumed your music lessons?”
“Yes.”
“Is Miss Bennet joining you?”
“No.”
Mr. Darcy sighed, and Elizabeth heard some of his frustration in it. Good, let him be frustrated.
“What pieces are you learning?”
“I cannot recall.”
“Your playing must be worse than I remember if you cannot even recall what pieces you are currently learning.” It was the same formal tone he had started out with, but she heard a faint note of something else. Was he attempting to tease her?
“It has been some time since you heard me play,” she said, unable to resist some conversation. “I might be considerably worse, or perhaps my skills now allow me to make my way in the world as a professional.”
“It has been a long time,” he said quietly.
