Georgiana tilted her head to one side, considering. “Well, that is prettily said, but I think you may be dodging the question. Anyway, if you are so very close to the duke, then I demand thatyou take me to see him, today. We shall go together and call upon him.”
“I cannot go and call upon the duke!” said Elizabeth. “I am an unmarried lady and so are you—”
“You are married,” said Georgiana firmly. “And everyone knows it.”
“We cannot go there,” said Elizabeth with a sigh.
“Perhaps we should,” said Mr. Darcy with a shrug. “He promised to speak with you, Elizabeth, and he broke that promise—”
“When did he promise to speak with you?” said Georgiana. “And since when do you address her by her first name?”
“We are amiable!” Mr. Darcy cried in protest.
“Yes, we became close when I was marrying your cousin, that is all,” said Elizabeth. “Your brother and I are friends. We are only friends.”
“Of course you are only friends,” said Georgiana, looking back and forth between them.
Mr. Darcy shifted uncomfortably on his seat. “Now, see here, Georgiana, I think that you must allow Miss Bennet and I—Mrs. Fitzwilliam—to go to see the duke without you—”
“I think it would all go better if we were all there,” said Elizabeth. “You and I alone together, I am not certain what that looks like.”
“Neither am I!” said Georgiana, eyes wide.
Mr. Darcy groaned. “We are not going to Neith Abbey, at all, then. Let us cease to think of such an idea.”
“We are indeed,” said Georgiana. “I insist upon it.”
“I should like to comfort him, I suppose,” said Elizabeth. “I think I know what he may be going through.”
“What is he going through?” said Georgiana.
Mr. Darcy groaned.
PERHAPS IT WASimpossible to keep everything concealed from Miss Darcy, and perhaps it was a foolish idea for Elizabeth to wish to visit Neithern, but once the idea had been presented, she could not help but warm to it.
She had been a bit angry with Neithern for not meeting her as he had promised, for sending his grandmother instead, but now that she knew that Neithern had discovered his true parentage was not noble, she knew that he must have been devastated. She understood what it was like to feel as if one was cut off at the knees to discover one was not legitimate, how it made a person feel as if his identity had been crumpled and destroyed.
So, she wished to visit with him, though she did not imagine she could speak plainly with Neithern if Mr. Darcy and Miss Darcy were both there. Even so, she could convince him to meet her for a walk as he had done in the past, she supposed. Then, they could speak in private, she thought.
Mr. Darcy objected, but when he could see she was in earnest and that his sister was desirous of it as well, he gave in to them, and so they all went next door to Neith Abbey.
The Darcys would have been happy to go on horseback, but Elizabeth was not at all pleased at such a prospect, so they went in a carriage. They pulled up to the house and went to the front door.
They knocked.
Nothing happened for some time, and they were about to knock again, when a servant answered the door to inform them that the family was not at home.
“Oh, we are certain the duchess is not at home,” rejoined Elizabeth, who knew that this was a common excuse given when visitors were unwanted, “but perhaps you could check again to make sure the duke is at home.”
“No, madam, I am certain the duke is not at home, for he is the one who instructed me to say—” The servant winced and broke off, face turning red.
“Go and speak with him again,” said Elizabeth gently. “See if he might not choose to be at home. Tell him I have some idea how he may be feeling right now.”
The servant disappeared. While he was gone, Georgiana chattered about how she would punish a servant whose tongue slipped in that manner, and Elizabeth worried she might have gotten the poor servant in trouble.
When the servant returned, he was adamant. No one was at home, not the duke, not the duchess.
The short carriage drive back saw Miss Darcy as entirely despondent.
