Darcy stared at her fiery eyes. One of the things he loved most about Elizabeth was her loyalty to those she loved. He slowly answered, “I have given up the illusion that I could know anything about other people’s feelings. I have difficulty enough alerting my own face to my emotions.”
That set Elizabeth off on such an infectious peal of laughter that Darcy joined in. As they laughed, he murmured, “We shouldreturn to the house and carriages.” He offered his arm, and she took it.
Darcy knew the route to Buxton travelled through some stirring Peak landscapes, and he had alerted his driver to a spot he intended for the picnic. He was certain Elizabeth would love the gritstone escarpment known as Stanage Edge.
He watched her evident pleasure with a deep form of contentment that he would love to experience many times in his future life. Elizabeth was not the sort of young lady to stand in one spot, look about, and say, “What a delightful prospect.” No, she turned a full circle and proclaimed, “This place is utterly beautiful!” Then she walked so quickly towards the edge of the cliff, it was as if she flew.
“Do not fall,” her uncle called out, laughing at himself for issuing such a warning to a woman grown.
Darcy hurried to join her at her chosen viewpoint, and they were quiet for several seconds as the wind tugged at their clothes and whipped Elizabeth’s curls out from their pins. The moorlands below stretched for miles in an ancient landscape.
“I wonder if this place existed thus before mankind ever arrived on the scene,” Darcy said.
“I love the perspective nature affords us.” She laughed and explained, “Whenever I am discouraged by mean-spirited gossips and small-minded machinations, I like to go outside, to walk, to absorb the beauty of skies and trees and small creatures. Now, standing here, I can rightly ask, what are men to rocks and mountains?”
“Our lives, our most momentous problems, are so ephemeral compared to rocks and mountains. But even the latter changeover time, sometimes slowly and inexorably, sometimes rapidly, catastrophically.”
“You are of course correct, sir.” She turned to walk rapidly to another outlook and then a third, and he kept pace. When he saw that the servants had laid out the luncheon, he suggested returning to the group.
“Georgiana, do you remember coming out here with Father?” he asked as he finished his meal with strawberries and Cheshire cheese.
“I do. I was nine years old and not nearly as brave as you are, Elizabeth. I did not get nearly so close to the edge.”
Elizabeth laughed and said, “And thus, your father did not have to cry out not to fall?” Everyone joined in her laughter.
Before long they were on their way to Buxton. It was a Roman spa town that had more recently been developed as “the North’s answer to Bath.” The Crescent, considered the jewel of the town, included two grand hotels, five lodging houses, shops, and assembly rooms. The Great Stables had room for more than one hundred horses, and there were hot and cold springs in the bath houses. People came from near and far to take the waters and, they hoped, improve their health.
Darcy loved the sparkle in Elizabeth’s eyes as she took in everything. She had informed him that she had never been to Bath—or much of anywhere—before, and she exclaimed over the curving architecture of the Crescent, made an almost comical grimace at drinking the warm, mineral-filled water from St. Ann’s Well, and chattered with Georgiana about the many horses visiting the very grand stable.
Georgiana suggested going to an assembly room; and Elizabeth said, “I will do anything you wish, Georgiana, but do we really wish to go somewhere just to see and be seen by…people?”
Darcy grinned because that was what he tended to think. He was surprised to find those sentiments in Elizabeth since she seemed to be at ease in groups of every size.
Elizabeth had reached over to squeeze Georgiana’s hand, saying, “I am teasing, of course; lead the way.”
Georgiana responded, “Actually, I thought you might like to see the fine columns and the painted ceiling.” Shedidlead the way, and Elizabethdidenjoy the fine architecture and patterned ceiling.
Inevitably, as they walked the footpaths of The Terrace, Darcy ran into people he knew. Lord Hampton was known for gambling and whoring, and his cousin Clifford, who was a year younger, followed in his footsteps. As they called out to him, Darcy felt a strong inclination to indicate his disapproval with a frown and barely-polite greetings, but he had hated watching from on-high his dismissive attitude to strangers and acquaintances alike, and he felt deeply that even fairly disreputable sorts should garner a modicum of courtesy. He forced his features into a neutral expression and nodded his head, “Good day, my lord, Clifford.”
Hampton smiled at Georgiana, who walked at Darcy’s left, and then his gaze sharpened to appreciation as he leered at Elizabeth, on Darcy’s right. Both ladies instinctively took Darcy’s arm, and he rapidly decided to turn them away from the men, onto a path that led to a lower terrace.
It was not a cut direct, but it was at least a bit dismissive. However, Darcy could not bear introducing the ladies to any man wearing that expression.
Once they were well away from Hampton and Clifford, he leant his head down to Elizabeth and asked softly, “Was I the right amount of protective or overly unpleasant and officious just then?”
She looked startled. “I very much appreciated that you led us away from…whichever lord that might have been. I did not like his expression.”
“Thank you,” he murmured. “I am attempting to be less judgemental, but I cannot see being equally affable to rakes as to respectable gentlemen.”
“Are you trying to tell me that you have no desire to become Mr Bingley?”
He threw his head back and laughed, surprising everyone.
Elizabeth laughed, as well, saying, “I take that as a yes.”
He nodded, still chuckling a bit.
The lodging house was very pleasant for a leased accommodation, with luxurious furnishings and bell pulls that connected to rooms for the party’s personal servants. Darcy had brought along an extra man servant for Gardiner and two additional maids who had some training as ladies’ maids for Elizabeth and Mrs Gardiner, in addition to his own valet and Georgiana’s maid.
