The room became silent and Lydia stared around. “What did I say?”
Darcy stepped into the breach. “Yes, Miss Lydia, I talk to my friend Miss Taylor, and I would appreciate if you could assist her in her new responsibilities. I must however agree with you on one point. Talking to me is often quite dreary, so I depend on you to cheer her up after she finishes with the disagreeable chore.”
Lydia, entirely surprised the man could make a joke, or that he would ask her for anything at all, did the only proper thing. She started giggling, which prompted Kitty to join her.
“We will be happy to help her,” they said together with a look of mild avarice on their faces.
Kitty asked, “How long have you been a lady’s maid?”
“You tell me. You saw the promotion! I was a maid of all work when we entered.”
Lydia jumped up and down a few times. “La, we will have so much fun! Come along.”
Then she started pulling Ellen by the arm, but she winced loud enough for even Lydia to notice, and she turned back to look at her wrist. Seeing the bandage soaked in blood but not likely to be fatal, she gasped. “How did you get Jane’s embroidery on your wrist? It is the best thing any of us have made in our lives.”
Ellen Taylor looked at Jane and whispered, “Hideous?”
Jane shrugged nonchalantly. “We suffered a mishap on the road. I shall tell you all about it at dinner, but I would appreciate it if you cleaned that wound with gin and salve—all the gin on the wound if you please—and a new bandage. Pretend she is Lizzy who just fell out of a tree, or a barn, or a woodpile, or—”
“Of course. We are not nickninnies. Come along Ellen. We will fix you right up,” Lydia laughed, and the youngest Bennet girls flounced from the room with Ellen in tow; the level of noise reduced considerably.
Darcy turned to the others. “Mrs Bennet, I believe your daughter surprised you with my presence. I would be happy to stay at the inn if it is inconvenient.”
Mrs Bennet looked as though she were on the verge of apoplexy. “The inn! The inn! Not on your life! It is inconceivable! There is no trouble at all, though there is no chance of fresh fowl or fish for dinner.”
Darcy quite surprised her by chuckling. “Anything will do. I always heard you set a fine table at Longbourn and enjoyed it on the two occasions I dined here previously. Whatever you have will be fine, and on the morrow, perhaps Mr Bennet and I could hunt at Netherfield.”
Anne joined in. “I have never shared a bed before, Janie. Do you snore?”
Everyone burst into laughter, and Darcy smiled from ear to ear seeing this side of his cousin emerge. He had known perfectly well it was there all along but had wondered for years whether anyone other than his cousin Richard and he would see it. Privately, he gave it a month before Lady Catherine was afraid of her daughter, rather than the converse, which had been the pattern of their lives.
Jane and Anne moved closer to Mrs Bennet and Mary to start a conference about ladies’ topics. Darcy stood back watching. He was enjoying the unexpected camaraderie when he heard a quiet voice beside him.
“Quite a sensation to be entirely insignificant, eh?”
Darcy looked at the man and thought he detected a bit of the wit that must have instructed his Elizabeth’s character; he thought he just might like the man on his own merits.
“I confess I have never been so thoroughly cast out, rebuffed, and ignored in my life. I believe I am less significant than that cat over there. I quite enjoy it.”
“The horns will blow soon enough, but you are safe for the moment. What say you to some sherry and a game of chess or backgammon?”
“It would be my honour and pleasure.”
“Go easy on the courtesy,” Bennet said with a wry grin. “Best to build yourself up slowly in such exertions.”
“I assume you are aware I have a debt of civility to this neighbourhood.”
Bennet stopped and looked carefully at the man. “So, my Lizzy took you to task, did she?”
Darcy looked carefully, trying to work out what the man knew or suspected, and finally said, “In a manner of speaking, though you may be overlooking another daughter who is not as averse to instruction as you might suppose.”
“My Jane?” he asked, wide-eyed.
“Yes sir. I do not recommend her bad side; nor Anne’s, for that matter.”
“Are there any women of your acquaintance who havenottaken you to task recently?”
Darcy stared at the gentleman for a moment, raised his finger in the air, put it back, raised it again, dropped it again, and finally said, “Now that you mention it, I cannot think of any.”
