“You do not go into society, I understand. This is the most animated you have appeared all evening, and it follows your witnessing a rather distressing episode. How could you be pleased?”
“I am obliged to you for the frankness with which you have expressed your sentiments upon my conduct.”
“Yourconducthas been gentlemanly.” What a severe young man. “I was referring to your odd attendance on my conversation, without joining it yourself. But you have done me a service by promising to keep your silence, and so I shall say no more about your peculiar interest in gowns and hair.” Elizabeth stood and discreetly pulled out a handkerchief and turned to wipe away the few tears that had escaped. When she faced the door, to her surprise, Mr Darcy was still there.
“My sister is the same age as Miss Lydia Bennet. Georgiana is an invalid and lonely. Her days are tedious. If I can entertain her with talk of the opera or the latest fashions in town or a story of youthful amusements, then it was an evening well spent. Goodnight, Miss Bennet.”
CHAPTER FOUR
“What colour was the opera gown?”
Darcy tried to remember the triviality of all he heard the previous evening. “Miss Bennet said it was made of crepe, but I do not remember the colour. The slippers were amber; would they have matched?”
“I will imagine an amber crepe gown over white sarcenet. How lovely. What did Miss Bennet wear?”
“To the opera? She did not say.” Miss Lydia Bennet was not inclined to hear of her sister when she could instead gossip about others.
“No, what did Miss Bennet wear last night?”
“Heavens, I do not know. I can only repeat her descriptions; I have no notion as to what such things mean.” Darcy saw Georgiana’s expression fall. “Her hair was in curls, and she did not wear a turban. Her gown was white, and it had short sleeves.” Georgiana shook her head at his incompetence. “It had yellow around the neck, sleeves, and bottom.”
“How would you describe Miss Bennet?”
The picture of her face contorted with pain flashed in his mind. “She has an unhealthy, pallid complexion, hair that is dark, with brighteyes to match. A rather small but well-shaped nose. A stature of elegance, but her figure is not perfectly symmetrical. She is the middle height for a woman.”
A coughing fit delayed his sister’s reply. “Tell me again the songs that she played?”
“She played a Schobert sonata. A pleasing performance, but by no means capital. She has easy manners, and an unaffected style comes across in her playing. You are more proficient than?—”
The servant then entered, holding a small parcel. “This was sent from Longbourn, sir.”
Darcy sighed. He had a mostly steady cook, a giddy young housemaid, and a middle-aged man for everything else, and none of them competent. “There are many people in the village of Longbourn, Hannah. Who amongst them has sent me something I do not want?”
“Not the village; LongbournHouse.” She announced this as though he were simple. “For Miss Darcy, with Miss Bennet’s compliments.” She deposited the parcel with a thud and left.
The siblings exchanged a curious look before Georgiana opened the paper. A note addressed to Miss Darcy was atop, and Darcy handed it to her as he scrutinised the contents.La Belle Assembléevol II; a libretto forDie Zauberflöte; and last year’s sensational novelSelf-Control.
“Did you not try to get this novel in vain last year?” Darcy asked. She nodded, and then looked back at her note while he flipped through the book. “How does a girl born in the Scottish Highlands end up on a passage down an American river? This melodramatic novel has nothing of probability in it.”
“I think that is what makes it enjoyable. Will you read it to me in the evenings?”
He nodded.Better that than the ladies’ magazine.“Why has Miss Bennet sent hundreds of pages for your amusement?”
“She writes that she is recently returned from town and had only just learnt from you that I am an invalid. She suggests the possibility that I might be weary with only you for company, and she hopes these offerings will fill my empty hours.”
“It is impertinent that she addresses herself to you without an introduction.”
“She could not have written toyou, and she wished to show me a kindness.” Georgiana laughed, and it devolved into a cough. When she recovered, she said, “She gently implies that perhaps your situation does not allow you to indulge me as much as I deserve, and she wishes to share all that she has to offer with one who would likewise appreciate the position of a dependent sister.”
“She does not know you, and she is not a patroness of a village.”Charity, and from a woman with no status and from such a family!Perhaps she did this to remind him to keep his promise not to mention her ailment. As though her heart could be a concern of his. “We are respectable gentry here. You have no need of Miss Bennet’s charity.”
“Fitzwilliam, she does not know that. We are renting a lodge that a family with more than five hundred pounds a year would never rent. You do not keep a carriage, and everyone knows you keep only three servants.”
Who was he in this place? His situation here projected a gentleman’s status, but it was a precarious prosperity that no unmarried gentleman’s daughter would set her cap on. I will not be pursued for my fortune here, small comfort that it is.
“She appears to have the sunniest of tempers.” Georgiana was still clutching Miss Bennet’s note. “I wish I could make her acquaintance. I should at least send her a note of gratitude.”
“We cannot cultivate a single acquaintance in Hertfordshire. Besides, I know nothing of this woman.”
