They stared at one another for a lengthy moment. Colonel Fitzwilliam did not so much as blink, but Elizabeth thought she understood him. “I can tell you are not in the habit of threatening young ladies. Have you been practising that speech?”
He gave her a smile that she gladly returned. “Yes, how did I do? Was I intimidating?”
The colonel’s love of family and his loyalty to them were nothing for her to be distressed over. “No, but you need not threaten me on this matter. I love Georgiana, and her reputation is as dear to me as my own.”
“But what ofDarcy?” The colonel’s smile faded. “What if Georgiana dies in July and you die in October? Yes, the apothecary thinks that unlikely, but how will you treat Darcy without his sister’s presence to remind you what you owe to your new family?”
“I could not love Mr Darcy, but I will at least keep his good opinion. Not for myself or for you, but for Georgiana’s memory. And, I suppose, because he is a good man and it is right to be done.” She gave her head a little shake and forced a smile. “Enough of this talk of death! Shall we part as friends?” She held out her hand. “I know you disapprove of my arrangement with your cousin, but do not let it convince you that I am an honourless, unfeeling woman.”
Colonel Fitzwilliam pressed her hand and kissed it. “All I ask is that you care for the Darcys, both of them, as your own family.”
“I hope my manner will continue to smooth over my offensive style when I remind you that you have been to Longbourn. I can promise to care for the Darcys better than that.”
“I am not refusingto oblige you, ma’am,” Cook said kindly. “It takes time to make lozenges, and if you want Miss Darcy’s medicine now, you can have dinner after eight o’clock.”
Elizabeth exhaled loudly through her nose and tried to keep her patience. “The new maid has been here since I married, and with Colonel Fitzwilliam now gone, how much extra work does she have?Can she not help you in the kitchen?” Her mother had always had an able housekeeper to manage these matters.
The cook laughed. “I know where you lived before, ma’am, so I don’t mind telling you where you blundered. One maid of all work will be busy enough caring for the rooms and furniture, emptying chamber pots, cleaning hearths, and scrubbing floors.”
Elizabeth felt a little ashamed at not having realised their one maid would never do needlework or help Cook in the kitchen. The Darcys had but one maid before, and had managed well enough.I must make do in my new situation.It would be temporary for her, but the Darcys had never known anything better.
Cook bent over a barrel of flour as she went on. “The man does coal carrying and carrying buckets of water, and chopping wood and horse tending, and does his best as the master’s valet, and Mrs Moon comes in for the washing, while I cook and tend the kitchen garden. Who do you think that leaves for food preserving, going to the shops, sewing, medicines, and anything else needing done?”
“I suppose the new lady of the house will have a few more responsibilities than the mistress of Longbourn.” Despite that, it was not bad living here. Aside from having Georgiana’s company whenever she wished it, she had more freedom and more peace at the lodge than she ever had at her childhood home.
The cook stoked the fire and spoke over her shoulder. “’Tisn’t that I won’t make a medicine for the sick lady. But I must juice the licorice, measure the sugar, powder the gum arabic, get two drachms extract of opium from the apothecary, and then after I make a paste out of the gum tragacanth and beat them all together, I can form the lozenges. You cannot have both dinner and her medicine in a timely manner.”
“Would it make it easier for Miss Darcy’s needs to always be met if someone helped you with the plain cooking, pudding and pies, and roasted meat?”
The cook stopped bustling to give her an appraising look, and Elizabeth met her stare with her own look of firm determination.
Darcy had spenthis morning hours, as he always did, writing letters of business and in diligently replying to his friends to give no hint as to where he truly was or that he had married a stranger. His reply to Fitzwilliam was easier to write; on returning to town, his cousin had found two banks and three moneylenders who were owed money by Wickham. If Darcy purchased the debts, he might get his writ.
It occurred to him that since Fitzwilliam left, he could not remember when he last had a conversation outside of dinner or breakfast with Mrs Darcy. He did not hear voices or music in the drawing room. His sister he discovered asleep in her room, but it took a quarter of an hour before he found his wife since he did not expect to find her entertaining a guest in the kitchen. His cook was a flurry of activity as always, but Mrs Darcy and Miss Lucas were in aprons at the table, the former covered in flour and the latter struggling to keep from laughing as they appraised an unidentifiable thing before them.
“Next time, you can roll the pigeons in flour paste and fry them as dumplings,” Miss Lucas said. “You might find that easier than making a pie crust.”
“But it might taste good ... and one ought not to judge on appearances. Georgiana and I will eat it in a picnic, and Mr Darcy need never see it. Can we practise the bread again? I did better with that.”
“No, Eliza! The oven needs to be its hottest for bread. It is low enough now for cakes and pies.”
“What are you doing?” His question brought him to their attention with a start. He knewwhatthey were doing; what he wanted to understand was why Mrs Darcy was helping in the kitchen.
“I am learning how to make pies. Charlotte is a good teacher, and I hope before I burn too much food that I shall be an apt pupil.”
Darcy covered his eyes with his hand, cringing. Mrs Darcy, no matter who or where she was, ought not to be in the kitchen. “Do I not keep servants that can do their own work?”
“The more that I assist Cook, the more time she will have to make what physic, liniment, syrup, or remedy Georgiana needs. I am determined to make a small income go a long way. I am only now to learn how much needs to be done, and I intend to help.” She turned to herfriend, who tried to look busy examining the purported food Mrs Darcy had prepared. “Shall we now attempt mince pies?”
“Miss Lucas, I must ask you to give me the benefit of a private conversation with my wife. You are welcome to wait in the drawing room.”
Miss Lucas removed her apron, but Mrs Darcy glared at him. “I am in the midst of?—”
“I recommend you leave the flour you are wearing in the kitchen before I see you in my study, please.”
He left, but not before hearing peals of laughter. When his wife entered his study, she had managed to rid herself of most of the mess. Her cheeks were still pink from the heat of the oven, the loosened hair around her face was streaked with flour, and her eyes were bright and amused. Mrs Darcy looked too alluring. The fleeting wish to kiss her vexed him. He ought not to—it was not what they agreed to.And I have more pressing matters to think on than my pretty wife.
“I am well able to keep a good cook!”
