“I can understand her disinterest in Ramsgate,” he said.
So she was right; Darcy was above being pleased. “You disapprove of Ramsgate or of resorts?”
“Both, but I meant Ramsgate. Though it may be considered as a rival of Margate, it will never supplant it as the preferred place.”
“Yet your sister came,” she said, not bothering to hold back her smile. “Did she come in defiance of you?”
“She would not defy me. But nor would I refuse to let her do something so reasonable, however little I enjoy such a place. Her companion thought a small seaside resort would be a better place for her to mix and make friends, regardless of my opinion of the company.”
“How could you speak against the company in Ramsgate? You arehere too. It is now filled with respectable and even more select company,” she said playfully.
Darcy looked chagrined. “I mean no slight against you. You have been a good friend to my sister.”
They shared a smile, but his amusement faded as Kitty joined Lydia in being a general nuisance. The nothing-saying amongst them might be done any other time. The second act could not begin fast enough.
“Girls, go sit down,” she said, hating having to talk over Darcy and reprimand her sisters in his hearing. “My mother must be wanting you.”
“Oh, Lizzy, my mother is the one who sent us over!” cried Kitty. She then continued to tell Georgiana about the attractiveness of the men on their side of the room.
Elizabeth sat back with a huff and unintentionally caught Darcy’s eye.
“Some mothers have not got quite the right way of managing their daughters,” he said as an aside to her.
All the truth of his earlier criticism, of her mother’s and sister’s behaviour lessening their ability to make a good impression, came back to her. Her family’s want of propriety shamed her, but no one wanted to be held in contempt or hear their loved ones spoken of in that way.
“And how do you manageyoursister?” she asked heatedly. “She is the same age as mine. Do you have a method I could recommend to my mother? Are you an expert on rearing girls? Teach me your rules, since you are so wise.”
Her outburst was unbecoming, and she knew it before she saw Darcy’s widened eyes. But rather than nod and turn away, rather than politely ignore her rudeness, he settled his gaze on her.
“Georgiana has been given good principles,” he said pointedly and in a low tone so his sister could not hear. “Some daughters are given wrong notions from the beginning. They are always acting upon motives of vanity, of securing a marriage.”
“But not your sister?” she said in disbelief. “She would never dress prettily for an evening? You never expect her to marry while she is still young and appealing enough to be of notice to a man?”
A muscle twitched in Darcy’s jaw. “She has been taught not to be imprudent and idle,” he said, with a tilt of his head toward where Kitty and Lydia had finally run off to return to their seats. “Georgiana will listen to me because I am her guardian and she would never wish to offend me, and Mrs Younge will guide her. It is a shame your younger sisters are not so well situated.”
The second act began, and Darcy withdrew his attention. For the rest of the evening he was engaged in the concert bill, his sister, and the performer, which was all the well for her. Elizabeth felt mortified. In her anger, she had foolishly provoked him into saying something that only gave pain to herself.
CHAPTER THREE
On Friday morning, Darcy collected his sister and Mrs Younge, and they made the short walk to Mrs Bennet’s lodgings for the excursion to Pegwell’s Bay. However, when they arrived, Mrs Bennet begged off.
“I am not much of a walker, and I have been unwell, you know,” she said from the sofa, looking as robust as she had Wednesday evening. “But Mrs Younge will be with you, and Mr Darcy too. Have a pleasant time, girls.”
Darcy thought Mrs Bennet was perfectly capable of pedestrian activities—it was barely a mile and a half—but kept his silence. With the mother absent, it fell to the eldest Miss Bennet to rein in two girls who had no interest in propriety. He saw in her face that she felt the futility of it. She occupied Kitty, as Lydia and Georgiana had grasped hands and bounded forward together in high spirits.
An overwhelming desire to talk with Elizabeth again pressed on him, so he forced himself not to.
He had been too frank with Elizabeth at the concert. She had overheard his accurate but impolite comment, and then he had continued to say familiar things to a stranger about how little he liked the concert and what sort of mother she had. What had possessed him to insulther mother’s managing of her daughters? Yes, it was true, but he had the sense not to offend a young lady by speaking against her family directly to her.
It was almost as though she made him nervous, and he had rambled insensibly. But that could not explain his behaviour. It was unlike him to be lacking in confidence or clarity of mind.
He watched Elizabeth shift from Kitty’s side to walk with Georgiana as Lydia ran to look at something in a shop window. Georgiana and Elizabeth’s heads were bent together, and he saw his sister speak more than she had when she was with Lydia. Lydia saved his shy sister from much talking, but Elizabeth gave her space to be heard. For all her challenging him last evening, Elizabeth was likely a generous friend. He would have to get along with her; she seemed the one most likely to continue an acquaintance with Georgiana after they left Ramsgate.
Most of the Bennets would be a degradation to his family, but Miss Elizabeth Bennet, taken on her own, would be proper enough company.
They stopped walking and took in a view of the bay, and Darcy watched the girls’ extreme hilarity of spirits and carelessness of manner. At this rate, it would take them two hours to walk a mile. While the Bennet sisters laughed and joked, he noticed Georgiana draw away to read one of her letters.
“Georgiana,” he called after a while, walking toward her. He noted her hurried manner as she hastily folded it. “Is something the matter? Who is that from?”
