Elizabeth attended Lady Catherine in the drawing room, hoping that her face showed only how much she hoped for the best from her aunt-by-marriage, and not how much she feared the worst. Elizabeth had not dissembled in telling Mr Darcy that she wished to allow the lessons to go forward. She thought them very much the best way of preventing a rift in the family, and not unlikely to provide real benefit for herself. Only, the thought of wilfully submitting herself to Lady Catherine’s disapproval could not fail to be a little disquieting.
“Ah, there you are,” Lady Catherine said, turning to look at the clock on the mantel. No doubt she had hoped to chide Elizabeth for being late, but she was, in fact, five minutes early. “Well, come along then, and we shall get down to business.”
“Of course, Lady Catherine. Thank you for being willing to help me as I get settled here at Pemberley.” The flash of surprise that jolted through Lady Catherine’s eyes did not escape Elizabeth, but she did not allow her own expression to change, offering her teacher only a demure smile.
Lady Catherine looked down her nose at Elizabeth. “Very well, then. Let us begin by finding out how lacking your knowledge is, so I might know where to begin.”
Miss de Bourgh shifted in her seat near the hearth, which was ablaze with a roaring fire. Elizabeth herself was comfortably warm from its heat, though her place was considerably farther off. She could not imagine Miss de Bourgh could stand it much longer, wrapped in two shawls and wearing a silk gown besides.
Miss de Bourgh shot her a warning look, and Elizabeth took her cue to mean that she should tread lightly. “I have very little knowledge of how a house of this magnitude should be run, Lady Catherine. I would be most grateful if you would start with the very basics.” She looked over at Miss de Bourgh. Though Lady Catherine treated her daughter as if she were a child and talked about her as if she were not even in the room, Elizabeth had seen nothing to indicate that she was deficient in intelligence or good sense. “And please, Miss de Bourgh, if you have any insights to add, they would be most welcome.”
“Oh, Anne does nothing where the house or estate is concerned. I take care of all that myself. Now, the first and most important thing about running an estate of this size may come as a surprise to you. Young ladies always think of putting on grand balls, but this is nothing compared to matters of real importance. Nor should you begin by doing up all the rooms anew, or even by seeing to it that the staff handles matters as you would wish. There is something of far greater importance to be done.” She looked down her nose at Elizabeth. “I am speaking, of course, of your husband’s tenants. You and Darcy are looked to as leaders of this community. The people of the village will follow your lead, as long as you can win them over. One must not only lead by example, but must also listen to the troubles and woes of the ‘ordinary man’, as you might call him.”
Elizabeth blinked in surprise, for such a sense of responsibility towards others made her think well of LadyCatherine. And if Lady Catherine had thought Elizabeth the type to shirk her duty in favour of chasing ease and luxury, the truth would surely come as a welcome surprise. “Oh, yes, I quite agree. Perhaps I may ask for your advice for a specific encounter Mr Darcy and I had with one of our tenants the other day.”
Lady Catherine closed her mouth, as if surprised that Elizabeth would have any concern for their neighbours and tenants. She seemed to have believed Elizabeth would play at being the grand lady of the manor, who thought the problems of ordinary people far below her notice.
“Very well,” Lady Catherine said, waving for her to continue.
“Well, a tenant who runs a farm on the outskirts of Lambton fell a few weeks ago and broke his leg. It was quite a bad break, so much so that he has been unable to walk or work. He did not tell Mr Darcy for fear of being thrown out of their home. I only found it from his daughter, who is a maid here. She was dreadfully afraid and did not wish me to share her secret.”
“What did you do then?” Miss de Bourgh asked, with a curiosity amounting almost to animation. Lady Catherine looked at her daughter in surprise.
“It was a difficult case,” Elizabeth admitted. “I did not wish to betray her trust.” And she had not been certain how Mr Darcy would react, though she did not wish to admit as much to his relations.
“But if you are telling us now, you must have done something in the end,” Miss de Bourgh pressed.
Elizabeth nodded. “I thought helping her family was more important than keeping the secret. We went to visit themthe next day. Mr Darcy did the rest. He was quick to line up the neighbours to help them bring in their wheat crops and help with the lambing. What would you have done in the situation, Lady Catherine?”
Elizabeth waited patiently to hear what Lady Catherine would have to say to that. She hemmed and hawed for a moment, then furrowed her brow. She seemed to be grudgingly impressed. “Well, I would say you did well enough. It would have ruined the family if you had kept the secret. Pray, how old is the tenant?”
“I did not see him, as he was ill in bed. But by the looks of his wife, I would say she is perhaps forty years of age or more. With two grown daughters, I would assume so, anyway.”
“Hmm,” Lady Catherine said. “Well, I might have gone to visit the family myself if I had known them better. But since you are new to the county, I would say you did right in asking your husband to go along with you for the first visit.”
Lady Catherine promptly went on to the next subject of her lesson, which was the proper way to handle servants. Elizabeth listened intently, nodding at the appropriate times and asking questions often. She had intended to do so in any case, to demonstrate her deference and respect to her teacher and thus smooth the relations between them, but could thankfully do so out of real interest and curiosity rather than policy. Lady Catherine’s advice, though sometimes over-strict, was better than Elizabeth might have guessed. Though overbearing in her manner to the point of rudeness, Lady Catherine did have a wealth of experience to draw on. She was worth listening to, if not believing without question. Better still, Lady Catherine seemed to soften upon seeing how attentively Elizabeth received her advice. She believed her first inclinations were correct: LadyCatherine was lonely and wanted nothing more than to have someone truly listen to her.
“I wonder about expanding the local school to include girls, Lady Catherine,” Elizabeth said thoughtfully. “From what I have been able to surmise from the bridal visits Mr Darcy and I have made, there are very few of the young ladies and girls who can read and write.”
Lady Catherine gave a derisive laugh. “That is the way of the world, my dear.” Lady Catherine froze, then looked away. Evidently, she had not meant to address her so fondly. After all, Elizabeth was the enemy — or at least Lady Catherine seemed to believe her so.
She waved her hand as if to swat the annoying thought away. “I do agree that females are just as capable of learning as males. It is a pity that young women are not given the same opportunities to expand their minds as men are.”
“I agree. I thought of asking my husband if we might give the funds to expand the school to include girls. It would make such a difference for these young women. They ought to at least be able to read a little and do a little basic figuring. But I should not wish to move too quickly, or to force change before our neighbours are ready for it.”
“Yes, indeed.” Lady Catherine allowed begrudgingly. “It is wise to find your place in the community first, see what the people want and need, and then move forward with plans to change things.”
As the afternoon grew late and the lesson was winding down, Elizabeth gathered her courage. There was one other subject she wanted to broach with Lady Catherine, but it had nothing to do with running the house.
“May I ask about Georgiana, Lady Catherine?” Elizabeth said tentatively. “I have heard her mentioned only a few times, and it seems to me that there is a very sad story surrounding her.”
Lady Catherine harrumphed. “That girl is a blight on the name of Darcy. If her father or mother were alive, they would wish they were dead.”
Elizabeth was torn between horror at hearing such vehemence, and private amusement at hearing it stated so comically. She chose to express neither sentiment. “Were they very close when they were young — Mr Darcy and his sister?”
Lady Catherine’s face was pinched, as if she had swallowed something sour and unpleasant. “Yes, I suppose they were. Their father died eight years ago, as you may know. Darcy has been her guardian and the nearest thing to a father to my niece ever since. But that girl threw it all away when she married that scoundrel, a man of no breeding and less character. The worst kind of betrayal, if you ask me.” She glanced at Anne. “She has disgraced the family, and I have vowed to never speak her name again. Even so, I believe it is your right to know, now that you are Darcy’s wife.”
Miss de Bourgh shifted uncomfortably. She had undoubtedly heard the same barbs aimed at her cousin many times before from Lady Catherine, despite her ‘vow’. “There is more you should know,” Miss de Bourgh said then, her voice soft but determined. “Georgiana was a very sweet girl. I adored her — at least before everything that happened this past summer.”
