Elizabeth nodded, delighted by the prospect of seeing Miss Darcy again in London. It was a relationship she had contemplated even before meeting her.
“We might also attend the theatre together,” Georgiana proposed. Elizabeth assented with a delighted smile she made no effort to conceal.
Their conversation was interrupted when the other guests entered the room, taking their seats and awaiting Elizabeth’s performance.
In a sweet and gentle tone, Miss Darcy directed her brother to turn the pages. Elizabeth concealed her smile or any mischievous remark; his help was unnecessary, yet Miss Darcy considered it essential, and Elizabeth accepted the offer.
“Miss Bennet,” he addressed her.
“Mr Darcy,” she replied, and they shared a smile that did not go unnoticed by Miss Darcy as she settled into her own chair, revelling in the joy of bringing those two intriguing souls together.
For the first time in her life, Elizabeth felt a trace of nervousness when she placed her hands on the keys. She wanted to excel in an art that she had never truly mastered. In haste, she remembered the few pianoforte lessons she had received inher aunt Phillips’s house from a tutor who had come to Meryton with other interests when she was fifteen.
“Pay attention to your hand position, finger strength, and general technique,”resonated in her head. “Begin slowly and gradually increase the tempo, and most of all, remember to enjoy the journey of playing the pianoforte.”
She closed her eyes for a few seconds. When silence descended upon the room, she began playing, imagining it was that tutor, not Mr Darcy, next to her.
“Your playing has much improved,” Mr Darcy said with genuine admiration at the end of the short concert.
“Perhaps because she had help with the pages,” Miss Darcy said, approaching them. She observed with satisfaction how both smiled as they looked at each other.
∞∞∞
“I liked Miss Bennet very much. She is exactly as you described her—a rare and friendly soul,” Georgiana said, hoping she had been sufficiently clear in showing her brother that she valued Miss Bennet as a friend but also as a potential sister. Darcy laughed as he escorted her to her room. She paused on the threshold before opening the door, and in the dim light of the hall, Darcy caught a glimpse of their mother in her. Georgiana resembled her so strikingly that his heart hurt, yet a hint of happiness also invaded him, as having Georgiana was like not having lost Lady Anne for good.
“If you have something to ask me, ask,” he said, maintaining a smile on his face, precisely as he might have addressed their mother.
“Perhaps it is you who has something to tell me,” Georgiana replied with unexpected courage, emboldened by theextraordinary openness of her brother, who had silently agreed to speak plainly and not merely in hints, as he had done for months.
“I might have, Mother,” he answered with a trace of humour. “But not tonight, and certainly not in a hall in Lady Catherine’s house. Besides, I cannot help but wonder what you have already guessed.”
Chapter 10
“Well?” the colonel asked Georgiana eagerly. Early in the morning, they met like two conspirators in a small sitting room next to Georgiana’s bedchamber, far from the prying ears that had a knack for capturing secrets within the confines of Rosings. Their shared mission to support Darcy had brought them closer, forging a bond of trust and understanding.
“You were right!” cried Georgiana with a newfound confidence, her voice ringing with a sense of empowerment that she had never felt before.
It was the second time Georgiana and the colonel had conversed out of earshot of Darcy…about Darcy.
Darcy was not the kind of man to make direct confessions. Yet, in his letters to the colonel from Netherfield, he had unwittingly revealed that he had been deeply impressed by a young lady from the neighbourhood. The only detail that had escaped—a coincidence he had presented in his characteristic,slightly mocking tone—was that this young lady happened to be related to their aunt’s new parson.
Then, one late evening, in the dim glow of the library, Darcy had confessed that he was contemplating marriage. He had said no more, but the colonel had immediately connected this revelation with the letters and saw everything in a new light when their annual Easter journey to Rosings was unexpectedly preceded by a letter from Lady Catherine. It contained but a single noteworthy detail—Lady Catherine’s clergyman, Mr Collins, was at that very moment receiving a visit from his wife’s sister and…his cousin from Hertfordshire.
Yet, two days before their departure for Kent, Darcy—evidently tormented by questions and doubts—had declared that he had changed his mind and would rather postpone the journey or forgo it altogether. And, since they were already sharing a glass of cognac, Darcy, in a rare moment of candour, had admitted—without naming names or giving details—that he held in the highest regard a young lady who possessed many admirable qualities, yet whose family constituted an insurmountable obstacle to marriage.
Profoundly unsettled, the colonel resolved to intervene, to take a stand against that part of Darcy’s nature that even he could not abide—the arrogant man who deemed himself above those of lower social standing. To be in love and renounce that love solely because of her family was an error he could not allow Darcy to commit.
Lacking other allies, the colonel turned to Georgiana, who, after the unfortunate events of Ramsgate, seemed to have gained an unexpected maturity for her age. After all, he had observed how many young women of her years already considered themselves ready to become wives and mothers. Georgiana was still timid in society, yet in the months following that ill-fated August, they had come to realise that their littlesister and cousin had grown into a young woman who must now be treated as an adult. Childhood had vanished, and she had to face the world with courage and resolve—their duty was to help her do so. To their delight, Georgiana had flourished within mere months, overcoming her shyness, eager to prove that the resolution she had taken in Ramsgate—to reject Wickham—had not been a momentary impulse but the result of her strength of character.
Thus, the first meeting between the colonel and Georgiana resulted in their departure for Rosings, both insisting that Darcy undertake the journey, which was already arranged. He had consented at last, and the two conspirators congratulated themselves—the colonel, satisfied and confident, Georgiana elated that her cousin had deemed her mature enough to be his ally in a matter as delicate and intimate as her brother’s love and perhaps even future.
“I adored her!” Georgiana continued to cry while her cousin made a discreet gesture asking her to temper her joy and voice, so the young lady continued in a murmur, “I am so grateful you revealed what was happening with him. I would have never understood on my own. She is delightful, intelligent, and different from the ladies I know in London! As he said, she is an accomplished young lady.”
The colonel nodded and then added in the same low voice, “And the perfect woman for him. It does not matter that there may still be other accomplished young ladies in London or elsewhere—she is the one he loves. He need not wait for anyone else. He is quite taken with her.”
With a spark of exhilaration in her eyes, Georgiana clapped her hands with satisfaction. “I am pleased to meet her! Whilst we were at Pemberley, we often discussed Hertfordshire. However, I lacked the subtlety to perceive that some of hisstories began or ended with a certain young lady he had met there.”
The colonel gazed at her intently, trying to recall the little girl she had been only a few months before. Yet the young lady before him reminded him far more of Lady Anne than the child she once was. She bore the same gentle, luminous smile with which Lady Anne had regarded life. Looking at her, he realised that if he had sought Georgiana’s help in this delicate matter, it was because, with each passing day, she resembled her mother more and more.
