“Not in here,” she said, looking around their private residence. “I have ten servants, Elizabeth, and those are only the ones who have reason to be in the house. I am never completely alone. And if I am by myself, someone could come in at any time whilst carrying out their duties. But here? Here no one must come in to speak to me about dinner menus or to scrub the grate and lay a fire. If I want to bathe in a tub at home, that involves the labour of at least three people. This is a strange kind of privacy in the twenty-first century, but I enjoy it.”
She could understand that. Darcy had commented on the same thing. It meant they had to do more for themselves but, in general, their lives were significantly more private than the life Darcy had known. “But you must be used to having more to do.”
Georgiana agreed, and then lapsed into silence. If she didn’t want to go anywhere, had no interest in learning about modern life, it could be a long summer. Elizabeth had another thought, one that she knew Darcy would disapprove of, but he wasn’t a mother.
“Georgiana, do you want to learn anything about, or even meet, your birth mother?”
Georgiana dropped her hand and stared.
“Fitzwilliam and I learned who she is,” she added. “Or, at least we have a good guess based on what we know and what Ms Leigh looks like.”
After a beat of silence, she asked flatly, “Does she mourn my loss? Does she presume me dead?”
“Yes, I think so. She had you when she was a teenager, and she was a homeless drug user.” When Georgiana looked confused, she tried to remember the phrase Darcy had used. “She was an opium eater. She was imprisoned for losing you, and for the drugs, but she got sober and turned her life around.Now she has a program where she talks to school children about the dangers of drug addiction. I think she’s married and has other children. But your mother never forgave herself?—”
“My mother was Lady Anne Darcy.”
“Oh, I know that,” Elizabeth cried, apologetic. “I’m sorry. And I think this woman would agree with you. I just, if Sandra disappeared, it would be a comfort to at least know she was alive and had been well cared-for.”
Georgiana’s hard look faded as instantly as it came. “Would it not make you want to have your child back, even if a lifetime had gone by? I could never have a relationship with that woman.”
She knew the truth in her own heart. “Yes. But maybe something is better than nothing after a devastating loss like that? We know when you disappeared and what you were wearing when they found you on Stanton Moor in 1795. Even a letter from you might change everything for this woman.”
“You have a good heart, Elizabeth,” Georgiana murmured. “But I will neither meet her nor write to her. I do not blame her for losing me at the stone circle, but she is not my mother. I have no memory of her or that life. I owe her no notice. My mother was Lady Anne Darcy. She died when I was young, but I have memories of her. She brushed my hair and sang to me. She is the one my brother told me stories about, the one my father loved and mourned.”
Elizabeth’s cheeks heated at overstepping. “I am sorry to distress you.”
“I am not distressed,” she insisted, “and after seeing you with Sandra, I know why you asked. I may not understand what it is to be a mother, but I understand your compassion and do not fault you for it. I am glad to know you and Sandra better, but I am not embracing this century. You need not keep me busy, and I do not want to meet the woman who bore me, or even learn about every tool or?—”
Darcy came in, tossed his keys and phone onto the side table, saw them talking on the couch, and stopped short. He recovered, but then said, “I just forgot, I am needed in the stables,” and turned around again. “I can meet Sandra’s bus tonight,” he called over his shoulder.
Elizabeth pushed down her anger. He was going out of his way to avoid his sister. She saw in her eyes that Georgiana knew it too, so Elizabeth cheerfully said, “You really are fine with going nowhere, just playing with Sandra, and performing music? I promise not to push you, although I’ll always try to include you, okay?”
Her eyes narrowed as she tried to parse her words, and Elizabeth corrected herself. “May I ask to include you in what we do and who we meet? You can always refuse, however, and will not be thought rude.”
Georgiana understood and tried to meet her bright tone. “It is a holiday for me. I have no tenants to meet with or argue with, no attorneys or bankers to write to. Pemberley is currently in the hands of Mr Willers. And you and my brother, I suppose,” she added with a laugh. “I am only here for a respite, to speak with my brother, and to prepare to face a future without…without my dependable steward.”
She was glad for Georgiana to have a holiday, and she wanted her to have the confidence to confess her feelings for Philip Willers. But Darcy’s behaviour was not helping. She doubted his willingness in deepening his connection to his sister, and that might be what she needed most.
CHAPTER SIX
Spending time with Georgiana fell easily into Elizabeth’s daily routine of walking Sandra to and from the school bus—sharing that responsibility with Darcy—and her accounting and social media work for Pemberley. Georgiana walked the grounds, read through sheet music, played with Sandra, and reluctantly learnt about the year 2026 just enough to survive.
They all helped Georgiana adjust by explaining things from Deliveroo to married women owning property. Sandra thought her aunt’s confusion over mundane things was a silly game, but she liked to prove herself by clarifying. Elizabeth would have discouraged this slight showing off, but it helped Georgiana adapt.
And she hoped when Sandra learnt about the time travel power within Nine Ladies, many years from now, it would be easier to believe if she reflected on that strange aunt who struggled with light switches that she never saw again.
There was no way to know if Darcy agreed with Georgiana having Sandra’s innocent help. Elizabeth worked with Darcy, parented with him, hosted Georgiana with him, but she didn’t feel like she waswithhim. They slept in the same bed, but the inches between them felt like miles. For the first time since theyear after Sandra was born, she felt like she and Darcy were no longer aligned in every way that mattered. They spoke little more than necessary, and the subject of Georgiana was entirely off-limits.
It hurt her heart that Darcy wanted nothing to do with his sister.
Earlier this week, he was about to meet the school bus when Georgiana offered to join him on the walk to Lambton. “You need not trouble yourself,” he had said as he strode from the room.
Yesterday, she and Darcy showed Georgiana what remained of the original park, and when they crossed the stream she asked him, “Do you remember the pump, Fitzwilliam? You had it installed to raise the water thirty yards out for the well? I installed a new Archimedes screw last spring powered by a windmill rather than cattle.”
She had wanted Darcy to take her up on the subject of land improvements, but he only said that he remembered, and then looked away. Georgiana’s expectant look shuttered. Elizabeth thought Georgiana might have just needed to hear that her brother thought her plan was a good one.
But Darcy never invited a closer connection to Georgiana. And there was certainly never a mention of her uncertain relationship to Mr Willers. The reserved Mr Darcy she had met in 1811 was back, but what saddened her more was to see him act that way with his beloved sister. He had acted kindly and patiently with Georgiana when she saw them together in the past and had spoken of her so fondly after he left.
