Did she think he needed the reminder? He knew men in the nineteenth century who would, and, sadly, some born in the twenty-first who would also think that way. “I know it, and I wouldn’t want to. She has excellent business sense, and she brings out the best in people.”
“She does. And she loves them deeply. Elizabeth left a letter for me when she returned home in 1811. It reminded me to not sacrifice my self-respect, that I am a capable woman despite my shyness, and not to be in a hurry to marry. She even thought I might do some good at Pemberley. I am not certain she realises that she has done just as much good here.”
He thought he was the luckiest man in the world to have married Elizabeth, but it saddened him that she doubted her own worth. There was nothing he valued more than her. “She is the one who convinced me that you needed to know you were asmuch a Darcy of Pemberley as I was, that you needed to be told you were worthy of the responsibility. Her faith in you first made me realise that you could take care of Pemberley if you wanted it.” He turned to look at her, guilt pressing on his chest. “Did you want it, or did you accept because you felt like you had to?”
She gaped at him for the question. “Yes, I wanted it. I did then and still do. It is unnatural for a woman to admit such a thing?—”
“Not in my century.”
She laughed a little. “I cannot understand that sort of freedom, but I am glad the ladies who live now have it and can speak unreservedly if they choose it. It feels unfeminine to be ambitious, but yes, I wanted Pemberley.”
“Even now, with Mr Willers leaving?”
Her adamant expression faltered. “Yes. I can manage without him. Can I not?” she added weakly. “It will be so difficult to be there without him—without his assistance, I mean.”
“You are capable of great things. But you do not have to manage without him. If you know why he is leaving, you could give him a reason to stay.”
He had hoped she would tell him why he was leaving, but she said, “No, he does not want money. I must employ someone else. But how many other stewards will see me as a competent manager? How many will arrogantly assume they know more, or that because I am a woman, I cannot possibly make a decision?”
Could she not guess Mr Willers was leaving because he assumed his love for her was unreturned? Regardless, Darcy would have to encourage her in the belief that she was capable. That mattered more than convincing her she needed a husband. “You would never employ someone like that, and if they deceived you, it would not take you long to remove him and find another. I would not think long on that concern.”
“Since seeing Pemberley in 2026, I think more of my marrying than employing a new steward. I see all that has survived and know that I must have married—or will marry? Or, I will have married?” She laughed. “It is hard to talk about matters when you are in one time and talking of living in another.”
He chuckled. “The verb tenses get difficult.”
Georgiana’s smile fell. “I have to marry and have a child to set all this in motion.”
Darcy winced in self-reproach. “I always hoped you would simply live your own life as you chose, irrespective of me.”
“I guess I still need my older brother’s guidance.”
He opened his mouth to object, but she went on. “I never came here to gain an advantage, though. Unless you want to settle a debate for Mr Willers and me about steam engines.”
She grinned, and Darcy laughed. “I won’t tell you, but what didyoudecide?”
“That they are worth investing in. I think they could move passengers someday, but Mr Willers thinks only coal mines will use them and I should invest elsewhere. I pulled money out of the four per cents to put into the steam engines. I would like to tell Mr Willers I was right before he—” Her voice cracked. “—before he leaves.”
“Georgiana, why do you think he is?—”
“Do you think a gentleman would marry me?” she interrupted in a high-pitched voice. “Would he live on an estate he cannot pass on to his descendants? Where I will refuse to live at his ancestral estate and will expect to stay at Pemberley? I spent five minutes with Elizabeth and Sandra and I know it is possible in 2026, but what about when I live? A woman’s place is so different from what it is now. Could any man marry a woman on such terms as I would set?”
“Would you fall in love with such a man who would not?” he countered.
“Oh, I am afraid I could,” she cried. “I nearly made a foolish choice and lost everything.”
For a moment he thought his sister meant a dalliance since he left, but then he realised she meant eloping with Wickham. “You were fifteen! It was a lifetime ago. And he was a scheming seducer nearly twice your age. Now you are thirty, and with more experience and restraint. You are a woman of intelligence. You would not now lose your peace of mind for an unworthy man.” This was going nowhere. “If he asks you, you have my permission to say yes.”
The colour leeched from her cheeks and lips. “I—there is no one whose proposals I am considering.”
“But you have someone on your mind,” he insisted. “And you might have to propose to him yourself.”
She actually recoiled. “I am far too shy, and a woman, and?—”
“Then Mr Willers will leave to work for Lord Gordon because he thinks you do not love him.”
Complete shock washed over her as her mouth hung agape before she burst into tears.
Darcy put an arm around her and held her in compassionate silence while she cried her eyes out. She laid against his shoulder, ruining his shirt, until she was done. “Do you think he might love me, too?” She sniffled.
