“Certainly, for she has run low on her restoratives and might wish for a change of flannels.”
“I had not thought of it. I suppose it would be nice to have a few more things for Auntie.”
“Sam will bring them this afternoon.”
“Will he? I wonder whether I could ask him to do me a service when he is in Lambton. Where might I find him?”
“I shall send him to you.”
“I would not want him to be put to the trouble. Besides, I would not mind stepping out of doors.”
“He is always in the stables, miss, and likely hitching up the cart as we speak.”
This was indeed the case. I handed him a pouch of coins and said, “Sam, would you do me a service and take a dozen of fresh gingerbreads to Mrs. Jennings’s servants with her compliments?”
He was amenable and pleased to do so, and I went back into the house absorbed in pictures of Penny’s raptures over such a treat. I hated to think of what would happen to her in particular if Mrs. Jennings were taken to London, and thus, an errand meant to lift my spirits had the exact opposite effect!
I retreated to my room then, and with the help of Miss Darcy’s maid, Miss Bell, I indulged in a bath, had my hair dressed and my nails trimmed, and a treatment on my face with a lotion straight from France through illegal means. When turned out at last, I felt slightly better for her ministrations.
Miss Darcy came to my room shortly after. “I heard you have had your hair put up. How pretty you look! Might I induce you to come down to dinner? Mrs. Annesley insists she should sit with Mrs. Jennings and see whether she might bring her about.”
“Poor Auntie. She had an odd start today, and any time she remembers Mr. Jennings, she grieves her heart out without understanding it at all.”
“You will come down with me?”
“I would like that very much.”
I tried very hard, even valiantly, to come about and to be a pleasurable dinner guest. The Darcys had bent double to make me welcome and had extended such kindness to Auntie asmustbe repaid, at the very least, with something better than my sulks. Thus, when Georgiana chose that evening to enquire deeply into the matter of my sisters—a topic I had heretofore skirted successfully—I rallied, digging deep into my reserves of irreverent observations.
“My sisters? Are you certain you wish to hear of them? If so, you will be shocked and mortified, my friend.”
Georgiana Darcy, having lived all her life in a punctilious palace, adored being shocked and mortified, particularly since she had a sense that I was not to be entirely believed. “Tell me!” she begged with a twinkle. This was the first spark of light I had seen in her since the squire’s visit, so I indulged her.
“First you must be told that my eldest has achieved her majority and my youngest is but fifteen years old, and we are all out at once.”
Her head came up at this. “Oh?”
“Jane preferred to wait for me since my mother has the notion that she must point out my sister’s beauty—she is uncommonly so in my estimation, poor thing—as though no one in Meryton has eyes in their head. My sister is extremely modest, you see, so we settled it that I would make light of Mama’s boasts, and Jane would shelter behind me while I bore my mother’s wrath for impertinence. Then, Mary being only a year behind me was sent along for no other reason than convenience. Meanwhile, Kitty and Lydia wept so bitterly and harangued our mother so constantly, that no more than five months later, there we all were, mixing with society!”
“I am behind in coming out, or so say my aunts.”
I patted her hand. “My poor friend. It is nothing in country society to be brought out, knowing everyone as we do from infancy, but to curtsey at court and be the centerpiece of a grand ball must be no better than having a tooth drawn! But,” I quickly added, for the girl began to droop in her chair, “my youngest sister Lydia would think she had died and gone to heaven to have a fuss made of her, so there you have it. We are so fickle! And who knows? We may even begin to feel overlooked and left outnotto be brought to everyone’s notice in our adulthood. I for one would not relish feeling like a childforever, no matter how comfortable the nursery might be.”
I felt Mr. Darcy’s eyes on me but did not have the courage to find out whether he was inclined to thank me or strangle me.
“Perhaps,” she mused. “I had not considered that.”
“Well, as rites of passage go, in our case at least, absolutely no change has been wrought on any of us, so you may find that the ordeal you anticipate may turn out to be a mere nothing.”
“Truly?”
“You might expect my sisters would have undergone a change, lost their frivolity, and carried around the burden of dignity; in other words, you would have thought they would begin to comport themselves as ladies for being accorded that privilege—but no!”
“Elizabeth! You are too droll!”
“Consider that my sister Mary, who plays the pianoforte as though she is splitting firewood and sings as well as the farmer’s dog, must take every opportunity to exhibit. You laugh, but the poor dear has no notion of music, yet it is her passion, second only to church.” Even the butler, who stood at the sideboard, had to turn away and smother a chuckle under a cough, and my young friend fell into whoops.
“Oh, youmusttell me about Kitty now!”
