"No." The answer came immediately.
Relief softened Georgiana's features.
"No," Elizabeth repeated more gently. "Never with you."
Georgiana lowered her eyes. "I am glad."
Elizabeth had not realised until that moment how much the girl had feared the answer.
Now she knew.
She waited for Georgiana to continue, but when the silence stretched on, she took pity on her. Whatever had brought her to Longbourn, it was clearly costing her a great deal of courage.
Elizabeth set down her cup. "You have come to speak about your brother?"
A faint flush rose in Georgiana's cheeks. "Yes."
Elizabeth waited.
"He does not know I am here." That admission appeared to cost her something. "If he knew, he would tell me this was not my place."
"And yet you came?"
Georgiana nodded. "Because I do not think you know everything."
Elizabeth's attention sharpened immediately.
Georgiana clasped her hands together.
"He has not been himself for two days now. I pressed him and he told me everything that happened on Oakham Mount." Georgiana fiddled with her hands. "I know Fitzwilliam was wrong not to tell you. He knows it too. But there is a reason he noticed."
Elizabeth looked away.
She was certain she already knew the reason.
His mother had been deaf. Georgiana feared she might one day be the same.
Miss Bingley had said as much. What did that change?
Did it excuse observing her without her knowledge? Did it excuse sharing her secret with Caroline Bingley? Did it excuse allowing her to mistake his interest for admiration?
Elizabeth did not think so.
For several moments Georgiana stared at her hand, as if to gather courage.
Then she said quietly, "Miss Elizabeth, my brother mentioned that he told you something about Wickham, but I don’t think he said everything."
The name immediately brought her last conversation with Darcy on Oakham Mount to mind. Elizabeth shifted in her chair as Georgiana drew breath to continue.
Georgiana lowered her gaze. “Wickham grew up with us in Derbyshire. Growing up, I did not even know he was not my brother. My father treated him exactly as he treated Fitzwilliam.” She paused and sighed. “My mother died when I was four, and I cannot remember her hearing very much, although Fitzwilliam told me she was not born that way. Her hearing had deteriorated over the years. So all I had were my father, Fitzwilliam, and Wickham."
Elizabeth moved to the edge of her chair. So Wickham had grown up with the Darcys? How then had the meetingshe witnessed between Darcy and Wickham become so hostile? What could have happened?
“When my father died, he left a living to Wickham in his will. Wickham rejected it, and Fitzwilliam paid him its equivalent in money, which he squandered. He returned two years later demanding the living after all. My brother refused because the living, which was a parsonage, had already been given to another.” Her eyes flashed briefly as though she remembered something unpleasant. “It was after this that Wickham swore himself an enemy of Fitzwilliam.”
So that was it? Had two men who had once been raised almost as brothers become enemies over money alone?
Elizabeth had not finished the thought before Georgiana resumed speaking.
