“Love?” Fitzwilliam suggested.
“Of course. Who would not wish to love another and to be loved? But if she did not find that, I believe she would be content to have a decent husband and a simple home—a home and family of her own.”
He nodded, and he said, “I sympathise with her, but I also treasure your soft-heartedness to care so much for your friend. If it helps, we can invite her to Pemberley or Darcy House or both.”
“Thank you, Fitzwilliam. That might help. I shall tell her our intentions to do so the next time I see her.”
On the fourth day,the callers from Netherfield Park were accompanied by Georgiana and the Darcys’ cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam. Elizabeth knew from Georgiana’s letters that he was her co-guardian, with her brother.
Elizabeth gave Georgiana a warm hug, and the young lady literally jumped up and down in her excitement that Elizabeth would be her sister. This, despite the fact that fifteen-year-old ladies did not jump up and down, even when they were tremendously excited.
But Elizabeth was pleased to see that Fitzwilliam only smiled at his sister’s excitement.
She regretted that the Darcys’ cousin had the same surname as her intended’s given name, but she reflected that everyone referred to him as “the colonel” and addressed him as “Colonel,”exceptherFitzwilliam and Georgiana, who both called him Richard.
Georgiana was still a bit shy, as she had been when they met five years ago. Still, she seemed to feel brave at Elizabeth’s side and enjoyed getting to know the three youngest Bennets. She especially gravitated to Kitty at first, but she soon began chattering away with Mary about music as well as with Kitty about everything else. Lydia seemed extremely impressed with Georgiana, and she praised her gown as being the very latest style.
After half an hour, Lydia asked if Kitty and she could draw Georgiana and her gorgeous dress. Since Mary and Elizabeth enjoyed drawing as well, the four Bennets began to draw her, and they all laughed together. Georgiana had never acted silly those few hours when Jane and Elizabeth knew her as a child, but she obviously had the ability. Georgiana would hold the pose she had been asked to take for a minute or so, and then wiggle her arms and stick out her tongue and make all manner of silly movements.
“It is important for me to relax,” she claimed. After a short time, she would adopt the pose again, only to repeat the same cycle again a few minutes later. At one point, Georgiana teased that she would be frozen like a marble statue if she stayed still even a moment longer, and all the girls laughed once again.
“I am so pleased that our sisters get along so well,” Elizabeth heard, and she realised that Fitzwilliam had approached her from behind to whisper in her ear. The colonel stood nearby, as well.
Elizabeth shivered at the sound of his beloved voice, but part of her response was a yearning that they were already wed, and that they could abandon all the people in the room and seek privacy in their own chambers.
“Ohh, I wish…” she whispered.
“The day after tomorrow,” he reminded her. “Not so very long. We can be patient, can we not?”
Elizabeth was certainly glad that she did not have to waitfive years.
Except, she reminded herself,she had.
It was not really a wait, not on her part. She had been certain she would never see Mr Darcy again. She had merely thought about him during the day and dreamt of him at night. She had not played a long, careful game, concocting a starting strategy and then seeing it through with patience and hope that the game would end in victory.
“I am finished!” Lydia declared. “And this means that all of you are, too. I demand an instant art show and competition, and we shall all vote for who drew Georgiana best.”
“You shall lose, Lydia,” Fitzwilliam said. “Elizabeth’s portrait shall win.”
Lydia shot him a light-hearted grimace, crinkling her nose as if his words emitted a stench. “Brother-to-be,” she said severely, “You cannot see my portrait. As a matter of fact, you can only see Lizzy’s. You cannot possibly know whose will win.”
“I can,” he assured her, “precisely because I can see Elizabeth’s.”
They all laughed, and the colonel’s laugh was so booming, it almost obscured everyone else’s. The Bennets had a bit of a joke going about how biased Mr Darcy’s perception was, and the colonel seemed to grasp the humour right away.
Fitzwilliam called, “Mrs Bennet, Miss Bennet, and Bingley, you must come vote as well. First of all, Miss Mary, will you please show us your portrait of my sister?”
Mary picked up her sketchbook from the easel and showed her work. She had made a detailed sketch that was quite small, taking up only about half of the paper. She had rendered theportrait with such light pencil strokes that Fitzwilliam asked her to walk in a circle so that everyone could see the portrait better.
Everyone applauded as she returned to her easel. “Oh, dear, that was very good,” Lydia said. “I am certain she will win.”
Elizabeth was surprised that Mary’s portrait was quite elegant and graceful. Her drawings used to be quite stiff; she was proud of her sister for putting in the effort to keep improving.
Fitzwilliam declared, “Next is Miss Kitty’s.”
She had no easel but had propped up her sketchpad with stacks of books and magazines. She turned hers around to show everyone, and there was no need to walk hers around—her pencil strokes were bold and dark, and she had filled the entire paper. Unlike Mary’s, Kitty’s portrait only depicted Georgiana’s face.
Elizabeth started the applause, this time, and everyone joined in enthusiastically. “That is very good, indeed!” their mother said with obvious surprise.
