“Well, but he behaves differently with you, from the way he behaves with the rest of us.”
“Differently perhaps, but with the same affection the colonel has. I believe the moment of love has passed, and only friendship remains. I feel he wishes to amuse me because of my tragedy; I feel he would like to do something tangible for me, but as a friend.”
“And you?” asked Mrs Cooper quickly.
“I? I no longer feel any resentment towards him. And I believe I could move towards friendship with him as well…just as I am with the colonel.”
“No more than that?”
But Elizabeth had already begun ascending the steps, and Darcy extended his hand to assist her; thus, their conversation ended without an answer.
“I thank you, Mrs Cooper, not allowing Miss Elizabeth to wander towards the woods or across the fields,” he remarked with a smile.
“What do you mean?” asked Mrs Cooper in confusion.
“It means you do not know everything about your relation, who, in order to shorten a journey, is capable of taking any route whatsoever, even across muddy fields, entirely indifferent to the rain.”
“I hope you do not intend to tell everybody,” returned Elizabeth, amused.
“But I wish to hear the whole story,” protested Mrs Cooper.
“That is the whole story,” replied Elizabeth. “One morning, I appeared before several exceedingly elegant ladies with the hem of my gown and my shoes covered in mud, and they looked at me with great reproach.”
“Not I!” Darcy hastened to assure her.
Mrs Cooper sincerely wondered whether the young lady beside her truly understood what was passing in the mind of the gentleman before them, who appeared very far from desiring only her friendship.
Miss Darcy and the colonel joined them, and soon a cheerful circle formed upon the terrace with those guests who still remained, even if several couples had already departed.
“I had wished to take you through the woods to the hunting lodge, but my servants inform me that the road is not yet passable. We shall do so another day,” said Darcy, glancing around him. However, everyone appeared willing to agree to whatever plan he proposed.
“Mrs Cooper and Miss Elizabeth are at Pemberley for the first time; perhaps they would wish to see the house,” suggested Miss Darcy, eager to act as hostess.
“There will be time enough for that also,” replied Darcy kindly, looking towards his sister. “Now, I propose something even our oldest friends have not yet seen. My mother’s collection of miniatures.”
“From Mama’s parlour?” asked Miss Darcy in surprise.
“Precisely.”
Everyone perceived the astonishment upon the young girl’s face, because she had not yet learned to conceal her feelings. It was indeed unusual, because though Pemberley itself might be visited, and probably had been many times by those present, the private apartments remained closed; and Lady Anne’s rooms were even more carefully preserved, as Darcy had wished to keep everything exactly as it had been in her lifetime, but only for themselves.
“My mother possessed a remarkable collection of miniatures and designed several display cabinets to store them in sight. For a long time, however, we were unwilling to alteranything in those rooms. Now the collection has finally been arranged within those cabinets, and I believe the time has come for others to see it.”
He invited them all to follow him, but the colonel approached Elizabeth and whispered, “The story has been slightly altered. The cabinets arrived a long time ago and were stored here until…a few days ago.”
That was all he said, but both Elizabeth and Mrs Cooper understood perfectly, as well as the intention behind it.
They entered the room with the reverence due to a place long untouched by daily life. Everything appeared as though Lady Anne had departed only a day or two earlier. Some changes, however, had certainly been made, even if her sofas and writing table remained, most of the other furniture had been removed and replaced with graceful, elegant display cabinets whose simplicity only heightened the beauty of the objects within.
There were miniatures from all parts of the world, from ancient Greece to China, passing through Egypt.
“Mama noted carefully what each object was and where it came from. One day we shall probably add labels as well, but presently there is pleasure enough in seeing them simply as they are.”
“And where did she keep them before?” asked Elizabeth with genuine curiosity, as she had first paused before the portrait of Lady Anne holding Georgiana in her arms, with Darcy beside her, a boy of perhaps thirteen.
“Everywhere,” he answered with a smile. “She had little tables and shelves covered with them. The pieces she loved most remained upon the upper shelves—Greece, China…”
The gentlemen, less interested, looked briefly before departing with the colonel, but the ladies remained. They would gladly have learned more, though for the present all the detailswere contained in a handsome notebook which Darcy showed them.
