“When it rains, I shall invite you to Pemberley,” said Darcy.
“Invite us to Pemberley when the weather is fair, so we may fish or hunt,” replied Sir Andrew.
“I invite you to Pemberley in any weather,” answered Darcy cheerfully.
“Though on the other hand, the twelfth of August has arrived, and we have organised nothing yet,” continued Sir Andrew.
“You are right,” said the colonel, who had arrived in the region exactly on the twelfth of August.
“What happens on the twelfth of August?” asked Elizabeth, and those around the table laughed with great good humour.
“Grouse shooting traditionally begins on the twelfth of August, Miss Bennet. It is one of the important events of the sporting season. Gentlemen travel north especially for it, particularly towards the moors.”
“And Derbyshire is well known for its moors,” said the colonel. “People from London have already begun to appear.”
“It is a pity travelling between regions remains so difficult,” said someone. “Imagine accomplishing in one day what now requires three from London.”
“We should be much poorer,” exclaimed Mr Russell. “Our wives would go to London every month in search of new gowns.”
“Mr Russell!” cried Lady Fletcher with amused reproach. “Do we complain when you disappear for days upon the moors?”
“There are no shops upon the moors, Lady Fletcher. Believe me when I say that we have no need to travel more quickly,” declared Sir Andrew.
“But perhaps that time will come whether we wish it or not,” said Elizabeth, and everyone turned towards her with surprise.
“You believe so? But how?”
“My father said that soon the Lake Lock Railway, which was built to transport coal from the mines, would be extended between towns.”
“How?” asked Mrs Cooper with genuine interest, for among those seated at the table, she alone managed her fortune entirely herself and was interested in every innovation.
“They are so-called wagons, though in truth merely several open carriages joined together, with special wheels which move upon rails.”
“But the rails themselves must be installed,” said Mr Russell. “Horrible. Can you imagine the country scarred and disfigured by such monstrosities? Far better the carriage…and more economical besides.”
Darcy said nothing. He felt her vivid presence beside him, as though she carried a restless energy within herself. She was interested in everything, and perhaps only then did he fullyunderstand the extent of her loss. Her father had been to her far more than merely a parent.
The discussion concerning those railways continued with much contradiction, but she fell silent and turned towards him as if she knew what he was thinking.
“I should have liked you to know my father.”
And he inclined his head with evident feeling.
“So should I.”
“Speaking of hunting and new gowns…Darcy has a surprise for you,” said the colonel in a joking tone, and Elizabeth and Darcy turned towards him as though awakened from a reverie, astonished to find the outer world unchanged, though they themselves somehow rather different.
Darcy hesitated; he needed a moment to remember the day, Pemberley, and the surprise as Elizabeth’s eyes troubled him.
“Yes, indeed. Though I had intended to announce it at dessert, that it might sound the sweeter,” Darcy replied lightly. “Still, this moment will do equally well. You perhaps do not know that the fifteenth of August is also the feast of Saint Mary the Virgin. Our grandmother Darcy’s name was Mary, and she preferred to be celebrated on the fifteenth of August rather than on her birthday. She was a handsome woman and a little of a coquette, and had probably decided that if she did not celebrate her birthday she would never grow old.”
He spoke the last words while looking at Elizabeth, and though it was natural for a gentleman addressing the table to look towards everyone present, the colonel smiled to himself with satisfaction; it was perfectly evident to him that general stories were addressed to the company, whilst those concerning family were meant for Miss Elizabeth alone. His cousin, so determined not to marry, was betrayed by that inner self in which nothing had yet been settled.
“My mother was very close to her, an affectionate and quite rare relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, and after she organised the first fifteenth-of-August ball for Mary Darcy, it became a tradition…unfortunately interrupted when my mother died.”
Darcy glanced once more at Elizabeth, hoping he had not troubled her with a memory about his long-gone mother. But Elizabeth’s eyes remained clear, and the faint smile upon her face told him she had liked the story.
“The hunting season begins as well…what better occasion could there be for us to gather together and celebrate both…events?”
