Page 58 of Mr. Darcy Comes to Town

“This is Oliver. Whoops, watch out,” Lizzy warned. Before she could direct him, Mr. Darcy held up his hand in the accepted fashion. Oliver landed on it and chirped a greeting.

“Hello, my fine fellow,” Mr. Darcy said. He stroked the bird’s dark-brown feathers. “How did you acquire Oliver?”

“Peter found him after a ferocious storm,” Lizzy explained. “I bandaged Oliver’s wing. He will be ready to return to the wild soon.”

“Will you miss him?”

“Of course. I expect I will see him often since he was found near our home wood. They are non-migratory.”

“Have you thought to train him?”

Lizzy shook her head. “He belongs in the wild. We have only trained him enough to make feeding and caring for him possible.”

Oliver hopped off of Mr. Darcy’s hand and flew across the enclosure to a perch formed from a dead beech branch.

“You said you have barn owls, Miss Elizabeth?”

“I do, but they are shy. Earlier, I could not coax them out of their nesting box where they hide during the daylight hours.” Lizzy indicated an internal gate. “Let us go through and see if they have changed their minds.

Darcy followed the extraordinary lady through the gate and into the owl enclosure. His boots made the strewn straw rustle beneath his feet. “What have you named these?”

“Daryll and Spunky,” Miss Elizabeth said, smiling brilliantly at him. “They are siblings. I got them when they were fledglings.” She scowled. “They were abandoned near one of our outbuildings when their mother died in a fight with another bird. I do not know what happened to their father. Usually, father owls continue to care for their young—as long as they have grown beyond the need for their mother to be in the nest with them, keeping them warm. I expect he died as well, since Daryll and Spunky were old enough to leave the nest on their own.”

“You know a great deal about your birds,” Darcy observed.

“I correspond with other bird lovers, who have helped me enormously,” she said. “Peter and his father are also extremely knowledgeable.”

A movement in the dark corner drew their attention. One of the owl fledglings had poked his white and tawny head out of their nesting box. He stared at them for a moment and then made room for his brother’s head.

“Good day, Daryll, Spunky,” Miss Elizabeth said. She gestured toward one of the perches. “Would you like to come out and show off?”

One of the brothers made his way through the hole and swooped silently to the perch. His brother soon joined him.

“The one on the left is Daryll,” she said, approaching then slowly. “Spunky will come onto my hand.” Miss Elizabeth lifted her hand in a gentle motion. Spunky looked at it, made a short, sharp sound, then leapt onto her hand.

“Oooh,” a female voice cooed from behind Darcy. He looked over his shoulder.

“Georgiana. Miss Mary,” he said, keeping his voice low.

“Fitz, how beautiful he is,” his sister said on a sigh, her expression full of wonder. Georgiana appeared wide-eyed and awe-struck. Miss Mary had her arm through his sister’s arm as though they were old chums.

“Barn owls are handsome animals,” Darcy agreed. He looked at her intently and thought she might have been upset. “Are you well, Georgiana?”

“Exceedingly so,” she said in an overbright voice. “Mary and Lizzy are my new friends.”

Miss Mary squeezed his sister’s arm and nodded emphatically. She gazed past him at the owls.

“They have grown,” she commented. “Not long now.”

“True,” Miss Elizabeth said, sounding encouraged, as she moved with Spunky nearer to the fence so Georgiana could observe him more closely. “They are keeping the enclosure free of rodents. As is Oliver. I think I will have the roofs rolled back in a few days so they can fly out and hunt on their own.”

Darcy said little as Miss Elizabeth, her sister, and his sister spoke about the owls and the buzzard. Before long, however, the stable clock sounded.

“Ah, we must hurry to change out of our protective coverings, wash, and go to the parlor where our refreshments are being laid out,” Miss Elizabeth said. She spoke softly to the owl and he flew back to his brother.

Once their party arrived in the orangery, Darcy saw that a footman awaited them, a boot brush in one hand. Darcy sat and held out his foot so the servant could clean the mud and grass off his boots.

“If you sit here on the stool, Georgiana, I will help you off with your boots before I wash my hands,” Miss Mary said.