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“How might you expect me to address him? Did I not enjoy many pleasurable hours in his company when he resided with us at Pemberley?”

“That may be true, but referring to a gentleman by his given name implies a certain familiarity.”

“Indeed, it does. But then again, George is much like family, is he not?”

Darcy’s muscles tightened. Family was the last thing he considered that reprobate. If his sister only knew the scoundrel like he knew him, she too would be appalled. “Georgiana, I do not wish to have you spend time with George Wickham.”

“Why ever not?”

“He and I did not part on the happiest of terms.”

“What can that have to do with me?”

“I do not think I should have to explain myself, young lady. I would simply ask that you trust me.”

“Did you fail to notice that he and your own wife were also engaged in rather amiable intercourse during parts of the evening? Have you given her the same admonishment?”

Darcy’s face filled with astonishment. When had his young sister learned to speak to him in so unguarded a manner? “As Elizabeth is my wife, I do not endeavour to tell her with whom she can and cannot associate. It is quite a different matter when it comes to you, young lady. As your guardian, it is well within my rights to tell you with whom you are to associate, and I do not intend to abdicate those rights anytime soon.”

Not wishing to do anything to perturb her beloved older brother, Georgiana thought it best to hold her tongue. She fully expected that her brother in all likelihood had spoken to Elizabeth about George, especially if he felt so passionately about the subject as to attempt to admonish her. She suspected Elizabeth had balked at his decree. Georgiana dared not be as bold with her brother as Elizabeth likely had been, but that did not mean she would heed her brother’s edict as easily as he expected.

George means far too much to me. He asked me to wait for him, and that is exactly what I have done. Now, when I am finally of an age where he and I can be together, I intend to do everything in my power to see that we are—the wait is over.

As far as she was concerned, if an extended passage of time preceded her brother’s knowledge of that fact, it was so much the better.

Darcy and Elizabeth sat across from each other in the library, embroiled in heated debate. They may as well have been on opposite sides of the world. How stubborn she could be when she chose.

“Please trust me on this, Elizabeth.”

“Georgiana has known him all her life and she does not disdain him—quite the contrary.”

“That is because she does not know his character as I do. She does not understand what he is capable of.”

“But everyone whom he has met since being here has nothing but the highest regard for him.”

“Wickham is blessed with such happy manners as to make friends wherever he goes. It is no wonder everyone is falling all over themselves to make love to him. However, he is unable to retain his easily earned esteem, and that is why I have no wish to have him connected to my family.”

“I know that he has been so unlucky as to lose your good opinion, and I also know your good opinion once lost is lost forever, but is there no possibility in your mind to allow that he is not the same gentleman you once knew? People can change.”

“People might change if that is their fervent wish, and they make a good effort. Wickham, however, is not the sort of person who would even wish to change. His greatest faults are those very attributes he regards as virtues.”

“Please, sir, let us not discuss this matter of Mr. Wickham any longer. I shall keep an eye on Georgiana if that is what you wish, but I surely will not spy on her, and I will not violate her confidence either. I know you are Georgiana’s guardian and you liken her to a daughter, but I posit that she is of an age where you would appreciate her far better if you start to consider her as a sister—as an adult sister, for that is certainly the basis of my relationship to her, that of sisters.”

“You being a wiser, far worldlier sister,” Darcy said.

“Is that your way of calling me old, Mr. Darcy?”

“Well, you are older than Georgiana, are you not?”

“By a few years—not decades, for heaven’s sake!”

“Yes—I know. You are closer in age to her than not, and it is natural that you and she share a sisterly bond, whereas the bond between Georgiana and me is rather blurred.” Darcy crossed the room, took Elizabeth in his arms, and rested his chin atop her head. He ran his hands along the length of her arms. Capturing her hand in his, he drew back a little; he looked into his wife’s eyes. “Do you suppose that my sister regards me as being too severe where she is concerned? The last thing I want is to alienate her.”

“On the contrary. She loves you very much, and it is evident that she thinks you are the best man in the world.”

“I must confess that she is very wise in that regard.”

“Of course,” said Elizabeth teasingly.

“I would never ask you to spy on her or share your confidences with me, for it means everything to me that the two of you are so close. It is what I always wanted for her—to have a sister.

“I would ask you to help her, as best you can, to make good decisions for herself, especially when it comes to discerning the motives of the many men whose acquaintances she will be making.”

Darcy wanted desperately to say that, just because certain behaviour was deemed acceptable for Elizabeth’s younger sisters, it did not follow that it would likewise be acceptable for his own sister. He did not dare, at least not now. Still, he strongly suspected a conversation on the younger Bennet daughters’ behaviour was one he ought to have, only not with Elizabeth.