Chapter 14
“Why are we going this way?” Georgiana asked Darcy as he steered her down a side path in St. James’s Park. “I thought we were going around the lake first and then meeting Mrs Annesley for an ice when she returns from walking with her friend.”
His sister was not objecting to their new course, only puzzling over the unannounced change in plans.
Darcy was not generally an indecisive or vacillating man, and some part of himself was as bewildered as Georgiana.
He had fully intended to take them straight to the lake, but at the sight of two particular young ladies on the path ahead, his heart had leapt and his body swerved in reaction.
“Let us go and have our ice now, and then we can bring Mrs Annesley to walk around the lake too,” Darcy suggested. “She might like to see the pelicans.”
“Oh,” Georgiana responded doubtfully to his rather weakly reasoned semi-explanation. “I suppose so.”
Mrs Annesley, Georgiana’s companion, was a respectable and well-educated widow of around fifty years.
She had no special interest in birds and, having lived in London for many years, had doubtless already seen as much of the St. James’s Park pelicans as she wished.
Georgiana’s head turned and glanced at the path they would have taken, a small frown on her dark brows.
For a moment, Darcy held his breath, thinking that Georgiana had spotted the women he wished to avoid and would ask him about them.
However, she did not, and he exhaled slowly as they moved away.
Maybe it had not even been the Bennet sisters, but only two young ladies who resembled them in height, colouring, and style. They had been at some distance away.
“You are in a strange mood this week, Fitzwilliam,” Georgiana remarked after they had proceeded a little further.
“Am I?” Darcy enquired. “I had not thought so, but I suppose you are a better judge than I.”
“Yes, you are not your usual self,” his sister doubled down with more certainty after a few more moments of reflection. “First, you make us change our seats at Tuesday’s Scarlatti and Telemann concert…”
“We had a better view of the musicians from our new seats,” Darcy pointed out with a small cough, his mouth running dry as he remembered that first sight of Elizabeth Bennet across the aisle from where they would have sat, her pert face and energetic form seeming to command his attention and the very beating of his heart.
“You do not normally care to see the musicians any more than I do,” Georgiana replied with a smile. “Then, the next day, you insisted on sitting in the darkest corner of the buffet tent for most of Lord and Lady Harpenden’s garden party, even though you barely ate or drank.”
“The sun was hot,” Darcy excused himself.
Again, he spoke the truth but not the whole truth, avoiding any mention of the laughing figure with chestnut curls and vibrant hazel eyes whom he had spotted soon after entering Harpenden House’s grounds.
Elizabeth must have been circulating around the gardens with her sister, Lord Grantchester, and Lord Keeble.
“It was not so hot that your hat and my parasol would not have been adequate defence,” pointed out Georgiana, her face curious rather than accusatory. “Never mind you coming home so early from Sir Arthur and Lady Ewert’s ball last night.”
“Now, on that account, surely I need not explain myself,” Darcy pleaded, not meeting his sister’s eyes. “I am never at my best at such large social occasions. No more than you are, Georgiana.”
“Yes, but Lord Grantchester and Mr Bingley were both there. You normally stay a little later to speak with your good friends, and last night, you did not.”
“No, I did not,” Darcy agreed with a frown.
His mind went back to how Lord Grantchester had avoided any attempt by Darcy to speak with him alone at the Ewert ball, spending his time either dancing with Jane Bennet or introducing his bride-to-be to a far wider acquaintance than was strictly necessary.
Despite her polite smiles, the poor girl had looked quite pale and exhausted by the time Darcy gave up and left.
It was hard for Darcy to watch the couple together in such a situation, Grantchester so deliberately merry and superficially solicitous, and Miss Bennet so innocent and good-hearted.
She was of the same tribe as Charles Bingley, Darcy realised with a grimace.
Neither of them really understood how complicated and harsh the wider world and society could be, because neither of them was capable of great deceit or evil action.
“Are you unwell?” his sister pressed, and Darcy banished the grimace from his face, forcing himself to smile calmly back at her, rifling his mind for as much of the truth as he could give.
“No, I am well, although I am perhaps a little distracted. There is something private I must discuss with Lord Grantchester, and I have not yet found the opportunity.”
“Is it something very important?” Georgiana asked tentatively.
“Not to you or me,” he clarified quickly. “It might be important to others, though. It has been on my mind.”
“Why do you not simply invite him round to Darcy House?” she pursued.
Darcy suppressed a grimace. Georgiana was not a fool, and she was obviously curious about why her brother should create such a complicated situation around a man with whom he was normally on such easy terms. Unfortunately, he could not tell her.
“I like Lord Grantchester,” Georgiana went on. “It is always a pleasure to have him visit.”
“John is very busy this summer,” Darcy excused his old friend and searched his mind for some explanation that was both reasonable and true. “He plans to marry next year and, well, the young lady to whom he is betrothed is in town again. It is hard to see him alone.”
“I see,” Georgiana replied gravely, although no doubt she did not see at all. “Do you know this young lady? What is she like?”
“His wife is to be a Miss Jane Bennet of Hertfordshire,” Darcy replied with a limited smile and a sigh he could not entirely repress. “She is a young lady of fine character, good nature, and great beauty.”
“Are you in love with her?” asked his sister, and Darcy burst out laughing at the very idea.
“No, on that account, I can entirely set your mind at rest,” he assured her. “I am certainly not in love with Miss Bennet…Or anyone else.”
The last phrase was added with greater emphasis in reaction to the image of Elizabeth Bennet, who appeared in his head as she often did, her hands on her hips and her sparkling eyes full of defiance.
Darcy could apparently escape from her no more in spirit than he could in physical life.
It seemed that whichever way he turned, Elizabeth Bennet would be there.
Yet another thing that made the young woman utterly maddening.
No, it was not her fault, his inner voice corrected him quickly.
Miss Elizabeth was not actively seeking him out.
If anything, she seemed as keen to avoid his company as he was to avoid hers.
Darcy was sure she had spotted him at the concert Georgina had mentioned, for example, and had raised the programme to hide her face.
At the Ewert ball last night, Elizabeth Bennet had nodded civilly in Darcy’s direction and then turned away. His eyes had found hers several times in the ballroom, supper room, or sitting rooms, each time prompting a retreat on one side or the other until Darcy surrendered the field and left early.
“I did not offend you, I hope,” Georgiana asked with a touch of anxiety. “I know you do not always like such personal questions.”
Darcy shook himself out of his brooding over Elizabeth Bennet and smiled properly at his sister. “You did not offend me at all, Georgiana. If my only sister does not have the right to ask me such questions, then no one does.”
“Thank you. I do not wish to upset you, Fitzwilliam. I am glad to hear that all is well, and that Miss Bennet is such a fine match for Lord Grantchester —”
“I did not say that,” Darcy blurted before he could stop himself and was then forced into further explanation. “There are things I am not at liberty to discuss, Georgiana. I would be grateful not to talk of them at present.”
While her expression showed that she was struggling to understand, Georgiana did not object and soon composed her features once again.
“I must respect your judgement, as my brother and my guardian,” she told him.
“I will not ask any more about what is on your mind. You have been right in the past, and I must assume you are right again now. May I meet Miss Bennet?”
Despite his dismay, how could Darcy refuse, having just praised Jane Bennet’s good character and conduct?
“If we see Miss Bennet with Lord Grantchester, I shall introduce you,” he promised after some hesitation.
What if Elizabeth Bennet was with her sister? Would he introduce her to Georgiana too? The thought of that made his stomach churn, not exactly with worry, but with some other equally disturbing emotion that he could not quite identify.
∞∞∞
It was not many days before Darcy was compelled to make good on his commitment to introduce Jane Bennet to his sister.
Darcy had thought that an afternoon at the botanical gardens with the Bingleys would be quiet and uneventful.
Georgiana and Mrs Annesley might sketch some plants, Miss Bingley might parade herself elegantly on flower-lined paths which were not so distastefully muddy as the real countryside, and Darcy and Bingley might walk and talk in the open air without the distraction of any comely young Bennet ladies.
These green, pleasant, and orderly gardens were not the kind of place that Lord Grantchester or Lord Keeble were wont to frequent.
While they led an active social life, and both enjoyed riding and outdoor sports, there was little to draw either of them to the staid and respectable company walking the well-kept paths and greenhouses of the botanical gardens.