Chapter 7 #2
The Longbourn family would still prohibit her visits with Georgiana if they ever learnt about her seduction and child.
How awful and alone would Georgiana feel if her only friend was forbidden to see her?
What would the effect be on Georgiana’s health?
Who would love her and care for her if the Collinses and her mother forbade her from calling at Netherfield’s lodge?
That is what I want to do with the time I have left: I want to care for Georgiana Darcy.
But as a dependent spinster maintained by Longbourn House, she could at any time be prohibited from holding Georgiana’s hand whenever she needed it, night or day.
It was brutally unfair. How could she have any power over the rest of her short life, let alone be free to come and go from Netherfield’s lodge?
She thought of one way, but was she out of her senses to consider such an implausible option?
No one could comfort her about her own impending death, but there was a way to have some freedom before she died and always be available to Georgiana.
It was an awful prospect and a doubtful one, but if it could ever be brought about—once she gained the courage to pursue it—it was a means to a worthy end.
I am going to die soon, anyway.
Darcy was only in the parlour with the ladies because Miss Bennet had promised him some music, but she was still entertaining his sister with her conversation, and she looked so happy that Darcy was content to wait and read his letters.
“I cannot tire you, I am sure, on this subject, or I would apologise!”
Georgiana laughed in reply, and did not appear wearied at all.
She had, in fact, spent an hour in the garden with Miss Bennet weeding the strawberries, and was now reclining on the sofa happily listening to her friend chatter away.
Miss Bennet’s visits throughout April had become a part of their common daily routine, and he was forced to admit it was an agreeable change.
Georgiana was more cheerful than she had been in months, and Darcy knew to whom he was indebted.
Miss Bennet is good-natured, and with the most lively, intelligent dark eyes I have ever seen.
In this place, as he was, it was not a trial to be on equal terms with a poor, undistinguished woman with connexions to trade.
“Fitzwilliam?” He started and tore his eyes from his sister’s friend to look at Georgiana. “Is that from L—is that letter from Aunt Cathy?”
No one claiming to have no connexions and living on a few hundred a year was likely to be a near relation to Lady Catherine de Bourgh. A titled connexion would raise questions. “Yes, but it is the same as the last: full of unsolicited advice.”
“Does she mention my cousin Anne?”
Darcy shifted his weight in his seat. “Only in the usual way.”
Miss Bennet had a face of polite indifference until Georgiana added, “My aunt, indeed my entire family, would like to see my witless cousin Anne married to my brother, but he is rightly disinclined. Fitzwilliam is clever and generous, and Anne is too dull and self—”
“Georgiana Darcy!”
“I am sorry!”
Miss Bennet turned away, likely to hide a smile, while Darcy glared at his sister.
When his guest was composed, she said, “Mr Darcy, matchmaking is common amongst women. A brother ought to be pleased his sister knows his preferences. You ought not to hold it against your aunt, either. Sisters plan the union of their children before they have grown up themselves. My unborn daughters have been sworn to Jane’s boys for years. ”
She was trying to put everyone at ease, and he felt grateful to her for it. Georgiana was too embarrassed to reply, and if he did not answer, they would sink into more awkwardness.
“I do not hold her hopes and wishes against my aunt, but I do wish she was not so loud in expressing them. Have you any aunts full of self-importance?”
“I do not. My aunt Gardiner is without question the best-tempered woman I know and is extremely kind to me.”
One uncle an attorney in Meryton and the other in trade in Cheapside, and a brother who buys and sells on the Exchange. Darcy refrained from shaking his head. Her connexions lessened her chance of marrying a man of any consideration in the world more than her lack of fortune.
Miss Bennet moved to the instrument, and Darcy began a reply to Colonel Fitzwilliam about how much time and money to invest into his task.
He wished to deliberate maturely, but Darcy’s heart said to pursue Wickham to the ends of the earth.
By the time he was finished with his letter, Georgiana was coughing excessively.
Before Darcy could set aside his pen, Miss Bennet had ceased to play, propped Georgiana upright, and rung the bell.
Hannah entered, and Darcy asked her for something for Georgiana’s cough.
“Cook says to say we have no syrup of poppies or any laudanum.”
A proper housekeeper would have noticed and purchased more, and he would not have been troubled any further than settling the quarterly bill.
To have a woman in a position of authority in every situation in the house had been too much of a risk while Georgiana had been pregnant.
Perhaps he ought to consider hiring one now.
Before he could suggest that since he paid Hannah more than she was worth in return for her discretion, she ought to suffer a walk to Meryton, Miss Bennet spoke.
“I ought to be at Longbourn; my permitted hours of visiting are over, and the Collinses expect me home. I will tell Mr Lynn what you need, and the shopboy will bring it.”
The maid, to his great annoyance, curtsied and left. Darcy shrugged and stood. “He may not come until tomorrow, and Georgiana will need it to sleep tonight. I will go myself; it is not the first time. Can I ask you to stay with my sister until I return?”
“I shall be well on my own,” his sister said through a cough, “and Lizzy is only allowed to stay a few hours with me. Cook’s horehound mixture with milk and honey will help for the present.”
“Only if you are certain, my dear Georgiana?” Miss Bennet pressed his sister’s hand. “Then tomorrow after we take care of the garden, I will play for you, and you are not to talk unless it is to praise my singing.”
Their familiarity still surprised him at times, but there was nothing to fault in their nearer relationship.
There was nothing objectionable about Miss Bennet, and Georgiana was in better spirits than she had been in nearly a year.
He retrieved his hat and gloves while Miss Bennet took leave of his sister.
They found themselves, therefore, walking in the same direction toward Meryton together.
“Your sister has had fewer coughing fits this week.”
“Yes, perhaps because of the time she has spent out of doors with you. It is now May, and the weather is improving enough for her to enjoy it more often.”
A marbled white butterfly crossed the lane, and Miss Bennet’s attention seemed to float away with it. She had a reflective expression when he caught her eye again, and when he raised an eyebrow in question, she gave a shake of her head and a woeful smile.
“I find myself thinking of the past lately. My sisters and I caught butterflies as children; it is a fond memory. Or rather, I chased butterflies, but I was afraid of crushing their wings and did not catch them. But I ran about with my sisters, noisily and just as happily.”
“My sister had a lonelier childhood, with twelve years between us. She watered rosebushes and kept a canary.”
“Georgiana is quieter and milder, reserved . . . perhaps more like you?”
His memories of playing brave soldiers, throwing balls, and boyish pranks were not verbally acknowledged. “Whereas you were an open-hearted girl?”
“I once was. I was never remarkable for taciturnity, but ready civility has taken the place of childish prattling.”
“That is undoubtedly true, for although you say that all women are naturally matchmakers, you have one quality that makes you unique amongst women: when you have nothing to say, you do not speak.”
He smiled at the mixture of umbrage and amusement on her face. She kept up most of their conversation about childhood antics all the way to Meryton, and when they passed through the posts that divided the pedestrian path next to the toll gate, Darcy remembered their first meeting.
“I hope your days of swinging on the toll gate are well behind you. Sir William Lucas mentioned the toll collector once had to help you down.”
“I shall be after your sister to provide me with stories of your youthful misdeeds. I should be glad you did not meet me near the gate with Mr Jones because he would have told you how I once fell from it and dislocated my collarbone.”
“If you had been a boy, that would have endeared you to your peers and solidified your reputation amongst them.”
“It was widely understood that no boy in the neighbourhood could be my friend until I beat him in a race and no girl if she refused to climb trees and be a tomboy.”
“That perhaps explains why your toll gate-climbing reputation has followed you for so long.”
They were now about to part, he for the apothecary shop and she for home, when Miss Bennet winced as two women emerged from a door near to them.
“Lizzy, what are you doing here? I thought you were at that disgraceful man’s house tending to his sister.”
“Mary!” Miss Bennet glared at Mrs Collins. Mrs Collins met his cold eye with a blank stare.
“No, Mary, not the sister. I still say she is his mis—” The final word faded from Mrs Bennet’s lips as she realised who was standing next to her daughter. The colour drained from her face.
“Mamma!”
Strict etiquette maintained that he remain where he was until he had taken leave of Miss Bennet, despite the offences thrown at him. He was, therefore, to suffer the presence of these singular people until they stopped insulting him long enough for him to excuse himself.