The Ideal Chaperone
Morning found Jane less feverish, though not quite ready to face the breakfast room, at least not as early as Elizabeth. She was not especially hungry and planned to either call for a tray later, or join the Bingleys when they arose at the crack of noon.
Elizabeth left her to her slumber and was happy to share breakfast with Mr Darcy alone.
While she liked Mr Bingley well enough, she could do without interacting with his sisters ever again.
She even wondered if the amiability of the brother was worth it given the disagreeability of the sisters—but then again, that was Jane’s problem.
After exchanging greetings, discussing Jane’s condition, and taking up their plates, Darcy asked, “Would you care for a ramble after breakfast?”
“I would enjoy that above all things.”
“I have a surprise for you,” he replied, then refused so steadfastly to elaborate that he began to sound a bit like a less cynical version of her father. “Shall we meet in a quarter-hour at the front door?”
“It would be my pleasure.”
~
As Elizabeth slipped into her pelisse, Darcy appeared and said, “Here is our chaperone,” with a big smile and moved aside.
“Flora!” Elizabeth exclaimed excitedly with a huge smile, having entirely forgotten Mrs Redgrave’s promise to bring the child for a visit. “We shall be very happy to have you as our devoted companion, if you are up to the onerous chore.”
Flora grinned from ear to ear, and five minutes later, the three were happily traipsing through the garden with Elizabeth on one arm and Flora on the other. She had offered to follow behind like a proper chaperone, but her companions were having none of it.
“Tell me about your family, Miss Flora,” Darcy asked after a few minutes of pleasantries.
Flora seemed up to the task, so for the next half-hour the three engaged in an energetic discussion of all that went on in Meryton.
Flora was a young and curious girl, well connected to the servant and trade classes in the town, and aware of all the local happenings.
Elizabeth, of course, shared a house with the biggest gossip in Meryton, and it would have been impossible for her to be unaware of the happenings in the local gentry.
After a mile circle around the gardens, Darcy felt like he knew more about the area than he did about Pemberley. He also took the time on a second, shorter circuit to tell his friends about his closest family members--his sister and cousin.
He asked rather impertinently, “Miss Elizabeth, what does your mother think of our two sets at the assembly?”
Flora was about to burst. “Oh, it is the funniest thing—she does not know!”
“How is that possible?” Darcy asked in perplexity.
“I suspect we can blame or credit Mr Bingley and Jane, who seem to have captured all the gossips’ attention,” Elizabeth said with a sneaky grin.
“Or maybe you were clever enough to dance in the far corner where the matrons would not notice a bonfire.”
“Also possible, Flora,” Elizabeth laughed.
“It does seem odd. Our ruse worked better than my wildest dreams. Nobody knows if you are fish or fowl, steward or duke—and for some reason, most simply ignore the question rather than pick it over like they do everything else. I cannot explain it. Perhaps, it is all a matter of first impressions, and since most people form their ideas in the first minute and rarely change them, we just managed your introduction correctly.”
“For my part, I find your intervention brilliant. I am enjoying being anonymous, for the first time in my life.”
Elizabeth gave him an impish grin. “I credit your valet more than me. After all, he adapted to the Flora aesthetic rather quickly.”
Flora replied, “Yes, you look more like a steward. The difference is… um—” then she looked to Elizabeth, who helpfully supplied, “—subtle?”
“Yes, that is it. Or… ambig… ambit—” Flora stumbled, so Elizabeth helped, “—ambiguous?”
“Yes.”
Flora did not know whether to feel chagrined because she did not know the big words, or happy because many of her age and station had no idea such words even existed.
“I think you have the right of it, Miss Flora,” Darcy said. “We have given them too much to think about, so the easiest way to deal with me is to not think about me at all until they can do so without effort—especially with Bingley and Miss Bennet taking the lion’s share of the attention.”
Elizabeth laughed gaily and Flora joined, “Why, Mr Darcy, do you imply the neighbourhood gossips are lazy?”
“I do.”
“I am all astonishment!”
By that time, they had completed a large circuit around the shrubbery. Elizabeth or Darcy could have happily managed another mile, but Flora was expected back home.
Darcy organised a maid to walk back with her, which Elizabeth liked very much.
Flora could have walked the mile on her own, but it was nice to take care of the child, and it showed the gentleman’s sense of responsibility.
He could well have sent her own mother for the task, but it was more proper to ask the butler to assign someone.
As Flora left, Darcy asked, “Would you care for a bit more of a ramble? We could get another footman or just stay in sight of the house.”
“I prefer the latter,” Elizabeth replied softly. She would ordinarily take a much more extensive ramble (both farther and faster), but something in his tone suggested more talking and less walking was in order.
They walked in silence a few minutes, then Darcy said, “I feel like I know all about you, your family, and your town; but you know next to nothing about me, aside from the little we shared in this walk.”
“I disagree. I know you are a good man! You are conscientious, you care deeply for your sister and cousin, you are willing to help a friend, you are polite to Mr Bingley’s sisters who do not in my opinion deserve it, you tolerate my family well which is sometimes beyond even me, you are kind and respectful to servants and children, you treat Mrs Redgrave like a trusted friend, you are well-read and our tastes seem similar, you can be quite funny when you want to be, you went out of your way to save me the minor embarrassment of appearing with muddy hems and boots.
I know a great deal about you, Mr Darcy. ”
He gave her a good-sized smile at her approbation, but continued, “Yet, you know little about my situation in life. Are you not curious?”
“I admit to some curiosity, as would anyone—but I am in no hurry to satisfy it. I imagine it will become known eventually—such things always are—but I can wait until the time is right. Much like you, I am enjoying our little prank. I know all I need to know about you at this time and trust you to tell me more if or when I need to know it.”
Darcy accepted her at her word, and for perhaps the first time in his life, he had someone who liked him for himself alone.
It was a good feeling, and he hoped it would survive after she learned more.
He mostly hoped she would still treat him the same after the inevitable revelation.
However, since she was in no hurry to learn about his situation, and he was in no hurry to disclose it, he decided to let it go for a time and canvas another subject.
“I briefly mentioned my sister with Miss Flora,” he said reflectively. “I would like to tell you more about her.”
“It will be my pleasure to hear.”
“She just turned sixteen. Our mother died when she was young and I was away at school. Our father died when she was eleven, leaving her care to me and my cousin, who was a major in the army but a colonel now.”
“I am surprised he did not pick an aunt.”
“If you knew my aunts, your confusion would be quickly resolved,” he replied grimly.
Elizabeth could not resist a laugh. “Oh, you are a wicked man—as we previously established.”
“That I suppose I am,” he replied with his own laugh, which Elizabeth liked very much. He normally looked somewhat stoic, but his face lit up when he laughed and she resolved to try to get him to do so more often—for her own benefit, if nothing else.
“My sister is shy and reserved, and it was exacerbated by a terrible experience she had last summer. A man tried to impose himself on her. He was my father’s godson, so she knew him from childhood.
He played on her connection to worm his way into her good graces.
With clever lies, he convinced her they were in love and got her to agree to elope. ”
Elizabeth gasped but was unable to decide if she was more shocked that a man would try to elope with a fifteen-year-old girl, or that Mr Darcy was willing to tell her about it.
It seemed a frightfully distressing thing to do, and quite risky for the girl’s reputation.
Naturally, that made her more strongly suspect he was closer to prince than pauper, since nobody eloped with a steward’s daughter, but that was a subject for another day.
“Good lord, I hope you stopped it!” she said with a gasp.
“Just barely,” he said, staring miserably at the ground.
“I arrived a day early by chance and ended the charade. He said some very ugly things within her hearing. It was probably for the best in the long term, but terrible for her to experience hearing a man say nobody in his right mind would ever like her for anything except her dowry. She was, and still is, devastated.”
“I agree it is probably for the best,” she replied softly, still unable to comprehend the awfulness of the situation. She could know about a tenth part of what the poor girl felt at best.
“She will eventually recover from being enlightened about the dark side of the world,” she said after a minute’s thought. “I think it would be harder if she only had your word on his bad character, so as awful as it was for her to hear, she will get over it.”
“Nothing like getting it straight from the horse’s mouth, I suppose,” he replied sadly.
“I naturally feel terrible for having placed her in that position in the first place. The companion had excellent references, but they were cleverly forged. I knew about the man’s character all his life, but I never thought to warn her about the darker side of humanity, nor did I think he would descend so far. I felt rather stupid.”
“I suppose that will be hard for you to get over.”
“Yes, but I will in time,” he replied glumly.
Elizabeth thought they should abandon the past and move on to the present and future.
“Does your sister have friends or relations to help her recover? Society and company often serve as a balm—providing it is the right company. Naturally, few if any acquaintances can be enlightened about what happened, but just getting on with normal society should help her.”
“Therein lies the problem,” he said ruefully. “She is shy like me—”
He startled when Elizabeth scoffed, “Shy! You?”
“Yes, shy, or perhaps its near-cousin, haughty,” he said with a chuckle.
“I would never imagine you to be shy. You have been perfectly amiable from the first moment of our acquaintance.”
“I think that is more a reflection of you than me—or maybe Flora and Mrs Redgrave,” he said with a careful look.
“Absent your intervention, I doubt I would have danced with anyone at all. Bingley would have nagged me to dance, which I ordinarily despise unless I am particularly acquainted with my partner, and I probably would have slighted someone inadvertently.”
“Well… ah… I have no idea what to say to that. Thank you? Congratulations? Well done?”
He chuckled amusedly. “You need say nothing. We both know you are due the credit but need not beat the subject to death.”
“Well!” she began but found that gambit difficult, so she retreated a bit. “We were speaking of your sister.”
“I was at school when she was born, and again when our mother died. She was mostly raised by nursemaids and governesses. I was not home often or for long, and my father paid her little attention. Our housekeeper is as close to a mother as she has ever had. When our father died, I had no idea what to do, so I followed my relatives’ advice and sent her to school. ”
“I might have liked to go to school,” Elizabeth said ruefully, “but it is not for everyone.”
“Perhaps for you, who is brave and outgoing, and who already had a great deal of female companionship, it would have worked out well, but poor Georgiana never quite fit in. She became vulnerable because I took her from school at her request and made a bad choice in her companion. The woman was in league with Wickham.”
Elizabeth had believed her shock could not be increased, but she could not even say a word about that.
She finally said, “Betrayed all around. It is no wonder she is reticent, especially if she has no friends or female relatives her age. I do not suppose Mr Bingley’s sisters are all that useful.”
Darcy scoffed but did not quite feel that made his point adequately, so he moved on to laughing uproariously, while Elizabeth joined him.
“Not as such,” he finally said.
“Bring her here!” Elizabeth said definitively.
“I can offer my friendship, and of course, Jane, Mary, Charlotte Lucas, and another half-dozen ladies of my acquaintance are kind and welcoming. My two youngest sisters are exceedingly silly, as you are no doubt aware, but even they might help her a bit, so long as your sister does not pick up any of their bad habits.”
“For all we know, her good habits might rub off on them.”
“One can only hope,” Elizabeth said with a sigh, not the least bit optimistic in Miss Darcy’s ability to reform her sisters. She thought nothing short of an army sergeant would do the job, but she could certainly help her friend’s sister.
With that, they finished the last circuit, and Elizabeth thanked the gentleman for the walk, reiterated her willingness to help Miss Darcy, and suggested she needed to look in on Jane.