Chapter 2
“Did you have a good outing, my dear?” Mrs Ryde asked Elizabeth, who had just entered the parlour.
Walking across the spacious, bright room, she took a seat nearby. “I did, and I feel much refreshed after the exercise.”
“And ready for tea and perhaps a little something to eat?”
Elizabeth smiled and nodded. Mrs Ryde knew her well, including that she was always hungry after an invigorating excursion.
Fortunately, the footman who had been assigned to accompany her was young enough to keep up with her.
The morning air was chilly—hardly a surprise in mid-April—and a hot beverage would be as welcomed as food.
Knowing the lady would wish to hear about her morning adventure, Elizabeth told her of the route she had taken and her impressions of what she had seen.
“I am glad you find the city so pleasing,” Mrs Ryde said.
“I do. Everything I have seen in Ireland has been wonderful!” Reaching across the space between them, Elizabeth briefly rested a hand on Mrs Ryde’s arm. “I shall never be able to thank you adequately for bringing me with you.”
“Oh, you know how much your company means to me,” Mrs Ryde said, her tone both fond and dismissive.
Elizabeth had noticed that the longer they were in Ireland, the more pronounced Mrs Ryde’s accent became.
The middle-aged lady was Irish by birth, but she had lived in England since she was ten years old.
In Elizabeth’s memory, she had always sounded English with just a hint of her native land occasionally peeking out.
Mrs Ryde had been at school with Elizabeth’s paternal aunt, and the two had struck up a close friendship.
Aunt Bennet, her godmother, had died five years previously.
They had been extremely fond of each other.
While her aunt had spent some time at her brother’s estate in Hertfordshire, she had lived most of her life separately, including passing long periods with Mrs Ryde.
Elizabeth often likened the connexion between the two women to that she had with her sister Jane; they had been as close as sisters.
Because Elizabeth had often been with her aunt, she had known Mrs Ryde since she was a young girl.
Their friendship had become deeper since her aunt’s death; they frequently wrote to each other, and Elizabeth stayed with her two or three times a year.
Having been widowed several years previously, Mrs Ryde was free to spend her time as she liked, and when she had learnt that her brother-in-law, Lord Halsley, needed to spend some months in Ireland, she had decided to visit the country again and see the places of her youth.
Elizabeth had leapt at the opportunity to accompany her when the scheme was presented to her.
If she had her way, she might spend a year or two exploring all the delights of the Emerald Isle, although she did miss her family.
She had left Longbourn soon after New Year.
It would have been preferable to delay their travel until the spring, but the timing had been dictated by Lord Halsley, who was in Ireland on government business.
He had said little of it, and Elizabeth had not thought it right to ask.
Unless their plans changed, they would return to England by mid-June.
Mrs Ryde said, “We have been in Dublin for one week. Will you be content, do you think, to spend the next two months here?”
“I shall!” Elizabeth replied eagerly. “There is so much to see, and I do find it very charming.”
“I knew you would thrive in a new setting and take advantage of every possible moment to explore and learn.” Mrs Ryde gave her a fond look. “It does me good to see your youthful vigour. It reminds me I am not so old.”
“You certainly are not,” she protested.
Mrs Ryde’s attention turned to the maids who entered with trays of refreshments, nodding her thanks.
She then checked her locket watch and said, “I expected my brother to have returned by now. Well, when he does, I will send for fresh tea. Shall we talk about how we shall amuse ourselves in the coming days?”
Elizabeth agreed, and they fell into easy conversation for the next quarter of an hour. At that point, the door opened, and Lord Halsley entered.
He was not alone. Accompanying him were two gentlemen, and unless Elizabeth was much mistaken, they were the ones she had overheard in Merrion Square.
Lord Halsley had warmly greeted Darcy and Bramwell, and Darcy was glad to see him again.
Approaching his sixtieth birthday, the gentleman remained spry.
Darcy hoped he would be thus at a similar age.
The earl had been a great help after his father’s death, indeed, even during his illness, when he had provided comfort to his old friend and assistance to Darcy as he was forced to take on his father’s duties at such a young age, and years before he had anticipated.
After speaking about the matters that had brought them all to Ireland—Darcy and Bramwell making light of the scandal that had led Lord and Lady Romsley to insist on the voyage—Lord Halsley mentioned that his sister-in-law had travelled with him.
Given the intimacy of the friendship between his lordship, the Fitzwilliams, and Darcys, he and Bramwell were both well acquainted with Mrs Ryde.
“If you are at liberty now, come with me to the house I have let,” the earl said.
“It is not far. From what you have said, you are staying nearby too, which will make it very convenient for us to meet often. I know Mrs Ryde would like to see you both, and it would allow you to meet her companion. The young lady who has accompanied her—Miss Bennet—is everything delightful, and what could be finer than to have more people your own age about with whom to discuss the travails and pleasures of travel, eh?”
It was thus that Darcy found himself at Lord Halsley’s house, which was located on a respectable street less than five minutes’ walk from his and Bramwell’s present abode.
“Mrs Ryde!” Bramwell said jovially as soon as they entered the drawing room. “I had no notion you were in Dublin. If Darcy and I had known, we would have come at once.”
Darcy made his bow and, glancing at his cousin, said, “We only arrived yesterday afternoon.”
“Then we might have sent a note.” The viscount shrugged and smiled broadly at Mrs Ryde, his gaze drifting to the young woman beside her.
Darcy, too, regarded her. He guessed she was about nineteen or twenty, making her his cousin Rebecca Darcy’s age.
Her clothing was respectable, suitable for that of a companion to a wealthy widow of Mrs Ryde’s standing.
And she was pretty. Not uncommonly so, but there was nothing displeasing about her appearance.
Mrs Ryde laughed. “You are as charming as ever, Bramwell.” Waving a finger at him when he opened his mouth to respond, she continued.
“I am very glad to see both of you. Before you tell us why you are here, how long you stay, and all the other essentials, let me introduce Miss Elizabeth Bennet. Lizzy, Viscount Bramwell and Mr Darcy.”
Miss Bennet curtseyed, Darcy and Bramwell bowed, and the three exchanged the usual words one says when first meeting someone. Her voice was light and easy, yet also firm. Darcy was not usually one to notice such things, and he could not explain why he had this morning.
They sat, and Mrs Ryde ordered refreshments.
She explained why she had come to Ireland, and Bramwell made a joke of his father being tired of seeing him and wanting to have Lady Romsley to himself for a time—given their younger son was usually much occupied with his military duties—and had banished him from the family homes.
As he spoke, Darcy surreptitiously watched Miss Bennet.
As she listened, her eyes widened slightly and the corners of her mouth twitched as though she was attempting not to laugh.
“I for one am pleased you are here,” Lord Halsley said, looking at both Bramwell and Darcy.
“Elizabeth, my sister did not mention it, but we have known the gentlemen all their lives. I count Lord Romsley amongst my dearest friends, as was Darcy’s father before his death.
They are as near to family as can be without actually being relations, and I anticipate we shall see a great deal of each other whilst we are all here. ”
“Thank you, sir,” Darcy said, realising his words were likely lost behind the more animated agreements expressed by both Mrs Ryde and Bramwell.
“You will like to have other young people to speak to,” Mrs Ryde said to her companion. “I recommend them both as excellent conversationalists, and I am sure they could not object to your company.”
Despite her words and the warm look she gave both him and his cousin, Darcy was not altogether pleased.
Why should he want to spend time with her companion?
Miss Bennet had the appearance of a gentlewoman, to be sure, but her position in life was markedly below his.
Besides, what would they speak of? At best, she would be similar to the usual young women he met and mostly interested in flirting; what conversation she had would be shallow, and thus annoying rather than diverting.
If her circumstances meant she required employment, her education and experience might have been lacking, making her company all the more tedious.
“I am not sure I knew you were Irish,” Bramwell said to Mrs Ryde, turning to Darcy and asking, “Did you?”
The pointed way his cousin spoke was a hint that, in his opinion, Darcy was not sufficiently participating in the discussion.
Suppressing an inclination to roll his eyes at Bramwell’s silent reprimand, he nodded.
“But I cannot recall from where, exactly. I believe the east coast, however. Not far from Dublin.”