Chapter 27
“What a hot day, Miss Bennet,” commented Mrs Stark as they crossed in one of the passages at Darcy House, a little over a fortnight after the return from Brighton.
“Summers in London are often close, but I feel it more with age. I must go down and ask Mr Soames to have more of the windows opened, especially in Miss Darcy’s music room. ”
“Shall I speak to Mr Soames, Mrs Stark?” offered Elizabeth, observing the notebook, bag, and other small items in the older woman’s hands. “I am going downstairs now, and you look as though you are busy up here, although I suppose life is always busy somewhere as big as Darcy House.”
“Indeed, I must check the linen rotation and chair covers today, or the mending will fall by the wayside,” returned the housekeeper with a smile.
“I should be grateful if you would speak to Mr Soames for me, Miss Bennet. It is your half day, of course. Are you going out to the park with your aunt this afternoon?”
“Yes, the walk will be good for us both,” Elizabeth answered with good cheer. “As you say, it is very close indoors in July.”
“Well, it’s good to see the colour back in your cheeks again, Miss Bennet, after all the worry you had over your sister,” Mrs Stark remarked further. “We are all glad to see it, here at Darcy House. Do enjoy your afternoon.”
“Thank you,” Elizabeth answered with a smile before they parted company, glad again that housekeepers in real life appeared far less inimical to companions or governesses than those in novels
While she had never told Mrs Stark the full story of what had transpired in Brighton, she suspected that the housekeeper, and likely the other senior staff too, would have a good idea.
Indeed, the announcement of Lydia’s wedding in a Brighton newspaper two weeks after the event meant that the knowledge was now truly public.
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“What a to-do we have had this summer, Lizzy,” said Mrs Gardiner with her usual quiet good humour as they strolled through Hyde Park, choosing a smaller path, away from the busy main thoroughfare.
“After all the trouble Lydia caused, Jane’s wedding preparations must now seem like a relaxing holiday at Longbourn. ”
“I’m not sure about that,” Elizabeth returned with a smile, “but Jane’s impending marriage to Mr Bingley is a source of unalloyed joy to my mother.
With Charles Bingley being so well-known and liked by our neighbours, their interest in Jane’s wedding also thankfully far outshines Lydia’s sudden marriage in Brighton to a man none of them have met. ”
“That is certainly a blessing,” observed her aunt. “Although Lydia’s bombshell has not been as bad as you anticipated, has it, Lizzy? I’m very glad of that, for everyone’s sake.”
“No, not so far,” Elizabeth conceded. “We owe much to the intervention of Mr Darcy with my father, and Mr Bingley with my mother. I doubt our parents would have listened so well to Jane and me alone.”
“Yes, it was very fortunate that both of these gentlemen should have proved themselves such loyal and true friends to your family,” Mrs Gardiner remarked.
Elizabeth nodded soberly, aware that both Mr Bingley and Mr Darcy could easily have distanced themselves permanently from the Bennet family at the first sign of trouble.
Society would not have censured them for it.
Bingley had acted largely out of love for Jane, Elizabeth supposed.
Mr Darcy’s motivations were less clear-cut, although she had to presume them equally noble.
“My mother tells the story of Lydia’s respectable and unremarkable marriage to a Brighton property owner so well now that Jane finds herself wondering if the part where Lydia ran away and became an actress was only a dream,” Elizabeth remarked.
“Yes,” laughed Mrs Gardiner. “If I had not had the full story from you, Lizzy, I would be under another impression entirely from your mother’s letters. She seems reconciled to Lydia having married a theatre owner, but has decided to simply ignore the fact that her daughter is on the stage.”
“Much to my father’s rather dark amusement,” Elizabeth told her aunt. “Jane says that whenever Father reminds Mother of Lydia’s place in the Hyperion Theatre’s chorus line, Mother insists that this is only a passing phase, and Lydia will soon settle down to be a regular wife.”
“I do not think that likely, myself,” Mrs Gardiner said with a wry smile.
“Nor do Jane and I,” agreed Elizabeth. “Frankly, although I would not say this to Jane or anyone else at Longbourn, in the longer term, I cannot truly believe our family is safe from the long shadow cast by Lydia’s new profession.”
At this remark, Mrs Gardiner gave a long sigh and nodded her understanding.
“I have thought a little on that too, Lizzy, although like you, I have not shared my thoughts widely. Lydia is only at the start of her career now, and we do not know where it will take her yet. She is young, headstrong, and rather unprincipled, although I regret to say that. What will she do next? And what will that mean for Kitty and Mary, and you too, Lizzy?”
“Lydia also loves the attention of being on stage. I fear she will lose what little modesty she possesses and eventually take on the kind of shocking roles that would put her in newspapers or scandal sheets. We should certainly feel that at Longbourn, most of all in Kitty’s prospects and perhaps Mary’s, too.
For me, the real test will come when I seek a new position. ”
“I suppose we can only hope that Mr Michelson is more sensible than his bride,” replied her aunt philosophically.
“And that he is not so enamoured of Lydia as to let her have her way in all things,” Elizabeth added.
“There is no chance of you staying on with Miss Darcy, I suppose?” her aunt enquired with what seemed like deliberate lightness of tone. “Mr Darcy seems to value you greatly, from what I have seen. Many men would not have done as much, even for their own families.”
Elizabeth could feel Mrs Gardiner’s kindly but perceptive gaze on her face and hoped her rising colour would be covered by the warmth of the day and the effect of their exercise.
“Mr Darcy is a good man,” Elizabeth acknowledged to her aunt. “However, Mrs Annesley will be back within six weeks, I believe. Her sister is much improved, and there is no place for me at Darcy House once she returns.”
“Have you discussed this with Mr Darcy?” Mrs Gardiner pressed gently.
“There is nothing to discuss, except perhaps my character reference. Mr Darcy is a fair man, and I have no concerns on that account.”
In fact, Elizabeth had felt rather shy around Mr Darcy since they returned to London, and their conversations had been limited, if always polite.
In Brighton, they had been thrown so much together and had shared scenes of uncontrolled and heightened emotion during a time of crisis. Stepping back into more formal behaviour and re-establishing the boundaries of ordinary life was necessary now, but still felt strange and artificial.
Elizabeth could not help feeling saddened by the distance that they must keep as employer and companion, even though she knew they could hardly continue as they had done in Brighton.
When she thought of how she had stood in Mrs Forster’s drawing room, almost in Mr Darcy’s arms and addressed by her first name, it still brought a flush to Elizabeth’s cheeks.
She must be Miss Bennet to him again now, not Elizabeth. That thought, and her aunt’s line of questioning, prompted a deep sigh.
“I wonder if Mr Darcy is quite of the same view,” Mrs Gardiner put in with rather a speculative expression. “He might well consider that there are other matters to discuss. Your uncle and I like him very well, you know, Lizzy.”
Elizabeth’s heart sank a little, partly forced down after an instinctive attempt to rise.
Her aunt, too, seemed to be seeing her connection to Mr Darcy through the same lens as Lady Catherine, Mrs Collins, and Mrs Forster.
Even Lydia and Georgiana had seemed conscious of some uncomfortable and un-confronted potential in Elizabeth’s relationship with Fitzwilliam Darcy, although they were young enough to be excused their fantastic thinking.
“I doubt that,” Elizabeth told her aunt evenly, although the beating of her heart was less ordered than her words. “I doubt that there is anything else to say at all.”
It really was all too fantastic. Elizabeth remembered well enough how Mr Darcy had looked away when she asked him if he would marry into such a family.
His expression had said everything, and she would not expose herself to the pain and ridicule of hoping otherwise.
Her heart might ache somewhat even in her silence, but she knew there were worse pains than this.
But why did Mr Darcy’s attitude bother her at all? She had never sought his affection or addresses, no matter what others had hinted or suspected. Yet the thought that she would never have them now made her heart ache.
“Ah well,” said Mrs Gardiner, accepting Elizabeth’s assurances for now and taking her niece’s arm. “There will be other families and other positions, I suppose. What an interesting future you might have, Lizzy. Never mind Lydia’s adventures, who knows what you might do next?”
Elizabeth managed a smile at this suggestion, although it presently gave her no joy.
Even the idea of accompanying some warm-hearted and amiable family to Italy or other new lands, as Miss Caruthers had done, sparked no excitement or enthusiasm within her.
Her heart seemed likely to remain at Darcy House, wherever she might roam.
She would be able to write to Georgiana Darcy, of course, for as long as the younger woman retained an interest in her former companion. Mr Darcy, however, Elizabeth might never see again, or only in passing, and never on such intimate terms. Oh, how that thought now pained her…