Chapter Three #4
“Well, I think only us plain girls need to consider such things,” Elizabeth said with a smile.
“You are clearly quite pretty already and will be one of the beautiful ladies very soon. When you have suitors lining up at the gates of Pemberley to tell you how beautiful you are you must tell me whether it is a truly wonderful thing and I was wrong all along.”
“Thank you, Miss Elizabeth, you are kind. And also, you are about the furthest thing from plain I have ever seen,” Georgiana offered shyly.
“I do see what you mean about beauty. It is not something one can help or achieve, I suppose. Although some ladies do really wonderful things with their hair and clothes that enhance their beauty. But I suppose the credit for that should go to their maids.”
They both considered this for a moment and then Georgiana mused, “I suppose pretty ladies must know they are pretty, but if you care for someone and they tell you they find you beautiful I think ... even if you didn’t do anything to make it so to be thought beautiful by someone you love or want to love or want to love you would probably be very nice. ”
“Yes, it must,” Elizabeth agreed on a sigh, imagining she would likely never know. “But we mustn’t lose sight of our object—to determine if your brother might hold a tendre for Miss Devon.”
Georgiana giggled. “I honestly cannot imagine William holding a tendre for anyone. He is so serious and dutiful.”
“Well, that seals it, a serious dutiful son would not consider your governess a possible match regardless of her charms, beauty or otherwise. Therefore, I think it would do no harm and a great deal of good if you told him of your troubles with her.” Elizabeth felt quite proud of herself for this deduction. “You said he was a good brother?”
“The best!” Georgiana affirmed with enthusiasm.
“Then you must go to him rather than your aunt. It is a much shorter distance.”
Georgiana laughed at this and stood. Taking Elizabeth’s hands into her own, Georgiana asked, “Would you walk with me?” When Elizabeth hesitated, she added, “Just to the edge of our garden path? It’s not too far and I know I will lose my courage as soon as I am away from you, so if you are with me until nearly the end. ..”
“Of course I will be,” Elizabeth answered, happy to help her young friend, especially if it did not mean treading on propriety so much as to enter a house where she had not been invited by its master or mistress.
Indicating a path away from the road that wound in the opposite direction from the way they had come, Georgiana invited Elizabeth to follow.
They walked like that, Elizabeth trailing behind her new friend, for several minutes before the well-worn dirt path widened.
At that point, Elizabeth moved next to Georgiana and offered her arm.
“May I escort you, Miss Darcy?” she asked with mock solemnity. Georgiana smiled widely and slid her arm through Elizabeth’s.
The young ladies chatted throughout the ten-minute walk, learning the important details about one another.
Favourite flowers, colours, books. Elizabeth was also excited to find out Georgiana loved horses and rode regularly with her brother.
Georgiana delighted in Elizabeth’s descriptions of each of her sisters and how they got along or didn’t.
Amid a discussion about the songs they could and wanted to play on the pianoforte, they reached the edge of the wood.
Elizabeth was nearly awestruck at the site before her.
It was a garden in the strictest sense, but it was unlike any garden she had seen before.
It was neither overly manicured nor completely wild.
There were large oak trees lining winding dirt paths, rose bushes clustered around a small pond, fruit trees dotted amidst an open space with colourful, vibrant flowers swaying in the light breeze.
So lost in admiring the sight was Elizabeth that Georgiana had to tug on her arm to regain her attention.
“I am sorry, Miss Darcy,” Elizabeth said with some embarrassment, “but this...this is so beautiful.”
“It is, isn’t it?” Georgiana responded, turning from her companion to look at the garden.
Elizabeth wondered if having constant access to such beauty could make one immune to it. She doubted it.
“It is one of William’s favourite places in Pemberley.
He says our mother is responsible for much of its design, and see there.
” Georgiana pointed to the small oval pond with willows bending on one of its banks, their branches tickling the water.
“My father had that created shortly after I was born. Mother loved the lake on the west of the estate, but when she . . . she was sick and was not able to, it is a long walk. She could no longer ride, and even carriage rides were too much. Therefore, Father had the pond dug, and she would spend all her time out here until she died.”
“It must have brought her so much joy,” Elizabeth said.
The two stood silently for another moment before Elizabeth asked, “Are you ready to speak with your brother?”
“I think so,” Georgiana answered before throwing her arms around Elizabeth and pulling her into a fierce hug.
Although she was several years younger, Georgiana was nearly the same size as Elizabeth and quite strong when she had cause to use her strength.
Her arms held Elizabeth fast for several moments.
“Miss Elizabeth, you have been the truest friend. Thank you!”
“You are quite welcome, Miss Darcy. I am glad I saw you by that stream. I hope we will meet again soon.”
“As do I,” Georgiana agreed eagerly.
“You better be off; the sun is about to set and you must speak with him before you lose your nerve.”
“You are quite right,” Georgiana agreed, though she made no move to step away from her new friend until her eyes caught on something. “Oh, look, there is William!”
Elizabeth turned to where Georgiana indicated.
It was him. The gentleman she had thought about so often since that afternoon on the green.
She had been nearly certain the man she had seen that day was the brother Georgiana spoke of, but here was confirmation.
He was walking in their direction, seemingly absorbed more in his thoughts than his surroundings.
A book dangled from his right hand. Elizabeth could just make out the golden letters—The Republic.
She was fairly certain she had seen that book in her father’s library.
His curly brown hair was shorter, his cheeks a little thinner and his clothes a little less formal, but his eyes, his deep dark brown eyes, were just as striking.
They were also now scanning the trees where she and Georgiana stood—barely concealed by the shrubbery which lined the path.
“You should go,” Elizabeth insisted, squeezing her new friend’s hand and stepping back into the trees. “Tell him, and I am certain all will be well.” With one final clasp of her hand, Elizabeth turned and started down the path.
“Thank you, Miss Elizabeth.” Georgiana darted onto the path, nearly colliding with her brother, who had probably followed the movement he saw in the trees and arrived just where the girls had been hidden.
“William!” “Georgie!” they said at the same time.
Alerted to the reunion by their voices, Elizabeth could not help but turn around to observe.
Georgiana was speaking animatedly to her brother, and it occurred to Elizabeth a little too late what she might be saying.
Having moved out to hear and see them, she made to step back into the cover the trees provided when his deep brown eyes collided with hers.
Just as had happened when she was above him in the chestnut tree and their gazes connected, Elizabeth’s stomach fluttered, her heart began to beat quickly, her palms itched and her breathing became slightly erratic.
She chided herself for such a reaction. They were just eyes.
He was just a handsome gentleman. A stranger at that.
Sensible or not, Elizabeth got her mind and body under control a moment too late.
Although she had finally turned to go, a voice stopped her.
“Please wait.”
It was not Georgiana.
Elizabeth took a deep breath and reminded herself to maintain her composure before turning around.
It did not help. HE was standing in front of her, only a few feet away, his brilliant eyes looking at her intently.
She saw curiosity in his gaze. Before the silence that she could not seem to break stretched on too long, Georgiana appeared at her side.
“We had no one to perform the office when we encountered one another, but I may do so now,” she said with a smile. “William, may I present my friend Miss Elizabeth Bennet of Long . . .”
Here, Georgiana turned a worried glance at Elizabeth. Her friend’s distress helped Elizabeth shake off whatever had immobilised her.
“Longbourn,” she whispered to her.
“Yes, of course,” Georgiana resumed, her smile returning, “Elizabeth Bennet of Longbourn. She is staying at Barlow Hall with her aunt and uncle. Miss Elizabeth, this is my brother, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy.”
Dropping into a curtsy, Elizabeth responded in her most polite, best grown-up voice. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Darcy. Miss Darcy and I happened upon each other in the woods. She was kind enough to walk with me for a time.”
His lips twitched ever so slightly, and Elizabeth lamented the way her heart responded to that and to the twinkle she saw in his eyes.
“To hear her tell it, you rescued her,” he offered, glancing at Georgiana with a smile.
Seeing her friend’s blush, Elizabeth once again found her tongue.
“I doubt she said any such thing. Miss Darcy was not in need of rescuing.” Then uncertain how much Georgiana had relayed in the moments before they approached her, she added, “We both simply needed a different perspective.”