Chapter 31
GEORGIANA’S INTERFERENCE
Darcy tried, fervently, to be sanguine to his sister about his required disappearance from the party.
The difficulty lay in the fact that she seemed perfectly well.
She showed no sign of fever, no cough, no sniffle.
Was it a stomach ache? Was it a bad enough stomach ache to prevent him spending time with Elizabeth?
This is what it means to have care over a young lady. One cannot always be about one’s own pleasures.
“I am sorry you are ill,” he said as they made their way onto the lane. “I hope you were able to enjoy yourself at least a little?”
Georgiana smiled wanly. “Would that we had brought Mrs Annesley! She might have returned with me.”
“Think nothing of that,” he said, realising she had neatly sidestepped his question about enjoying herself.
He had hoped Georgiana and Elizabeth would become friends. Indeed, he could not imagine his sister not liking Elizabeth, not wanting to be her friend. But Georgiana’s feelings were as inscrutable as his own generally were.
“Oh bother!” Georgiana exclaimed, abruptly interrupting his thoughts.
“What is it?”
She leant forwards in the seat, looking as if she meant to leap from the carriage. “My shawl! I left it on the chair in the drawing room. We must go back.”
“Is that all?” Darcy chuckled. “I thought we were about to be set upon by highwaymen. I will tell the coachmen to ask Saye or Bingley to retrieve it when they return for them.”
“No, they will never know where to find it. Pray, let us turn the carriage about, so that I can go and get it.”
“I cannot think it really so necessary,” Darcy protested. “I am sure the maid—”
“And I am equally sure that the youngest Miss Bennets would think nothing of claiming it as their own! You saw how they were with one another,” Georgiana insisted. “Miss Lydia nearly tore her sister’s head off.”
Darcy opened his mouth to disagree but found he could not, not confidently. “Miss Lydia and Miss Catherine may squabble over trifles amongst themselves, but it is a far cry from thievery.”
“Please, Brother? That shawl was our dear mother’s,” she said, a bit tremulously, her eyes round and urgent. “You know I am not well and wish nothing more than to find my bed. I ask you only because it is exceedingly important.”
“Very well,” he said and knocked on the roof.
Within minutes, his men had the carriage turned round, returning to Longbourn and his sister’s vastly important shawl.
When they arrived, Darcy moved to go and retrieve it for her, but Georgiana was quick to her feet with more alacrity than he should have expected of such a deathly ill person.
“I will go and get it. I know where it was,” she said hurriedly.
The coachman had opened the door by then, and she leapt out with no more discourse than that.
Darcy, after hesitating, sank back into the squabs.
He felt like he ought to go in, but if he did, he did not think he would be able to tear himself out again.
In any case, he needed to ponder his sister’s demeanour, particularly as it pertained to Elizabeth.
It was a very short time until Georgiana returned, shawl hung over her arm.
“Ah, you found it. Excellent.”
“That person had taken it below stairs. The one who answered the door for us earlier.”
“That person?”
“I believe her name was Hill?”
“The housekeeper?” Darcy raised his brow. “I should think you would be able to identify those readily enough in the larger houses.”
Georgiana shrugged one shoulder. “I was not certain. She might have been a maid or a relation or someone passing by to sell milk. The household does not seem to stand on ceremony.”
Darcy frowned. “The Bennet household is livelier than what we are accustomed to, but Mrs Bennet knows what she is about. I have never seen anything amiss in the servants or their performance of their duties.”
Georgiana held her shawl in her hands, her fingers worrying the fringe that lined it as they resumed their journey back to Netherfield. “In any case, I waited in the hall while she went to retrieve it for me.”
“Excellent.” He studied her while they went along the way, watching her play with the shawl and give an occasional heavy sigh.
“It seems you have some concerns about Miss Elizabeth and her family.”
“No.”
“That was said too quickly for me to credit it. I wanted you to come here so I could hear your opinions, so please, allow me to allay your concerns about the match.”
Georgiana returned to worrying the fringe, then finally asked, “Do you ever worry she is…holding out for the highest bidder?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean there seem to be quite a few gentlemen that she is on very friendly terms with. Sir James, Mr Goulding, that man who had the very florid face—”
“That man was her uncle,” said Darcy with a laugh he did not quite feel.
“Mr Goddard, even! He made love to her on one side while his friend flirted on the other!”
Darcy exhaled forcefully. “Georgiana, I see nothing at all in Elizabeth’s behaviour that gives me pause. She is a vivacious, friendly person, and it is no surprise that there are many who wish to be her friend, men and women.”
“Her sister is getting married now; is it any wonder she wishes to secure her own future?”
“She has had offers of marriage before,” he told her. “From her cousin Mr Collins, for example. That would have secured the future of not only her but her family too—the estate is entailed on him. But she refused because she did not love him, or even think she could respect him.”
“Holding out for a higher bidder, then.”
“No,” Darcy protested. “Holding out for someone to whom she might offer affection and love.”
“You wanted to protect me from a fortune hunter,” Georgiana said stubbornly. “Can it be any surprise that I, too, wish to protect you?”
“No, and I appreciate it. But there is a vast difference between us.”
Georgiana folded her arms across her chest, and in the dim light afforded by the rising moon, he thought she appeared petulant. “How so?”
“I have been moving in larger society for many years now. I have been going to parties and balls for a decade and have seen scores and scores of romances, some successful, some not. You, on the other hand, had not had the wisdom of such experience when the…unfortunate incident at Ramsgate occurred. You were ill-equipped to know the difference between love and affectionate avarice. I am not.”
“And are you certain? Because I am not.”
Netherfield Park had come into view, and it was a very welcome sight. “No one is ever completely certain in matters of the heart, are they? And yet, yes, I am as certain as any man could be who was about to make a woman an offer of marriage.”
“So you will offer for her, then?”
“I would do it tomorrow, were I not obligated to an errand with Bingley away from Netherfield. But once I am returned, unless something terribly drastic interferes, I daresay the time is upon me. And I hope that you will lay aside any prejudice you feel about her family and welcome her into our house. If you give her a chance to become your friend, I do not doubt that you will soon come to love her as I have.”
To this Georgiana made no reply.