Chapter 1 #2
Even now that both sisters were wives, and Elizabeth soon to be a mother, the bond between them was yet so steady that Jane had not wished to be far from Elizabeth when her time came.
Like Mr Darcy, her attachment to her sister was too great to do any less.
And, as Charles was too much in love with Jane to deny her anything, the whole family had therefore come likewise.
Caroline, too, was glad of it, to a degree that surprised even herself.
It had been nearly a full year since the conversation at Pemberley that had given her such a different view of the world.
She was now pleased to claim Mrs Darcy as a friend.
So much, Caroline Bingley would say to anyone in the fashionable world, but her private feelings were in fact rather different.
Elizabeth Darcy was indeed a friend to her, but she was also more than this.
In her private heart, Caroline felt her to be little short of a teacher, a strange sort of mentor in the way Elizabeth saw the world, and which Caroline wished to see for herself.
But she felt little inclination to say all this to Jane, particularly not before the maids, and rather doubted that her sister-in-law, who was so naturally and effortlessly good and guileless, would understand, anyway.
“Yes, it must be difficult to go from Pemberley to a townhouse, but at least Darcy House is as fine a townhouse as anyone could wish,” Caroline said instead. “And she has Mr Darcy and Miss Darcy to dote on her, and you too. Elizabeth is prodigiously lucky in her family.”
“And she is lucky to have you as well, Caroline,” Jane said, surprising her sister-in-law. “Oh, do not look so! You know how Lizzy likes clever people, and you are the cleverest of all the ladies I know, excepting perhaps Lizzy herself.”
“Thank you, Jane,” Caroline said. She added nothing more, for she was rather at a loss for a response. Elizabeth had been a rival for so long that even now, when Caroline had accepted her into her heart as a friend, it remained a surprise to hear their friendship acknowledged aloud.
Rather than attempting to come up with some more fitting response, she changed the subject. “Do you think Georgiana will have learned a new piece?” Caroline asked.
Jane responded in the affirmative, for it might be safely assumed that Georgiana Darcy had learned a new song on the pianoforte since one had seen her last, if one did not keep constantly abreast of her progress.
With such pleasant nothings as this, the short ride from the fashionable shopping district to Darcy House was soon over, and the young ladies were hurrying up the steps out of the cold.
They were shown into the cosiest drawing room at once.
“Lizzy, you need not get up!” Jane exclaimed, but her sister would hear none of it. Despite the late stage of her pregnancy, she stood up with surprising grace from the sofa upon which she had been resting and rushed to embrace her sister.
“I need not, but I wish to,” Elizabeth said laughingly. “Oh, Jane, how good of you to have come to London at the same time! Everything my friends and family can do to distract me is heartily welcome these days.”
“We shall do our best,” Caroline said, exchanging a warm clasp of hands with Elizabeth. “Now, do sit down again! Mr Darcy will have all our heads if we tire you.”
“Or at least go distracted with worry,” Elizabeth said fondly, but not without a small sigh. “Poor man! He seems to think I am as fragile as a porcelain doll, though Nurse Rooke says that everything looks as well as it possibly could.”
“She seems a very capable woman, and quite charming,” Jane observed.
“Indeed, she is. I am lucky to have her, you know, for she has an impressive reputation in London, and she does not intend to stay here much longer. Come this spring, she will move to Bath, where her sister has a lodging-house. The ladies of Bath will be all the richer for it, for I have rarely been so well entertained as when listening to her stories.”
“You ought to be careful, or you may feature in her stories as well,” Caroline warned her, only half joking.
“To be sure, Nurse Rooke has warned me of that herself.”
Jane smiled. “Perhaps she can inspire other husbands with the mention of how well you are cared for by Mr Darcy.”
As though mention of his name had conjured him, Mr Darcy came into the drawing room, bearing Georgiana in his wake. After a brief bow and word of greeting to the visitors, he went directly to his wife.
“Are you sure, love, that I ought to leave you? I could call on Fitzwilliam to go with Georgiana.”
“I am entirely sure,” Elizabeth said solemnly, almost succeeding in concealing an upward twitch at the corner of her mouth.
“Will, I am right as rain, and you cannot stay in this house always. It is not necessary, and it would be unfair to Georgiana. You see I am well entertained here. Jane and Caroline will see that I lack for nothing. Besides, I wish you to take Georgiana to the music store. She has offered to entertain me by learning some new pieces, and she cannot do so if she has no music. So you see you must take her, for my sake.”
Even half distracted by love and worry, Mr Darcy remained a clever man, and so he did not struggle to see through the specious elements of his wife’s argument. Still, as her sincerity was nonetheless obvious, he allowed himself to be persuaded.
Georgiana continued to look anxious. She leaned close to Elizabeth’s ear and murmured into it, so softly Caroline could barely overhear her. “Are you really sure, Lizzy? I should not wish to take Will away when you might need him. I do not need new sheet music, not really.”
“You cannot stay in this house always either, Georgiana. Go, for I am looking forward to hearing your new piece.”
With a last embrace between the Darcys, a few words of farewell, and not a few backward glances, the two Darcy siblings left the house. Elizabeth looked after them fondly.
“Poor Will, and poor Georgiana! They have hardly stirred from this place any more than I have. I have told and told Will that there is no need for such isolation, simply because I am in confinement, but I am afraid he cannot be at ease leaving me. And so poor Georgiana has hardly seen anything of London.”
“I do not think she minds, Lizzy,” Jane pointed out. “Georgiana is much less shy since you have taken her under your wing, to be sure, but I cannot think that she much misses the chance to be out in society.”
“I hope you are right,” Elizabeth said ruefully, “for if she does, I am afraid she will have to wait. Now, then! What have you both been doing today?”
Having already been in confinement for long weeks, Elizabeth seemed to relish every detail of their day, however simple.
Caroline had not entirely intended to tell her sisters-in-law of her surprising encounter but, upon seeing how eagerly Elizabeth listened to every detail of their largely mundane shopping trip, she found she could not keep it back.
“As you see, it was of little consequence,” she said in conclusion. “Only he was so very handsome, and his manners so good, it made me rather curious. But I doubt we shall meet again, or that I shall ever know his name.”
“Perhaps you might find it out,” Elizabeth suggested. “He seems a most distinctive man. I believe you said his friend called him ‘North’, did he not? If he is a gentleman, someone in our acquaintance might know him — by name, at least, if not to speak to.”
Caroline shook her head. “No, there can be nothing to be gained there. He might be a gentleman — indeed, to judge by the excellence of his manners and his educated speech, I daresay he is. But he certainly is not a man of any consequence. His clothes made that more than obvious.”
“I suppose you are right,” Elizabeth conceded lightly. “Only it seems rather a shame to give up so easily. You seemed so very interested.”
“No, certainly not,” Caroline replied hurriedly.
“It would be a great misfortune if I were, for he certainly could not be a suitable prospect. He only captured my attention for a moment, nothing more. There was something in his look, his eyes — he made me think of great works of art, somehow.” Suddenly conscious of how that must sound, she cleared her throat and looked away.
“Or something of that sort. I daresay it is only because he is so handsome.”
Elizabeth was looking at her keenly, with her bright eyes that always seemed to see too much. But if she doubted Caroline’s assertion, she did not say so. She only called for tea and led the conversation into other lines, a courtesy for which Caroline was deeply grateful.