Chapter Five #3
Darcy looked around, considering. With fires and sconces lit in all the downstairs parlors, silhouettes of people visible through the thin white curtains, laughter and chatter and music audible through a few slightly opened windows, they could certainly give quite a performance.
He gave a slow, ponderous nod. “Have you any tenants who might wish to join us for a few hours after sundown? Children, too—you mentioned some rambunctious cousins causing a commotion.”
“If Hill will consent to feed them, I am sure we can manage as full a house as there was two nights ago—and by God, I shall have my cranberry biscuits at last!”
“Excellent,” Darcy agreed; he was prodigiously fond of cranberries, though rather less of parties.
He had no talent for spontaneity either, but Elizabeth beamed at him with a look of confidence and gratitude, and something else he could not name.
Something warm and familiar, something shared between them.
She might have led him to the very devil with such a look.
Elizabeth felt a sudden sense of heat pooling inside her, and decided she and Mr. Darcy had been alone together for quite long enough.
They had quarreled, nearly kissed, and she had actually been in his arms—and now he was looking at her as if in the presence of great genius, which would satisfy her vanity far too well if she allowed it.
She noticed the music coming from across the hall had ceased, and felt she owed Georgiana some apology for her outburst. As she moved into the smaller parlor, she found Georgiana speaking softly with her companion Mrs. Annesley on the sofa, with her fat orange cat stretched out between them, purring loudly.
“I see you have met Lord Whiskerton,” Elizabeth said.
“He is a darling,” Georgiana cooed, curling her fingers in his thick fluff.
“He must have taken a singular liking to you, for he is not always so easy with strangers,” Elizabeth replied.
In truth, Lord Whiskerton was a lecherous little libertine, fairly demanding affection from anyone and everyone, but she could see that it pleased Georgiana to believe she had been especially chosen by the miscreant mouser.
“Oh! I adore him,” Georgiana said. “I have always wanted a kitten of my own, but have never been permitted.”
Elizabeth turned toward Mr. Darcy, rather surprised that he would deprive his sister of anything she desired, for she had no doubt he enjoyed indulging the girl.
But then he sneezed.
“That is why,” Georgiana said sheepishly.
“Oh dear! Ought I remove him?”
“Do not distress yourself Miss Eliz—Miss Bennet,” Mr. Darcy said with a dismissive wave of his hand.
Mrs. Annesley looked up at him and asked, “Are we to remove, sir? Shall we prepare ourselves for the journey back to London?”
“No, we shall remain at Longbourn until the storm passes and the Bennets are able to return,” Darcy said. He explained Elizabeth’s plan, adding only that he intended to send word to their cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam.
“I was going to suggest that very notion,” Georgiana cried.
“He said he would be travelling north a few days after us, did he not? And I know he wishes to… to… well, I shall not repeat his threats about George Wickham but I think even the worst of them are quite justified. Oh, but Lizzy! I am so pleased that we are to stay, and that you and I might grow better acquainted! And a party, how jolly!”
“I am glad you are so easily diverted, though I must remind you that we mean to pantomime the absolute havoc of a family gathering at Longbourn, so I hope you share my fondness for folly and absurdity,” Elizabeth said with a wink.
“You are welcome to share my room, which I have always shared with my sister Jane, or you are welcome to any other bedchamber of your choosing. I can show you all upstairs now, if you would like to settle in and refresh yourselves before we let battle commence.”
And just as it occurred to Elizabeth that she would have to speak with the housekeeper as soon as possible, she heard the familiar bustle of Mrs. Hill and Alice whispering between themselves in the corridor.
Mrs. Hill hastened into the room but then stopped abruptly at the sight of Elizabeth’s guests.
Her mouth fell open, but she remembered her manners and gave a clumsy curtsey.
“I’m not too sure you’ll be wantin’ to have guests, Lizzy, dear,” the housekeeper cried.
“Never mind the propriety and your mother’s dislike of—well, I’ve just overheard the most shocking conversation between a pair of officers at the Red Lion!
” At this, Mrs. Hill brandished a double barrel flintlock shotgun, waving it about until Mr. Darcy was obliged to gently remove it from her haphazard clutches.
“Hill! Wherever did you get that?” Elizabeth fairly sputtered with laughter as she watched Mr. Darcy reassess the kindly older woman, whom he had only ever seen procure her mother’s smelling salts.
“Never you mind, Miss Lizzy,” Hill said primly. “But I’ll not let those weasels pillage the house on my watch, not after feeding ‘em tea and cakes half a dozen times. No indeed, I am prepared to be very unladylike, if I must—beggin’ your pardon, Mr. Darcy.”
Elizabeth grinned and impulsively threw her arms around the intrepid housekeeper, before she and Mr. Darcy once again laid out their plan for the evening.