Chapter Eight #3
Georgiana appeared equally placid as she closed her eyes and turned her face into the bracing breeze.
She languidly linked her arm through Elizabeth’s, briefly resting her head on Elizabeth’s shoulder before she began to speak.
“I have often wished for a sister, particularly in the last two years. William has done his best, but I know it has not been easy for him as both brother and guardian.”
“His task might have been more difficult had he the sort of younger sister I boast two of.”
Sadness shaded Georgiana’s answering smile. “I have given him difficulty enough—in truth, I hardly deserve such a generous and forgiving brother. I have put him through a terrible ordeal and he is suffering the consequences even now.”
Elizabeth’s serenity gave way to surprise. “Surely you do not refer to his inexplicable disappointment with Miss de Bourgh. What could you have to do with it?”
“I am the cause of it.” Georgiana let out a long sigh, her eyes shifting guiltily under her heavy lashes. “I… it is such a great secret… and a heavy burden.”
“You need not explain anything that makes you uneasy, though of course you may be assured of my secrecy.”
Georgiana nodded her head, clasping Elizabeth’s hand in her own.
“Summer before last, just before my sixteenth birthday, I visited Ramsgate—it is our tradition to visit the seaside every summer. William meant to spend more time with me there, but he was called away on sudden business and so he left me with my companion, Mrs. Younge. We were mistaken in her character, just as I was deceived in the intentions of a family friend who conspired with her to pay me his addresses under the guise of finding me there by coincidence. I had known him since I was a child—trusted him, even admired him—so much so that I agreed to elope with him. I… we… well, William surprised me by returning to Ramsgate a few days earlier than expected, just in time to prevent the elopement. But there were other consequences to my foolishness.”
Elizabeth’s steps stilled as she turned to regard her friend with shock and concern. “You do not mean—was there a dalliance?”
“I believed that he loved me, simpleton that I was. And that is not the worst of it.” Georgiana worried her hands in the billowing fabric of her gown and looked up at Elizabeth with trembling anxiety.
Elizabeth could hardly think ill of the girl for the same sort of mischief that might have easily befallen her younger sisters had their mother’s death not curtailed their familiarity with the officers of the regiment.
“What an awful man, to prevail upon your innocence! But surely your brother cannot blame you, nor harbor any lingering resentment for the incident.”
“No indeed! William was the greatest comfort to me when George made it perfectly clear he wished only to obtain my dowry and perhaps to mock my brother through my seduction. Dear William was even careful not to direct his fury at me when he was obliged to curtail his visit with Mr. Bingley because I had come to realize there would be a child. He took me away to Scotland and doted upon me the entire time until the baby came, and for a long while after. He even let me interview the family that adopted my baby girl. He has the most compassionate heart, and it has been utterly wasted on our selfish, sour cousin.”
For a minute or two, Elizabeth slowly walked in silence beside her friend, considering the shocking secret she had just learned, which certainly cast a more superlative shade on the kindness of Mr. Darcy, as well as the petty malice of Miss de Bourgh.
“Has their broken engagement something to do with your secret? Surely she cannot be aware of it!”
Georgiana snorted with disdain. “I shudder to think how she would wield it against me if she knew the truth! But I was in London with Richard’s sisters and mother when I sent word to William that I believed I was with child, and when he came to take me to Scotland, our aunt called on him.
She must have learned of it—Richard has always accused her of bribing the servants of her relations to spy for her.
She must have known and used my secret to blackmail William into the engagement with Anne, for he had never shown any interest in capitulating to her pressure before. ”
Tears pricked at Elizabeth’s eyes. “It speaks well of you that you should be so solicitous of your brother’s plight after he supported you in your own time of need, but it pains me to hear your torment yourself with such blame.”
“Are you not shocked and scandalized by my history? You appear to be bearing it remarkably well.”
Again, the thought of her own silly sisters gave Elizabeth pause.
“I cannot deny having considered something similar befalling Kitty or Lydia, when a regiment of the militia came to Meryton in the autumn before last. Had mourning not curtailed our activities, it is entirely possible, even likely that one of my sisters might have mistaken flirtation for love and found herself in a similar predicament—and they would not have had the excuse of longstanding trust and friendship with their beaux.”
Georgiana stared at Elizabeth in wonder. “I did not know it was possible to think better of you than I already did; I rather envy your sisters.”
“I am honored that you should trust me with your secret, Georgiana. It has made me think better of you, too, for you have endured greater hardships than your cheerful disposition suggests, and that is admirable indeed.”
They had rambled westward along the beach and arrived at their destination.
Another terrace hugged the cliffside along the southern edifice of the Tremont, and several guests had assembled there to take tea.
Amongst them were Miss de Bourgh and Lady Catherine; Sir Sidney appeared to be attempting to flatter one while dodging the contempt of the other.
Georgiana made no effort to hide her disdain at the sight of her cousin, but in a moment her expression changed to glee as she and Elizabeth perceived Mr. Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam heading toward the terrace from the narrow path that led to the cottage.
Though Mr. Darcy appeared intent on approaching his cousin, he paused when Georgiana called out to him and waved him over, and the colonel shifted their course to join the ladies walking up the beach.
When the gentlemen reached them, Georgiana let out a peal of laughter which caused Miss de Bourgh to look their way with an expression of jealous vexation—Elizabeth rather suspected this was her friend’s intention, though she doubted Georgiana would own to it.
“William, Richard! Lizzy and I were just laughing together at the most insolent and hypocritical aspersions we were met with this morning when we encountered Anne and her upstart maid on Grand Avenue.”
Mr. Darcy looked between the ladies and the distant terrace in alarm. “What?! What happened?”
The colonel snorted with indecorous laughter. “I am all astonishment! Sweet, lovely Anne, who has the heart of an angel and the soul of a poet? This cannot be!”
Georgiana made a droll face at her cousin before answering her brother. “She pretended not to remember Lizzy’s name, and made some horrid insinuations about you and I connecting ourselves to her.”
“In fairness, I did play the same petty trick with her last week, when I called her by the wrong name out of an irrepressibly obstinate impulse to vex her,” Elizabeth said with an unrepentant smile.
“I believe you were all present on the occasion, and therefore you cannot deny that I have been repaid in kind for my impudence.”
“It was no less than she deserved,” Georgiana cried, taking Elizabeth’s hand in her own and looking to her brother for aid, as if she were presenting him with a foundling kitten in want of coddling.
Still laughing, the colonel said, “I knew she was jealous! I am only surprised that she was not grateful to you for keeping Darcy so well amused last evening, which allowed Anne the chance to fawn over her foppish new beau.”
“She did thank me, amongst her other communications. In truth, I cannot fault her observations, for she is not the first to inform me of Mr. Darcy’s superiority in company.
He told me of it himself when first we met in Hertfordshire.
” Elizabeth smiled broadly at Mr. Darcy, hoping they could now laugh at the folly of their first encounter.
Georgiana gasped and the colonel laughed, and then they both demanded some explanation, though Mr. Darcy only silently stared at Elizabeth, who grinned as she said, “He has very handsomely apologized and been forgiven for his untoward comments the night we met, the substance of which was that he was not in the habit of stooping so low for companionship—something Miss de Bourgh agrees he would never condescend to do.”
Elizabeth’s smile turned rueful as she softly added, “I understand now—Georgiana has told me the reason you were so out of humor that night—what a distressing time it was for you both.”