Chapter Twenty-three
I woke from my nap to a bit of a flurry in the household, the carriage being made ready for my wife, which was all right, because I had told the servants that whatever restrictions had been put on her, they all must be lifted at this point, but I was seized with the conviction she must be leaving me entirely.
Why would she stay with a man who could not trust her, after all?
Why stay with a man who had accused her of the worst behavior a wife could have exhibited?
Why stay with someone who she could not have conversations with?
I had only one thing to recommend me, it seemed, and it was the force of my desire for her. We were doomed.
Even so, I did not wish her to leave. I could not fault her for doing it, but I must attempt to stop her.
So, I went to her room, for she was not ready to leave yet, and I banged on her door.
“Elizabeth, please, let us talk,” I said. “Please.”
The door opened, but her maid was on the other side.
Elizabeth was seated, having her hair pinned up. “What is the matter?”
“You’re…” I looked her over. “Where are you planning to go?”
“Your aunt and sister have invited me for tea,” said Elizabeth. “I should have liked an excuse to beg off, but I did not seem to have one, and so I am going.”
“Oh,” I said, quite relieved. “I heard you were having the carriage readied, and I thought you were leaving entirely.”
She blinked at me. “Odd, that course of action had not even occurred to me.”
“I am coming with you,” I said.
“You were not invited,” she said.
“Even so, I am coming.”
“I believe that the understanding is that it is a women’s only sort of gathering.”
“I don’t care.”
She looked me over. “Are you intending to prevent me from leaving by keeping an eye on me, Fitzwilliam?”
“No,” I said. “I simply have an urge to see my aunt, that is all.”
She snorted.
The tea was horrid. My aunt was surprised to see me.
“My servants reported you were keeping her in her chambers, not allowing her to send out letters, and that you and my son galloped off somewhere together on some urgent business that required the procurement of gunpowder and ammunition,” she said.
“I am not an idiot. That is a duel. And so I don’t know what your wife did to indicate that you must shoot someone over her, but you are lucky you have not widowed her in the process! ”
“All of that is over now,” I said to my aunt. “That business is concluded, and it is not your concern. So, if that is all, let us turn to other topics.”
“You have accompanied her here, I see,” said my aunt. “Can she not be out of your sight, Darcy?”
Elizabeth broke in. “Is this the reason you invited me here to tea? If you thought that I was being kept in my chambers?”
“Well, I knew you had the run of the house again,” said my aunt.
“Which of my servants are reporting to you exactly?” I said. “Never mind it. I shall root this out myself.”
My aunt glared at us both. “I thought that you had done something to convince my nephew to behave the way he is behaving. I could not say, but I know that things have become impossible since your arrival here, Mrs. Darcy.”
I glared back. “So you were going to do what, exactly? Scold her? My wife?”
“Someone needs to take a firm hand with that girl,” said Lady Matlock to me.
“You may or may not understand how important it is to maintain the reputation of this family, seeing as you are a Darcy, but we are associated with you, and we are housing your sister—” and here she gestured to Georgiana who had been sitting silently all along— “and if I must solve this problem myself, I shall do it.”
“I’ll thank you, Lady Matlock, to leave my marriage to my wife and myself,” I said coldly. “You may not approve of my choice of wife, but it was not your choice to make. Any insult made to Mrs. Darcy is an insult made to me, however, and I shall not tolerate it.”
“Your wife is begging for insults, however. She cannot walk down a hallway without doing something to offend!”
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” I said.
“My wife is the most beautifully breathtaking woman in the whole of the country. She is intelligent and witty and quite funny. She is brave and steadfast, even in the face of adversity. You wish to stifle her, but when people speak to her, they see what I see in her, they see the bright spark of her spirit, and I would not have someone like you attempt to extinguish that!” I got to my feet.
“We’re leaving this travesty of a tea, Mrs. Darcy. ”
Elizabeth stood up, too. “Well, husband, your word is law.” But she was smiling.
I smiled, too. I glanced at Georgiana. “If you change your mind and would like to stay with me, Georgiana, know that we would welcome you.”
“Yes, we would,” said Elizabeth to my sister. “We have had very little chance to get to know each other, I must say, but I should like to know you. We are sisters now, after all.”
Georgiana nodded at Elizabeth. “True, I suppose we are, and—”
“Miss Darcy,” cut in my aunt.
Georgiana fell silent.
I would have a letter from my sister by the end of the week, indicating that she had decided to come and stay with me for the time being, so long as I could promise I would not pack her up and ship her back to the country.
But just then, it was only Elizabeth and me going back to the carriage, and we sat inside together on the same bench on the way home, and she lay her head on my shoulder and said that no one had ever defended her like that, that no one had ever spoken up for her.
“I was always and forever being scolded, of course,” she said.
“Not like my sister Jane, who was so good and so sweet and so, well, perfect. Jane always was kind to me, but she would never speak up in my defense. And my father loves me very well, but he is not the sort to take anything seriously enough to be concerned for me. And anyway, I cannot complain about that, I must say.”
I kissed the top of her head. “I shall not stand for anyone saying a word against you again.”