Chapter 4
Elizabeth pushed the door shut behind her and leaned up against the wood, overwhelmed with astonishment and wonder.
She had expected the walled garden to be laid out with beds of flowers, perhaps with trees and fountains interspersed.
Instead the entire area, which appeared to be close to an acre in size, seemed more like a scene in an exotic painting.
In the center of the plot was a group of trees, each at least twenty feet high, under which numerous birds wandered to and fro, all large, some with blue bellies and a cornucopia of green, yellow, and blue iridescent feathers trailing behind them.
Several of the winged creatures turned their heads toward her and began trilling and chirping, and the two birds closest to her retreated a few feet, obviously nervous about her presence.
“Who are you?” a voice demanded sharply from her left.
Startled, Elizabeth turned and observed a girl of some fifteen or sixteen summers standing near her.
The young woman was dressed in a simple blue gown which was rather too big for her, with an equally simple straw hat over her blonde locks, and she wore dirty half boots on her large feet.
“I am a guest at Pemberley as of a few hours ago,” Elizabeth said coolly, arching one eyebrow in a challenging manner. She was not accustomed to peremptory challenges from the lower classes.
“Ah, are you Miss Bennet or Mrs. Bingley?” the girl asked, stepping closer, her blue eyes now focused on the cross pendant around Elizabeth’s neck.
“I am Miss Bennet,” Elizabeth answered in some confusion. It seemed unlikely that a servant girl who worked outside would know either her or her sister’s name. Could this be an indigent cousin of the Darcys or something of the sort?
“Do you like birds, Miss Bennet?” the girl asked, gesturing toward the center of the garden.
Elizabeth turned back to view the strutting inhabitants of the garden and heaved a sigh of ecstasy. Birds hardly seemed the correct description for the wonderful creatures bobbing and trilling and murmuring within the stone walls of the garden.
“I am fond of doves and robins, and rather afraid of roosters because one pecked me as a child,” Elizabeth said, “but I have never seen anything like this in all my life. Surely these are peacocks?”
“The males are peacocks,” the young woman said reprovingly. “The females are known as peahens, and their young are peachicks. All together, they are known as peafowl.”
“I suppose that makes sense,” Elizabeth mused, her eyes focusing on a particularly handsome bird that was standing some yards away, its blue and green feathers rising high above its sleek, plump body.
“Without a doubt, this is astonishing. I have seen pictures of peacocks in books, but to see them in real life! They are more beautiful than I imagined!”
“You truly like them?” the girl asked in a suspicious voice, causing Elizabeth to turn and regard her with surprise.
“I do,” she said. “Truly, I cannot imagine anyone who would not like them. They are absolutely beautiful.”
“My Aunt Catherine does not,” the maiden responded with a scowl.
“She says that they are noisy and useless, and that it is idiotic of me to spend so much time tending to my peafowl when I ought to be learning to speak French and design tables. I have no interest in other languages, and we have plenty of tables at Pemberley, but that does not seem to matter to my aunt.”
Elizabeth’s heart beat faster at these words and she asked, “Your aunt? Could you be referring to Lady Catherine de Bourgh?”
“Yes,” the girl said, frowning even more hideously. “Do you know her?”
“I do not know her well, of course, but I met her when I was visiting a friend in Kent a few months ago. But if Lady Catherine is your aunt, you must be Miss Georgiana Darcy?”
This provoked a look of surprise and the girl said, “Yes, I am Miss Darcy.”
Elizabeth took a startled step backwards and said hastily, “I must apologize for this intrusion. I regret that ... oh, this is terribly awkward!”
“Why?” Miss Darcy asked, now looking perturbed.
“I ought not to have come here without your permission, or Mr. Darcy’s, and we have not been properly introduced by your brother.”
“I find formal introductions most tedious,” Miss Darcy stated, turning her face to peer at her birds.
“Furthermore, you have my permission to observe the peafowl so long as I am here with you. Some of them are timid, and others are aggressive, and it would not be safe for you or the birds to be here without my oversight. Would you like to visit the peafowl again?”
“Very much,” Elizabeth said warmly. “They are astonishing, Miss Darcy. How many peafowl live here?”
Georgiana Darcy grasped a gold chain around her neck and pulled it out from behind the bodice of her dress, revealing a delicate watch.
“I must return to the house in five minutes to change before my lesson with my music master,” she announced, ignoring Elizabeth’s query. “I will be here at noon tomorrow, if you wish to join me. You can ask questions then.”
“Thank you, Miss Darcy,” Elizabeth said, her brow crinkling at the girl’s abrupt manner. “Perhaps I will see you in a few hours at dinner?”
Georgiana Darcy shook her head and declared, “I will probably have a headache.”
Elizabeth blinked. “I am sorry. I hope you feel better soon.”
“No,” Georgiana explained, her gaze drifting down toward the hem of Elizabeth’s dress.
“I will not have a real headache. I do not like long dinners with people I do not know, and I am not fond of Miss Bingley. My brother says it is not polite to say that I do not like to be in the company of strangers and Miss Bingley, and that instead I should say that I have a headache.”
Elizabeth found herself smiling. “Your brother is correct that it would be discourteous to be so blunt, but I will admit that I find Miss Bingley rather difficult at times as well.”
“She is proud and conceited, and she flatters me,” Georgiana said simply. “I must go and you are not allowed to be in here without me.”
“Oh, I am sorry,” Elizabeth said, opening the door and passing through.
Georgiana followed her and, to Elizabeth’s surprise, produced a key from her pocket, which she used to lock the door.
“Well, I hope to see you tomorrow at noon,” Elizabeth said.
“That will be nice,” Georgiana Darcy said, and hurried away.
/
“Where is dear Miss Darcy?” Miss Bingley asked as Darcy entered the drawing room with Bingley at his heels.
“She has a headache,” Darcy explained. “She sends her regrets that she is unable to join us this evening.”
Elizabeth, along with Jane, had entered the drawing room some fifteen minutes previously, and she suppressed a smile at these words.
After her curious interaction with her host’s sister, Elizabeth had returned to her room and tried to read a book, though her mind inevitably wandered to the unusual Miss Darcy and her flock of incredible peafowl.
“Oh,” Caroline said, looking disappointed, “well, I do hope she feels better soon!”
“As do I,” Bingley said heartily as he walked over to stand by his bride. “My dear, how are you feeling?”
“I am much better, thank you,” Jane answered, gazing fondly into her husband’s face. “The air is so fresh and crisp here, especially compared to London.”
“Yes, I quite agree.”
The butler entered at this moment to announce dinner, and the gentlemen and ladies paired up to enter the dining room.
Darcy took Jane’s arm, Hurst took his wife’s arm, and Charles gathered up both Caroline and Elizabeth and guided them into a small dining room with large windows.
Elizabeth took her seat between Charles and Hurst, and found her eyes shifting to the window across from her.
Some fifty yards away, a succession house, full of greenery, rose a full fifteen feet high from the ground.
It was yet another indication of the vast wealth of Pemberley that Mr. Darcy owned such a fine greenhouse!
Servants began moving to and fro, and moments later, the party began serving food onto their plates.
It was, of course, a lavish meal, though, to Elizabeth’s relief, there was only one course.
She was a hearty eater, but with such a profusion of dishes, she would need no additional sustenance once these were removed.
Nor did she wish for Jane to sit overlong, since her sister, while generally better in the afternoons and evenings, was not feeling entirely well.
“My dear Charles,” Miss Bingley said, “I do hope that during our time here you will ask Mr. Darcy his advice about managing an estate well, though Hertfordshire is far different from Derbyshire. Nonetheless, I am certain Mr. Darcy could provide much guidance, assuming you intend to keep the lease on the Netherfield estate. I believe you would do better to find an estate farther north, but I suppose Jane would not appreciate that.”
Jane took a bite of potatoes, chewed, and swallowed before answering. “I believe Netherfield is a fine estate, but I would not be averse to moving elsewhere if Charles so desires it.”
“My dear, I would never wish to remove you from your family in such a way,” her husband protested.
“You are my family now,” Jane said firmly. “A man is to leave his mother and father and cleave to his wife, and the reverse is true as well. If you decide that Netherfield is not ideal for your purposes, I will understand completely.”
“And what of you, Elizabeth?” Caroline asked, turning a soulful look on her sister by marriage. “Would you protest if Jane and Charles moved away from Hertfordshire and your precious Longbourn?”
“I would not,” Elizabeth said calmly, directing a smile at her sister. “Of course I would miss my Jane, but it is important that she be happy, and I cannot imagine that she would be happy if Charles was not.”