Chapter 11
Elizabeth woke up, stretched luxuriously, and opened her eyes. Based on the dim light glowing through the drapery over the windows, it was not yet daybreak. Why had she woken so early?
A moment later, she heard a loud trill, followed by an indignant squawk, and she smiled.
The peafowl were being noisier than usual this morning, which had interrupted her slumber.
She hoped that the birds had not disturbed Jane.
It was unlikely that they had, as Jane slept heavily now due to her pregnancy.
She could try to go back to sleep but no, she knew from experience that she would merely toss and turn. She might as well rise and dress. Perhaps she could find an interesting book in the library to read. Well, she could find a hundred interesting books. It would be difficult to pick just one!
Twenty minutes later, she was dressed and, preparatory to leaving the room, pulled the curtains aside to stare at the newborn dawn.
She peered out and narrowed her eyes, attempting to make out the form of the figure hurrying past her window.
A minute later, she reached for her boots, put them on, and rushed out the door.
/
Georgiana Darcy, only daughter of George and Lady Anne Darcy, walked across the lawn toward the north of the great mansion, where a creek meandered down a gentle hill before spilling into a large pond across from the impressive frontage of her home.
She took deep breaths of cool morning air and stepped onto the stone bridge which spanned the narrowest part of the stream.
It was very early, hardly past sunrise, and morning mists were still swirling and roiling over the waters.
Here, above the surface of the brook, she could see well enough, not that she truly needed her eyes.
The walkways along the creeks, and around the ponds, and through the woods of her beloved Pemberley were engraved in her memory and her heart.
How she loved her home! There was much she did not understand about the world and her place in it, but she was safe and comfortable at Pemberley.
“Miss Darcy!” a voice cried out from behind her, and Georgiana turned uneasily, only to smile in pleasure.
“Miss Bennet!” she answered. “Why are you up so early?”
“As to that, your charming peafowl awoke me,” Elizabeth said cheerfully, “but I assure you that it matters not as I enjoy waking up early. Now do tell me honestly – am I interrupting you? I have not made the time to wander this lovely area, but if you wish for solitude, I can retreat to the house and explore the library.”
“Oh, not at all,” Georgiana said. “I would enjoy your company very much.”
“Thank you,” Elizabeth said, stepping next to the taller girl, leaning her arms on the stone parapet, and looking down into the rushing waters below. “I think I see a fish down there!”
“A trout,” Georgiana confirmed. “My brother has stocked the pond and stream, and he often fishes here.”
“Oh, how lovely! I have an uncle who enjoys angling very much, though he lives in London, so rarely has the opportunity to do so.”
“I do not like fishing,” Georgiana said seriously. “The fish are so wet and slimy when I catch them, and I hate how they flop in my hands.”
This startled a laugh out of Elizabeth, who said, “I am impressed that you have even tried fishing, Miss Darcy. I confess that the very thought of a wriggling, squirming trout in my hands is extremely unpleasant.”
“A few years ago, I begged Fitzwilliam to allow me to accompany him on an angling expedition. He was kind enough to set aside an afternoon of fishing for me, and one experience was quite enough.”
“I understand completely.”
Silence fell for a few minutes, punctured only by the whistle of crickets, the croak of frogs, the sounds of the leaves rustling gently in the trees, the gurgle of the stream and the cries of nearby birds.
This provoked Elizabeth to ask, “Tell me, Miss Darcy, do you find other birds interesting, or only peacocks?”
Georgiana tilted her head up to enjoy the light from the sun, which had crept slightly above the horizon and said, “I like all birds, though my brother does not wish me to acquire numerous geese and ducks and hens and quail. He says that the peafowl take enough of my time, and I suppose he is correct, because I also need to practice my music.”
“I presume there are some interesting birds in the woods here at Pemberley,” Elizabeth commented, lifting her eyes toward the woods beyond the stream. “Doves and blackbirds perhaps?”
“Yes, both,” Georgiana responded, her face growing animated.
“There are also wrens and robins in Derbyshire. As for other wild birds – well, for the last six summers, we have journeyed to Ramsgate on the sea in Kent. We have always taken the same red brick house there on the beach and I visit the salt marshes and mudflats nearby, where there are numerous birds! It is not easy to see them, of course, but I have spied nightingales, cuckoos, warblers, and redshanks.”
“It sounds spectacular,” Elizabeth said, genuinely envious. “I have never seen the ocean, and I long to do so someday.”
Georgiana blew out a slow breath and said sadly, “Well, as to that, I just remembered that we may not go to Ramsgate this year, but Fitzwilliam is thinking about making arrangements so that I can go. I hope we can. We always go.”
“Oh!” Elizabeth answered. “I am sorry, though of course gentlemen often have business concerns and the like which prevent them from leaving their estates.”
“It is not that,” Georgiana said, her expression mournful. “Last year, my brother had business in London and sent me ahead to Ramsgate. I fear I caused a dreadful amount of trouble while I was there.”
Elizabeth stopped and stared at her in wonder. “My dear Miss Darcy, I am certain you were no trouble at all.”
To her surprise and distress, Miss Darcy’s eyes filled with tears, and her head lowered despondently.
“I am trouble, and I know it,” she said in a choked voice.
“You see, I do not understand why people act the way they do. I think people should always tell the truth, but sometimes they lie. I do not understand why people tell falsehoods.”
Elizabeth put out a hand and touched her companion’s arm gently. “People ought not to lie, of course, but the Bible warns that some people will speak falsely for their own gain. It is a sad thing, certainly.”
“It is terrible,” the girl said disconsolately.
“Last summer, while Fitzwilliam was in London, an old friend from my childhood visited me at Ramsgate. He said he was in love with me, that we should marry and I would not have to enter society, which I do not want to do. I do not like strangers, and dancing, and excessive noise. My friend promised that he would buy an estate with my dowry, and I could have as many peafowl, geese, ducks, doves, and chickens as I wanted. I told him that I would marry him. We were planning to go to Gretna Greene when my brother arrived unexpectedly, having by chance put his trip forward a few days. Fitzwilliam was so angry, Miss Bennet, more at my friend than me, but I know he was also angry with me.”
Elizabeth, who had been listening to this recitation with mounting horror, asked, “How old was your gentleman friend?”
“He is a year younger than my brother,” Georgiana said, turning her head and focusing her gaze on Elizabeth’s chin.
“He is so handsome and charming, and even now I wonder if I was at fault for his offer. Perhaps I was flirting with him and did not know it. I do not know how to flirt, but I have read of it. Perhaps he merely was being kind…”
“Miss Darcy,” Elizabeth interrupted, reaching out her gloved hands to grasp the younger woman’s in her own. “I promise you that this was not your fault. No gentleman of any honor would make an offer to a girl of sixteen…”
“I was only fifteen then, actually.”
“Fifteen?! It is an utter outrage, Miss Darcy; to do such a thing and to suggest that you abscond to Gretna Greene to be married over the anvil? No, my dear, no! This old friend was no friend at all, I promise you that! There are good reasons for the laws which prevent a girl under one and twenty from marrying without the permission of her guardian, and especially a girl with a substantial dowry, which I presume you have.”
“Thirty thousand pounds,” Georgiana said, pulling her hands away and turning to clutch the balustrade of the bridge. “Yes, Fitzwilliam said that all Mr. Wickham cared about was gaining control over my money.”
Elizabeth, who had been overflowing with outrage on behalf of her young friend, felt as if she had suddenly been stabbed in the heart.
“Mr. Wickham?” she repeated in horror.
Georgiana nodded miserably. “Yes, Mr. Wickham. He was my father’s godson, and I thought him a faithful and good friend.
But Fitzwilliam says that he was lying to me, that all he wanted was money, as he is a spendthrift and a gambler.
It still seems hard for me to believe; I remember him so fondly from when I was a child.
He was always kind to me and played games with me, and he is very good looking, too. ”
She cast a fearful look at Elizabeth and said, “Have I ruined your good opinion of me forever, Miss Bennet? I know I acted very poorly, with a horrifying lack of propriety, and perhaps you despise me now.”
Elizabeth had a strong inclination to scream, so stricken was she at this newfound knowledge, but she needed to stay calm for Miss Darcy’s sake.
She reached out a hand, took Georgiana’s arm gently in her own, and guided her off the bridge and down the path, which passed under a leafy archway of trees.
“I do not despise you in the least,” Elizabeth said as soon as she was able to speak. “Oh Miss Darcy, if you were foolish to trust Mr. Wickham, so was I!”
“You … you know Mr. Wickham?” Miss Darcy gasped.