Chapter One #2
The coach pulled up at the bottom of the stairs, and Darcy stepped up beside it to offer Kitty a hand down the step.
She barely took it, flying out of the door and pulling Elizabeth into a hug.
There was a pang in my chest at the sight.
Elizabeth felt most like my sister when her real sisters weren’t there for comparison.
Kitty Bennet, like all the Bennet sisters, was a variation on a similar theme.
They all had the same bright eyes and blonde curls, yet no one could ever accuse them of looking alike.
Even from a distance, I could see the differences.
Her face was rounder, her features softer.
She looked angelic, like the kind of person who could float one inch above the floor, ethereal and one step removed from the plane the rest of us called home, but chose not to.
When Elizabeth took her arm and led her inside, Kitty’s heavy steps would have made my former governesses wince.
I couldn’t help the smile that played at the corner of my lips.
As tempting as it was to stay upstairs and keep practising, I knew I had to show my face.
My absence had already been mentioned by Elizabeth once, and I didn’t want to give her further reason to be concerned.
Besides, Kitty mattered to Elizabeth, and Elizabeth had come to matter dearly to me.
Playing the part of the dutiful sister-in-law, I shut the piano lid.
I could hear the excited chatter between sisters from down the hallway.
When I got to the door, I lingered just out of view for a moment, acclimatising myself to the vibrancy of an atmosphere so at odds with my day of practise and contemplation.
I wasn’t as quiet as I imagined, because I didn’t even make it a full minute before Elizabeth caught my eye.
“Georgiana!” She grabbed my hand, dragging me into the room. “This is my sister Kitty.”
Kitty’s eyes were still shining with ripples of laughter as she dipped into a curtsey.
“Pleased to finally meet you, Miss Darcy,” she said with all the hallmarks of a greeting right out of the pages of an etiquette guide.
I curtsied back automatically. “Likewise, Miss Bennet.”
It was a well-rehearsed script, but neither of us was fully committed to the performance. Kitty was barely suppressing her excitement to be back with her sister, squeezing her lips together to dampen her grin.
I wish I could say my own good graces were genuine, but without years of deportment lessons ingraining the gestures into me, I would have been reduced to a wordless statue.
Kitty Bennet was stunning. The light in her eyes and the life in her cheeks animated her every feature, her fingers fidgeting with a need to be in motion.
It was enough to make someone wish to take her hand in theirs just to tether her down to one place, for that place would surely be better for having her there.
I was now well acquainted with Elizabeth, had been present for many of Mrs. Jane Bingley’s numerous visits, and had heard enough stories of Mrs. Lydia Wickham that it felt as if I knew her, but Kitty Bennet was by far the most intriguing of the Bennet sisters.
That she was one of the only two left unmarried seemed incomprehensible.
From looks alone, she was exactly the kind of girl it would be all too easy to fall in love with.
“Georgiana, could you perhaps show Kitty to the kitchens? Ruth promised to set aside some supper for her after her journey,” Elizabeth said, clearly trying to encourage a friendship.
Kitty had been to Pemberley before and no doubt knew exactly where the kitchens were, but I didn’t protest.
“Of course,” I said to Elizabeth, before turning to Kitty. “Miss Bennet, if you’d be so kind as to follow me.”
“Certainly for the best,” Kitty said with a note of teasing. “The house is palatial enough for me to get lost. Let us begin our voyage, Miss Darcy.”
I was too out of sorts to laugh, even if her tone suggested I ought to. If I opened my mouth, there was every chance my laughter would be too loud and too wild, revealing the disruption Kitty had caused in my mind with only one smile.
As much as I wanted to abscond to my room and pretend I felt no attraction to the girl in front of me, I forced a smile and led her through the hallways of Pemberley. If Kitty noticed, she said nothing of it.
The marble stairs, oak panelling, and painted ceilings had never felt dark before, but Kitty seemed to shine light into rooms I had not even realised were lacking it.
I’d walked the corridors for as long as I’d known how and crawled them before I was steady on my feet, but they had never been missing anything until Kitty walked them beside me, filling them with endless talk of her journey and her family.
She stopped only to ask questions, steaming on once she had received my baffled answers.
It was impossible to keep up with her in conversation as well as on foot, since she was very much the one leading me to the kitchens.
“What is this?” she asked, scuffing her shoe over a chip in the marble floor, one that had been there since before I was born.
“An accident with a dropped statue,” I explained, holding back the full story. I would never get through the necessary number of words an explanation would require.
Darcy had told me of how he had accidentally gotten under the feet of a man moving in a new bust, doing permanent damage to both the floor and the statue itself, which still bore a noticeable crack if you knew where to look.
Pemberley was full of tiny imperfections that most people never noticed.
Many of the causes had been Darcy or me, for however well-behaved children were, a house could not be expected to raise two of them and come out entirely unscathed.
My brief answer seemed to satisfy Kitty, prompting her to dive into another story about Lydia knocking over a statue in their garden back home in Meryton.
She was fascinating to watch, her eyes bright and her cheeks flushed from the exertion of her storytelling.
She spoke equally with her hands as with her voice, illustrating each facet of her tale with enthusiastic gestures.
“Perhaps we need to get you to Meryton,” Kitty said, as if it were a casual sort of invitation that would mean little to me.
“Then you’d have some context for all the stories.
I’m sure Lizzy tells them, too. My mother adores your brother enough that all Darcys will be in her good graces for the rest of time, so you’d no doubt be welcome. ”
She grinned up at me as we descended the stairs to the kitchens, and I knew in that moment that Eurydice had not resented Orpheus for looking back at her as they walked out of the Underworld.
If his smile had been anything like Kitty’s, she would have been thankful for a glimpse of it, regardless of her fate.
I felt something in my chest tighten, and I knew, for my own sake, I would have to limit myself to small doses of Kitty. After all, it had ended rather poorly for Eurydice.
The kitchens at Pemberley were Ruth’s domain and had been for as long as I could remember.
I always loved spending time there, sneaking gingerbread and hiding from houseguests, so the usual warmth of the stove and smell of dinner hanging in the air were comforting despite Kitty’s unnerving presence.
“Ruth!” Kitty exclaimed, hurrying across the kitchen to greet the cook with a hug.
The familiarity surprised me, even though I knew Kitty had visited before. I had never assumed she’d spent much time in the kitchen.
“I’m glad to see you’ve arrived safely,” Ruth said, pulling back to survey Kitty the way she always did me when I’d been away. No member of her household was wasting away on her watch. “I’ve set out all your favourites.”
She shepherded Kitty over to a table laid with a plate of bread and sliced meat.
Beside it was a dish of small honey cakes and gingerbread rounds.
Rather than start with the savoury portion of the meal, Kitty bit into a cake almost as soon as she sat down.
Her hum of delight turned the tips of my ears red.
“It’s as good as I remember,” she told Ruth, who only beamed and thanked her.
It wasn’t often we were in need of supper at Pemberley, so this was later than Ruth would usually work.
Strands of her dark hair, streaked with wisps of grey, were starting to escape from under her cap, and her eyes were shadowed with the weight of the day.
I hoped we would not keep her up much longer.
Despite her tiredness, she picked up a plate from the side and handed it to me with a wink.
On it was another gingerbread round. Even though I had eaten a plateful earlier, I always had room for one more, and I savoured the warmth of the spices as I bit through the outer shell.
It was almost enough to settle me, until I once again caught sight of Kitty so at home in the kitchen I had grown up in.
She fit the picture too neatly somehow, making it warmer and more compelling as she pulled Ruth into conversation.
Her boundless enthusiasm was captivating, but I knew all too well the dangers of being taken hostage by beguiling girls.
Noiselessly setting my empty plate down beside the sink, I slipped out of the kitchen.
It was entirely rude and certainly not what Elizabeth had in mind when she asked me to escort Kitty, but I could not bear it in there any longer.
I needed to put some distance between myself and Kitty, and calm the flutters starting to whip around my chest. Her presence seemed as if it would only feed the flames of attraction, and I was keen not to let them develop into anything more substantial.