Chapter 37
Drawing Room
Gardiners’ House
Cheapside
A Few Minutes Earlier
An air of peace reigned in the drawing room, with the ladies disposed discreetly across various chairs and couches.
Jane was holding her mother's attention with a discussion of lace and silk and muslin.
Lydia and Kitty were in one corner making eager, if soft-voiced, plans with Miss Fairchild for a visit to one of the larger public lending libraries now that they were in Town for a time.
Elizabeth had joined her aunt Gardiner and Miss Darcy beside the fire.
The other two women were speaking of Lambton, and Elizabeth relaxed back against the cushions, looking around idly as she listened.
This room was as familiar and welcoming as home, with its practical dark furnishings, and navy upholstery that would hide any stains.
Doilies and table runners decorated the tables, but there were none of the delicate bowls of flowers or ceramic vases or breakable knickknacks that were often found in drawing rooms. The young Gardiners, beloved of their parents, would oftentimes be permitted into the drawing room, and their mother was a sensible woman who did not intentionally put fragile belongings in harm's way.
“I have been to Pemberley for a Public Day,” Mrs. Gardiner said to Georgiana. “It is a beautiful place, Miss Darcy.”
“Thank you,” Georgiana replied shyly.
“It is a great credit to your forbearers, not to mention your brother, that Pemberley is in excellent condition,” Elizabeth said as she took a sip of coffee.
“I know that our family estates are far smaller than Pemberley, and yet there is a great deal of intelligent diligence required to ensure that the manse and land and tenants are in good heart.”
“Fitzwilliam works very hard,” Georgiana agreed with a determined bob of her head. “I…”
She trailed off and turned her head along with everyone else. A loud feminine voice was declaiming loudly in the vestibule outside the drawing room, and Elizabeth turned a bewildered look on her aunt. Who could that be at this hour?
Mrs. Gardiner rose gracefully to her feet and said, “I will just see who that is. My apologies, Miss Darcy. I will be back shortly.”
Miss Darcy, whose head was tilted, frowned hideously and said, “I know that voice. That sounds like…”
The door to the room was flung open at this moment, and Elizabeth stared in astonishment as a tall, robust woman of some fifty years, dressed extravagantly in a green velvet pelisse with sables around her shoulders, stormed into the room, her eyes blazing with anger, her face flushed, and her jaw set, with a distressed maid at her heels.
Elizabeth heard Miss Darcy gasp and turned a bewildered look toward the girl, who was now pale.
“Which one of you is Elizabeth Bennet?” the lady snarled. “I demand to know!”
“I am Elizabeth Bennet,” Elizabeth said, rising to her feet. “And who exactly are you?”
“Well, Georgiana,” the lady said, turning a gimlet eye on the girl, “I suppose you had best introduce me to this … this … strumpet!”
“Lady Catherine!” a male voice exclaimed, and Elizabeth turned as Mr. Darcy strode into the room through the open door of the dining room. “How dare you storm in here and insult Miss Elizabeth!”
Lady Catherine de Bourgh turned flaring nostrils toward her nephew. “And how dare you allow yourself to be seduced into an immoral, ungodly, illegal relationship with this woman! You are engaged to Anne! Your poor mother must be rolling in her grave…”
“Stop,” Darcy thundered, and rather to Elizabeth’s surprise, their unwanted guest did stop.
He turned to Mrs. Gardiner and said, “Madame, I apologize profoundly for this vulgar and ill-mannered interruption. Would you be willing to allow Lady Catherine and me to discuss this in the privacy of a sitting room?”
“I will not leave!” Lady Catherine declared. “Not until this woman gives up all pretensions of…”
“We will leave,” Elizabeth interrupted and turned to face her aunt, “so long as you do not mind, Aunt.”
“That seems very wise,” Mrs. Gardiner said with a nod.
“Come along, then,” Elizabeth said, taking a step toward the door, only to halt when Lady Catherine, who was taller and far heavier than she was, stepped in front of her, reached out and grasped her arm harshly. “No, you will stay here, Miss…”
Lady Catherine shrieked abruptly as Darcy slapped her hand, which provoked her to release her grip.
A moment later, Mr. Gardiner stepped forward and took one of the intruder’s arms ungently, and Darcy took the other, and the gentlemen carried the shocked lady toward the fireplace and a cluster of chairs.
“Shall we, ladies?” Mrs. Gardiner suggested.
***
Sitting Room
Gardiners’ House
The sitting room was rather small for the ladies currently crowded within its walls.
It was another family-oriented room, innocent of any breakable decoration, and furnished in sober brown with highlights of soft sunset orange.
Mrs. Gardiner quietly ordered the maids to fetch in more chairs, while a manservant knelt down to build and light a fire.
All was hushed bustle and flurry for a few minutes, with Mrs. Gardiner directing where the additional furnishings were to be placed and various ladies shuffling around to clear the paths of the burdened servants.
The fire flickered as the tinder caught at the logs, chewing through dry bark to the wood beneath and slowly starting to warm the cold air.
Elizabeth gently took Miss Darcy's arm and guided her to the leather wingback closest to the fire.
The younger girl was obviously upset and kept glancing around in agitation, her hands squeezing one another in her distress.
Elizabeth pitied the girl. She herself was more amused than anything by Lady Catherine's abrupt and belligerent appearance, but she could easily imagine how a shy young lady of a more timorous temperament could be overset by such an autocratic manner.
Poor Georgiana! She had doubtless known Lady Catherine all her young life, and thus had been more than once subjected to such domineering displays.
Seeing Miss Darcy established, Mrs. Gardiner gestured the rest of her guests to their chairs, all of them scooting a little closer to the fire.
“Well, that was exciting,” Elizabeth said with a chuckle, and Georgiana Darcy, who was still pale, shook her head in wonder.
“I cannot believe that Lady Catherine could do such a thing! I know that she wishes for Fitzwilliam to wed Cousin Anne, but to storm in here during a dinner party? How could she? I do apologize on behalf of my family. It is so embarrassing!”
Lady Bennet reached out a gentle hand and said, “Do not worry, my dear. You are not the only young lady with an eccentric relative.”
“That is true enough,” Kitty said kindly. “Mamma, do you remember the time that Papa abruptly left a dinner party during the soup course because the clouds had cleared and he wished to see Venus?”
“Did he?” Miss Darcy replied, and her lips quirked up a little. “Did he see Venus?”
“Oh, I daresay he did, or one of its moons perhaps, or some other such thing,” Lady Bennet said with a wave of her hand.
“Venus does not have moons, Mamma,” Elizabeth said, and her mother cast her eyes heavenward and said, “Naturally you would know that, Lizzy. In any case, I beg you not to worry yourself about your aunt’s interruption, Miss Darcy.”
The girl nodded and breathed out a deep sigh. “I daresay my brother will manage her.”
“I am certain he will,” Elizabeth said. “Mr. Darcy is a very determined gentleman.”
“Especially when it pertains to people he cares about,” Georgiana said, lifting her eyes to gaze into Elizabeth’s.
She felt herself blush slightly, and she smiled at the younger girl, just as Mrs. Gardiner said, “Miss Darcy, would you mind if my daughters came downstairs to play spillikins with Lydia and Kitty?”
“Oh, of course not,” the girl replied.
Apparently the young Misses Gardiner had been waiting in eager expectation for just such a summons, for it was only a few minutes before the door opened again and the two girls were ushered inside by a maid carrying the set of spillikins.
Frocked in pink and blue, they made their careful curtseys with shy gap-toothed grins before hurrying gleefully to a carpet in the center of the room and plopping down across from Lydia and Kitty.
Mrs. Gardiner and Miss Fairchild both angled their chairs the better to keep an eye on their respective charges, even as they continued to chat with the company.
The conversation was lively and congenial, but Elizabeth found herself quieter than usual.
She wondered what was passing in the drawing room, what her uncle and Mr. Darcy were saying to the bellicose Lady Catherine.
Her uncle would defend her. He owed no loyalty to Lady Catherine in any way.
Mr. Darcy, on the other hand, was her nephew. What would he do?
Elizabeth remembered the way he had slapped Lady Catherine's hand when she had seized Elizabeth, and the way he had, in turn, taken his aunt's arm to haul her to a chair, and Elizabeth's heart warmed.
He had done that for her … had done that to defend her.
He had turned his strength to her protection.
She thought of Lady Catherine's rector, who had also importuned her and been very stubbornly insistent in doing so.
Sir Thomas had not, at least, joined his wife in insisting that Elizabeth marry her foolish cousin, but neither had he stepped up in her defense.
He had objected more to the interruptions to his studying and scientific endeavors than he had to the persecution of his daughter, and he had sent away first Elizabeth, and then the rest of his family, to maintain his own peace.
Mr. Darcy's fierce courage was a stark contrast. He did not flinch in the face of adversity, but leapt to the defense of the people who were special to him. It felt ... nice being counted among that number. Certainly, it fanned the flames of Elizabeth's admiration for him.
She was, she realized, well on her way to being in love with Mr. Darcy.