Chapter Forty #2
Elizabeth gave her a look. “You speak as though yours has always been entirely innocent.”
Georgiana laughed, some of her shyness disappearing with it. “I begin to understand why my brother has spoken so much of you.”
Elizabeth glanced towards Darcy. “Has he?”
“Georgiana.”
The warning in his voice only made his sister’s smile brighten. “You are the first lady I have ever known to banish my brother from seeing her. You should have seen him when your letter arrived and removed the banishment.”
“Georgiana.”
Elizabeth stared at her before laughter escaped her. “A banishment?”
“I never called it that,” Darcy said, with a look which suggested he was already reconsidering the wisdom of bringing his sister to Hertfordshire.
“You said you were permitted to see Miss Bennet again,” Georgiana replied. Her confidence deserted her only after the words were spoken, and colour rushed into her cheeks. “Forgive me, Miss Bennet. I ought not to have said so much.”
“On the contrary,” Elizabeth said, still amused. “I had wondered how my letter was received.”
Darcy met her eyes. “With considerably more happiness than my sister has been kind enough to describe.”
Georgiana’s smile returned. “I was attempting to spare you.”
“You have failed remarkably.”
That brought another laugh from Elizabeth, and this time Darcy joined her.
Julia laughed softly beside her, and Elizabeth decided there were entirely too many observant people in the room.
Mrs. Bennet arrived before the matter could progress further and greeted the Darcys with an enthusiasm which would once have astonished Elizabeth. Upon learning they had come from London that morning, she immediately enquired whether Netherfield had been their first destination.
“No, madam,” Darcy replied. “We came directly here.”
Elizabeth's eyes went to him before she could stop them.
He was already looking at her.
Mrs. Bennet, delighted rather than suspicious of this preference, immediately insisted they remain for Christmas dinner. Darcy accepted after only the briefest glance towards Georgiana, who seemed perfectly content with the arrangement, and Elizabeth found herself smiling again.
The conversation had scarcely settled when Darcy turned to Mr. Bennet. “Sir, if I might have a few minutes of your time.”
Mr. Bennet regarded him for a moment before rising. “Certainly.”
Elizabeth watched the two gentlemen leave together for the library and resisted the immediate temptation to wonder what Darcy intended to say.
She had little success. Mr. Harding had already explained enough that her father knew both the nature of her understanding with Darcy and what had caused it to become so painfully strained.
Whatever Darcy wished to say to him now, Elizabeth could make a very good guess at the subject.
Georgiana spared her from dwelling upon it by asking Julia something of Hertfordshire, and Elizabeth joined their conversation. She liked Miss Darcy increasingly as the young lady's first reserve eased, though every few minutes her attention wandered towards the door despite herself.
Darcy returned perhaps a quarter of an hour later.
Elizabeth looked first at his face and then towards the hall behind him. Whatever had passed in the library could not have been disastrous, for her father had apparently permitted him to emerge intact and he was smiling at her.
Darcy approached her. “Miss Bennet, the weather appears fine enough for walking. Would you permit me to accompany you?”
Elizabeth glanced towards the windows. The December afternoon was cold but clear, and there was something almost familiar in the request. They had walked together often enough before everything between them went wrong. She could tell he only wanted some privacy to talk.
“I should like that very much.”
A few minutes later they were outside, following one of the familiar paths beyond the garden.
Elizabeth had expected that being alone with him again would feel strange, but after the first few minutes she discovered the greater strangeness lay in how quickly it did not.
They spoke of Georgiana, of Julia's improving health and even of Christmas, until Elizabeth realised they had somehow discussed the weather twice.
“I believe we are behaving very foolishly.”
Darcy looked at her. “In what respect?”
“I sent a letter all the way to Somerset because I wanted to see you, and now that you are here, we have discussed the cold twice.”
His mouth curved. “I was attempting not to presume.”
“You are being excessively careful.”
“I had understood that greater care was required of me.”
“It was.” Elizabeth looked at him, unable to disagree with that. “But perhaps not quite so much now.”
They continued a little farther, their pace slowing naturally. Elizabeth had imagined this conversation several times since sending her letter, but now that Darcy was beside her, all the speeches she had constructed seemed unnecessary.
“I read both your letters more than once.”
“I am glad you read them at all.”
“The first made me angry again.” At the immediate change in his expression, Elizabeth continued. “Not because I doubted what you wrote. Quite the opposite. It proved you had intended to tell me from the beginning.”
“I should have sent it.”
“Yes, you should have.” She gave him a pointed look. “I hope you do not expect me to disagree merely because you have finally learnt to condemn yourself correctly.”
A reluctant laugh escaped him. “No.”
“I was angry because so much might have been avoided if you had sent it. But wishing you had cannot alter the fact that you did not, and lately I have begun to wonder whether I ought to wish it at all.”
Darcy looked at her. “What do you mean?”