Chapter One Hundred
When the carriage finally pulled up at Pemberley, Mr. Darcy leapt out the moment it stopped.
He took a deep breath – ah, there it was, the unique smell that belonged to Pemberley and nowhere else on earth!
He was home! He handed Elizabeth out and then Georgiana.
Elizabeth stared, first at the lake and the forest beyond it, then the gardens to the left and the right, and then, finally, she turned around to look at the house.
Her mouth opened, but no words came out.
She turned to her husband and shook her head, unable to form a coherent sentence.
The servants were lined up, from the butler to the lowest stable boy, from the housekeeper to the youngest laundry maid.
Mr. Darcy presented each of them by name to Elizabeth.
Elizabeth repeated the name at once, hoping to fix it in her mind, but she knew it would be some time before she knew all of them, and could only hope that they would forgive any lapses.
In truth, they would have forgiven a good deal more than a forgotten name, for everyone knew that Pemberley very much needed a mistress. Mrs. Reynolds had done her best, no doubt about it, but running an estate the size of Pemberley was no easy task, not even for someone as capable as she.
For Elizabeth’s part, she loved Pemberley at first sight.
Who would not, in truth? For a young woman who loved to walk in nature, Pemberley was no less than an Eden.
Her husband had told her that Pemberley had its own special scent, and as soon as she had taken her first deep breath on the front lawn, she knew exactly what he meant.
It was a scent unlike any other, a smell redolent of the earth and the trees and the care that generations of Darcys had taken to nurture it.
Doubtless once it was spring, there would be the smell of flowers as well!
She would have liked, very much, to walk for hours and hours every day, until she learnt every inch of the estate!
And walk she did, in the first few weeks of her life at Pemberley, but soon there was not as much time to walk as she would have preferred, for the estate had been without a mistress for many years, and the demands on her time were extensive.
***
Mrs. Reynolds had opened her heart to Elizabeth at their first meeting.
“I work from dawn to dusk, every day except the Sabbath, but I cannot recall the last time the linens were tallied, the stillroom is very much in need of new supplies, and I know not what else has fallen by the wayside! The house is too big, there is just too much to be done!”
“It is not your fault; you should have been given an assistant,” Elizabeth had said at once, putting a comforting hand on the housekeeper’s arm.
“Mr. Darcy would have certainly hired one, had I asked, but…well, I could not tell him that it was too much for me.” Mrs. Reynolds had bowed her head. “He has relied on me for so long, and I could bear to let him down.”
“You need not worry any longer,” Elizabeth had assured her, briskly. “I am here now, and between us, it will all get done.”
“Doubtless neighbours will soon come to visit you, Mrs. Darcy, and we must be prepared to serve refreshments. There has been no entertainment of the neighbours since Mrs. Darcy – well, the previous Mrs. Darcy – became ill, and we are fearfully out of practice for such things.” She had paused to wipe her eyes.
“Let us meet with Cook directly, Mrs. Reynolds,” Elizabeth had said. “We will discuss refreshments for visitors, as well as the preparation of baskets for tenants, as I must visit each of them as soon as may be. There is a good deal to be done.”
So now Elizabeth, too, was busy from dawn to dusk; Mr. Darcy had been gone a long while and there were a good many matters requiring his attention. And underlying their many duties and responsibilities was their ongoing worry about their sister.
After they had been home for about two weeks, Mr. Darcy finally brought it up. “Elizabeth, I am still worried about Georgiana.”
Elizabeth replied at once, “As am I. I do not think she is as much recovered from her fright as we had hoped. She seemed to enjoy spending time with Anne in London, but Aunt Eleanor said that as soon as Anne left, she became quiet again.”
“I do not know how to help her!” Mr. Darcy’s voice conveyed the depth of his concerns for his sister.
Elizabeth was equally worried. “I have tried speaking with her, but she only says that she is fine, and nothing more. And she has not touched the pianoforte since…well, since then.”
Mr. Darcy closed his eyes and shook his head.