Chapter Twenty Eight
Elizabeth did not need Lady Rebecca to tell her that Darcy had done this for her, that he had invited his relations here as a compliment to her, for it was in all his looks.
She was determined to be a credit to him, and devoted herself to furthering her acquaintance with his sister.
Happily, the countess saw what she was about and allowed Elizabeth to walk the garden with Miss Darcy; Lady Matlock was content to direct her raillery to the gentlemen for a while.
Miss Darcy was shy, but warm and full of curiosity.
She asked a few questions about Elizabeth’s acquaintance with her brother, but she was far more intrigued by Elizabeth’s account of all that had happened at the house party.
Elizabeth spoke with great animation, though perhaps a measure less impertinence than when she had regaled Mr. Tilney with the same tales of mischief.
Like Mr. Tilney, Miss Darcy was fascinated by the game of phantoms, captivated by so many balls and parties, and charmed by what little Elizabeth thought it prudent to reveal of Shakespeare Night.
“But you were permitted to wear a two-hundred-year-old dress, what a distinction! Do you think the Gouldings would let me see it? How fantastical it all sounds. My aunt will be very sorry she missed Rebecca’s performance with Mr. Bingley, but she means to put him through his paces – perhaps she will demand an encore! ”
Miss Darcy had a great many questions about Lady Rebecca and Mr. Bingley, and confided that she had harbored fanciful suspicions of her own in recent months. She inquired about the other couples, and marveled at the success of the Gouldings’ matchmaking.
“They had claimed to be rather cross for me for so much meddling, but I cannot help myself, and secretly I think they find it amusing, else they would not be so indulgent,” Elizabeth mused.
“It is generous of them to do so much good by hosting such gatherings,” Miss Darcy agreed. “Even William has never seemed so happy, and I should never have expected him to attend such a party.”
“I have supposed it to be the mischief of your cousins,” Elizabeth suggested.
Miss Darcy giggled. “It must be; and it has proven such a fine thing that I daresay they must be very will be very smug about it for a while to come.”
The two young ladies occupied much of the afternoon together, and Miss Darcy was equally affable to Jane, Anne, Harriet, Miss Tilney, and Miss Dashwood.
Jane and Georgiana shared shy, encouraging smiles as they all took tea together, and Anne asked many thoughtful questions to draw the young lady out.
Harriet encouraged her enthusiasm for all the fine parties and dinners yet to come, Miss Tilney’s steady presence and family connection seemed to lend Miss Darcy confidence, and Miss Marianne was eager to perform a duet with her, when she discovered her to be fond of music.
At supper that night, they were joined by another special guest; the Gouldings had invited a novelist to dine with them.
Florinda Farraday – though Elizabeth was sure this was not her real name – had published several florid gothic romance novels in recent years.
Her works were immensely popular, especially amongst young women, though Henry Tilney was as devoted a reader as any of the ladies at Richmond Cove.
He and Harriet, and Miss Dashwood and Captain Benwick all monopolized the great lady’s conversation at dinner.
Elizabeth could see that Miss Darcy really wished to do the same, though she also wished to be attentive to the lady her brother admired.
Elizabeth encouraged her to voice questions of her own, and by the end of the meal she had grown quite effusive about her love of reading mysteries.
Elizabeth often felt Mr. Darcy watching her as she encouraged his sister to be more vocal and make friends with the other ladies besides herself, and she could feel the approval radiating from him from further down the table.
It was no small thing, she realized, to bask in the warmth of his approbation.
After dinner, Mrs. Farraday gave a spellbinding exhibition of her newest work, which had not yet been published; she held the whole party in her thrall as she sat beside the hearth and read aloud.
After this, she mingled freely, moving amongst the smaller groups that had formed in various parts of the large parlor.
She spoke to everyone, and beneath her veneer of enigmatic worldliness was a playful crusty to hear the tales of romance that all the ladies present were keen to satisfy.
She asked a few probing questions to Elizabeth, who was so caught up in the cultivated persona of the authoress that she was far more candid than she meant to be in the presence of Miss Darcy.
Lady Sophia saw to that, for she hovered very near Elizabeth, often promoting her to add greater embellishment when her answers were too tame and diplomatic – until Lady Dorothea made her usual threat of Shady Pines, and Elizabeth was granted a reprieve from the inquisition.
By the time Mrs. Farraday moved on to hear Miss Dashwood’s tale of woe, Elizabeth had revealed nearly every detail of her relationship with Mr. Darcy, and his sister considered it all with tears in her eyes. “Yours is a most uncommon history, Miss Elizabeth.”
“Please, call me Lizzy.”
“Very well, Lizzy – if you will call me Georgiana, or Georgia. But I have never heard such a story before! I hardly dare hope it will have a happy ending.”
Elizabeth took the girl warmly by the hand. “Do not fret, Georgie. I was not formed for ill-humor, and I have no intention of wallowing in unhappy sentiments, whatever Lady Sophia has implied otherwise.”
She offered the girl a handkerchief and Georgiana dabbed gently at her eyes before the tears forming there could spill. “But how could you ever forgive my brother? He was so beastly to you! You laughed about refusing Mr. Collins, but what happened at Hunsford sounds ever so much worse.”
Elizabeth searched for a delicate answer.
Mr. Darcy was watching them from across the room, but the countess seemed to have a hold on his arm that prevented him from coming to his sister’s aid.
Elizabeth rather wished he would come and assure the girl that now, at least, they were on excellent terms.
“Your brother is not a wicked man, nor a fool, and I have seen enough of both to know it,” she said.
“The folly I have seen in my fatuous cousin and the selfish bitterness of Mr. Wickham are, I believe, incurable conditions. Your brother behaved badly, and so did I in provoking him so often, but I cannot believe that we should be defined by that awful moment.”
As Elizabeth mused aloud, she gave voice to sentiments she had felt but never articulated, and a sense of peace came over her.
How strange that she should now be defending Mr. Darcy.
“Mr. Collins was so puffed up on his own importance that he did not accept my refusal, but your brother is an intelligent man whose same assumption was an opinion that no doubt all the world would share, in his case. What penniless country girl would turn down a man of such great fortune and family?”
“It is remarkable to imagine,” Georgiana admitted. “But she spoke unkindly about your family, when our own is little better. And he caused your poor sister such heartbreak!”
“And yet she is very happy now, and so too is Mr. Bingley. As to my relations, I confess I have been guilty of the same, at times, for I am aware of their flaws and foibles, which are not always defensible. I should be a fool to think that some of my sister’s antics would not be detrimental to Mr. Darcy’s standing in society, if unchecked. ”
Georgiana sniffled and nodded, keeping her head bowed. “You must have been very cross to meet with him again so soon, when first you came here. I daresay you must have hoped to meet a handsome stranger as your sister did.”
“Perhaps I felt that way when he first arrived, but it was a fleeting sentiment, for I was always resolved to make merry here. I can honestly tell you that I am glad to have made amends with him now, to understand your brother better. It was humbling to discover myself so capable of mistaking a person’s character entirely, but I suppose I must face my own defects if I am to be so critical of others.
You ought to be proud of your brother, for I believe that he has done the same.
It is a far more impressive quality than mere fortune and consequence, to strive to improve oneself. ”
Georgiana looked up, the trace of a smile fading from her lips, but there remained a twinkle in her eyes, as if she had known what she was about in putting Elizabeth on the back foot and obliging her to defend Mr. Darcy.
“I think you have grown fond of him. You perhaps know him better than anybody, outside of our family.”
Elizabeth narrowed her eyes a little, wondering if this innocent girl could really be as cunning as her cousin and aunt.
And yet, she had no objection to admitting the truth it had taken her weeks to face.
“I have grown fond of him. I have seen him act with humor, with kindness and even heroism, and I have seen him show true generosity of spirit. I am only chagrined at having misjudged him. I cannot say my relations are much altered, for they shall always be a little bit silly and sometimes even vulgar – and they have not seen the many sides of him that I have.”
“And if you had known him in Kent, as you do now?”
Elizabeth understood what Georgiana was asking, but she could give no easy answer. “I suppose that depends on whether Mr. Darcy might have realized then that his own family is quite… exuberant, as well.”
“That is just what we spoke of this afternoon,” Georgiana said with a rueful laugh.
Elizabeth arched her brow. “This afternoon! Well, then – you have your answer.”
***