“When did you speak with Miss Elizabeth?” Georgiana asked. She believed Bingley would be the weak link in the apparent conspiracy.
Bingley looked at her with a confused expression. “Last night, of course, when I asked for a moment in the drawing room, just as they were leaving.”
Oh! Georgiana thought, I had forgotten that. “Oh, yes. Of course.”
Darcy looked at his sister most particularly. That was odd. Does she suspect something?
Servants entered with refreshments. Nothing more was said until they left the room. Georgiana tried another tack. “I wonder how Mrs Gardiner’s maid managed this morning. I believe the stillroom was in disarray.”
Now, both Bingley and Darcy looked at her warily. The three were tense and silent until Georgiana sighed in frustration. “Really, Brother, I am ashamed of you — asking Miss Bennet to come here to clean our stillroom? Whatever were you thinking? I do hope she was compensated in some way. Or did you pay her like a common servant?”
Darcy stared at his sister. What on earth? Through a clenched jaw he hissed, “Infernal gosling…whatever do you mean? Cleaning the stillroom?”
Georgiana drew herself up. “I went to fetch my herbal, which, the last time I checked, is not illegal. There was Miss Elizabeth in an apron, giving the room a thorough clearing out. You obviously knew she was coming.”
“Did she see you? Did you speak with her?” Darcy was most seriously displeased and would have been highly offended to know at that moment his inquiries made him a mimic of his aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh.
“No, she did not see me. But she did take tea with Mrs Reynolds. I overheard a maid tell her the tea was ready. Is she being interviewed?”
“Interviewed! I asked her to perform a special favour for me. That is all. I know nothing about any cleaning.” Darcy did not know what to think. He was irked and confused. He strode to the door. “I will have Mrs Reynolds explain this for all of us.”
Darcy returned with the housekeeper in a matter of moments. Bingley left the room rather than listen to Darcy upbraid a servant, especially one he liked so well as Mrs Reynolds.
“Mrs Reynolds, please sit down. Would you care to explain why Miss Elizabeth Bennet, here as a guest to do me a personal favour, came to be cleaning in the stillroom?”
Mrs Reynolds reddened. “The lady arrived and requested some items she would need to complete her project. I did not understand from the items requested that it was also her intention to reorganise. Since your mother’s passing, there has been no one who cared much for using the stillroom. When the last stillroom maid left, she was never replaced. The room showed neglect.”
“It looked fine to me when we were there this morning.”
“The contents of the cupboards were most untidy, sir, which became apparent to Miss Bennet, and evidently, she is not a lady to sit idle if she can find occupation. I was most alarmed indeed when I caught her at her work, but she seemed happily entertained and completely unrepentant when I told her you would have me drawn and quartered, Mr Darcy. Might I ask, sir, how you came to hear of it? The lady said she would not tell, and I certainly would not have done so, and that leaves the scullery maid who served us tea. It is not like the family to listen to the gossip of servants.”
Georgiana was blushing. “I saw her cleaning, Mrs Reynolds. I came again below stairs thinking Mrs Gardiner’s maid might need the herbal. I saw only the back of her leaning out of a cupboard, but Miss Elizabeth was humming, and I recognised her voice. It has been my experience that scullery maids, however pleased with their work, do not hum Mozart, nor with so lovely a mezzo-soprano.”
Darcy started to chuckle, which progressed to laughter. He could easily imagine Elizabeth jumping into the breach when she saw one. She does not like to be bored any more than I do.
Mrs Reynolds shook her head. “Miss Georgiana…really. Your curiosity will be the end of you one day, my girl. I should have known when you came downstairs the first time and gave me such a start that you would sneak back, though why you should, I am sure I do not know. Your tendency to inquisitiveness borders on the unnatural. Never have I seen such a one…” Mrs Reynolds was all ruffled feathers.
Darcy laughed still more. “This really is a very tiny house when it wants to be.”
Suddenly, he stopped laughing. He remembered something Bingley had said. “Mrs Reynolds, did Miss Bennet happen to leave any flowers behind?” His heart began to race as he asked the question.
“Oh, yes, sir. I was waiting to tell you. She asked me most particularly to mention what she had done. Fruit and flowers she said. I did not go to look.”
Darcy bolted unceremoniously from the room with Georgiana hard upon his heels. When they arrived at the stillroom door, they skidded to a stop and looked inside as if the room might be haunted. In the shadows at the end of the room under the high window sat a nosegay in the iris vase with a peach and a tall vase of all one kind of flower. Darcy beamed. Georgiana looked at him and his expression made her smile.
“Are you so much in love as that?” she spoke in a low voice.
He looked fondly into her bright blue eyes. “Yes, dear little gosling, I fear it is true. Your brother is very much in love.”
They entered the room together. Georgiana picked up the peach while Darcy slipped the cards from both vases into his waistcoat pocket and picked them up. In his excitement, he bumped the nosegay against the taller vase, and the posy tumbled to the floor.
“Oh! She cut those stems too short,” Georgiana observed and she bent to pick up the flowers, not noticing the little red chrysanthemum had come loose. It lay, unseen, and the sweep of her skirt brushed it behind Darcy’s feet, out of sight. “You will have to be careful carrying it.”
Darcy concentrated on the flowers as they walked back to the music room. They heard balls clacking in the billiard room, and Darcy called Bingley to join in the deciphering of Elizabeth’s response. There were cloth napkins on the food tray, and Georgiana employed one to wrap up the stems of the little nosegay to prevent drips. “I shall read off the flowers, Brother, and you may look them up.”
Darcy picked up the herbal, ready to flip its pages. Georgiana began, “There is clematis again, which we put in her nosegay, so she thinks you are clever, as you think her clever. That is a good start. Here is scarlet lychnis.”
Darcy found it in the book and blushed to read, “‘Sunbeaming eyes.’ How I wish we had found that for her. She likes my eyes?”
“So we may assume,” said Georgiana, continuing to examine the flowers.
Bingley chuckled. “Will wonders never cease?”
“Sweet William,” said Georgiana. “That’s rather obvious.”
Darcy looked it up anyway and read out, “‘Gallantry.’”
Georgiana nodded. “Very good. Peppermint?”
After a moment Darcy responded, grinning, “‘Warmth of feeling’”.
“See? That’s what I said,” Bingley was adamant.
“No, Bingley, you said ‘love,’ which is not the same,” Darcy corrected, “but this is good all the same.”
“These are double china asters, I think,” Georgiana continued.
“Double china asters,” Darcy repeated. “‘I partake of your sentiments.’” Darcy’s excited voice was nearly a whisper.
“There!” Bingley said, as if his point surely must now be taken.
“She still is not explicit,” Darcy murmured, but he was smiling.
Georgiana sniffed at the nosegay, rubbing foliage with her fingers. “Lemon Geranium.”
“Hmmm… Ah! How acute she is. She found a plant that means ‘unexpected meeting’. You see how exacting the flowers can be, Bingley?” Darcy was chuckling and stepped to his sister to look at the nosegay more particularly.
“There is one last type of leaf here; I call it lamb’s ears.”
Darcy looked for it in the lists. “Lamb’s ears, ‘see betony’. Betony…ah! It means surprise. She refers to our surprise meeting here. Le
t me see if I have this correct, Georgie. She likes my eyes. She thinks I am gallant and clever. She refers to our surprising meeting here, and clearly her feelings toward me have improved, and she would even say as much as they have warmed.”
“She says more than that, Brother. She partakes of your sentiments. Your open rose clearly said you still love her. She is saying, in a refined way without being too forward, that she loves you, too. Were I you, Fitzwilliam, I would be immensely pleased.”
Darcy looked at the nosegay. “Make no mistake. I am pleased. I am delighted! But she does not say she loves me, and I will not assume sentiments that are not obvious.”
“Wait…the peach!” Georgiana set down the nosegay and took the herbal from her brother. “That is meant to be a part of the message.” There was a breathless pause as Georgiana searched for the meaning. She sounded a trifle disappointed as she read, “‘Your qualities, like your charms, are unequalled.’”
Darcy smiled.
“Now I am thinking Miss Elizabeth is losing her wits…” Bingley muttered good-naturedly.
“Tweak me all you like, Bingley.” Darcy was feeling charitable. “I am pleased with her. I like her wits just as they are. I always have.”
“Perhaps the big vase says what you are hoping for,” Georgiana said. “It certainly makes an emphatic statement, being all one flower.”
“What are they?” Darcy asked.
“Sticky Catch-fly?”
Darcy looked it up. “Sounds horrid for something so frothy. ‘Sticky Catch-fly. See Viscaria.’” There was a pause. He started to laugh. “‘Will you dance with me?’”
“That is what it means?” asked an incredulous Georgiana.
Darcy pulled the cards from his pocket. He did not wish to share them aloud but continued to chortle as he read to himself, “May I have the honour of dancing the next with you, Mr Darcy? E. Bennet.” He looked at the vase with the happily dancing couple painted onto the porcelain. Georgiana and Bingley watched as Darcy’s countenance took on an even more besotted expression.
“Come on, man, does she say she loves you?” Bingley was beside himself.
Darcy felt himself to be almost more elated than if she had expressed love. She was teasing him with memories only the two of them could share. He had first refused to ask her to dance; she had refused to dance with him — twice! — and the second time had accused him of asking only to find fault. She accepted his invitation to dance at the Netherfield ball but, he had to admit, rather reluctantly, and they sparred throughout their set. Certainly, the only permutation left was for her to ask him, and she knew a true gentleman would not say no to a lady willing to run such a daring risk against propriety.
“Alas, no, Bingley, but what she does say refers to memories only she and I would share. I am come to admit, she may like me…”
“Oh, bother, Darcy. I am going riding. Care to join me?”
Darcy sighed. “No, Bingley, not just now. You go. Enjoy yourself. Take the dogs for a romp.” He was speaking absently. “Georgie, will you help me carry these to my room?”
* * *
Georgiana withdrew with a smile as her brother began moving the nosegay, peach and dancing vase about on the table where his brandy decanter stood until he was satisfied with the arrangement. Darcy read the cards again, noting that in describing the nosegay, she had repeated his words from the nosegay given to her. She follows my lead. At last, he picked up the peach, opened the doors to his balcony and sat in the sunshine, stroking the fruit with his thumbs as if it were Elizabeth’s two blushing cheeks. He dozed and dreamt that the peach in his hand, plump, soft and rosy, was rather another part of that lady’s anatomy and like her cheeks, of which there were two.
Peach
“Your qualities equal your charms”
Chapter 6
Letters To and Fro
Mr Bennet sat at the desk in his library reading the second letter that had arrived from his brother-in-law since the Gardiners absconded to the north with his dear Lizzy. He often mused on the topic of how such a pleasant, clever, steady man as Edward could have sprung from the same family that produced his silly wife and her vulgar elder sister, Mrs Phillips. Himself a lackadaisical correspondent, Mr Bennet did always enjoy a good letter with interesting particulars. He thought himself an excellent recipient. This letter contained stories of his favourite daughter and so was more highly valued.
Mr Gardiner had already written once, telling Mr Bennet of stops at the Oxford colleges, Blenheim and Chatsworth. Mr Bennet was not a man inclined to travel, but he knew Elizabeth enjoyed it and was just beginning to think that, perhaps, he would like to see the white cliffs of Dover whilst still able-bodied enough for travel. If he could take only Elizabeth, he would get pleasure from seeing this natural wonder. If he had to take his whole family, he would never go.
The travelling party had arrived in Derbyshire, and Mr Gardiner related the amusing story of Elizabeth scrambling over the Peaks — how no view was high enough to suit her and how Mrs Gardiner had, at last, become filled with panic and called her down in the name of her father. Mr Bennet chuckled. Had he been with them, he would have given Elizabeth free rein. He hoped he would have a letter soon, relating the same story through the eyes of dear Lizzy herself.
The last tale in the letter evoked a much different response. Edward told of a chance meeting with Mr Darcy at his estate, which Elizabeth seemed to like more than any other place she had been. Much to Mr Bennet’s surprise, Mr Darcy, when introduced to the Gardiners, gave every appearance of easiness and hospitality and treated Elizabeth with a gentle deference, which indicated some tender regard as the Gardiners saw it. Mr Darcy called at the inn at Lambton at noon the day following to introduce Elizabeth to his sister, Miss Georgiana Darcy, a handsome, fair girl of nearly seventeen with friendly, if shy, manners. Edward and Madeleine noticed Miss Darcy studying Elizabeth carefully, and she was quick to return her smiles. Once Mr Darcy learnt Mrs Gardiner had spent much of her youth in Lambton, he began to treat her like a kinswoman and seemed delighted to babble with her for several minutes in the local dialect. Elizabeth appeared increasingly confused and blushed when Darcy smiled at her.
Mr Gardiner ended the letter with his observation that Elizabeth admitted Mr Darcy much — if not completely — improved in manners since last seeing him in Kent. To the Gardiners, he did not appear haughty or above his company, although, perhaps, a little reserved until he learnt of the Lambton connection. He gave every appearance of having some interest in Elizabeth, more than simply renewing a previous pleasant acquaintance. He often smiled when she was speaking with his sister and not looking at him. They were to dine at his estate in two days’ time, and Mr Gardiner looked forward to fishing at Pemberley the very next day. He was quite certain Darcy’s regard for Elizabeth drove the invitations forward.
Mr Bennet stared at the last paragraph and then reread it. He sat back in his seat, staring at nothing out the window. His dear daughter’s face appeared in his mind’s eye, rolling her twinkling eyes at some absurdity. Mr Bennet was so partial to her that he never could comprehend how a man of Darcy’s alleged breeding and refinement could have slighted her and always looked upon her to find fault. Having rarely exchanged words with the man, Mr Bennet was now at something of a loss. Perhaps absence had made his heart grow fonder?
Mr Bennet longed for his dear Lizzy to materialise before him and debate the situation. There was no one with whom he could share the quandary. Perhaps Jane could tell more of her sister’s heart. At last, he troubled himself to lean his head out into the hall.
“Jane? Mrs Bennet?”
Mrs Hill popped into the hallway from the breakfast room. “They are in the garden, sir, with the Gardiner children.”
“Ah, thank you, Hill.”
Mr Bennet drew on his linen summer coat to join his wife and eldest daughter. The children were capering around the lawn, chasing each other and kicking balls about, whilst Jane and her mother chatted on chairs in
the shade. He sat on the adjoining bench.
“Jane, Mrs Bennet, I have had the most interesting letter from my brother Gardiner about his current travels. Have you had a letter from Lizzy, Jane?”
Jane smiled. “I have had one letter, full of details of gardens around great houses. Lizzy will return, she writes, with long lists of plants to find for our garden.”
Mr Bennet nodded. “Yes, well, she has ample pocket money if she cares to bring any flowers back that can be had with ready cash. She has not written of visiting Pemberley, the estate of Mr Darcy?”
“Mr Darcy!” Mrs Bennet erupted. “Our Lizzy would go to great lengths to avoid that odious man, I should think.”
“And so would I have said.” Mr Bennet looked carefully at Jane, who never could be coy, as she avoided her father’s gaze. So! She knows something. “It would appear, Mrs Bennet, that in order to raise himself in our Lizzy’s estimation, no less a person than Mr Darcy is attempting to render himself agreeable to her. I have it in a letter from your brother that during their first days at Lambton, Mr Darcy has been their constant companion and pays our Lizzy every compliment.
“Our brother says further that Lizzy receives Mr Darcy’s attentions with every appearance of good will. Although he reports he and Madeleine are not completely certain she is in love with him, they think she may want to be, and they suspect both Lizzy and Darcy of some slyness that has not been completely exposed.”
Jane turned quite red. “What?”
Mrs Bennet sat up, alert. “Our Lizzy and Mr Darcy? I do not believe it. What nonsense. He is such a disagreeable man. Perhaps this is some other Darcy?”
Mr Bennet rolled his eyes and continued, “It appears they toured Pemberley thinking the master of the house was from home, but he appeared, and there was a terse but not uncivil exchange between Darcy and Lizzy. He reappeared some few minutes later in clean clothes and stayed by Lizzy’s side as they toured the grounds. The next day, he appeared at the inn to introduce his sister, and gave the impression of wishing the two girls to form a friendship. He has invited Edward to go fishing on the estate, and tonight they will dine at Pemberley.”
The Red Chrysanthemum Page 10
