by Greer Boyd
“I do ride, but are they old enough . . .”
Georgiana interrupted, “Elizabeth, Brother had me riding before I could walk and then got me the tiniest little pony imaginable when I could barely toddle. And do you know that he had Mrs. Reynolds make up the most adorable little riding habit for me?”
“Speaking of riding habits, Georgiana, would you contact Madame Claudine to see if she would accept a commission to make one or two for Anne Elizabeth?” asked Darcy as he broke away from looking at Elizabeth long enough to look at his sister.
“William,” Elizabeth announced, “you could ask her yourself. She and her sisters will be visiting at three today.”
A bit confused, Georgiana questioned, “But I thought that Mr. Fleming’s friend Gabby would be visiting at three?”
“She will. Gabby and her sisters Lin, Paulie, Bella, and Jo, are Madame Gabriella Claudine, and the Mademoiselles Linette, Pauline, Arabella, and Josephine D’Arcy. I hope they will also be bringing some treats from Serendipity Confections,” she declared brightly.
Georgiana, now in a dither, questioned “Madame Claudine will be coming here?”
Turning abruptly to Darcy, she spoke in a manner and tone reminiscent of her Aunt Eleanor, “Brother, this room will not do. It is simply too small. However, the sitting room just to the right of the stairs would do wonderfully.” Then, hastily, she reassured Elizabeth, “Do not worry. If you are up to it, we will make you just as comfortable there as you are right now. Only, Wills will have to very carefully carry you down the stairs.”
Darcy’s facial expression was as clear as his voice: “If you prepare the sitting room and Elizabeth is agreeable, I can certainly carry her down one flight of stairs.”
“But, I do not want to put you to any trouble because of me,” Elizabeth demurred.
“Trouble!” he laughed. “Please, do not rob me of the opportunity to hold you in my arms, now that I have a truly legitimate excuse for doing so.”
Ever ready to match wits and wills, she answered gaily, “I will not rob me of the opportunity to be held in your arms.”
“Children, children,” interjected Aunt Lilly, winking at Aunt Eleanor, “I can see that we will have our work cut out for us over the next year.”
∞∞∞
Georgiana immediately set to work. She knew of a backless upholstered bench that was in one of the little used upstairs bedrooms. She found it, and realized if she fitted it closely against one of the larger wingback chairs already in the sitting room, she could make a most comfortable lounging settee. When the pillows were placed properly, it would be just as comfortable for Elizabeth as the bed in her bedchamber. With a comfortable duvet draped over her and a clean basin and moist cloths readily available (but hidden out of sight), the room would work quite well indeed.
About a quarter of an hour before Elizabeth’s visitors were to arrive, with the rest of the ladies already ensconced in the sitting room, Georgiana and Darcy entered Elizabeth’s bedchamber. As he knelt down by the side of Elizabeth’s bed, he tried to speak succinctly, “My love, we will do this in stages. I am going to put one arm under your knees and the other behind your back.” As she blushed brightly, he continued, “I need you to rest your head against my shoulder, and, if you can, bring your arms up around my neck for additional support.”
She did as he requested, and it was his face that coloured as she slowly slid into his arms. Elizabeth’s breath caught in a slightly audible gasp, as she felt his pulse racing beneath the place where her cheek rested upon his neck. It would be so easy to tilt her head up and suckle him there, but she knew that she would not. For Darcy’s part, the sensations racing throughout his body would become visible if he did not control himself.
As he slowly began to lift her from the bed, he noticed immediately that she weighed almost nothing. She was so small, so delicate, so fragile, so warm, and so soft. Breathing in the fragrance of her hair was almost his undoing, and he fought desperately to calm himself.
“Georgiana,” he asked with a voice suddenly rather husky, “would you mind preceding me down the steps?”
Not wanting her brother to know that she was well aware of his predicament, she stifled a giggle, “Of course, Wills. I will be only a step before you to help catch Elizabeth should she slip from your arms.”
Once in the sitting room, Darcy and Elizabeth reversed the ritual ever so slowly, so that she would not become sickened from any sudden movement. He was in hell and in heaven at the same time. He blessed Georgiana, who made a barrier with her body so that no one would see his aroused condition.
After lowering Elizabeth onto the makeshift settee, he moved behind the chair as Georgiana situated her to make her comfortable and covered her with the duvet. He then moved to look out the window with his back to everyone in the room. Like the one in his study, it overlooked the flower garden, but there was no bowl of dried blooms to fill the room with the fragrance of lavender, and it would be many weeks before the bushes planted outside the window bore blooms to carry the scent into the room.
Soon Gabby and her sisters were shown into the sitting room. As soon as Gabby saw Elizabeth, her hand flew to her mouth to stifle the gasp that threatened to escape. Her face contorted as she exclaimed, “Oh, Lizzy, what did he do to you?” The other sisters were right behind her and equally appalled at the condition of their friend and patroness.
Elizabeth realized that her bruised face must truly look frightening. “Gabby,” she spoke almost contritely, “it looks much worse than it feels. The immense knot on the back of my head is the crux of my challenge at this point.”
Gabby started to gently embrace Elizabeth then realized that there were several other people in the room, although most of them she was already acquainted with through her modiste shop.
Moving to direct Gabby and her sisters with her eyes and her hands instead of having to turn her head, Elizabeth said, “Gabby, please let me introduce you to everyone here.”
Then, she introduced everyone present starting with those of highest rank according to peerage title and family name through to those of lesser rank. She knew that in a setting such as this it mattered little to both Lady Eleanor and Lady Anne, but according to the social dictates of the time, this allowed those of lower rank to directly address those of upper rank.
“Madame Gabriella Claudine, and Mademoiselles Linette, Pauline, Arabella, and Josephine D’Arcy, may I introduce you to Lady Eleanor Fitzwilliam, Countess Matlock; Lady Anne de Bourgh, of Rosings Park, and her companion, Miss Charlotte Lucas; my aunt, Mrs. Lilly Gardiner; my sister, Miss Mary Bennet; Miss Georgiana Darcy and her brother, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy. Lady Eleanor Fitzwilliam, Lady Anne de Bourgh, Miss Lucas, Aunt Lilly, Mary, Miss Darcy, Mr. Darcy, please meet Gabby and her sisters Lin, Paulie, Bella, and Jo.”
Immediately after she finished, Lady Matlock, being the most senior in status, began to reintroduce everyone with the name they used when with family, “Please call me Aunt Eleanor.” With a wave of her hand in their direction, she indicated, “Cousin Anne, Charlotte, Aunt Lilly, Mary, Georgiana, and Darcy. Now, Elizabeth’s sister Jane and her husband Charles would be here also, but as of this very morning they are new parents of a beautiful baby boy.”
Somewhat startled, Gabby asked, “Jane is here, too?”
“Yes, she is,” replied Elizabeth, her smile giving the lie to the bruises on her face. “It is quite a long story, and one for another time, but let me just say that I frightened Jane so that she went into labor a month early. Now, we are to be guests of Mr. Darcy for many weeks it seems.”
In quiet but genuine support, Darcy moved from the window to stand behind her chair and gently laid his hand upon her shoulder . . . a gesture that was not missed by anyone in the room.
Gabby added, a sudden twinkle in her eye: “Indeed, a tale for another day.”
All tied with the most beautiful lace ribbons, with a small flourish, Lin lifted the boxes of confections that she had rested upon her lap. “Lizz
y, we brought you and Darcy House an ample selection from our kitchen.”
Looking up from the box, Georgiana stammered, “I thought that you looked familiar. Do you work at Serendipity Confections?”
Gesturing in the general direction of her friends, Elizabeth answered for her friends, “Georgiana, Gabby and her sisters own both the modiste and the confectionery shop.”
“Well, Georgiana,” Darcy teasingly spoke for the first time, “it is wonderful to see that all of the money that you spend on dresses and treats goes to such deserving people.”
At that point, the room filled with animated conversation and merry laughter.
Both Darcy and Georgiana had been too inattentive earlier in the introductions to realize that D’Arcy was their family name before it was “Anglicized” more than seven hundred years ago. When Georgiana suddenly made the connection, she thought, “Could these women be a remnant of the original Darcy family?” Something niggled at the back of her mind . . . something that her father had told her one time when she was just a child.
“Madame Claudine, I mean Gabby,” she blushed as she brought her finger to her lips to stifle a giggle, “I could not help but notice your sister’s last name is D’Arcy. Wills’ and my ancestral family came from Normandy in the mid-eleventh century with William the Conqueror. By chance, are your ancestors from that area of France?”
“Mama could tell you better than I, but I believe they came from the area around Caen, a port city in the northernmost part of the Normandy area,” replied Gabby without pretense.
“Well,” declared Darcy enthusiastically as his arms swept into the air before him to emphasis his point, “it appears that we are entertaining family. I will ring to have tea brought in. Mademoiselle Linette, Lin, I cannot help but smell the delightful aroma coming from your boxes of confections. May we have some of them with tea?”
“Elizabeth, I will tell you now that Wills has a terrible sweet tooth. He loves anything from Serendipity,” confided Georgiana, with a falsely stern face that soon brightened as she laughed. Darcy’s face turned bright red, then he joined in the laughter along with everyone else.
When a servant brought in the tea service, Georgiana directed her to a round table a bit to one side of the room as she and Lin carefully uncovered the boxes of confections to reveal the plethora of delightful little desserts.
Preparing a cup of tea for Elizabeth, Georgiana leaned close to Lin to ask which treats were Elizabeth’s favourite. She filled a small plate with a generous quantity of that particular confection and moved it to the small table intentionally placed beside Elizabeth’s chair. Elizabeth glanced at the mound of pastries and inquired with a smile, “Surely that is not all for me? I do enjoy this particular selection the best of all, but I could never eat such a quantity.”
With a sly look and a generous smile, Georgiana began to laugh, “Lizzy, apparently you and Wills have the same tastes in confections. I simply doubled the plate to serve for both of you.”
Darcy had already taken the seat closest to Elizabeth. When Georgiana brought the tea, he passed the plate containing the treats to Elizabeth in a manner so that it was directly in her line of sight, and then did the same with her tea. He did not want her making any sudden movement and running the risk of making herself ill.
No one in the room missed the care that he took with her. Gabby soon had tears of joy in her eyes. She and Elizabeth had talked many times, both before and since Jerome’s death, and she knew that although there had been a deep abiding respect and care between them, there had never been love. Still, she had sometimes felt a bit envious of Elizabeth, for she had experienced neither love, nor care and respect from her husband.
Georgiana continually looked over her shoulder at the couple as she brought the box of confections to the others in the room for them to make their selection. “Oh, Wills,” she exulted to herself, “you have finally found your one true love and have veritably lost your heart. Lizzy, please take good care of it. I know that he will cherish yours.”
After about an hour, Elizabeth began to grow visibly fatigued. “Gabby, I am so sorry. Please stay as long as you like, but I must ask William to take me back upstairs for now. Could you possibly come again tomorrow?”
Squeezing Elizabeth’s hand, Gabby answered cheerfully, “We will make a point of it.”
“Thank you, good friends,” she laughed.
Everyone watched in amazement at the tenderness Darcy showed Elizabeth as he picked her up with exaggerated slowness. As before, she rested her head against his shoulder and draped her arms around his neck, while Georgiana quickly moved to walk in front of him as he slowly moved from the room and up the stairs.
The effect that Elizabeth produced on the return trip was as pronounced as at the first and even more so. Georgiana could see that Elizabeth was not unaffected herself. Her heightened breathing was audible, and her puckered nipples were clearly evident through the silk gown and robe. “Now that they have confessed their love, how will they manage for an entire year? Elizabeth, I promise I will do my very best not to fail you,” thought Georgiana, as she pulled the bell for the maid to assist her.
Once Darcy had laid his charge back upon the bed, he knew that he dare not linger, although that was his dearest wish. After taking a few moments to compose himself, he knelt beside her, “Elizabeth, please rest and sleep for a while if you can.” Turning swiftly to his sister, he stated, “Georgiana, I will return to our guests. Come down only when you feel comfortable.”
After Darcy left the room and closed the door quietly behind him, Elizabeth literally groaned. “Georgiana, if William was in any way in the same state as me, thank you for shielding us from view. Now you know why I asked not to be left alone with him. I do not trust myself.”
Georgiana laughed heartily as she quickly settled herself in the chair beside Elizabeth’s bed. She had already opened the bedroom window slightly to allow the gentle breeze and sunlight into the room. “I can assure you that he was in the same state, although he truly did not want me to be aware of it. Please know we will all protect you both. That I promise you.” Then, she gently kissed Elizabeth’s forehead before leaving the room.
∞∞∞
A few minutes before dinner that evening, Aunt Lilly had come to sit with Elizabeth, who had asked that the children be brought to her along with their nurses. When Thomas and Anne Elizabeth were lifted onto her bed, they hurriedly snuggled against her, one on each side. She wrapped her arms around them in a snug embrace and asked if they would like to join her for dinner. When both children nodded their heads, she asked one of the nurses to ring the bell for the servant. She then invited both of the women to also be part of the dinner gathering.
After only a few minutes, the servant arrived with a large tray containing servings of thick soup and warm buttered bread for the six of them. As Elizabeth had requested earlier, they also brought a tea service and a box of the confections that had been brought to Darcy House earlier in the day along with milk for the children.
Elizabeth was doing much better with eating. Once the food was placed directly before her line of sight, she did very well. But, she still needed someone to hand the food to her as her Aunt Lilly was now doing. She had thought that the thick soup would be something that both she and the children could handle with a minimum of mess or assistance.
As she ate, she began to converse with the children about things that had taken place during the day. “Did you enjoy your walk with Mr. Darcy this morning?” When they emphatically nodded their heads, she continued, “I thought so. Did you by any chance ride a pony?”
This time they threw their hands into the air giggling. “Pony,” said Thomas as he threw his hands into the air again.
Elizabeth continued to talk to them about their day, and was pleasantly surprised to find that they made relatively little mess as they ate. “Aunt Lilly, will you show the children the confections and let them choose one?” she asked.
Aunt Lilly very
much liked this “dinner game” that she and Elizabeth frequently played with Thomas. It gave Elizabeth some of the time that she desired with him and, at the same time, showed him both how to act at the table and how to carry on a conversation. Granted, at this stage the conversation was somewhat limited, but she knew that it would grow immensely with time if Elizabeth had her way.
When the two children made their selections, Aunt Lilly found it interesting that they chose the very same confection. “Good,” uttered Anne Elizabeth and Thomas nodded his head in agreement.
Moments later there was a soft knock on the door and, when the maid opened it, Darcy strode in. Seeing the meal in progress and nearly completed, he asked in mock indignation, “Did you have a party and not invite me?”
The children started to giggle as they quickly slid from their seats and ran to him. Each embraced one of his legs, and they started talking to him at the same time. “Papa, Pony,” Thomas chortled. Anne Elizabeth handed her treat up to him insisting, “Good, Papa.”
