by Anne Louise
****
After a few hours of rest, Elizabeth awoke and sought the company of her Aunt Madilyn. Of all the women in her life, Elizabeth believed her to be the most constant and she knew her to be someone she could confide in and ask for advice and get no grief for asking. She had wished that from her mother but never found her that engaging and her Aunt Madilyn filled that void. Her aunt had an easy way about her in getting her to talk freely and Elizabeth knew that what she did tell the woman would not be passed on. Mrs. Gardiner wanted to ask about the man but wished for her niece to bring up that discussion. Eventually she asked about Mr. Darcy.
“So, Lizzy, it was a surprise to see you being carried by the man. What was it like to be carried by such a strong and handsome man?”
“I was glad he was there to help me, but I did not like riding on his horse.”
“Yes, I know that you dislike horses, but do you dislike the man?”
“No, I do not dislike him at all.”
“But it was his decision to either carry you in his arms or let you hobble along slowly.”
“Yes, but he told me that we would be exhausted if he carried me the distance, and he wished to get me home soonest.”
“That tells me he is a wise man. His doctor is one of the best in town.”
“It all seems like everyone is just making so much of this. I could have made it back all by myself.”
“Stop it Lizzy! Let me hear no more on this subject. As it is, you will be forced to stay in your room for at least a fortnight while your ankle heals. That will be hard on you but it will keep you home. There will be no more leaving the house alone and certainly not so early in the morning.”
“Then I will do as you say. There is no other option.”
“Today you were lucky to have met the man but you just as easily could have found trouble.”
“Yes, for that I am pleased. Have you heard of the man before?”
My goodness, now she wants to know more about him. I must be careful in what I tell her. “Perhaps I have heard that name, but I have never met him. Tell me, Lizzy, does he meet your criteria for a handsome gentleman?”
“Yes, Aunt, he is a fine looking man.”
“Good, because he told your uncle that he would visit you on the morrow.”
Elizabeth’s aunt watched as her niece blushed crimson. “I will be pleased to see him and would like to learn more of him. Aunt, I did like it when he carried me in his arms. Does that make me a wanton woman?”
Her aunt responded with a chuckle. “Lizzy, I should be concerned if you did not have such thoughts.”
That evening Elizabeth again thought of the man and knew she admired his manly figure and his gentleman’s ways. As she attempted to sleep she thought of all his words and his actions and how the sound of his voice caused her hair to raise as he rode her back to the Gardiner’s house. Never had Elizabeth been so close to any man as when she rode next to him on his horse and when he carried her in his arms to her room and she enjoyed their closeness.
It was impossible to know when her thoughts entered her dream but it ended just as she and Mr. Darcy had gone for a walk at Longbourn. Suddenly she awoke to the sound of song birds and the sun lit up her room as her aunt came in to greet her and help her prepare for her day. After breakfast, her cousins visited with her in her room when the servant announced that two gentlemen had arrived. Before she could dispatch her younger cousins, Mrs. Gardiner came in and again the doctor asked Darcy to wait outside.
As he examined his patient, the children gathered around Darcy and began to ask him all sort of questions and tried to play with him. This was new to him but the children were so innocent that soon Darcy was telling the story of how he met their cousin Elizabeth.
Once the doctor completed his examination he said he would return in two days to see her again. Mrs. Gardiner noticed the man took Darcy aside before he left. She thought she heard the doctor warn Mr. Darcy about something, then he walked away with a soft chuckle as Darcy looked perplexed.
“Miss Bennet, I hope today finds you well rested and improving.”
“Thank you, sir. I slept well last night, though the ankle is very tender and I have to be careful in adjusting my position.”
“Is there anything I can do for you now, Miss Bennet?”
He looked on as she let out a soft giggle. Yes, sir, why do you not just come over here and kiss me?
“Lizzy, why are you giggling?”
“It is nothing of importance, Aunt. Can I not have a few private thoughts about my current situation?”
“Of course you can, Lizzy. Mr. Darcy, I shall leave the door open and the children will be watching out for purposes of propriety. Lizzy, I will drop in on you later.”
“Miss Bennet, I am most pleased to see your happy disposition and to know that you are recovering nicely.”
“At least things are working for the present, but now comes the hard part. I was brought here to visit with my younger cousins and help my relatives but I am useless to them.”
“I disagree, you are able to play with the children and I am sure you can entertain them by reading stories or making up stories and games they can play.”
“You seem to have caught their interest and I believe they have taken a liking to you already. You must have other younger family that you have interacted with, have you not?”
“No, I just have my younger sister. She is not yet fourteen. There are no other family except some older cousins and a few other distant relatives who do not live close and two more who live in Kent.”
“But your parents?”
“They are gone. My mother died just days after my sister was born and my father died not two years ago.”
Elizabeth could not hide the tears that welled up and one traced a path down her cheek. “I am so sorry to hear that, Mr. Darcy. You must think me meddling in your affairs with such questions, but I wish to know more of the man who helped me yesterday.”
“Do you always walk so early?”
“Yes, at home I follow the same plan and rise with the sun most mornings. It is very peaceful and quiet and I can clear my mind.”
“But you are so young. What pressures does such a young woman have? You appear to be a gentleman’s daughter?”
“I am the second daughter of five. My father is a gentleman farmer in Hertfordshire and our home is entailed to the next male but we do not have a brother.”
“Then I can see that could cause your parents to worry. Does that cause you grief?”
“My mother is always talking about us being thrown out into the hedgerows to starve after our father passes. My two youngest sisters are silly, the middle one reads constantly and plays at the pianoforte too often and then there is me and my older sister, Jane, who only looks for the good in people. Jane is by far the prettiest of us girls.”
“Then I should like to see her, for I find that you are quite pretty. You have a friendly way about you, Miss Bennet and seem to be a happy and spirited young woman. Your relatives appear to be upstanding people. Do you have other family near your home that you could turn to for help when your father passes?”
“My mother’s sister lives in Meryton and her husband is an attorney. They might take in some of us to live in their home and perhaps the Gardiners would help. Anyway, my mother is obsessed with finding husbands for all of us before we lose our bloom.”
“Then you must enjoy visiting with the Gardiners. It affords you a break, though you must forgo the daily long walks at sunrise until your ankle is healed.”
Darcy watched as a smile covered her face and saw a sparkle in her eyes and her innocent laugh made him happy. “Are your family all in good health, Miss Bennet?”
“Yes, we are all in excellent health, except for me and my ankle.”
“Good, then there is no reason to think that your father is on death’s door.”
“No, but my mother is surely driving my father to his library to escape the others.”
; “Is your father the person who is most responsible for educating you? Did you not have a nanny?”
“He is responsible for my education. He always would listen to me and I talk with him every day. We never had a nanny but my sisters and I were schooled at home.”
“You said your middle sister plays the pianoforte? Do you also play?”
“Yes, I play some, but not very well. I also play the harp.”
“Do you play any instrument, Mr. Darcy?”
“No, and I regret that I have never done so. That is one thing that I will do differently when I have a family. Any children who I have will learn to play an instrument and also learn another language. I do speak some French.”
Elizabeth could not contain her merriment and began to softly chuckle. “I am sorry, Mr. Darcy, but I can see you now entertaining the ladies of Paris and speaking French.”
“That would be quite amusing, indeed. I am not a womanizer, Miss Bennet.”
“Tell me about your sister, Mr. Darcy?”
She watched as his expression changed and she could tell from his countenance how dear his sister was to him.
“My sister, Georgiana, is my best friend. When our father died both my cousin and I were established as joint guardians over her. I know she desperately needs to make friends but I have told you that none of our family have children near her age. Much as the entail affects your family, so does my not being able to find a friend for Georgiana bothers me. I would wish for you to meet her whilst you are in town.”
“I would like to meet your sister, Mr. Darcy. She seems very sweet, like my sister, Jane.”
“She is everything I could ask for in a sister, but she is shy. It is not her fault as I am afraid her growing up without a mother made things hard on her. Our father loved both of us in his own way but he was hard to talk to and not always very warm to my sister. I believe he saw her as the reason that my mother died. He never got over my mother’s death and the last few years I believe he was unhappy.”
“But your sister had a governess, did she not?”
“Yes, she has had a governess and the best of tutors and later will have a companion, but she needs to meet other young women closer to her age. You see, Miss Bennet, since my father died I have been busy learning to manage the family estate. That is not a good excuse for I simply have not made a good effort to properly look out for her. When my father died I had all this estate work to do and my father never discussed estate matters with me. So as you can see, I did not have the benefit of his experience to guide me. Still, I hold myself responsible for not introducing her to young women more her age.”
“I have an idea. Perhaps you could invite her to come with you and visit me.”
“That is not possible. She is currently in Derbyshire.”
“Oh, then perhaps when she returns to town I can meet her?”
“But are you certain, Miss Bennet? Already I feel as if I am imposing on your family.”
“I would not propose such a visit if I thought it would trouble the Gardiners.
Both of them seem to like you and you already know that the children do as well.”
That was the signal for the two oldest children to come into the room and beg Mr. Darcy to come and see a special surprise. As they pulled at his clothing he looked at Elizabeth with a mesmerizing grin as they lead him to the hall outside her room. Immediately Darcy saw that the boy had caught a small frog and wished for Darcy to scare Elizabeth with it.
Darcy next told them that was a bad idea and said that Elizabeth needed to rest and cannot walk and might hurt herself if surprised suddenly with seeing the frog. He suggested they take the frog outside and after that they might visit her later after she had rested.
Mrs. Gardiner had overheard some of the conversation but next went to see her niece and Mr. Darcy returned to her room and took his leave, saying he would return in two days.
“Lizzy, How did your visit with Mr. Darcy go?”
“It went well, Aunt. He seems interested in my well being and I asked him about himself. He has a younger sister who he wishes me to meet.”
“That is interesting. You spoke earlier with your uncle of two books you wished to read, did you not?”
“Yes, I did, but uncle does not have them in his library.”
“Lizzy, Mr. Darcy brought these for you to read. He told me they are from his library.”
“My goodness, Aunt, I have never seen such beautiful books. Look at the beautiful leather binding and the gilded pages and they have never been opened.”
“Lizzy, he said he has extra copies in his home and that you may keep them or give them to your father.”
“But what should I do, Aunt? It is not proper to accept such a gift.”
“He has already resolved that question. He anticipated that response and said you must consider them as a long term loan. Lizzy, take the books and read them. The man is just a kind soul. And Lizzy, do not read them until you dry your eyes.”
“It is not that I am thinking of the books, but I need to adjust my position. I have not changed my position as I wished to be able to look at my friend whilst he visited.”
“I will help you Lizzy.”
After her aunt left, Elizabeth tried to sleep but for the first time since she hurt her ankle she felt another hurt and it was something new. She did not know if this was good or bad but it put her on notice that a certain gentleman was all she wanted to think about.
****
Darcy was now certain he wanted to see Georgiana and introduce her to Elizabeth and so he sat to write to her and ask her to return to town and join him for a few weeks before they returned to Pemberley in the fall. His fingers felt awkward as he started his letter as there was so much he wanted to tell his sister about meeting Elizabeth, but he left that for the last few paragraphs so as not to show his true feelings for the young woman. Finally, after several attempts to begin his letter, his fingers kept up with his thoughts and he wrote about meeting Elizabeth and of her accident and that he wished for them to meet. The drafts of his letter lay scattered on the mahogany desk but next he assembled his missive and stamped it with his Darcy seal as he threw the other pages into the fire.
In his letter he asked Georgiana to bring him all requests from the housekeeper and his steward that needed his attention and all letters he had received, but there had been few issues at Pemberley over the last few months. Darcy did have some estate matters to keep him busy but for now his thoughts were of the young woman on Gracechurch Street. Later he met with his uncle and mentioned his near accident on Sampson.
“Why would you want to ride so early? And he needs to have others break him in. What were you thinking, man? How did he get spooked, anyway?”
“I wanted to ride him early when few were about. The only person out was a young woman who was skipping along in the park and singing and once she came closer Sampson reared up on his hind legs and I almost fell.”
“That seems strange.”
“Indeed, it did to me as well. My thoughts are that her sensing I was about to fall made her instinctively run over to assist me. In the process she tripped and badly sprained her ankle.”
“Are you certain she did not fake her injury? Have I not warned you about fortune hunters?”
Darcy laughed. “Uncle, it was all innocent. She is visiting her Aunt and Uncle Gardiner and came to help them with her younger cousins.”
Lord Matlock took a step back. “You mean Edward Gardiner who owns the import and export business and lives on Gracechurch Street?”
“Yes, that is the man. His niece is Miss Elizabeth Bennet.”
“I like Edward Gardiner. The man is hard working and is a very amicable man and he runs an excellent business. He once told me about a niece of his who is very pretty and is most knowledgable on many subjects and he described her as a rare diamond of a girl in Hertfordshire.”
“Yes, that describes her well.”
“Now, nephew, did you not mishandle the hor
se when you first saw her?” He laughed as his wife joined them.
“Good, my favourite nephew has come to visit. What is all this talk about you having met a young woman?”
His uncle began to speak but his wife turned and asked her nephew about the young woman and her husband told her that Darcy now has a lady friend.
“I see, but why would she be out walking so early and without an escort?”
“Her aunt said that Miss Bennet does the same at her home and told me that she has warned her against doing it again.”
“Still, it is not proper for a young woman to be seen about the Ton walking alone.”
