Georgiana looked at him, and Elizabeth’s gaze followed. Helplessly, Darcy walked towards them, and Elizabeth whispered something into Georgiana’s ear. As he reached them, his sister nodded with a nervous smile.
“What matter do you two lovely creatures conspire about?”
Georgiana looked at him with shining eyes. Elizabeth said, “You shall discover our conspiracy in a few minutes — youcanwait such length?”
“No.”
Georgiana looked at him worriedly. “I hope you will be—”
Elizabeth put her hand over his sister’s mouth. “Shush, Georgie. Even if hecannotwait, he must. I hope he shall survive.”
“I shall not.”
Georgiana laughed. She smiled and stood taller. “I hope you shall be happy.”
What the deuce were they planning?
After everyone had finished their ices and recovered from the exertion of steady dancing, Elizabeth stepped to the middle of the drawing room and clapped her hands sharply, taking the place of the hostess now that her mother and father had retired for the night.
She commanded a room very well.
“We must have at least one more set of dancing. Miss Darcy agreed to play this time, so that everyone but our dear Jane, who never did learn” — the girl in question laughed tinklingly at her sister’s teasing — “has a turn to display at the piano.”
Darcy was only half sure he had heard right. His sister had agreed to play?
Georgiana flushed and looked down, but she nodded.
Elizabeth said to Darcy, “You need turn pages for her. I understand it has been some time since she played a proper dance.”
Elizabeth had talked Georgiana into it. Most likely that had been easy. Elizabeth had not been scared to bring up the matter, and she had cut the Gordian knot of his terror of hurting his sister by suggesting she play.
Georgiana and Darcy sat next to each other on the hard mahogany bench in front of the piano. Darcy whispered, “Are you certain?”
Georgiana did not look at him, instead she hovered her fingers over the brilliant black and white of the keys. She brushed the tips of her fingers softly over the raised black keys, without making a noise. “Do you truly miss my playing? You never said.”
“There is no player I ever prefer to hear.”
Georgiana ran her fingers through the scales. At first her elegant thin fingers hesitated. She needed to remember. Then she ran her hands up and down lightly, her fingers a blur, almost confidently.
Nervously Darcy nearly asked if she was sure she could still play. It had been so many years. The couples lined up, the silk dresses of the women draping to the floors, while the gentlemen’s breeches clung tightly to their thighs, and the white cravats gleamed in the candlelight. The speed and facility of Georgiana’s scales grew, and she stared at the keys closely,
Perhaps she stared at them to avoid thoughts of the audience, rather than to help herself.
Then she switched from the end of a scale into a slow, light dance which had been popular years earlier. Georgiana practiced the delicate tune again and again. She had loved it.
Tears began at the edges of Darcy’s eyes.
The couples walked through the steps, and Georgiana’s facility with the music returned, and the pace of the keys sped up, and she inserted more difficult bits.
His sister closed her eyes, swaying slightly from side to side, with a soft smile on her face. She completely ignored the sheet of music he had brought out for her, instead using a distant memory that never failed.
There was water in his eyes, and the gentleman in Darcy needed to hide such evidence of emotion. He was not alone. The room was full of others. He wiped at his eyes quickly, surreptitiously, looking around to see if anyone noticed.
Elizabeth’s eyes were on him, as she was in the far part of the figure. He felt so grateful to her.
She softly smiled at him, and then the dance continued and she stepped through the circle so that she was no longer looking at him. As he watched her form walk through the steps of the music something deep changed in Darcy.
Everything had been clouded before. The sky was now clear, and a brilliant sun shone down upon him, illuminating his soul in its brilliant glow. A voice, firm and confident, spoke from the innermost part of his heart, “You are going to marry that woman.”
