Anxiety blended with Darcy’s frustration with having his thoughts about Elizabeth interrupted. She must be confessing her attraction to Mr. Peake, and he needed to discourage her carefully, so that she would not be torn apart by the end of the fantasy. “What,” Darcy spoke softly, kindly, “have you formed?”
Georgiana looked at him through her long girlish eyelashes. The breakfast chairs had two carved wooden posts with the curved back between them, and Georgiana’s hand curled around the top of one of those posts.
“You…you always approved of Mr. Peake. Approved. Clever. Honest, hardworking. And happy, I mean unhappy. You were unhappy when he left.”
“Mr. Peake is an exemplaryworker. Clever and indefatigable in his duty. We know his people. I was unhappythento lose him, but always happy to see him gain the opportunity to display his talents in the way most remunerative for one inhis position in life. He has furthered himself far better than he could have in my employ. Mr. Peake is remarkably capable intrade.”
“Oh.” Georgiana smiled and relaxed. “I became nervous. Elizabeth thought you disliked him.”
“Elizabeth did?” Darcy was confused. Of course he didn’t dislike Mr. Peake, and he had shown him proper condescension. Oh, Georgiana must have found it easier to ask a woman for advice first, and Elizabeth had counseled his sister against her interest in Mr. Peake. A woman in the grip of an infatuation, Georgiana had not wanted to listen to the counsel of others.
“She thought you…well, he is in trade. So you would not approve…well that is—”
“He belongs to an inferior rung of society than us. I do not judge a man poorly for the position he is born into, so long as he does not strive to rise higher than himself. But, in spite of his virtues, his station means we must always keep a distance betwixt us and him.”
“Oh.” Georgiana deflated, and her smile fell. She sat at the table for support. Her eyes resolutely studied the Chinese tracery inlaid into the porcelain surface. “Is that…important?”
“Yes.”
“I mean…so significant to you? The only matter you hold against him?”
“Hold against him? He is in his place and we, the Darcys of Pemberley, are in ours.”
“Elizabeth is beneath us in consequence.”
“Dear, dear, sweet sister.” Darcy sat next to her and placed his hand comfortingly on Georgiana’s arm. He soon would embrace her while she cried, he thought, as he had several times after her pregnancy was discovered. “Mine and Elizabeth’s case is different. She is entirely a gentlewoman, even if she has connections to trade. Her father’s family has owned this estate for generations. Her dowry, despite being less than customary for a man in my position, is sufficient. A few will think I married beneath myself, but once they meet Elizabeth… Enough equality exists betwixtusfor happiness in a relationship. However…”
Georgiana shivered and pulled the fabric of her sleeves down in a self-soothing gesture. She wouldn’t meet his eyes, still studying the pattern painted onto the table.
Darcy was stuck, as he looked for the comforting words that did not come to him. He wished Elizabeth was here.
“But…my daughter. Anne. Fitzwilliam, it isn’t like before. I am not…there is no reason for me to worry about social standing and, and — I am surelyworsethan Mr. Peake. He is the one doing a favor to me, with Anne…”
“No! You are my sister yet! You are yet Darcy! Not less than before. Nothing less than before.”
“I want to marry him. I love him.”
“Did he speak that rot — that idea that you are now lower than him?”
“You do not doubt his character, or his good nature, or…”
“A Darcy. Not for a tradesman. My sister will not marry a man in business. She will not marry a man forced by his position in life to oversee his warehouses every day — and more, you will not marry a man who quits his business to live off the income of his wife’s fortune.”
“No! Allen would never do that! He adores his work far too much to retire from it. I love hearing him tell me about it.”
Darcy stared in worried frustration at his sister.
“He becomes bored by the end of a day of dissipation and party, like yesterday, and—”
“Allen?”
“Oh.” She worried her hands terribly, and lifted and put back down her cup of coffee three times. Georgiana started to pant. Darcy became quite anxious. He wished Elizabeth was here to comfort her. “You do not understand.”
“Dear Georgie. I spoke harshly. You like him very much to be imagining such things—”
“We agreed to marry. Last night.”
Darcy was quite sure he had misheard.
