Georgiana was white faced. “Anne, come back. I want to hold you.”
“Yes, Mama.”
Darcy set her on the ground and watched the little girl run to her mother.
“Enough. Enough. I must tell you.” Georgiana took Anne into her arms and gripped the child so tightly that she squirmed. Then Darcy’s sister exhaled. She looked him in the eyes directly. “We are leaving.”
The fire crackled in the hearth.
Georgiana studied Darcy. She evidently expected him to say something.
He was confused. “What are you talking of? Where? Into Lambton?”
“London. If…if Mr. Peake still cares for me, we shall marry. If not I shall live with Jane, or perhaps at Longbourn with Lizzy.”
“You cannot leave.”
“I am one and twenty. I know the terms of Father’s will. I now have control of my fortune. I now have control over my person. I now can marry as I choose.”
“You cannot leave.”
“Fitzwilliam…I hate that I shall leave you alone.”
“You — no. No.”
“I am leaving. Anne is coming with me. I…I am sorry that I shall leave you alone. But this is…you chose this.”
“You cannot leave.”
“I can. I have already sent out letters to the family’s lawyer to have control of my money turned over directly to me. The arrangements for a post carriage to come to pick me up a little after noon have been made. My clothes, those which I wish to take, have been packed. I am leaving.”
“No…you…no.” It was as if he was moving sluggishly. More shock than when Elizabeth jilted him. Not Georgiana. She never rebelled. “Elizabeth wrote you. Those letters. In Jane’s.”
“You will not listen to me. I know it. But I still care for you. I…whymust you be so much yourself? So proud. Beg Elizabeth for forgiveness—”
“Threw the ring in my face. Shethrewit.”
“You are not happy this way. I want you to be happy. But even more, I want to be happy. I want Anne to be happy.”
“You…” Why hadn’t Papa done like many other families and required that the money remain under the control of the guardians until she had reached twenty and five? That would not have helped. Shestillcould have married Mr. Peake. He no longer was her guardian. She was of age. “Must I lose you too?”
“You — don’t need to, don’t — come with me. Fitzwilliam…”
“Be gone.” The shock was now pain. Darcy stood and swallowed. “If you intend to throw yourself away, to throw away the pride of the Darcy name. Do it. I only curse the day we met the Bennets.”
Georgiana Darcy left with her daughter.
Fitzwilliam Darcy stared at the flickering flames of the fire, eating away the substance of a tree that had grown for decades before being chopped up to be burnt in a petty conflagration.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The noise from the crowds of pedestrians and carriages along Gracechurch Street woke Elizabeth shortly after dawn. She looked out the window of Mr. Gardiner’s townhouse. What cause could possibly wakesomany people at barely six o’clock in the morning?
London, the greatest city in the world, was alive.
Mr. Darcy had not returned south with his sister.
When Jane first exclaimed the news that Georgiana was to marry Mr. Peake, Elizabeth’s heart had leapt in hope. Strange that she hoped for something from him. For several minutes she was too crushed by sadness to rejoice in her friend’s fortune. Georgiana at one time was to become her sister. Now she had chosen to defy her brother, and he had chosen to sit brooding upon his dark estate, keeping company with its ghosts, whose sensibilities could not be defied, even at the cost of all happiness for himself and those he loved most.
