Georgiana giggled as their footman blocked the street, stopping a carriage so they could safely cross the crowded street. There always was a special energy about London. Elizabeth would not wish tolivehere, but she loved to visit.
“I am so happy you shall be happy. And Mr. Peake, he glowed with delight! Such a happy end to a…to a situation that was not full of happiness. Last night, my pet, he and you were adorable to watch.”
“We were?” Georgiana clapped her hands together and bounced happily on her toes.
Elizabeth winked and tilted her head.
Georgiana grinned. She suddenly looked down and pressed her fingers together. “Did you…feel jealous? You looked hurt at times.”
Heavens! Itstillhurt. Why? She had ended it with Darcy, and he yet lived. And their marriage never could have been happy and calm.
“Oh! Forgive me — I should not have said anything.”
“I have, in the most, put my melancholy feelings away. Idid, I must confess, blacken my windows, eat nothing but bread and water — not a great deal of either, I assure you — and lie somnolent in bed at first, composing sodden poetry.” Elizabeth laughed. “But such did not last long. I have too great a requirement for exercise and activity to be a proper heroine.”
“Lizzy — you… I do not want to see you—”
“I assure you, I am well. I am in the main as happy as I was before I had ever known such a man as your brother existed. Maudlin, depression, playing the tragic, sighing heroine.Notmy nature — I confess alittlejealousy, but—”
“My dear friend…” Georgiana unconsciously pulled and straightened a curled lock of hair. “If you blame me, I understand. I blame myself, and—”
“Heavens! The only person I blame in any manner is myself. Not even your brother — though he has faults sufficient to earn blame. A fool unknowing of herself. That was my case before I met your brother. I had entire confidence in my wisdom, in my control over my emotions, in myself. I could not know, in that untouched state that I wouldfeeland suchfeelingwould chasethoughtinto a distant land far away and unreachable. I am, I hope, wiser.”
“You and Fitzwilliam would be happy still, if not for me and Mr. Peake. My happiness is the cause of your unhappiness, it eats at me, and…”
“Stop that.” Elizabeth pulled Georgiana to a halt next to the entrance of a shop whose sign proclaimed the presence of the finest silk and cotton stockings. The entire wall of the building across them was painted as a proclamation that the finest ales and wines could be consumed within. “Ourdifferences were not your fault. There was a fissure betwixt us, such that we should never have entered our engagement. You did both Fitzwilliam and I a great favor by being the subject of a disagreement before we made oaths before God.”
Georgiana’s manner showed she did not agree. They continued forward until they reached the garden around St. Paul’s cathedral. The large square was surrounded with tightly packed three-story buildings, with the bottom floors of each given over to crowded shops and busy businesses. Elizabeth studied the bell towers of the cathedral. A drizzly rain had begun.
Elizabeth said, “I understand we are to have a large dinner with Peake tomorrow evening, at hired rooms in Guildhall? You are to be contaminated by mingling with your future husband’s — and my uncle’s — many acquaintances in trade.”
“Yes!” Georgiana nodded eagerly. “I am so eager to meet them all, and learn about what they do, and to see Mr. Peake amongst his friends and…and everything!”
“A good sort, most of them. I have met them. But you do not fear the contamination because they must work assiduously to earn a living by selling and buying?”
Georgiana tilted her head. She stuck her tongue out at Elizabeth.
The two walked into the cathedral for protection from the rain which had begun to quicken. The building was quiet and solemn, though a few other worshippers prayed before the altar, and several other pleasure lookers looked about as well. They admired the pristine white and gold decoration of the massive pillars supporting the structure. The pews and balustrades were made with fine woodwork. They walked to the small monument that had been erected where Christopher Wren, the famous architect who had rebuilt the cathedral after the fire, was interred.
“One day after our dinner, we intend to marry — Peake has nearly settled his business. It was done more quickly than we expected. And the settlement has been written up and signed.” Georgiana giggled. “Both our lawyers have been kept up quite late to earn their fees the past week.”
“You have protected your interests? Even with the best intentions, a man can gallop over the interests of a woman and—”
“Not at all! Mr. Peake is the kindest in this way.”
“Georgie, I know something of financial matters. Papa has talked my ear off abouthisboredom with them, so I might be bored as well — I understand you are putting some money into the partnership.”
“Half of my fortune will be invested into the company, with an associated ownership share attached to me by the settlement. But the other half is more than ample for us to live off should something go amiss with your uncle and Peake’s business. More than fifteen thousand, and the interest from that—”
“A sufficiency — that will not support the life you are used to. Not its scale, or all the little pleasures.”
“I am tired of that life!”
Georgiana’s shout echoed in the large space, and several of the other people around looked at them frowningly, including a stern middle-aged man in heavy embroidered clerical robes. Elizabeth thought he might be a bishop.
She giggled, a little self-consciously, and took blushing Georgiana’s hand. “I am glad to hear your passion. You should feel that way about your marriage.”
They wandered about the massive open space, admiring the artwork and the columns. They craned their heads up to look into the three-hundred-and-fifty-foot-high dome.
