As she usually did, Elizabeth rushed out into the cold to meet him when his horse or carriage arrived at Longbourn.
He believed that she disliked Mrs. Bennet’s observation of them and the crowded noise of Longbourn to quite the same quiet extent that he did, and as a result craved these few minutes apart from everyone else — except of course a few watching servants — that they had before he entered her house.
“Two horses?” Elizabeth asked with a raised eyebrow.
“One is for you.”
Elizabeth paled. “You must know, I believe I have told you, I have no knowledge of how to ride.”
“Then we shall teach you.” Darcy smiled at her. He settled himself on one of the haystacks in the stable and extended his hand. “I assure you it is not such a fearsome matter.”
However from the ashen faced manner in which Elizabeth stared at the mare who quietly chewed on a bit of straw that had been placed in the food trough, it seemed that itwasa fearsome matter forher.
She pressed her elbows against her side, and tightly watched the horse like it was a venomous snake. Then when the Longbourn groom put down his pitchfork against the wall with a clang, she jumped. “Well,” Elizabeth looked at Darcy with a fixed smile, “I suppose I must. How shall we go about it?”
“Elizabeth.” Darcy took her hand and smoothly rubbed it, hoping to calm her so that she would make the attempt with good effort. “If you truly do not wish to try to ride I cannot force you.”
“I am certain there is some usual practice for teaching a woman to ride — there must be. Or am I to simply be tossed on the back of the beast and left to shift for myself?”
“You first become friends with the horse.”
She nodded stiffly. “And what is her name?”
“That is for you to decide.”
“No, no — come. I know enough of horses to perceive that this is no foal. What was she called before?”
Darcy did not in fact know himself. He looked at the man who had ridden with him, leading the horse, and who had charge of his horses while travelling. He coughed a bit embarrassedly. “Daisy, sir. Rather pedestrian name. Good horse breeders, the people we purchased her from. No taste for fancy names.”
“Daisy then.” Elizabeth stood, and with a tottering pace walked up to the horse, and put her hand towards it. “Hello, Daisy.”
The horse nickered and drew its head back. Elizabeth flinched and jumped back. “Am I supposed to give thecreaturean apple, or maybe a lump of sugar — some bribe so it does not throw me off its back within the third second of me sitting on it?”
“Eh, do not worry about that none too much, Miss Lizzy,” one of the Longbourn stablehands said. “Looks like the Mister bought a fine animal for you. She’ll not buck you.”
“Not in the first three seconds you mean, it shall wait until I have given her my trust, and ceased to expect such betrayal.”
Darcy saw in Elizabeth’s stiff and drawn back posture that her distaste for riding a horse was far more deep seated than he had realized. “I meant to do you a kindness with this gift. I have no desire to—”
“The horse is here,” Elizabeth interrupted him. “And I am here. Thus I must ride the horse, whether I wish to or not.”
Then before Darcy could say something to stop her she strode right into Daisy’s stall with shaking hands and reached out to grab the horse’s hair right above the eyes — like an idiot girl who knew nothing about horses, or how to manage them.
The animal shied and startled, backing away from her and raising her hoofs. Elizabeth gave a small scream of fright.
Darcy’s man pulled her back angrily and exclaimed, “You fool. Don’t try to poke them in the eyes, how would you enjoy it if some fool person went to poke you in the eyes?”
Elizabeth’s own eyes were wide and her breathing labored. The man stared at her a bit more, glanced at Darcy, and politely added, “Ma’am.”
With a nervous laugh Elizabeth backed further away from the stall. “Yes, yes of course. The only thing I imagine I would hate more is if the fool tried to sit on me, and expected me to carry it halfway round the world on its back. But of course a horse likesthat. So I must be the fool.”
She began to step forward again, but Darcy said, “Elizabeth, here. Sit next to me, I can’t jump up and grab you as I wish I might.”
She looked at him and deflated. Tears started coming to her eyes, but she did sit next to him. Darcy put his arm around Elizabeth and held her close to him.
“And you have already purchased the horse for my use,” she said shakily. “I must be the most ungrateful wretch, to not—”
“You do not need to ride, not for my sake.”
