“No, no. The library isdessert,” Elizabeth replied. “We start there, and I’ll not leave until I’ve read the titles of every book.”
“That might take a long time,” Miss Darcy said quietly. “We have so many books.”
“Do you particularly like to read?” Elizabeth asked. “Novels, or something else.”
The girl flushed, looked at Mr. Darcy, and then mumbledsomething.
“What was that, Georgie?” Darcy asked.
“Oh, you know that I only read novels if you gave them to me first. But I like travel narratives very much. Captain Cook’sVoyagesare my favorite.”
Elizabeth looked at Darcy with a raised eyebrow.
He said in reply, “It is my view that until a girl is of age, and no longer the responsibility of the guardian, that he ought to have a good notion of what she is reading — but if there is some book you think appropriate, you may suggest it to Georgiana.”
“Then if the library is to be last, we might start with the great ballroom in the opposite wing of the house, and we can circle back around.” Mrs. Reynolds spoke in a practical tone.
“I deliver myself into your capable hands,” Elizabeth replied.
“I am very glad that the house shall have a mistress again,” Mrs. Reynolds said. “An estate of this sort ought to have a woman to supervise the household matters that the master simply cannot be expected to.”
“Flower arrangements and the like?” Elizabeth asked, laughing. She believed that Mrs. Reynolds wished to say, without saying, that she would not make difficulties for the new mistress. A woman who had superintended the management of the house, likely since the death of Darcy’s mother, which Elizabeth believed to have been ten years ago, could hardly feel entirely comfortable at being pushed from that position of supremacy over the household. “I know I will depend upon you greatly, especially as I learn the habits and customs of the estates.”
“Flower arrangement, and choosing the gifts for the servants, and arranging entertainments — and updating the decor of the house. You understand how in such matters it is best for the family to be part of the decision — begging yourpardon, Mr. Darcy, but a bachelor and his young sister simply are not the same as a wife.”
“I am very well aware,” Darcy smirked at Elizabeth in a way that made something inside her flutter oddly, “of the difference between a bachelor and a married man.”
“I hope,” Mrs. Reynolds added, “that we will be able to have balls and entertainments once more, to perhaps return things a little to the way that they were in your mother’s time. Mrs. Darcy hosted balls, and grand parties, and the house was alive and active. This great manse was built to be the heart of the neighborhood. Poor Mr. Darcy — that is the master’s father,” she said, glancing at thecurrentMr. Darcy, “did not have the heart to entertain so often after his wife died.”
Elizabeth glanced at Darcy, and his mouth was thinner as though he was remembering.
They entered the ballroom and Elizabeth gasped to see it. The room was larger than the assembly rooms in Meryton. Elizabeth was sure she had never been in a bigger room in a private house. The sun, already past its zenith and slowly setting, peeked through the tall, mullioned windows. Crystal chandeliers hung from above, the back wall had many mirrors set in it, and the whole view overlooked the lovely gardens and park of Pemberley.
The room was also cold, as there was no fire in the grates.
“I am convinced,” Elizabeth said after taking in the room wide eyed. “We must throw a great entertainment every night.”
Darcy laughed. “Iam not prepared for an entertainmenteverynight.”
“No matter how much you prefer the family circle,” she replied impishly, “if you own a ballroom such as this, you have no choice.”
He grinned at her. “I do not think I have an obligation to my ballroom.”
Stretching her arms out and slowly turning around while studying the ceiling Elizabeth deliberately looked at the whole room. She then said to Darcy, “Apologies, good gentleman, but you do.”
“We’ll turn it into a boxing ring,” he replied seriously. “And I’ll be required to lose my fortune betting on who will win at fisticuffs every day.”
Elizabeth giggled.
Suddenly she realized that Darcy actually enjoyed it when she disagreed with him. He was like her father in that way. This made her feel an unexpected warmth of liking and friendly feeling towards him. “No, no!” she exclaimed, “we’ll turn it into an extension of the library. But then you’ll need to host reading contests.”
Now Miss Darcy chuckled, to Elizabeth’s surprise. “What does a reading contest involve?”
“Who can finish a book the fastest?” Elizabeth suggested.
“Not a sound contest,” Darcy said. “Not unless you have someone who knows the book well to question them upon it. Otherwise, someone might claim to have read the whole book, without having done so.”
“But then it becomes a question of how well a person can remember the text, or skim thoroughly enough to memorize the answer to the likely questions.” Elizabeth rubbed her hands together. They were stiffening in the cold.
