Was Elizabeth well?
For the first time since he’d come to London, Darcy had a reason that he wanted to see her which offered a stronger motivation than his fear of her rejection. He needed to see her and hear her tell him that she was in good health.
But surely if she had some illness that was progressing, he would have been told.
Mr. Gardiner studied him with an expression like that of an eagle.
“Mr. Darcy.” The hand grasp was firm and confident. “At last we meet.”
Darcy met his considering gaze with trained confidence, but he knew he was being dissected, and he did not like the sensation.
Colonel Fitzwilliam said to Mrs. Gardiner, “The real reason I am here is that Darcy tends to engage infaux paswithout me. The most ridiculous sorts of difficulties and entanglements. He has always been like that since he was four.”
Darcy looked over the Gardiners. They made a fine looking family, with four children. Darcy in truth had some awkwardness around children.
His cousin, Viscount Hartwood’s, two children were the only young ones he’d spent any substantial time around, and even with them… he simply did not know what to do to entertain them, and in turn they had never made much effort to demand he entertain them.
Jane and Bingley were mostly absorbed in the solemn task of gazing upon each other’s faces, and they had drifted to the other end of the room, so they might privately whisper whatever couples who were so very in love with each other whispered.
Darcy wondered what exactly the mysterious words that kept them so engaged were.
By some mysterious means, Colonel Fitzwilliam entered into a game with the children that involved them all arranging toy soldiers in a line, while he instructed the two younger boys on the proper way to keep the men in military formation.
Darcy sat across from Mr. Gardiner and Mrs. Gardiner. He said to Mrs. Gardiner, “I heard that you grew up in Derbyshire, not far from my own estate.”
“Ah, Lambton! Yes. A delightful countryside. My father was the vicar at the parish there.”
That made her the daughter of a respectable person. Darcy had not known it, but he was glad to hear it.
“Elizabeth has visited Lambton several times to speak to your acquaintances.”
“I sent her north with letters. It was an excuse to remember old friends. You know the poem by Burns, ‘If auld acquaintance be forgot.’”
“And never brought to mind. We’ll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne.”
“That precisely,” Mrs. Gardiner replied. “When old acquaintancearebrought to mind, without an ability to excuse inattention by the cost of franking the letter, it seemed to me that I had an obligation to remind my old friends of the good times we had — We had planned to make a trip to the Lakes this summer, but Mr. Gardiner and I have discussed making the trip to Lambton instead. I have renewed my correspondence with several friends, and well…”
Their niece lived only a few miles away.
“And Elizabeth would be delighted to see you.” Darcy spoke again before residual snobbery and his own sense of the importance of not giving too much notice to tradespeople could stop him, “You must make a definite plan of it, and stay at Pemberley when you come. With the use of the carriage the five miles distance to Lambton would not be at all difficult to manage.”
“Oh.” Mrs. Gardiner could not hide the surprise on her face.
Mr. Gardiner did hide it. Or perhaps he was simply not surprised. His examining gaze did not change.
A very intelligent eagle. The man would make a fine poker player.
Bingley overheard this plan and exclaimed, “You must invite Jane and myself as well. Jane said she is wild to see Lizzy again.”
Lizzy.
His wife was now Lizzy to his friend, while he hardly knew if she would even speak to him when he saw her again… After a spasm of envy, Darcy smiled widely. “Nothing could delight me further than for all of you to visit — and for a long time. Perhaps two months beginning after the season.”
Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner exchanged a glance. Wordless communication traveled between them, and then Mr. Gardiner gave Darcy a sincere smile. “I am delighted to accept your invitation, and I look forward to seeing your famed estate.”
Chapter Eighteen
Elizabeth stared at her breakfast with loathing and frustration.
