“It is hard to know what to do with Georgiana. The magnitude of what has happened is such that punishments seem...”
He trailed off.
“The consequences naturally attendant on her behavior will be of sufficient consequence,” Elizabeth said.
Mr. Darcy nodded in agreement. “Precisely.”
“I think rather,” Elizabeth said, “that a situation such as this iswhyparents seek to punish their children, and to teach them to always respect their word with fear. So that they will not do such things. Once they have acted as Miss Darcy has, they are forced into the world of full-grown persons.”
“She is too young.”
“Miss Darcy is a decent girl with a decent head on her shoulders. And she seems to understand the gravity of her actions and her situation. Treather with respect. Even if you cannot protect her wholly, you still may be a safe rock upon which she can build.”
There was a hesitant knock on the door then, and Miss Darcy entered the room.
She held Emily who immediately stretched her arms towards Elizabeth and squirmed to be let down.
As Emily ran across the room, Elizabeth wondered from how Miss Darcy looked at her and her brother that she may have heard a little of their conversation about her.
Elizabeth opened the curtains while holding Emily. That is to say she let Emily try to pull the cord and surreptitiously assisted when the one year old’s efforts proved unsuccessful, and she looked out at the street directly outside of the window, and down towards the harbor visible below.
The morning world bustled. Workers and well-dressed gentlemen and ladies. Wagons and carriages. Shouts and conversation.
Elizabeth went up to the servant’s room now to wake Sally and send her out to collect breakfast from the shops up the street. When she had returned to the room, Mr. Darcy said to his sister. “Once we have breakfast—or perhaps before, will you go out with Mrs. Wickham to hire new servants for the house?”
The girl blinked at this. “But no, I can’t. I hardly can. You know I cannot.”
“My dear sister,” Mr. Darcy said softly. “I am the one who cannot go out at present. But I choose to trust you.”
Miss Darcy’s face crumpled. “You know you cannot. I am stupid. So, so stupid.”
She started crying. Mr. Darcy looked at her rather helplessly.
George came up to Miss Darcy and hugged her around the legs. “There, there,” he said, patting her thighs. “There, there. Mama, is now a time to make her laugh?”
Elizabeth giggled. “Not yet. But Miss Darcy, there is only one direction to travel, and it is forward. And I shall go with you—but not immediatelyafter breakfast. As soon as we eat,Ishall be off to see them drop my husband six feet down.”
“Oh.” Miss Darcy was startled by this. “Oh. I half forgot. Things must be done. You cannot simply be dead.”
Elizabeth put her arm on Miss Darcy’s shoulder. “You believed you would be married.”
She glanced at Mr. Darcy. It would be impolite and impolitic to inquire as to the extent to which his sister was still heartbroken in front of Mr. Darcy, though she rather wished to.
Miss Darcy stared at her hands, “I wish I could go with you, to see him one last time. Maybe then I would understand, how he could do such a thing to me…how I could do such a thing to myself.”
“Do you wish to come with me?” Elizabeth asked. “I would like the company. Even though it is unfashionable.”
Miss Darcy’s eyes went wide, “No, no, I could not.” She looked at her brother.
A dark cloud crossed over Mr. Darcy’s face. “She has no duty to him. He harmed her. If I could go, I would, and I would weep before the grave, for I committed a sin against him. But my sister was the victim. I cannot forget how he used her, and abused her and—”
“I chose to lay with him. There was no force involved,” Georgiana said. “I participated in the crime.”
“There was fraud,” Mr. Darcy replied. “I consider seducing a woman into surrendering her honor through a promise of marriage to be of the same species of evil as rape.”
Elizabeth burst out with some surprise, “Surely you would not hang every swain who says to a girl, ‘for certes we will wed’.”
“If I hung a few,” Mr. Darcy said steadily, “I dare say the rest would not be so eager to say so if they did mean to marry.”
