Darcy stood to leave and then said, “I am staying at de Bourgh House.”
“De Bourgh?” Mr. Bainbridge stuttered.
“Yes. I shall meet you again here at six.”
As expected, Elizabeth had been busy playing with her young cousins in the garden or going for walks in the park. When they were off with their tutors, she would sit in the parlor and look onto the street, watching forhim.
Lost in her musings, she did not notice the door open when her aunt sat in a chair to begin her own sewing. “He will come, Lizzy. Give him time for his business dealings. You yourself said he is behind on correspondence since his accident.”
Elizabeth grinned at her observant relative. “I am not lamenting his absence. I am only…well, I know not what I am. But he said he would call, and he will.”
“And he seems like a man whose word is his bond. Did you say he is staying at de Bourgh House?”
“Yes.”
“It is uncanny that he is stayingthere,” her aunt said.
“How so?” Lizzy asked, lying down her sewing.
“As you know, I am from Lambton––”
“He is here! He is here!” Elizabeth jumped from her seat and sat again quickly, placing her book on the table, then picking it up again. The knowing smile of Madeline Gardiner made her exuberance turn sheepish. “I am only grateful he has arrived safely and not had another accident befall him.”
“Of course, Lizzy.”
Their exchange was interrupted by a knock at the front door; then, the maid announced the one-person Lizzy had been all anticipation to see.
“Mr. Fitzroy.”
His tall figure entered the room, bowing first to Mrs. Gardiner and then to her. “Mrs. Gardiner. Miss Bennet.”
“Welcome, sir. Will you sit?” Mrs. Gardiner asked, extending her arm to the chair beside her niece before ordering refreshments.
“And how do you find your stay at de Bourgh House?”
“Exceptional. It was owned by Mrs. Wickham’s family, the Darcys, and their housekeeper from Pemberley resides there. She recalls me from my youth.”
“Did you grow up around Derbyshire?” Mrs. Gardiner asked.
“No. But I visited as a child with my parents.”
“Pemberley is a beautiful estate, to be sure.”
“Are you familiar with the area?”
“Yes, I grew up in Lambton.”
“Lambton? Why that is not five miles from Pemberley.”
“I have fond memories of growing up with the Darcys’ harvest balls and Mrs. Darcy’s benevolence to us schoolgirls with a new pair of gloves at the end of every year.”
“Yes, my mo–– Excuse me. Mymemoryof Mrs. Darcy was of her benevolence.”
Elizabeth noticed her aunt was looking oddly at Mr. Fitzroy.
“What is your family name, Mrs. Gardiner?”
“We were the Flints. My father owned––”
