Elizabeth took her hand between her own and expelled Georgiana’s shame with her confidence. “I am Mario Rossi. He is the name I sign so that I can sell my paintings.” She bowed her head. “Until recently, my family needed the income my work provided.”
She earned a living? By assuming a man’s name? Georgiana gasped. She had never known anyone brave enough to defy social norms like that. It was daring. It was outrageous. It was?—
Her friend squeezed her hand and dropped it. “Myduplicity must come as a shock to you. I will always cherish our brief friendship.”
Although Georgiana’s mind and heart were too full to explain herself effectively, she could not allow Elizabeth to misunderstand her silence. “It iswonderful!”
Elizabeth’s laugh was dry and painful. “How is this wonderful?”
“For Miss Bingley to copy your style, your artwork must be gaining popularity. Nobody who truly understands color would wear the hues she does.”
Elizabeth pinched her lips together, but the flash in her eyes and the angry red flooding her cheeks told Georgiana that she had unwittingly touched on a sensitive subject.
Miss Bingley’s paintings. Elizabeth’s paintings. They weretoosimilar. “Oh,” Georgiana mumbled.
Once the full impact of this revelation hit her like a bolt of lightning, she firmly took the side of her new friend, exclaiming,“Oh!She did not paint them at all, did she?” She did not look away until she got a reply. “Did she?” she repeated.
Elizabeth shook her head.
Indignation filled Georgiana. “And she was so condescending to you, giving you art lessons! All the while, she had assumed your talent as her own! Oh, I could pull out her hair!”
“You will do no such thing. My days of painting as Mario Rossi are done. If you keep my secret, no harm is done. Miss Bingley will have to paint her own landscapes from now on.”
It was not enough punishment to suit Georgiana’s maligned sense of justice. “It is not fair! She ought to be exposed! Publicly!”
“If I were to call her out, I would have to admit my own duplicity. It would ruin me, and my family would suffer from my shame.”
“But you are not a thief! If thetononly knew?—”
“It would ruin my sisters. Please, I beg you not to say a word. My injured pride is nothing compared to my sisters’ welfare. I have already come too close to revealing more than I ought to have done.”
The portrait sketch. The watercolor lesson. How had Georgiana missed the clues? “You are the better artist! Your understanding of color, your portrait of my brother?—”
“Please, Georgiana, promise me you will keep silent on the matter.”
She would agree, of course, but Georgiana did not like it at all. She did not know how to capture a mischievous gleam in the eye with charcoal, but Elizabeth had done it. It was an expression Georgiana had not seen her brother make in so many years that she had long since thought him incapable of such playfulness. Somehow, Elizabeth had brought that out in him, and then, somehow, she had captured it on paper. Such a talent deserved to be praised, not hidden.
Heaving a sigh, she agreed reluctantly. “Very well, but I do not know how you can stand it.” She could not have endured Miss Bingley’s patronizing art lessons and condescending comments. Gasping, Georgianacovered her face with her hands. “And I was the one who insisted you stay longer for Jane, forcing you to keep company with that envious, conniving, overstepping thief! How can you ever forgive me?”
“There is nothing to forgive. You did not know, and I love your kind heart for putting Jane’s welfare before anything else. We have only our reputations to recommend us.”
Georgiana made a sound that would never have met with Mrs. Annesley’s approval. “To think of all of the painters, poets, and writers who are able to benefit from their art.”
“They are gentlemen. It is not fair, but it is a restraint by which we live.”
“Why should a gentleman’s daughter not be able to do the same?”
“Take care not to express your opinion to the wrong people. I doubt your brother would share your view.”
Georgiana did not like Elizabeth lumping her brother in with the rest. “You do not know him as well as I do.”
“True, but I know him well enough to be certain he would not approve of you walking unattended.”
Georgiana so nearly pointed out that she was not alone and that Archie was a perfectly appropriate protector, but as her fierce guard was presently chasing his tail, she considered it best to hold her tongue. For a fact, Fitzwilliam would not be pleased to learn she had gone walking alone. Neither would Richard.
Elizabeth offered her arm. “Come. Remy and I shall walk you two back to Netherfield.”
Their walk provided an opportunity for Georgiana to ask just how she had created Mario Rossi. Her own hopes of attempting something similar were quashed when Elizabeth revealed the involvement of her uncles in the scheme. Georgiana only had one living uncle, Richard’s father, and she could not imagine a single circumstance in which The Right Honorable, The Earl of Matlock, would agree to assist her in such a progressive manner.
