I leaned back, schooled to patience. “Family she may be in spirit, but I hardly need remind you of appearances. Your betrothed has only just departed. Parading a pretty childhood playmate before Lady Lucilla could severely undermine recent progress.”
George swung round, mouth agape. “Progress—you mean that stuffed-shirt Belmont’s blessing? By God,Lucillachose me, not Belmont!”
“So I understood it.” I steepled thoughtful fingers. “Nevertheless, recall how slender her chances appeared. Lord Belmont was hardly predisposed to accept a second son lacking any real prospects. Your suit remains… unconventional.”
George’s hackles rose. “I’ll have you know many ladies of quality find me perfectly eligible!”
I sighed. “Yes, fortune hunters and widows, perhaps. But for a marquess’s sole heiress? You cannot deny the mismatch. Nor your own capricious reputation.” I held up a hand to stall his angry retort. “However unfair, past frivolity leaves you on tenuous footing. One injudicious move could yet bring disaster.”
My unvarnished candor gave him pause. He slumped into the chair with a gusty exhale, the fight departing from his countenance. “But to ignore Lizzy... Surely, we owe her better!” Raking both hands through his blond curls, he demanded in sudden suspicion, “Unless you, too, mean to deny her very existence henceforth?”
I looked away from the hurt accusation in his eyes. How could I answer truly when every path seemed fraught with thorns for someone beloved?
“I intend nothing of the kind. But until the mystery of her abrupt removal is solved, we remain hampered. Embracing renewed intimacy appears… premature.”
George surged upright, fists clenched in frustration. “Damn Father’s secrets to perdition! Am I to keep hazarding Lizzy’s feelings to indulge his confounded eccentricities from the grave?”
“Of course not.” I met his burning stare directly. “But we never did learn why Father was so eager to separate her from us… fromyou. It could be that there was a reason that is as much in the interests of her better good—egad, perhaps in the interests ofmorality—as anything you might have imagined.”
“I say! You do not now accuse Father of siring her? You always swore he did not, and so did he. Have you changed your mind?”
I swallowed and let my gaze drift to the window. “No. And I do not deny your frustration, for you have every right to it. You have ever cared more deeply than most for her. I fully acknowledge those ties.” I held his gaze meaningfully. “Ties likely best left… dormant with your present obligations.”
George’s throat convulsed. For an instant, pain and longing warred nakedly across his countenance. Then he whirled away, features shuttered. My own heart twisted. Cruel necessity that forced me to such ruthless amputation!
In the fraught silence, the clock’s steady clicks marked the slow death of careless possibility. At length, George turned back, wearing once more the mask of careless nonchalance. “Well! A pretty problem you’ve left me, brother. But never fear—” He tugged his waistcoat straight with a determined smile. “I’m for the village on an errand with Bingley. No diverting to certain flower-strewn cottage gardens en route.”
The tease held more plea for approval than confidence. I offered a wan answering smile. “See that you do not. Oh, and George?”
He glanced over his shoulder, poise still shadowed by banked yearning. I cleared my suddenly constricted throat. “You may not credit me in this. But I desire her happiness no less than you.”
Cryptic shadows shifted behind his eyes. Then winked out as sunny charm resurfaced. “Never doubted it! Wish me luck choosing some bauble sparkly enough to make Lucilla swoon. Small chance of that in Lambton, but I remain valiant in the effort!” With his customary flourish, he departed, the merry tune floating back down the corridor belying all beneath.
I moved to stand once more at the window where our interview began, unsought words slipping free in the empty room. “Godspeed you in that quest, Brother.”
But the indifferent glass swallowed up my futile wishes. The golden dream of halcyon childhood faded with it, reality’s gray mists rolling back to claim long-awaited due. I straightened my shoulders beneath the familiar weight of duty and pragmatism. If providence denied my brother ease in reconciling past and present affections, the struggle at least was his alone to bear.
Whereas I... I would hold fast to higher principles that must supersede mere personal fancy. The gate on old hopes had clanged irreversibly shut the day I inherited leadership at Pemberley.
Elizabeth
“No,Annie,wemustn’tpull Flossie’s tail so.” I gently extracted the protesting kitten from my small charge’s determined grip. “See how she cries when you hurt her?”
Two-year-old Anne Rose pouted up at me, protests forming on her cherub mouth. But quicker than thought, the threatened tears transformed into delighted giggles as the ruffled tabby leaned forward to butt her fuzzy head beneath the little girl’s hand. Crisis averted. With a relieved sigh, I lifted my eyes to see Jane regarding us in amusement from the kitchen doorway.
“I begin to see the merits in your campaigns for either a cage or a string to follow these little wanderers outside,” she remarked wryly, nodding to where Anne Rose had already tottered off after the cat into the hall. “How ever did you manage her so long this morning while I helped Aunt?”
I followed at a discreet distance as my charge discovered the furled roses hiding among Aunt’s hats. “Never underestimate the appeal of feathers for distraction,” I replied with a laugh, nodding to the currently abandoned avian plumes. “But come, you look done in. Shall I take over the marketing and menus today so you can rest?”
Jane smiled, one hand going absently to the pendant at her graceful throat. “Oh, I am quite refreshed, really. It was pleasant to enjoy some discourse with our caller earlier.”
I raised one brow, crossing my arms meaningfully until she blushed. “A caller, you say? Anyone whose name rhymes with Mr. Tingley by chance?”
“Lizzy!” Despite her color heightening, Jane’s eyes met mine directly. “As it happens, our visitordidexpress such decided admiration that I find myself… considering perhaps that my determination to wait for a truly amiable man has paid off. Only think if I had not the confidence of a respectable dowry when Mr. Collins wrote to Papa with his offer!”
My grin stretched wider, and I squeezed her hands. “No one deserves happiness more! And think nothing of Mr. Collins’s disappointment. I say five thousand pounds surely earns the right to weigh such offers carefully.” I kept my tone delicately teasing. “‘Tis not a large fortune, but you needn’t settle for the first gentleman to make doe eyes at you.”
Jane tilted her head, hesitation entering her limpid gaze. “Do you believe I ought to delay, then? Wait to see if another more eligible prospect presents itself?”
