Elizabeth straightened and her feet found the floor. “To London? I knew that he had asked the colonel to leave, but I spoke to him afterward and he promised to reconsider. But you? My own sister?”
Lydia made a face and pointed to her stomach with the hand that bore her wedding ring.
“Ah,” Elizabeth sighed. She rubbed her face, and decided that it would take more than a little pinching of her cheekbones to refresh her visage. Lydia followed as she walked to the water basin.
“I cannot fathom how I almost found him agreeable,” she was complaining. “Perhaps it was only because by comparison, George was sodisagreeable. How did you ever come to put up with the man?”
Elizabeth splashed her face and then dabbed it with a cloth. “Mr Darcy has endured a great deal, Lydia, and I fancy that in the process he was told a number of untruths in an attempt to manipulate him. Can you honestly say that even you would not take some time to recover your usual spirits after such an ordeal?” She slanted a significant brow at her sister.
“Well! If you mean to say that I was as rude as he when I first returned to Longbourn, Lizzy, I shall… well, I do not know what I shall do. Perhaps I will eat your tart,” she threatened, eyeing the tray one of the maids had brought up.
“Help yourself, I am not hungry. Lydia, have you spoken to Georgiana in the last hour or two?”
“Hmmhmmm,” Lydia nodded around a mouthful of tart. She gulped, shielding her mouth with her hand, and swallowed. “Her feathers are all rumpled about you. It doesn’t help that her brother will not listen to anyone else, for now she feels that you are stealing him away.”
“That is not at all true!” Elizabeth protested with red cheeks. “He was speaking with his steward not half an hour ago, learning all he could about events here. Besides, if he truly listened to me, as you claim, he would not be sending the colonel away, and would certainly have consulted me about you.”
“Well, Georgie does not believe that. I suppose either way, something will come of it; if he does listen to you, the colonel and I will stay, and he will have to put up with us as well. If he does not listen to you, then you will be the only one left here to talk to him.” Lydia grinned at her clever deductions and popped the last of the tart in her mouth. “Bonne chance, Lizzy.”
Lost in thought, Elizabeth’s gaze was fixed on some point across the room, but at once she brightened. “How could I not have thought of that? Of course, I know how to persuade him!”
Lydia looked about to see what object had piqued her sister’s interest, but finding none, turned her attention back. “How?”
“Why, it is simple. It may have been decent enough for us both to remain as Georgiana’s guests, but with Mr Darcy here, the matter looks very different. I cannot remain alone, for it would cast my presence into question on a number of fronts. Chaperoned by his sister or not, a single woman staying as the sole guest at the estate of a wealthy man would generate talk. I am certain Mr Darcy will agree, for he is most attentive to such matters.”
“I’d wager he is… attentive,” Lydia giggled.
Elizabeth shifted her eyes to her sister. “I beg your pardon?”
“Oh, come, Lizzy! You were out for hours last night, alone with him! A handsome, rich man like that, lonely and sad after being locked away for months? You cannot tell me that you did not offer some little comfort.”
“Lydia!”
“I shall think you abominably stupid if you did not. Are you at least engaged?”
“Lydia, Mr Darcy has been presumed dead for over six months now, and returned only last night. Can we not grant the man some peace without pressing him for matrimony?’
“Well?” Lydia tapped her toes and crossed her arms.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “I will confess to nothing, for you could not hold your tongue.”
“That settles it!” Lydia crowed in triumph. “Oh, think how Mama will talk!” Then her face darkened and she frowned at her stomach. “I shall depend upon you, Lizzy, to speak to Mr Darcy on my behalf. I should likesomeoneto make George suffer at least a little, or perhaps even challenge him to a duel so I can be free of him. Do you think the colonel would—”
Elizabeth was spared the humiliation of an answer when another knock sounded on the door. Thinking it to be her maid, or perhaps even Georgiana, she signaled Lydia with a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry,” she mouthed, then in a full voice, “Come in, please.”
The door opened seemingly on its own, but framed within it stood the imposing figure of Lady Catherine de Bourgh. She glanced silently between the two sisters, her gaze finally coming to rest on Elizabeth.
Lydia was no fool, and knew when neither she nor her excuses were wanted. She slipped out, cringing back at her sister before she disappeared. Elizabeth drew a brave gasp and curtseyed. Lady Catherine calling upon her in her bedchamber! What had the house come to? “Good afternoon, your ladyship,” she made answer steadily. “To what do I owe this honour?”
Lady Catherine slowly entered the room, a barely contained sneer pulling at her lips as her eyes roved its walls, and at last settled on its occupant. “Miss Bennet,” she pronounced slowly. “I have come to speak with you about a matter of gravest import.”
“Of course, your ladyship. How may I be of assistance?”
Lady Catherine turned about, her arms sweeping her grand shawl as if it were a queen’s train, then she leaned on her cane and assumed the seat that Lydia had just vacated. “I am leaving for London within the hour, Miss Bennet.” She parted her lips again, then paused to draw breath. Her face, Elizabeth noted, seemed suddenly haggard and fatigued. Were it any other woman of her age, Elizabeth would have felt concerned for her health.
Lady Catherine tapped her cane on the floor with a weak sort of resolve. “I wished to discuss the situation with my nephew before I depart.” Her forehead dimpled and she withdrew a handkerchief to press to her lips in the way of an elderly lady troubled by indigestion. Elizabeth waited patiently while the lady composed herself.
“I have long been celebrated for my frankness, Miss Bennet,” she continued. “There are many things I should like to say to you; that you have no place here, no right to presume upon my niece and nephew, that your very presence pollutes Pemberley with the stink of trade and low breeding. I daresay you now aspire to marriage, a marriage that should never be! Darcy’s duty to his name, the interests of his family, even honour itself, all these forbid it! He was formed for my Anne since infancy. We planned their union, my sister and I, from their cradles.”
