Mr Bennet shrugged, then drew his favourite daughter in for one more fatherly embrace as he chuckled low into her ear. “Your mother has declared to all in the neighborhood that Colonel Fitzwilliam has come to escort Lydia to the North to rejoin her husband. Why, even Mrs Long and Mrs Lucas have eaten their prior aspersions and expressed their well wishes to the young couple! You see what pride this report has given your mother, and you are a clever enough girl, my Lizzy. With Lydia conveniently dispatched on such an auspicious chance, Mary and Kitty’s prospects have improved dramatically—to say nothing of your own.”
Elizabeth drew back from her father, frowning. “I thank you for reminding me, Papa,” she retorted drily.
He touched her cheek, his eyes bearing a strange sheen. “Write me, my girl. Longbourn shall be tragically devoid of good conversation with you away.”
She could not help the quivering warmth pulling at her cheeks. “I promise, Papa.”
“God-speed then, my child.”
And with this final exchange, Elizabeth left her home.
“Areyoucomfortable,Ladies?”Colonel Fitzwilliam smiled cheerfully, once all had settled within their thick lap robes. “Miss Bennet, Mrs Wickham, have you enough bricks for your feet?”
Elizabeth arched a wry brow at the colonel’s pointed reversal of preeminence. She might be the elder sister, but Lydia’s dubious marital state at least accorded her with social superiority, so that she ought to have been addressed first. If Colonel Fitzwilliam caught her amused chagrin, it is unlikely that Lydia did. That young lady was happily engaged already with her seat-mate, and only spared the colonel a response when Georgiana ceased answering to look at her cousin.
“La, Colonel, but you have supplied twice the robes we take in our own carriage! I should not wonder if I become rather too hot along the way.” She patted her rounding stomach with a gloved hand—the one she had stubbornly squeezed into her wedding ring—and smiled slyly. “I am seldom cold now, do you know.”
Elizabeth coughed suddenly, covering a frown with her own gloves. The colonel merely grinned handsomely, apparently ignoring Lydia’s last remark in favour of the first. “That is as it should be, Mrs Wickham. I am deeply honoured to escort you all to London, and I believe I would have insisted upon claiming that privilege even if Mr Gardiner’s carriage had not been already full. I am only sorry that I could not have seen you directly to Pemberley, for you shall now be exposed to two more days of travel. While today’s journey to Cheapside shall be easy enough, I fancy your subsequent travels into Derbyshire may require ample comforts. It would not do for ladies to take a chill at this time of the year, of course.”
“You have taken all proper precautions, Colonel,” Elizabeth spoke quickly, interrupting whatever loud retort Lydia had opened her mouth to make. “I am sure none could have better secured our comforts.”
His brows rose as he turned toward her. “None, eh? I shall remember that compliment, Miss Bennet, for I am assured that it issues from one who knows of what she speaks. Mr Gardiner tells me that you enjoy travel. I trust you are well-rested and eagerly anticipating our journey?”
“I am, sir,” she dipped her head in mild acknowledgment. “It will be a delight to reacquaint myself with Derbyshire.”
“How could you be rested, Lizzy?” Lydia broke in. “I saw light from under your door most of the night, whenever I happened to stir.”
Elizabeth squirmed, darting an uncomfortable smile to the assembled occupants, all of whom now peered at her in concern.
“I hope you did not suffer in anxiety for the arrangements,” the colonel put in gallantly. “I assure you, anything you may find needful shall be managed, you have but to say the word! I am completely at your disposal until I leave London, and the staff at Pemberley are quite unequaled.”
“Oh, it is nothing like that, I thank you, Colonel!” Elizabeth shot a swift glare at her sister. “I occasionally experience some difficulty in sleeping just before a journey. My thoughts wander most aggravatingly when adventure is afoot, so that I do not rest well. It is often that I sit up on such nights reading, for if I am to be denied sleep, at least my mind is more agreeably engaged.”
“Well,” the colonel’s regular features betrayed some relief of his distress, “I hope that you shall suffer no such difficulty after this first day of travel, Miss Bennet. Fear not, you shall soon be rid of my own presence and may then enjoy my charming cousin and your very agreeable uncle for the remainder of your journeys.”
“I hope you will like Derbyshire,” Georgiana smiled shyly to Lydia. “I believe Miss Elizabeth enjoyed the grounds, but I fear they are not as pleasant at this time of the year as when she last visited.”
“Oh, I’ve no doubts we shall be a merry party no matter the weather,” Lydia vowed. “It is Lizzy who is the walker. I am always most content indoors, so long as there are ample diversions. Do you like making over bonnets, Miss Darcy? I shall teach you all my tricks, for none in Hertfordshire had such nice bonnets as I.”
“Bonnets which,” Elizabeth smiled, “usually came first to the house in the possession of another before they were liberated for your purposes.”
“You ought never to have bought that brown one, Lizzy, it did not suit you,” Lydia shrugged. “Even I was hard put to make something of it, but I suppose it did come out well, for all that.”
Georgiana’s eyes were sparkling brightly as they danced between the sisters. “I have never made over a bonnet,” she confessed with a laugh. “Mine have always been sent by a milliner from London, then my maid makes any adjustments that are necessary.”
“Oh, but you miss out on the fun of suiting your own fancies!” Lydia exclaimed. “Do you not draw or paint tables? It is the same sort of thing. Have you ever arranged bouquets?”
Georgiana’s cheeks were pleasantly pink and a broad smile teased her mouth. “Some little,” she confessed.
“There, it is exactly the same, but that you are setting off your own features rather than the vase or the table. If you can master the one, the other is a snap!”
“Oh, I did not claim to have mastered it, by any means,” Georgiana protested, giggling. “I made a few attempts, but none of my aunts, nor my governesses, have encouraged that accomplishment. I believe my mother was fond of arranging flowers, however. I dare not display my own creations so freely as she did, for I understand she was a prodigious talent. She would brighten the library and my father’s study, and even the dining room with her efforts, or so Fitzw—”
The word died on lips that were puckered still with the effort of pronouncing her brother’s name. Elizabeth began to stiffen in concern and felt the colonel do the same beside her, but Georgiana drew a brave gasp and continued. “—W-william always told me.” She glanced self-consciously to her cousin, biting her lip, and then her gaze went to her folded hands.
Elizabeth released a low breath, sensing some of Georgiana’s abrupt melancholy settling over the whole of the carriage. She swallowed and exchanged pained glances with Colonel Fitzwilliam, who merely shook his head and spread his hands in utter helplessness.
“I’ve an idea,” Lydia perked up with inspiration. “Let us begin by decorating our own chambers. If the maids do not cover their eyes in horror, we shall then move on to the service corridors, and then perhaps the stables. You do not suppose the horses will eat them, do you?”
