“Good afternoon, Miss Bingley,” said the housekeeper. “Is Miss Darcy upstairs, ma’am?”
“Good afternoon,” Caroline muttered. She couldn’t bring herself to make eye contact, not when she was so flustered, and made a great show of putting on her bonnet and gloves to avoid doing so. “I expect so. She left me only a short while ago to, er, finish her correspondence.”
Mrs Reynolds nodded, though did not press the matter, and Caroline fled through the front door, relieved to escape any further questioning. She stalked down the path which led between high hedges and along a left-hand turn, which, in truth, was her least preferred route, until she reached the flowerbeds. She’d had some thought of sitting here on the bench for a while, but the rosebushes merely reminded her of Georgiana. Instinctively, Caroline reached for the nearest rose; dark petals, velvet-soft, simply begging to be touched and fondled and smelled and—
Good grief, she chided herself, yanking her hand back.Are not even the flowers safe from your amorous intent?
The thought made her chuckle, despite the strange way her stomach twinged at the thought of any kind ofamor. Instead of sitting, she headed down yet another path, admiring thebright blaze of purple and white columbines and the tall stems of pink hollyhock. Not even the faint scent of lilac drifting on the breeze could distract her from the memory of the kiss, from the way Georgiana’s lips had descended on hers, creating a storm cloud of passion, which had sent a bolt of lightning all the way down to her very toes.
One unassailable point of the matter was that Georgiana had kissed her—had kissed her first, in fact—and Caroline had kissed back. Miss Darcy had been right, of course, that they ought to leave it at that. One kiss was simply one kiss. It could be swept under the rug like any other indiscretion, could it not? Caroline found she’d taken another left, quite without meaning to, and was now en route back to the house. Her pace quickened as she considered the matter, as if by marching she could bring her thoughts closer and thus sort through them more efficiently.
The second unassailable point of the matter was that, even before the kiss had taken place, she’d desired Georgiana in a manner she had not quite understood. From the moment she’d seen Georgiana emerge dripping from the lake, Caroline had wanted to embrace Miss Darcy in a way that went very much beyond mere friendship. She was prepared to admit that it had taken her a ridiculously long time to reach this elementary conclusion, though this had hardly been her fault given how little she knew of these things, but now that they had kissed, and at least some future potential had been made plain to her, she could not simply close the door on the business without stepping through it again at least once. It need not interfere with the Great Endeavour, either, since Miss Darcy was not a man and would therefore have no interest in marrying her.
My reasoning, as ever, is perfectly sound.
She sped up until she was flat out running, bursting through the front door of Pemberley with a vehemence that was not at all ladylike before bolting up the staircase two at a time, ripping her bonnet off as she went. Panting, Caroline kicked the door of Georgiana’s room open without knocking, strode inside, and swung the door shut behind her. Miss Darcy was sitting at her desk, quill in hand, though she’d been staring out of the window rather than at the correspondence in front of her, and flinched when she saw Caroline.
Georgiana was up and out of her seat in a moment, putting as much distance between them as possible. “It’s considered polite to knock and wait to be admitted to a private chamber, you know.”
Caroline ignored this. She hadn’t been in the habit of remembering to knock before, and she wasn’t about to start now. “It is my conclusion,” she announced breathlessly, “that we ought to do that again.”
Georgiana stared at her. “I beg your pardon?”
“We ought to kiss again,” she said, advancing. “That is my conclusion.”
“Your... your conclusion to what?” Georgiana backed up again until she was in danger of becoming lost in the curtains.
“The argument that you will undoubtedly make.”
Georgiana blinked, her eyes sliding down towards Caroline’s lips. Her shoulders, which had been up around her ears, relaxed minutely. “How do you know what sort of argument I will make?”
Caroline scoffed. “You cannot really be asking me that.”
“Whyever not?” Miss Darcy straightened her shoulders, inching forward so that she was no longer trapped against thewall. Her gaze flickered past Caroline, presumably to the closed door, but Caroline had no intention of letting her run a second time.
“Because I know you, Georgie. I do.” Her heart was beating so fast she felt rather light-headed, but she kept her eyes on Georgiana, intent on making her case plain. “I know you will say that it is improper, but no one ever need know. Besides, can an improper action truly be called so if there is no one to witness it?”
“How very philosophical of you. Is that your entire line of reasoning?”
She refused to let herself be deterred by such a jab. “No. I have other conclusions. Sub-conclusions, if you will. And they all amount to the same... peroration.”There.She was rather proud of that summary. She waited, but Georgiana made no reply.
“Caroline, I do not think it a good idea. It may lead down a path which...” Miss Darcy pressed her lips together, as if clamping down on her own sentence. “It is simply an unwise course of action. Therefore... no.”
Caroline hadn’t expected Georgiana to leap into her arms immediately, but the abrupt dismissal stung. “No?” she repeated, incredulous.
“No. I cannot possibly—” Georgiana caught herself, then swallowed hard. “We could not possibly—” She halted again, clearing her throat. “No. My answer is no.”
“I see.” Caroline straightened, unable to help a smile creeping across her lips. If Georgiana had intended to reject her properly, she would have done so in a manner far more sympathetic, which took Caroline’s own feelings into account. She knew Miss Darcy well enough to suspect that thispanicked response was likely borne of the instinct to protect herself from something she found frightening. And why not, when her last dalliance had ended so badly? Not that Caroline would ever deign to compare herself with the likes of George Wickham. “Very well,” she said mildly.
“What are you smiling about?” Georgiana demanded, staring at her.
“Nothing, my dear friend.” She smiled even more widely. It was excellent to have another goal. Obtaining a single kiss was far more immediately achievable than the end goal of marriage which underpinned the Great Endeavour. That stubbornness which Fitzwilliam had accused her of, and which he’d been perfectly correct about, would serve her well here. “Nothing at all.”
“You did hear me, did you not?” Georgiana said, a look of deepest suspicion suffusing her pretty features. “I said no.”
“Of course, Miss Darcy.” She turned, throwing a coy look over her shoulder. “Whatever you say shall be.”
