“It is, yes, but it must be done.” Her tone was resolute, and her eyes were now dry, though still red and swollen. “You will tell Brother?”
Elizabeth had tears in her eyes as she nodded slowly. Georgiana left the room, and Elizabeth walked through the shared sitting room to knock on her husband’s door and then walk in.
“Elizabeth?”
“Georgiana realises that if George Wickham were to tell his tale after she married Lord Fane, her entire new family would suffer from her disgrace. She will discourage his suit.”
“She is quite right. I am proud of her, Elizabeth.”
Elizabeth could only shake her head. There must be a way to put this right!
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Elizabeth thought the timing for a family dinner could not have been worse, but it could not be cancelled. She put on a bright dress and a bright smile to welcome her guests. The Gardiners arrived first, and were soon seated near the fire in the drawing room. They wanted to hear all about the Royal Tea, and Elizabeth suggested that they wait until all the guests arrived, as the story would just have to be told again.
The Bingleys and the Matlocks arrived not ten minutes later, and Elizabeth did her best to tell the story of the event, giving as much detail as anyone might wish.
“But where is the fair pianist?” Caroline enquired.
“She will be down shortly,” Mr. Darcy said, quickly. “She had a bit of a headache earlier today.”
“No doubt from nerves, poor creature!” Jane exclaimed.
“She was nervous, of course, but the moment she sat down at the instrument, her nerves vanished. And oh, you should have seen Her Majesty’s pianoforte; I have never seen the like!”
As Elizabeth spoke, Colonel Fitzwilliam glanced around the room and his gaze fastened on Caroline Bingley. She looked up at him and then quickly looked away. She wished he would not look at her; she would never dance with him again, and certainly she would not be required to make polite conversation with him!
But in that, she was quite wrong, for soon after Georgiana joined the company, dinner was announced and Caroline discovered that she had the Colonel on one side and Mr. Gardiner on the other. She glared at Elizabeth, but her hostess was too occupied to notice.
“An unexpected seating arrangement,” the Colonel observed softly, once he had politely helped Caroline into her chair.
“My thoughts exactly,” Caroline murmured in return. “I have no idea what Elizabeth was thinking.”
“I suspect this to be a plot on my mother’s part.”
“The Countess? But why?”
“She wishes to punish me further for my dreadful behaviour at the ball.”
Impossible, Caroline thought. Sitting next to her could never be construed as a punishment. So she immediately fastened on the second half of his statement. “So you admit your behaviour was dreadful?”
“I admitted it at the time; what more could you possibly want?”
Caroline thought about it. “Hmmm. Flowers every day for a week.”
“And that will absolve me of my crime?”
“Yes, but you will have to be very careful not to commit further crimes. You have an entire dinner to get through, so you must be very cautious.”
The Colonel laughed before catching himself. He did not want to find Miss Bingley at all amusing. He did have to admit that she was properly dressed tonight and was comporting herself well. This was certainly not the determined flirt that he had met in the past. What, he wondered, had happened to change her?
Georgiana received a good many compliments as the dinner progressed, and she accepted them graciously. If she was rather quiet, it was attributed to the headache she had apparently experienced that day.
The Countess said, “You have done extremely well, Georgiana. Truly, you have exceeded all of my expectations!”
Georgiana looked at her great-aunt levelly. “Did you think I would faint dead away, Aunt?”
“I thought you would at the presentation, let alone taking tea with Her Majesty and entertaining her!”
