“Both, perhaps,” Darcy said.
Richard laughed, but Georgiana, who sat near the fire with her embroidery, looked up with anxious sympathy. “You need not make it perfect, Brother. Miss Elizabeth already knows your heart.”
“That is precisely why it must be perfect,” Darcy replied.
“No,” Georgiana said softly, surprising him. “That is why it need only be sincere.”
Darcy looked at her for a long moment, then smiled. “You have grown very wise in your old age.”
“I am sixteen now,” she said, with dignity.
“Ancient,” Richard agreed. “Practically a dowager.”
Georgiana smiled into her work, and Darcy returned to his paper with less confidence in the elegance of his words, but more peace concerning their purpose.
The rain continued through the night and well into the next day, keeping every road glistening and every carriage wheel mired. By the second morning, however, the clouds broke. Sunlight came weak but golden over the wet fields, the air washed clean, and every bare branch seemed edged in silver. Darcy looked out once and determined that no man in England could reasonably be expected to endure another delay.
Fortunately, Bingley was more than willing to assist.
“Of course,” he said, nearly before Darcy had finished explaining. “Anything. I shall speak with Miss Bennet. Or not speak with her. Or speak with Mrs. Bennet. Or distract Mrs. Bennet. Though I confess I am less certain of success there. She is a formidable lady when matrimonial hopes are involved.”
“Then do not act alone,” Richard said. “I shall engage the younger girls. Miss Lydia already believes me a source of military intelligence, which is a grave mistake but a useful one.”
“And I can sit with Miss Mary,” Georgiana said. “She asked yesterday whether I practice sacred music. I think I can keep her in conversation for a little while.”
Richard looked at her with mock solemnity. “That, my dear cousin, may be the bravest service any Fitzwilliam has rendered this year.”
Georgiana blushed and laughed.
With such allies secured, Darcy rode to Longbourn in a state of agitation that made every hoofbeat feel too slow.
Mrs. Bennet received them with a fluttering joy she barely attempted to conceal. Jane’s smile trembled between amusement and happiness when Bingley immediately contrived to sit beside her. Georgiana, shy but determined, approached Mary with a question about music. Richard made Lydia and Kitty shriek with laughter within five minutes, though Darcy chose not to listen closely enough to learn why. Mr. Bennet observed the deployment of forces from behind a book, his eyes glinting above the page as though he saw everything and intended to help no one.
Elizabeth understood at once.
Darcy could see it in the slight lift of her brows when Bingley began asking Jane’s opinion of a new path at Netherfield, in the suppressed smile when Richard drew Lydia and Kitty toward the far window to demonstrate, with a walking stick, how not to hold a sword, and in the knowing glance she sent him when Georgiana gently asked Mary whether Fordyce’s sermons had any passages on music’s proper moral use.
“You have made careful arrangements, Mr. Darcy,” Elizabeth said quietly when he came to her side.
“I have attempted to.”
“Should I be alarmed?”
“I hope not.”
“That is not a denial.”
“No. It is a request for courage on my behalf.”
Her expression softened at that, and the teasing left her eyes without vanishing entirely. “Then perhaps we should walk before your allies exhaust themselves.”
Darcy offered his arm. “Miss Elizabeth, would you do me the honor?”
“I would.”
Mrs. Bennet watched them leave the room with a hand pressed to her chest and an expression of such transport that Elizabeth’s lips twitched. Darcy, for his part, was too grateful for escape to mind even Mrs. Bennet’s evident certainty that she would soon be mother to half of Derbyshire.
The garden was damp but passable, the paths darkened by rain and bordered by late autumn shrubs that had given up nearly all pretense of bloom. The sun lay low over the wet lawn, catching in small drops upon the hedges and making the whole world look newly made. Elizabeth walked beside him in silence for several moments, her hand light upon his arm, her pace unhurried.
