Near the fireplace, Georgiana was describing something to Mrs Bennet with more animation than Elizabeth had yet seen from her, her hands moving as she spoke. Mrs Bennet was nodding, asking small questions, and talking more freely than she had in months. Although her volume had failed to return to her naturally exuberant level.
"Your mother has a gift for conversing with my sister," Darcy said quietly.
"She is most interested in people. I did not give her enough credit for it, for a long time. She was quite altered recently and I think she sees something of her own difficulties in your sister"
They maintained a contented silence for some minutes.
???
It was Georgiana who came to join them at the window, drawn perhaps by some gravitational pull toward her brother, and Elizabeth turned to include her with a ready smile.
"I hope you are finding Lyme agreeable, Miss Darcy. It is beautiful, if rather quiet. My youngest sister Lydia would declare it most direly in need of a more eligible gentleman." She laughed gently. "She has her head in a novel, always hoping for some charming young man in the mood for a great romance. Although more than likely her silly schemes would end in heartbreak." As my father says, next to being married, a girl likes to be crossed in love a little now and then." She shook her head fondly. "Lydia more than most, I think."
It was nothing and she said it without guile or any real thought at all. But she watched with horror as the younger girl’s face crumpled and Mr Darcy turned very white. Then Miss Darcy turned and fled from the room, her sobs audible as she ran from the company.
The room fell silent and Elizabeth felt heat rise up her neck.
"I wonder," Mr Darcy said in a clipped tone, "that you find such impropriety so diverting, Miss Elizabeth."
He spat out her name and Elizabeth flinched before standing a little straighter.
"I was making a joke about Lydia, who is not yet 16 and incorrigible, which is my prerogative as an older sister and I assure you has nothing to do with—"
"Perhaps," he said, "you might consider that not everyone shares your amusement in poor behaviour."
Elizabeth kept her voice pleasant. It required some effort. "I consider that you have implied I said something offensive, Mr Darcy, when I said nothing offensive, which I find rather rude."
"And I consider," he said, "that a little more discretion might have been advisable. Impertinence, Miss Elizabeth is not always a virtue"
"You are being ungentlemanly," she said, fighting to keep her voice level. "And I think you are aware of it… sir"
The silence was absolute.
Her mother was examining the carpet with tremendous focus. Bingley had an expression of utter incomprehension. Jane had folded her hands in her lap and was looking at a point just above everyone's head.
"I find," said Mrs Makepeace, with complete composure, "that almond biscuits improve most situations considerably. Mr Makepeace, God rest him, held that there was no difficulty in the world that was not made at least somewhat more manageable by something good to eat and a moment's pause to eat it. He wasa very wise man in many respects, though not in all, but on this particular point I have never found cause to disagree with him."
Then Bingley said, with magnificent irrelevance, "I had a marvellous almond cake once in Bath that was really tremendously good. Do you know Bath, Miss Bennet? Darcy, you've been to Bath. Lovely place. The architecture alone is worth the journey. Though Ja—, Miss Bennet, I wonder whether you prefer the sea, actually, because there is something about the sea that Bath, for all its virtues—"
"I think I prefer the sea," Jane said, turning to him with warm attention. "Though I have never been to Bath."
"Then you must go," Bingley said, with complete conviction. "Darcy, she must go to Bath."
Darcy said nothing. He had already left the room.
???
Elizabeth sat down and opened a book but did not even pretend to read it.
She had done nothing wrong. She was entirely certain of this. She had made a joke about Lydia, which was hardly a dangerous subject, and Miss Darcy had reacted in a manner she could not begin to explain. Whatever had distressed the girl, it could not reasonably have been what Elizabeth had said.
He had turned it into something it was not and then called her impertinent when she objected, which was so far from acceptable that she could not quite believe it had happened in a comfortable parlour in the middle of the morning.
She was angry. She was completely justified in being angry.
She was also, and this was the irritating part, confused and regretful. Because Georgiana's face had been devastatingly sad. She had caused that, albeit unknowingly. She had done a wrong to quiet but perfectly lovely young girl by letting her thoughts run out of her mouth unfettered. She must set it right somehow.
She could not work out what she had said that was so disagreeable and she felt hot and uncomfortable and entirely discomposed for the rest of the morning.
