Page 19 of The Widower of Pemberley

“Do close the door,” Georgiana said to her niece. “Lizzy is still quite cold.”

After the girl shut it, rather harder than she ought, Elizabeth smiled at her. “Pleased to meet you. I am Miss Elizabeth. I believe you are Miss Emily.”

The little girl stared with beautiful large eyes at her, then hurried to hide behind Georgiana. After a few seconds, she peeked out from behind her aunt’s skirts and smiled with a wide, heart-melting grin at Elizabeth, who grinned back.

Georgiana apologised a third time, saying, “I am so sorry to see how hard that fall was. And you were coming to see me! I did not mean to cause you to be injured.”

Elizabeth laughed. “It was my mistake in allowing myself to be prodded into taking the horse by my mother. And, I shall happily endure a sprained ankle for the joy of seeing you.”

“Why is Miss Elizabeth hurt?” little Emily asked.

“Because I fell off my horse.”

Without pause the child continued, “Why did you fall off your horse?”

“Because the thunder startled poor Nelly, and she bolted and I lost my seat.”

“Why didn’t you hold on more tightly?”

Elizabeth laughed at the question. “Because I ought not to ride a horse at all.”

“Why shouldn’t you ride a horse at all?”

“Because I am not very good at managing them.”

The girl considered this with some gravity. And then she said, “Papa always says that a skill at riding a horse is a most important talent in anyone, woman or man.”

There Mr. Darcy went again, judging her, and he was not even there.

Georgiana laughed at her niece and kissed her on the top of her head. “I like Lizzy well enough. Even if she cannot ride a horse with any skill. Perhaps my brother and I can help you learn to keep a better seat.”

“I imagine you to be as talented at riding as at playing the pianoforte.”

“Oh no! I am notsotalented at riding. I would not lead a fox hunt from a side saddle, like Lady Hart, but I can keep a good seat.”

“For my part,” Elizabeth replied, “I have determined to never sit upon a horse again.”

Emily laughed loudly at that and then said in a lisping imitation of an adult manner, “That’s so droll.”

Elizabeth could not help it; she giggled.

This seemed to cause what reserve Emily still had to disappear, and she sat on Georgiana’s bed next to Elizabeth.

Elizabeth’s injuries were more thanjusta sprained ankle. Her whole side, from ankle to shoulder, was turning black and blue, and she found it nearly impossible to make herself stand from the bed so that the maid could fit the gown over her head. Her banged elbow did not wish to extend, and it hurt when she did straighten it with the maid’s help.

A tray of steaming tea, with one pot filled with willow bark, was delivered. Georgiana’s room was kept warm and toasty, and Elizabeth began to feel tolerably relaxed, though still decidedly in pain.

Once she had refreshed herself with the tea, the maid insisted that Elizabeth let her unpin her hair and wash it, as there was mud caked into the curls.

“So long as you can manage without my undressing once more,” Elizabeth said, “I am willing to sit still for however long is necessary.”

With some pain, Elizabeth was moved from her perch on the bed to the seat before Georgiana’s table, her hair unpinned and a towel placed around her neck so that she would not get wet as the maid cleaned the mud out of her hair with flannels and a brush.

The next hour was pleasant, though the conversation with Georgiana necessarily related to topics that Emily found ofinterest. The girl’s nurse came in several times and offered to take the child away, but Elizabeth insisted that she liked having her there.

She did.

The girl’s cheerfulness distracted her from the pain of her bruising, and small children were delightful. Since the youngest Mr. Lucas had grown into a stout man of eleven, she had not spent any great amount of time around small children.