Page 48 of The Widower of Pemberley

“Yes, my papa taught me.”

“Then sit here. Tell me what moves to make.”

The advice given by the girl, and Mr. Bennet’s strict adherence to it, meant thatGeorgianawas now required to play poorly to lengthen the match, but in the end Elizabeth’s friend was notso skilled at making bad moves as her three-year-old niece. So, alas, her father and Emily suffered the despair of defeat, after which the former made an exaggerated and lopsided display of misery, making Emily laugh.

Elizabeth could see that despite the possibility of death coming suddenly, her father was in decent spirits.

From the questions that Mr. Bennet asked Georgiana on the rare occasions that Emily allowed anyone to speak about a topic that was not of interest to her, Elizabeth gained a description of the actual size and situation of Pemberley, the distance round the park, that the stream was always kept stocked with trout, that Mr. Darcy particularly liked fishing, and that they hosted a big gathering for all the tenants every Christmas.

“You’ll preside. Be Lady Bountiful,” her papa said to her. “Prepared to look the part?”

“Oh yes! Lizzy will be perfect,” Georgiana said. “Everyone will think she looks exactly as Mrs. Darcy ought. I am so eager to see her there!”

So very soon.

Special licence.

They could marry any time after Mr. Darcy returned. She would not see the Gardiners when they came for Christmas.

She did not know when she would see them again.

Do not be dour.

There would be ample occasions to call on them, in her married splendour, when in London. Elizabeth knew that Mr. Darcy was frequently in town, even though he disliked the city.

Mr. Gardiner had not come out to Hertfordshire to be with Mrs. Bennet after Mr. Bennet’s apoplexy. His business was ina particularly busy period as he set everything in order before Christmas.

Had Mr. Bennet died, Elizabeth was confident that he would have made the journey to be with his sister and to attend the funeral, but no message had been sent to Gracechurch Street to inform them of the misfortune that had struck them until it was known that her father would require an additional apoplectic attack to carry him off.

Shortly after, Georgiana ended their call, saying that she had promised to return the carriage to Miss Bingley in good time so that lady could visit a shop in a town a few miles away where they supposedly made exquisite vases.

After they left, Mr. Bennet said, “I likethem. Well enough. His nearest family. No difficulty for you. Sweet child. Much confidence. Is a little spoiled.” With a fond smile, he added, “You were too. Happy.”

He settled back into the sofa and closed his eyes to nap again.

Twenty minutes after their friends departed, Kitty and Lydia returned to Longbourn with a huffing Mr. Collins. They were full of the tale of a particularly handsome officer named Mr. Wickham. “Lizzy! He will be at Aunt Phillips’s card party tonight! You can meet him if you leave Papa long enough to come.”

“Surely you do not mean to go to a card party while Papa is so ill?”

Lydia giggled. “Jealous that you can have no interest in a handsome officer since you will be a dull married woman in a week? Oh, it is not fair! I hoped, with how you and Jane are old maids, that I should be the first to be married. It would have been such a joke! I would despise myself ifIwas twenty and not yet married.”

Elizabeth smiled a little. “I had selected one-and-twenty as the age at which I would rail against myself as an old maid, and as I have not reached it, and also because I shall marry before you, I consider myself as having been quite successful.”

The reply from Lydia was to stick her tongue out at Elizabeth. “La. I could elope with someone in the next three days and still marry before you.”

“No,” Mr. Bennet said without opening his eyes but with a clear smile on his face. “I absolutely…ah, forbid it.”

Lydia giggled. “La, it would not be nice to steal Lizzy’s thunder. But it would be such a joke!”

While Elizabeth knew that her sister was not at all serious about eloping in the next three days, she was rather concerned that Lydia was too much in a hurry to enter the married state and that she was likely to make a mistake as a result.

Except that would be an odd thing for Elizabeth to think, as she had derived no benefit from being slow and deliberate in her efforts to find a companion for her future life.

Her father roused himself and sat up. “Go to Mrs. Phillips’s party. You should not all curtail…your pleasures. Have the fun you may…while you can. Lizzy, you go. You’ve barely been out. Since I…ill.”

“Papa, I could not leave you!”

“Will sleep. Or Hill will read to me.”