Page 124 of Mr. Darcy Comes to Town

“Let me think,” Lizzy said, patting Harry’s rump and shooing him away now that she had finished brushing him. “Perhaps you can give him a book to read. I have overheard you both talking together about your favorite authors. Did you not buy that book on colors and their effects on human beings, by Goethe? I think Oscar, being a doctor, would like it exceedingly well.”

Mary stood up abruptly. “I have mentioned it to him. He did say he thought it sounded interesting.”

Lizzy gathered up the detritus of her work on Harry and deposited it in a tin bucket. She straightened and beamed at her sister. “That sounds auspicious. You could put a nice bookmark in it, or…or…you could put an invitation in it to meet and discuss his thoughts once the typhus scare is passed.”

Mary’s expression brightened further. “At the lending library! That should be unexceptional.”

“Perfectly so,” Lizzy stated, nodding once. “If you order another copy now, you will be able to reread it in time for your meeting.”

“I do not need to,” Mary said, clasping her hands together before her chest. “Father has a copy. I will reread his.”

“I think you should go immediately and implement your plan,” Lizzy urged. She approached Mary and squeezed her arm. “Send the book, wrapped in plain paper, with one of the grooms. Do not forget the invitation.”

“There is no fear about my forgetting that,” Mary promised. She hesitated, and asked in an apprehensive voice, “Am I being too bold?”

“What did Virgil say in the Æneid?”

“‘Fortune favors the bold’,” Mary quoted. “Yes. Yes, I will do it.” She impulsively hugged Lizzy. “Thank you.”

Lizzy embraced her back. “You are most welcome. Now, go and be bold.”

Mary released her and rushed away.

“And good luck,” Lizzy added softly. She glanced down at the guinea pig enclosure. “Oh, you approve, do you?”

Jeffry wheeked.

Lizzy walked over to the glass windows and reached down to the large pot of mixed herbs sitting next them. She pinched off a stem of fresh mint, containing only a few small leaves, and set it down in his food dish. “A treat for you, then, since you agree.”

Jack thumped his foot.

“Oh, ho. You want some too?” Lizzy laughed and gave the rabbits a few mint leaves as well. A pang twisted in her heart. How can Mr. Darcy object to these little darlings?

*

“How can you object to Lizzy’s pets?” Georgiana asked Darcy as they rolled along in the gig, making their way back to Netherfield. She and Miss Mary had arrived back at Longbourn to discover Darcy visiting with Mr. Bennet. They all discussed the time when the Darcys would return to pick up Mary for their journey to the farm where Georgiana’s puppy lived at the moment.

“I do not object to them,” Darcy protested. He breathed hard out of his nose, once. “I did not mean for Miss Elizabeth to think I objected, either.”

“I am not surprised,” Georgiana retorted.

“It is a one-ton bull!”

“I suppose you were annoyed to see her inside the paddock attending to the bull’s malady instead of the farm manager?”

Darcy bit back a hasty rejoinder. He took several slow breaths and then replied. “I may have seemed annoyed, but I was frightened Miss Elizabeth would be trampled and gored.”

Georgiana seemed to consider his words. She looked up at him and then out at the passing farms, and then back at him. Darcy waited for her to speak.

“Did you tell Lizzy you were afraid for her safety?”

“I most certainly did.” Darcy fell silent, thinking back. “Well, perhaps I did not say so specifically. But it was implied.”

“It sounds to me as if you shouted at her,” Georgiana said, her eyebrows high. “I know I am young, but I do not think it good policy to shout at the woman you love.”

Darcy took his gaze off the road and stared at his sister. “What did you say?”

She stared blandly back at him. “You heard me. And do not glower at me. I am not afraid of your moods—though I do not like them when I am the cause.”