Page 20 of Searching for Elizabeth
“No, I love your taunts, most especially the inappropriate ones. But it is difficult for me to talk about some things without feeling sad. In any case, your disguised question deserves an answer: all of that happened about five years ago, and I am now seven and twenty.”
“Well, sir, that is not so very old!” Elizabeth looked at Darcy with such sympathy, such care, that he could not help hoping to make her laugh again.
“Not too old to fetch water and chop wood?” he suggested.
“Not too old for anything at all! Perhaps we might even endeavor to make that tour of the enormous house and its extensive grounds.”
After laughing at one another’s silliness, Darcy and Elizabeth donned their outerwear and then picked up the old pitcher and the new bucket for water. Elizabeth led him to the spring she used as a water supply, and each of them carried a filled container back to the house.
“Now for the wood chopping session, sir,” Elizabeth said with a teasing smile. “I may just allow you to do all the chopping. I am of a mind to just stand about, watching the show.”
Darcy chuckled and replied, “I do not mind putting on such a show, as long as you promise to pay me with blushes.”
Of course, those words provoked a blush, and Darcy quickly removed his jacket, rolled his sleeves up, and exited to begin to wield the axe. He was pleased to see a great many blushes, and he wondered what Elizabeth was thinking, to produce so much embarrassment.
It had been more than a month since Darcy had fenced, and he enjoyed the kind of aches in his arms that resulted from exercising his muscles. If he was honest with himself, though, he would have enjoyed any activity if Elizabeth was watching with…that look on her pinkened face.
Having chopped enough wood, according to Elizabeth, Darcy washed his hands and restored his clothing. “I feel ready for luncheon. After that, we can do our tour of inspection,” he said.
Elizabeth and Darcy cut up some apples and drizzled them with some of the honey he had brought that day. Darcy cut thick slices of bread, and Elizabeth spread butter and jam on the bread. Darcy convinced Elizabeth to sit in front of the fire he built to have a sort of indoor picnic. Sitting on the floor turned out to be far easier for him than for her, and she laughingly complained about women’s clothes being designed to keep women needing help to sit down, help to stand up, help for everything from sun up to sun down.
“And yet,” Darcy said, “you do look so very fetching.”
She said, “We seem to be done eating, sir. I require you to stand and offer me your hand.”
“Yes ma’am.”
They started the tour of the cottage inside, and Elizabeth explained every repair she had made over the past decade. He was impressed all over again, but she modestly pointed out that the cottage had only fallen into disrepair, not ruin; she had not had to do major structural work to make it safe to use.
“Even I would not have been able to erect walls single-handedly,” she said.
“Well, perhaps not when you were just ten years old,” he returned. “However, now….”
“Now it is time to inspect the outside, sir. I hope you are not too exhausted; the place is at least eighty feet around.”
Darcy laughed as he donned his coat. He decided against the hat and gloves, as it was not an especially cold day. He followed Elizabeth to the door—
“Mary!” Elizabeth sounded very pleased, but immediately her voice changed. “What has happened?” she asked with concern.
Chapter 18: Elizabeth
—afternoon—
Elizabeth Bennet was surprised but pleased to see Mary approaching; however, then she noted her sister’s face. Her sister’s eyes were red, and her usual smile was absent.
“Come in, dearest,” Lizzy said. She took off her pelisse and swiftly put aside it with the rest of the outerwear she and Mr. Darcy had just donned. She guided Mary to one of the chairs by the little table and then hastened to make tea.
Mr. Darcy seemed to be trying to help. He got out two cups, saucers, and spoons. Then he hesitated, his hand hovering near the third cup. “Should I—” he started to ask.
Mary immediately shot a smile in his direction and interrupted, “Please stay, sir. I just…I want to tell both of you why I am upset. I hope I have not said the wrong thing to Jane….”
Soon all three were seated at the little table, sipping tea. Mr. Darcy looked from Lizzy to Mary and back again. Since Mary did not go on, Lizzy asked, “You are upset about Jane?”
Lizzy had made the assumption, when she first saw Mary’s red eyes, that their mother had said upsetting things. But now she prepared herself to hear another negative report about a sister she had not long ago greatly esteemed.
Mary gulped a bit and plunged into her tale: “I fear that Jane is becoming Mama, Lizzy! She seemed quite unlike herself last night, restless and a bit unhappy. She paced, even! And then, this morning she asked me to help her in the still room, and she started asking me what I had said to you, Mr. Darcy.She accused me of saying the wrong thing and running you off, because you did not stay to dinner the night before last, and you did not call at Longbourn yesterday.”
Mr. Darcy lifted his eyebrows.
