Page 8 of Penned By Mr Darcy
“You are too kind. I trust you have all had a pleasant day?”
Caroline replied before anyone else could take the opportunity.
“Save for our anxieties over your sister’s condition, our day was very agreeable. Though, the weather has kept us from riding out. I do so love to ride. I find myself feeling quite cooped up when I must stay indoors all day.”
“I do understand. I feel quite the same about walking. I am afraid I have never been a talented horsewoman, but I do dearly love to walk.”
“Tomorrow we must all go for a walk together. I am sure you know all the secret paths strangers would not think to go!” Mr Bingley enthused.
Everyone’s eyes turned to her, save for Mr Darcy. He did not raise his eyes towards her, staring instead somewhere around her middle.
“I am not sure I would put it quite like that, but I have walked often around Netherfield. I should be glad to join you, if my sister’s health allows it.”
“Splendid! Let us go through.”
Mr Bingley offered her his arm, and she took it with a smile. The dining room was beautiful in the evening’s darkness, bathed in a candlelight glow that almost made it feel like a dream. It was quite removed from the cold lunch she had taken there earlier that day.
She took the same seat she had at lunchtime, and Mr Darcy once more took his place next to her. She had rather hoped for a different person to sit next to her, but with Mr Bingley at one head of the table and Caroline at the other, there were few other choices. Mr Darcy was at least more desirable a companion than Mr Hurst, who was already shiny red with drink.
Mr Darcy said nothing, his body poker-straight in his chair and his eyes fixed firmly on the table in front of him. Elizabeth made no effort to rouse him from his staring at the crockery; she supposed that he was still very angry with her for spoiling his work that afternoon. It was not her fault that the man was so easily startled that he had spilled ink all over the pages.
“Good evening, Mr Darcy,” Lizzy said eventually, when she could stand the silence no longer.
“Good evening.”
She was not quite sure what to say next; her day had not been particularly interesting, and she already knew from Mr Bingley that the rest of the house had done little of note. If she had begun a conversation with someone else, perhaps they could be trusted to continue it, but after a beat had passed between them, it was clear that Mr Darcy had no intention of making any further remarks.
“Tell me, Mr Darcy, how fares Georgiana?” Caroline asked from across the table. “I saw at breakfast this morning you had received a great number of letters. I thought, surely one must be from your darling sister.”
“My sister is in excellent health, I thank you.”
Lizzy had heard only a little of the young Miss Darcy from previous conversations with Miss Bingley and her sister, who never failed to praise the talents and merits of the mysterious young girl. She knew that Miss Darcy had been left behind atPemberley with a governess – or a companion, she supposed, if the girl was almost old enough to make her debut.
“I wish she had joined us here. The day she comes out in society will be such a happy one. I do not think there will be a girl finer in all of the country; she will be the true jewel of the court.”
“You will have a while to wait, Miss Bingley. It is my intention that she reach the age of seventeen at the very least before her presentation”
“A wise decision, Mr Darcy, wise indeed! There is something quite vulgar about a girl too young out in society; they do their families and society a great discredit.”
Lizzy did not miss the targeted barb; Lydia and Kitty had both been far younger than seventeen when they made their debut into society. The pair of them had hardly been discreet in their thorough enjoyment of the Meryton Assembly, the first time they had made Miss Bingley’s acquaintance. Lizzy knew their voices were always too shrill, their laughter too easy, their conversation too unguarded.
“Indeed.”
“Miss Eliza, dear Georgiana is the most wonderful pianist. She is in possession of such skill and proficiency the likes of which I am sure I have never seen in one so young. She is quite the model of all a girl ought to be, isn’t she, Mr Darcy?”
“I believe so.”
“I would be pleased to hear the standards to which you hold young ladies, Miss Bingley. You clearly have strong feelings on the matter.”
“Well, of course I do. A fine young woman must be educated in all manner of disciplines. They must dance, of course, and a musical talent is always appreciated. Singing, in my opinion,is the fairest talent. And then, they must be familiar with the modern languages. Artistic skill, too, is invaluable.”
Lizzy tried not to laugh at Caroline’s impossible description of a woman she was certain did not exist.
“I would add that extensive reading across a broad range of subjects is essential. A woman who reads is immune to ignorance, and that is an accomplishment of its own.” Mr Darcy said.
She raised an eyebrow at his sudden impassioned proclamation. She had not requested his opinion, but she was not surprised that he felt compelled to give it.
“Ignorant and accomplished are relative terms, thoughI do wonder if your idea of a woman exists at all. I have never met her.”
