Page 24 of The Blackmail of Mr. Darcy
“I should probably return to Jane, but you can come with me,” Elizabeth suggested.
“I should like that!” Georgiana enthused.
As she turned to go, Elizabeth spied a small slate and the soapstone used to mark it. She gestured to it, eyebrows up in a questioning manner. Georgiana looked confused, but she nodded, and Elizabeth grabbed them on her way out of the door. Georgiana walked over to pick up a rather messy looking piece of cloth, and Elizabeth realised that it must be the cloth that Georgiana used to erase markings on the slate.
Once in Jane’s room, Elizabeth asked Jane how she fared, and as her sister answered, she wrote a message on the slate: “To thwart eavesdroppers.”
Both Jane and Georgiana signalled their comprehension with nods, and as the young women chatted with one another,once in a while someone would write a message on the slate, swiping the slate clean again after everyone had read and nodded their acquiescence to doing so. Slowly, over the course of five full slates of communication, Georgiana told them about her attempt to confuse Miss Bingley with mentions of Margate, and Miss Bingley’s rude responses.
Elizabeth wrote, “I need to ‘talk’ to your brother.”
Georgiana nodded her comprehension and then swiped away the message. Later on, she verbally made her excuses to leave the room, saying that she had some mathematics work she was completing as part of her tutelage under Mrs. Annesley. She wrote on the slate, “I have Mrs. A’s slate in my room. You keep this one.”
Almost an hour later, Elizabeth answered a tentative knock on Jane’s door. In the hall was Georgiana and Mr. Darcy; the latter was holding a slate. “I am having trouble explaining to Georgiana how to simplify algebraic expressions, and I wonder if you can come to her sitting room with me and help explain.”
Elizabeth agreed immediately. She struggled to remember the algebra she had insisted on working her way through, at age fourteen, and she thought she remembered enough terms to pretend to discuss it.
Once in Georgiana’s sitting room, with both doors closed, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth sat down in the two chairs, positioned at the table. Georgiana hovered so that she could read what was on the slate, and her maid sat in a corner.
Mr. Darcy said, “So, Georgiana, you remember what a variable is, correct?”
“I do,” she answered.
Elizabeth met Mr. Darcy’s questioning gaze and nodded minutely.
“In this expression,” he said, “we are using ‘x’ to stand for the price of wool…” he went on and on, explaining veryclearly one way in which he actually used algebra as master of Pemberley. Elizabeth was thrilled to understand every word and mathematical concept, and she could see that Georgiana was getting lost. The subterfuge they were using in their discussion was working out very well.
He asked Georgiana a question, and she said, “I am sorry to say that I do not understand.”
Then Mr. Darcy handed Elizabeth the slate, the soapstone, and the cloth. She quickly cleaned the slate and said, “Georgiana, take a look at this.” Instead of writing algebra on the slate, she wrote, “I saw Miss Bingley watching you fence today.” She looked into both of their faces, saw their nods, and swiped the board clean. She thought fast and said out loud, “You see, your brother does not know, each year, as he plans his flocks, what the price of wool will actually be….”
She had to pause the math talk in order to write her message on the slate: “She is mostly not desirous of your fortune, as you might think. She looks to be completely enamoured with your person. Possibly infatuated to the point of mania.”
Then she said a bit more about using algebra to figure out the best use of land for raising sheep, cows, and goats. Mr. Darcy asked Georgiana if she understood, pointing to the slate with raised eyebrows. She nodded in response, and he swiped away Elizabeth’s message. He paused for a moment, clearly pondering his words, and then wrote, “I have never really thought that she cared anything for me. Me, a person, a man, not the master of Pemberley.”
Elizabeth looked up at Georgiana, saw her immediate nod, and said as she erased Mr. Darcy’s message, “I think we need to look at it more like this.” Then she wrote, “She may not care for you as a lover should. Care about your feelings and opinions and dreams for the future. But she definitely seems to care about you as a man.”
She felt uncomfortable expressing anything else. She did not, for example, want to write the word “desire” on the slate for Mr. and Miss Darcy to see. She let a little chuckle out and then said, “So sorry, I just find it hard to explain how to use multiple variables….” She swiped away her last message and wrote, “I think it makes her more dangerous.”
Georgiana spoke: “I think I understand now. And I agree with you, Elizabeth, it is hard to explain, but that does not make it any less true.”
Mr. Darcy nodded. “Indeed.” He rose from his seat, and Elizabeth hurried to wipe the slate clean before she, too, stood up. Her message conveyed, she was about to leave the room and return to Jane, when Mr. Darcy surprised her with a subtle touch to her upper arm.
His fingers barely brushed her arm, but Elizabeth felt as if every teeny, almost invisible hair was suddenly attracted his way, as if he had electrified her. She turned towards him, startled, and he immediately withdrew his hand.
“Miss Elizabeth, I wished to tell you, as I already told the Bingleys and the Hursts, that my cousin is coming here to Netherfield, likely tomorrow evening. I will be gone much of the day, Georgiana, but I promise I will come back before Richard arrives, if he sticks to his planned departure time.”
Georgiana nodded, and Elizabeth said, “I look forward to meeting him.”
Wondering if his cousin was coming as part of their two-fold plan against attempted blackmail, or for some other reason, Elizabeth returned to her room, to her sister, to her self-imposed tasks: tending to the still-extensive sniffles suffered by her beloved sister, and plotting to protect the reputation of her increasingly-beloved young friend.
Chapter 16
Darcy
The next day, just before noon, Darcy rode to The Queen’s Head Inn, in Hoddesdon, to meet his cousin Richard. It was a mere half hour’s ride from Netherfield, although of course Richard had a much longer journey from London. But, on the other hand, they both would easily be able to ride to Netherfield after their meeting.
When they first spied one another, both men broke into wide smiles. Darcy grasped Richard’s hand for their usual firm handshake, but Richard threw in a couple of fond back-slaps. They were more like brothers than cousins, and Richard’s varying military assignments had resulted in the two not having clapped eyes on one another for almost a month.
