Page 50 of Eavesdroppers Never Hear
Once the men were gone, it still took a half-hour to get past Miss Darcy’s reserve, but once she was comfortable things became much easier. As might be expected, she initially gave all her attention to Elizabeth, but some gentle prodding reminded her that she should pay attention to everyone in the conversation. Elizabeth took it as a good sign that she could be comfortable eventually, and thanked the fates she had enough sense to exclude her mother and youngest sisters from the introduction. She thought Miss Darcy might never have recovered.
They eventually landed on music, which all could speak of with something approaching authority. It seemed likely Miss Darcy was the better musician of the three, which surprised no one. Darcy had asserted she had real talent, and she had both Mary’s industry and the benefit of the best masters money could buy, so it was to be well expected.
On the other hand, the young lady seemed reluctant to perform, and if she were unable to stand up to the friendliest audience she would ever meet in her life, she needed to work on her shyness with vigour.
They eventually migrated to the pianoforte, and Elizabeth had the brilliant idea to have Miss Darcy give Mary and her a shared lesson. Of course, she sold the idea as exchanging techniques, but nobody was fooled into thinking the exchange would be anything but one sided. After another half-hour she made an excuse to leave Mary and Miss Darcy playing duets while Jane embroidered and went to seek her beau.
~~~~~
A lucky break caused Darcy to exit Mr Bennet’s office just in time to see Elizabeth leave the parlour. Mr Bennet and the colonel were locked in a fierce battle of chess so neither man appeared to notice his exit, and it seemed likely Elizabeth had temporarily abandoned Georgiana to her sisters.
As they met in the corridor, Darcy became more nervous than the occasion seemed to call for, and he could see Elizabeth appeared to be blushing and feeling the same thing herself.
He smiled gently and held out his hand. She gave him hers in return, and he gave it a chaste kiss on the knuckles, which made her blush even more furiously.
“I am happy to see you, Elizabeth,” he said gently.
She looked up, and after a moment of introspection replied, “You as well. In fact, I came to seek you out.”
“Oh?” he asked curiously.
“Yes… your sister is lovely and we all like her exceedingly.”
“I suspect there is a ‘but’ hidden there.”
Elizabeth chuckled. “Am I so easy to read, then…” and she gave a significant pause, and finally added, “…William?” It was the first time she had used his given name in a sentence, and though it came out awkwardly, she gave a small smile of triumph.
Darcy wanted to lighten the mood slightly, so he ignored the awkwardness and laughed. “Yes, you are quite easy to read. All you had to do was beat me over the head with my own bad manners for a month, and I caught on at once.”
She laughed gaily, but Darcy strongly suspected she still found the speed of their reversal disconcerting. He found it disconcerting, and he had weeks to accustom himself to the idea.
Darcy said gently, “It will get easier with time.”
“I thought all women were supposed to be inscrutable and mysterious. Where did I go wrong?”
Darcy chuckled, then took her hand and gave it another kiss just for good measure. According to the rules of propriety, they were pushing their luck with how long they should be alone unchaperoned, but not too badly.
“You will always be mysterious, but hopefully less inscrutable.”
“You will have to work on your stone face as well, my good man.”
“We were discussing Georgiana.”
“Oh yes. As I said, she is a lovely girl and we like her exceedingly… but, gracious me is she shy. I am afraid thetonwill eat her alive if she does not toughen up before her come out.”
“I have a plan for that.”
“Which is?”
He sighed. “Mostly, I plan to do as you instruct. There are things we will need to discuss privately about her background, and I will rely on your judgement about what to do.”
“What if I judge the answer is to lock her in a cottage with my two youngest sisters until they average each other out.”
“I have a half-dozen suitable cottages at Pemberley. Lock away,” he said with a good laugh, which Elizabeth joined.
~~~~~
The rest of the afternoon passed uneventfully, aside from a scolding from Mrs Bennet about Elizabeth’s failure to notify the matron she should be home to meet their illustrious guests. The scolding had as much effect as they usually did, especially since Elizabeth had already run through everything the matron could say in her mind far in advance.
