The Unexpected Miss Bennet (19 page)

‘Goodness,’ Mary said mildly. ‘Darcy must be hard-pressed to not leave without you.’

Lizzy laughed. ‘I only came to see how fares the pilgrim.’

Mary swept her hand around, indicating the room. Lizzy cocked her head. ‘It is dreadful,’ she said. ‘You must come away at once.’ She tugged her sister’s hand. Mary smiled but released her.

‘I know you have not the temperament for it, but I do,’ Mary said. She looked at Lizzy, wondering whether she could tell her sister what she meant. But Lizzy was too set on her objections.

‘She’s not worth it, Mary. Not even for a pilgrim. Anne de Bourgh is too much like her mother to be worth this.’

‘Everyone has worth, Lizzy.
She
is not bad. She has never been allowed to be anything but a poor shadow of what her mother wishes. I have seen in her some spirit and independence and I am convinced I am not just seeing what I wish to see. There is a woman inside the shell, and I think she wants only a sympathetic friend to allow her to bring it out.’

‘Perhaps she is not completely hopeless, but don’t try to tell me that you think her mother can be mended.’

Mary laughed. ‘No, Lady Catherine is most decidedly fixed.’

Lizzy sighed. ‘You should have stayed with us. I feel myself at fault, Mary. I feel as if I’ve let you down, as if I have abandoned you here.’

‘Don’t,’ Mary said. ‘This is – and don’t tease, Lizzy – this is my own establishment. As I’ve said, there’s work to do here. I am needed here, where I am not so at home or at Pemberley. No, Lizzy. You know it’s true. Papa doesn’t really see anyone and Mama can only look at me and think, “
She
won’t get married”. At Rosings, no one expects me to be married – I can just imagine Lady Catherine if she heard that news.’

Lizzy laughed. ‘You shouldn’t give up all hope of marriage,’ she scolded. ‘I think Mr Aikens could be tempted by a bookish girl – his horse, after all, vouched for your character.’

Mary pushed away the last bit of longing at hearing Mr Aikens’s name. Let me just forget him, she thought. And then I can be calm as before. ‘Give him my greetings and to his horse too. I believe the creature had an unimpeachable character.’

The sisters hugged, and then Lizzy left her, promising to write and to visit often.

Mary sat at the window and looked out into the darkness. The cool air wafted in through the curtains. She could smell the farmlands, rich and fecund, and was comforted. It smelled like Longbourn. In the daytime she would see the farmlands, and beyond them the hills in the hazy distance.

Mary sighed. It wasn’t that she had given up on marriage; marriage had given up on her. Her view from Rosings would be equally fine whether she were a companion or a chatelaine.

T
HE JOURNEY HOME to Pemberley was welcome. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief once the horses were finally under way. The Bennets followed in their carriage until it was time to turn off to Longbourn. Then the horses could be encouraged to move faster, almost as eager as their master to be going home. It was a day and a half of travelling before they drove along the drive at Pemberley and pulled up at the steps of the house. Lizzy and the rest alighted with thankfulness. Still, Lizzy was not quite easy. Happy as she was to be home, she could not help but worry about Mary. She had told Darcy of Mary’s decision, of her ‘pilgrim’s progress’, and Darcy had listened gravely. Then he said,

‘I cannot understand it. It is a fanciful conceit, and I have no head for such a thing. But you should rest easy for your sister. My aunt has her faults, but she will provide Mary with the care and chaperonage that is her due, if only to preserve herself from the censure of society.’

By which Lizzy, ever sensitive, thought he might be comparing Lady Catherine to Colonel Foster. She gave him the benefit of the doubt though, and owned that he was right. He knew his aunt. Ill-tempered she was, but as she was so protective of her own daughter she could hardly put Mary in any danger. The only concern was that Mary would be so unhappy or so stubborn, as she could be, that she would infuriate Lady Catherine or Lady Catherine her.

In such a case either Mary will leave in the middle of the night, or Lady Catherine will send her away, Lizzy thought. Or perhaps Mary will become an indispensable part of Rosings. She might just be what Anne needs. And either way, there was Charlotte close by. She would see to it that Mary knew she had a friend, even if Mr Collins could be infuriating.

Georgiana ran ahead of them into the house, exclaiming her pleasure at being home, calling out to the servants and housekeeper, all of whom welcomed her with fondness. Lizzy and Darcy followed more slowly, but smiling upon the young woman’s impetuosity.

‘She has changed,’ Lizzy commented to Darcy. His expression lightened.

‘She has. She has become happier, less nervous. Her trials have left her and she enjoys herself again. I think your presence has much to do with it.’

‘I have done nothing at all!’

‘I have not said you had
done
anything. Now you think I insult you – I merely speak the truth. You, by your presence and fresh way of thinking, have provided her with female companionship that wants nothing from her except to be cheerful. And so she is.’

‘Yes, you insult me. When I demurred, you were supposed to tell me that I had through cleverness and diligence wrought such a change in your sister for the better. Instead you agreed with me.’

‘Forgive me. I am a simple man and I never know what to expect from a woman when she speaks at cross purposes. You will have to instruct me in what you mean.’

He lifted her hand to his lips and she knew what he meant, and the instruction he expected. For a moment the world dropped away, and then with a start they became aware of the servants unloading the coach and standing at the head of the horses, waiting to lead them away. Darcy gave the order and they went into the house, where the servants greeted them. Georgiana came skipping back into the grand hall.

‘Home!’ she cried. ‘It is so good to be home. I was so afraid of putting a foot wrong at Aunt’s! And Mr Collins looks so disapprovingly on me! Except when he praises so effusively. I couldn’t make him out at all.’

‘Did you know that he once proposed to Lizzy?’ Darcy said, still in a playful mood, in expectation of delights later that night. ‘Can you imagine that she turned him down?’

Georgiana was startled into a laugh.

‘Oh, Lizzy! How could you have broken his heart so!’

Then she darted off, and soon they heard the piano from the drawing room, sounding out a gay march. Lizzy was reminded suddenly of Mary, and the way she would turn to the piano as soon as they returned home from some small outing, to Meryton perhaps, as if to quiet herself after the excitement. Since Mary didn’t play the piano any more, what would she do to calm herself? she wondered.

Oh, Mary. I hope you have done the right thing for yourself.

THE VERY NEXT day Mr Aikens and Hyperion called at Pemberley. The young man swept in after the butler’s quiet announcement, his greatcoat sweeping along the parqueted floor. Its hem was crusted with mud, as were his boots.

‘Capital! You’ve returned! It has been deadly dull without you, Darcy! You have an excellent chase across your estates. Did you know that Hyperion took the stiles at the cattle crossing with at least two feet to spare? Landed in the mud but kept his feet and almost threw me off, he was so proud of himself. Ladies! Pleasure.’

He bowed.

‘Mr Aikens, so good to see you,’ Lizzy said, now that he had stopped and she could catch up. Mr Aikens looked around with some puzzlement and a growing alarm.

‘Where’s Miss Bennet? Did you know that Hyperion had grown deuced fond of her? He moped awfully when I told him she was gone. Couldn’t wait a moment when I told him the carriage had returned and you were back.’

‘Mary stayed at Rosings Park, Mr Aikens. She has become a particular friend of Anne de Bourgh.’

Mr Aikens was for once wholly at a loss for words. That is, his lips moved but he was silent, as if he could not fathom Lizzy’s meaning. And then she felt another pang. Had they crushed Mary’s one chance at joy with this strange man who loved horses and dancing and never opened a book?

It was Mr Darcy who spoke first in his dry way. ‘Yes, we left her behind in the dragon’s den. She said she wishes to remain there – and I think she will do well, to draw my cousin out of her solitude and loneliness.’

‘A companion,’ Mr Aikens repeated, and his eyes darkened. He spoke with great distinctness. ‘So she will fetch shawls and fans and read out loud and sit quietly by. Mrs Darcy, had she given up?’

Georgiana was looking rather frightened by Mr Aikens’s turn from amiable to angered. Lizzy shook her head.

‘Mr Aikens, you – and Hyperion – seem to have taken with great fondness to Mary and I know she is grateful for your friendship. She has not given up. She took it as a challenge. I think she liked the idea of winning over Lady Catherine and she has grown fond of Miss de Bourgh.’

Mr Aikens snorted. Lizzy grew angry herself. ‘Excuse me, sir, but I believe I know my sister better than you do.’

‘No you don’t,’ he said flatly, and Lizzy’s eyes widened. ‘You don’t because you think of her only in one way, as the quiet bookish one. I see now what it is. She hadn’t given up. You had. Good day, Mrs Darcy. Miss Darcy. Sir.’

He turned on his heel, leaving a clod of dried mud on the floor, and left, his capes swinging.

In the echoing silence that remained, they all looked down at the mud.

‘Shall I call Mrs Reynolds?’ Georgiana ventured. Rather than ringing, she fled at once to find her directly.

Lizzy and Darcy looked at each other.

‘Oh my goodness,’ she said. ‘What have we done?’

He pulled her close and kissed her. ‘The only thing we could have done – support Mary in her decision,’ he said firmly. ‘Tom will get over his anger as quickly as he got into it. A new fancy has probably already come into his head in the time it took him to mount his horse. If I truly felt he had fallen in love with Mary, I would drive to Rosings to bring her back at once.’

Lizzy gave him a look to remind him of the last time he had misjudged a friend’s heart, and Darcy acknowledged that with an inclination of his head even as he defended himself.

‘If you want me to go, I will,’ he said. ‘But I think Tom Aikens will only raise her hopes and break her heart. He doesn’t even
read
, Lizzy. I am not even sure he knows how.’

She had to laugh at that.

‘I will defer to your judgement this time, sir. But you have not yet redeemed yourself. I will keep an eye on Mr Aikens and if I see any signs of steadfastness, any at all, you will drive to Rosings at once to bring back Mary.’

ONCE MR AIKENS had taken his leave, and Pemberley had returned to its usual quietude, Lizzy sat down to read several letters. She hadn’t had a chance to skim a welcome letter from Aunt Gardiner when the footman brought her another one, from Jane. Lizzy set aside her aunt’s letter and opened Jane’s with eagerness.