7

23 December, 1811

The storm had done its worst while the occupants of Longbourn all slept easy in the assurance of their success; they awoke to calmer skies, a thick blanket of snow on the ground, and a sense of quiet peace.

Georgiana had shared with Elizabeth, for Mrs. Annesley had slept in Mary’s room, and the bedchamber Lydia and Kitty shared was still in shambles after Elizabeth’s raid to retrieve her belongings. Mr. Darcy had slept in the guest chamber at the end of the corridor, and Elizabeth idly wondered whether he was an early riser or preferred to sleep fashionably late. Generally she woke just after dawn to take a leisurely morning ramble about the countryside, but she knew that would not be possible; she could only appreciate the beauty left in the wake of the snowstorm.

“Is it not utterly perfect?”

Georgiana gazed out the window of Elizabeth’s bedchamber with a look of girlish awe at the wintry landscape. “I am glad that there can be no reason for anyone to be coming or going near the house today, if only so we can enjoy the absolute perfection of untouched snow awhile longer.”

Elizabeth stood at her side, eyes wide in wonderment. “This is the most snow I have ever seen here in Hertfordshire! For your sake, Gigi, I shall have to curb my impulse to run outdoors and frolic in it. The sun is coming out, and I fear it shall soon melt away.”

“Oh,”

Georgiana said, furrowing her brow before breaking into a wide grin. “Well… perhaps the picturesque scene would be improved if we were a part of it. Shall we dress and go downstairs? Surely you do not break your fast at such an early hour.”

“No, it will be at least an hour before Mrs. Hill prepares our repast. Last night I beseeched her to sleep until a gloriously decadent hour, if she possibly could - she has certainly earned it,”

Elizabeth replied, resisting the urge to inquire after her new friend’s brother. She liked Georgiana well enough for her own sake, and as much as she missed her sisterly intimacy with Jane, it was a balm to her spirits to enjoy such female companionship.

The two young ladies helped one another dress in their warmest apparel, and then they hastened out into the pristine expanse of snow. Elizabeth laughed at the dull crunch beneath her feet, which sunk several inches into the snow as she ran across it, her balance wobbly and her arms flailing wildly as she attempted to keep pace with Georgiana. “You must be far more accustomed to the snow than I am,”

she said, her breath clouding in the air. “We scarcely have more than an inch or two.”

Georgiana grinned as she extended a fur gloved hand to steady Elizabeth. “Winter at Pemberley is magnificent, Lizzy! We take sleigh rides, go ice skating on the pond, sometimes Lambton even has a snowman contest.”

“Is Lambton very near to Pemberley? My Aunt Gardiner grew up there; I had intended to visit there with her while in Derbyshire.”

“Not so close as Meryton to Longbourn - perhaps four or five miles. Oh, it is such a charming little village! I am sure you shall see it someday soon,”

Georgiana cried, offering Elizabeth a significant look. She was not wrong; it would not be much longer before Elizabeth’s family returned for her and they could all make the journey north together. And yet, the gleam in Georgiana’s eyes seemed to imply more.

Elizabeth turned her face away to hide a smile as she and Georgiana trudged through the snow hand in hand. Before she could wonder what had come over her, Elizabeth blurted out, “I wish to ask you about what you told me in the carriage yesterday.”

Georgiana inhaled sharply. “I hoped you had forgotten all about my nonsensical babbling. You seemed so charming, and of course your situation was inherently endearing… and I do not have very many friends. Mrs. Annesley does her best with me, but I do not always know how to behave as society expects.”

“I have found no fault in your sweet and open manners - though I must object to your attempt at deflection,”

Elizabeth quipped with a raised brow. “Tell me truthfully, does your brother really admire me? When he was a guest at Netherfield, I rather believed he despised me.”

“What? No!”

Georgiana brought her hands to her face as she gasped. “He mentioned you several times in every letter he wrote to me while he stayed with Mr. Bingley.”

“To lament my perpetual impertinence?”

“He likes your impertinence!”

Georgiana snorted with laughter and then winced. “He would probably prefer me to exercise more discretion, but if you really believed that he disliked you, I am glad I have disabused you of such a preposterous notion.”

“He likes my impertinence? I have been vastly insolent to him on many occasions - it is beyond eccentricity to enjoy such behavior as that - and I am sure I could never love a man who was out of his wits!”

Elizabeth clapped a hand over her mouth. They had not been talking about love - what was the matter with her?

“Oh, no! Will is the cleverest, most intelligent person I know,”

Georgiana assured her. “He is also the kindest, most patient and generous man. I believe he esteems your honesty and authenticity as much as your other charms. Not everyone who seeks our friendship is always so genuine.”

“Such as a certain gentleman’s sisters, whom you mentioned yesterday,”

Elizabeth teased.

Georgiana smiled sadly, her eyes drifting off into the distance as her countenance became pensive. “London society is full of Miss Bingleys; they are unpleasant, but generally harmless - at least, that is what our cousin Richard says. No, there are far worse villains than self-important heiresses.”

“I ought to know,”

Elizabeth quipped, thinking of the brigands that had smiled to her face while planning to rob her family.

“You ought to know,”

Georgiana repeated, furrowing her brow. She reached out and gripped Elizabeth’s hand tightly, drawing in a deep breath before slowly releasing it.

“Gigi, what is it?”

Georgiana’s lip quivered as she looked up at Elizabeth, but then she raised her shoulders and collected herself. “George Wickham. He… did he mention any connection to my family?”

“He did,”

Elizabeth said with a sense of foreboding. “He made some serious accusations against your brother, and I am ashamed to admit I believed him. I do not any longer - after learning that he is involved in this wicked scheme, I know better than to believe a single word he has ever said. I am mortified that I even defended him when….”

“Lizzy,”

Georgiana cut her off, giving her hand a squeeze. “You do not have to defend yourself - I know all too well what it is like to be deceived by his charms. I adored him in my childhood. He was a favorite of my father’s, and often a guest in the house. He played with me when I was a girl. He always seemed so wonderful, but I had no idea what he was really like, not until last August.”

Elizabeth braced herself for something very dreadful, for the cheerful girl’s demeanor had turned ominous. “What happened?”

“I travelled to Ramsgate with a companion - a woman who managed to deceive even my brother. She and George Wickham conspired against me, against my brother. I thought he loved me! He wanted my dowry and revenge against Will.”

“Revenge? Surely your brother did not really cheat him,”

Elizabeth murmured.

“Of course not - he would never! I did not know any of the particulars at the time, for I was only a child when our father died. But after… after Will saved me from making the stupidest decision a girl could ever make, he explained it all to me. He told me how he had known since his school days that George was selfish and debauched, that at first he had not wished to wound our father with this knowledge, and when he finally did tell him, Papa did not wish to hear the truth. When he died, he left George a sum of a thousand pounds, and recommended him for a living near Pemberley. I shudder to think what might have happened if that scoundrel had actually joined the church, but fortunately for every lady in Kympton, he declined it. He was given an additional three thousand pounds in compensation - Will showed me the documents. Within a few years, that money was gone, spent on such pastimes as we ladies are not meant to speak of.”

Georgiana’s lips twitched into a rueful smile, and she rolled her eyes even as silent tears streamed down her cheeks. She wiped them away with the back of her gloved hands and continued her confession. “I would have eloped with him, would have ruined my life, would have brought scandal and disgrace on Will and Pemberley and everything I hold dear. And Will had forgiven me all of it - he blames himself for all of it, though it was only his unexpected arrival in Ramsgate that prevented the entire disaster.”

The enormity of what Georgiana had told her washed over Elizabeth. When she learned of Wickham’s involvement in the conspiracy to burglarize her home, she had considered every interaction she had ever had with him with a sense of revulsion and no little recrimination. Now her thoughts turned darker as she recalled how he had smiled at all her youngest sister’s brazen flirtation, and how he had shamelessly attempted to tarnish not only Mr. Darcy’s character, but Georgiana’s.

“Good God, that is deplorable,”

Elizabeth gasped. She wrapped her arms around Georgiana, who instantly returned her embrace. “I wonder you could even bear to be in the same village as that evil wastrel!”

When Georgiana drew away, the tender distress on her countenance had turned to steel. “I am not afraid of him. We know of his vile schemes, and soon Richard will know of them too - George should be afraid of us. I am glad I shall be present to see him brought to justice.”

“Brava,”

Elizabeth cried, clapping her hands even as tears pricked her eyes. “You are a remarkable creature. Thank you for telling me your story, it cannot have been easy.”

“It was,”

Georgiana said with a note of surprise in her voice. “I am glad to have met you, Lizzy. I am glad Will met you, though as much as he has praised you, I had no idea you would be so easy to speak to.”

Elizabeth could sense that Georgiana wished to turn the subject away from the painful tale of what George Wickham had done to her, and she was perfectly willing to save her reflections on that score for another time. She gave her friend a playful look and said, “If I am so easy to speak to, perhaps you might tell me what your brother has said of me.”

“He has told me that your company is bright and pleasing, that you are entirely without guile, and that your ready wit is tempered by courtesy and good judgement.”

“Oh.”

Elizabeth hardly knew what to say. She had been distinctly discourteous to Mr. Darcy on more than one occasion, and her judgement had been far from sound in believing Mr. Wickham’s scurrilous falsehoods.

“He has never admired a lady before - or never made it so apparent to me, at least, Georgiana said. “Do you… do you admire him, too?”

“Oh… I… well….”

Elizabeth began to wring her hands.

“Oh, come, I have told you a great secret - can you not do likewise? I am sure I already look upon you as the sister I have ever desired,”

Georgiana said, the look in her eyes betraying a sense of longing. Elizabeth adored her sisters, though at any given moment she considered at least two of the four to be more of a nuisance than a blessing. But to have no sisters at all - unhappy thought indeed!

“I have begun to think better of your brother than I previously did - I must acclimate myself to enjoying his good opinion,”

Elizabeth said carefully.

“Abominable reply,”

Georgiana said, swatting at her as they rounded the side of the house and approached the back garden. “I am not blind - I saw how you were looking at him last evening.”

“Then I wonder why you should even ask me,”

Elizabeth teased, sputtering with astonished laughter as she flushed with mortification. Had she really been so obvious?

“You asked about him first,”

Georgiana said with a gamely smile. She stopped, released Elizabeth’s hand, glanced skyward, and then tapped her chin in a gesture of mischief. “I could imagine other ways of making you talk.”

“Oh, really?”

Elizabeth could say no more before Georgiana bent down and scooped up a fistful of snow and hurled it at her with a peal of laughter.

“Oh!”

Elizabeth jolted as the clump of snow struck her on the shoulder, bits of it smattering across her face and neck. She shivered and shook it off, smiling broadly. “That will not go unanswered!”

Georgiana took off running as gracefully as one might manage in six inches of snow. Elizabeth dipped both hands into the snow and packed it tightly as she shambled after her new friend; when she got close enough, she pitched the snowball and hit Georgiana squarely in the back.

The two continued this exchange until they were chilled to the bone, exhausted, and sore in their sides from laughter, and then they collapsed backward into the snow. The sun was warm on her face as Elizabeth gave a sigh of contentment as she glanced skyward, and then her gaze landed on the house. Out of an upstairs window, Mr. Darcy peered intently down at the two reveling ladies. He was smiling warmly.

Elizabeth propped herself up on one elbow and looked over at Georgiana. “Gigi, you little sneak! You orchestrated a little performance beneath your brother’s window.”

Georgiana smirked guiltily. “How could I possibly have known that my brother, who was so eagerly anticipating our winter traditions at Pemberley, should be gazing out his window at the snow? Or that the sight of you so convivial with his sister would be entirely beguiling? It is fate, perhaps… destiny.”

There was such a look of innocence about Georgiana, and Elizabeth had already grown fond enough of both Darcy siblings that she could not truly resent such well-intentioned maneuvering. It was infinitely preferable knowing that Mr. Darcy was charmed by the spectacle she had made of herself, than believing that he looked down upon her with disdain. Fate, indeed!

***

Darcy strode hastily down the front steps of Longbourn, eager to join Georgiana and Elizabeth. They were behaving like sisters already - it was beyond the best that he had hoped for when he had begun to entertain the possibility of pursuing his interest in Elizabeth. And now… she had, in the space of a day, become an unshakeable certainty.

To his disappointment, he was too late. He had wished to join in their revelry, but he met with them as soon as he rounded the side of the house, and the ladies declared they wished to don dry clothes and take their morning repast. He was happy to follow them back indoors, to join them for a delicious morning meal, and to observe them displaying such affection for one another, but the two ladies remained inseparable for much of the day.

It was not until after supper that Darcy finally had the greater share of Elizabeth’s attention. Georgiana was in high spirits, for Darcy had told the ladies that he had received word from Richard that morning - the colonel was expected to come to their aid on the morrow.

With a knowing smile for her employer, Mrs. Annesley said, “Would you like to play for us, my dear? You have nearly perfected the new music your cousin gifted you last week - perhaps a little more practice and you could perform it for him tomorrow.”

Georgiana glanced at Elizabeth for approval, in a way she often did to Darcy, and after a little encouragement, she fairly danced over to the piano stool and took a seat. The first notes of a concerto hung in the air as Darcy watched Elizabeth glance over at him, her eyes bright in the light of the roaring blaze in the fireplace. And then she smiled a devastating smile. His breath caught in his throat as he realized she desired some private conversation as much as he did.

Darcy sat down beside her on the sofa, and her brilliant smile faded into something more intimate. Her fingers twitched and she glanced down before resting a hand on his arm. “Georgiana told me about Ramsgate. I fear I have not properly apologized for allowing that villain to slander you, to tarnish my opinion of you.”

“You need not say any more, Miss Eliz- Miss Bennet.”

“I must.”

Her hand slid down his arm until her fingers curled over the top of his hand. “It is not enough to admit that I regret being influenced by that libertine. I am sorry, heartily sorry that I allowed my wounded vanity to shade my judgement. You were betrayed by somebody your entire family trusted, and nobody in that assembly room had done anything to earn your trust - quite the reverse. If I heard the whispers of your ten thousand a year, surely they reached your ears. You had far more reason to fear I was a fortune hunter than I had to think you would disregard your father’s wishes and ruin a man’s life.”

Darcy drew in a long, slow breath, feeling his heart swell with emotion. “Miss Bennet….”

“Even before I had begun to regret my foolishness, before I showed you a modicum of respect, you still came to my aid. You were already eager for your sister and I to become acquainted, and I certainly deserved no such distinction.”

“Elizabeth,”

Darcy said firmly, and she finally looked up to meet his eye. “I beg you would let me speak. I have understood your character far longer than you have known mine, and I accept all the blame for that. I have not comprehended your feelings, for my own vanity shaded my judgement and I was utterly blind to your true sentiments. I told you once that I hoped my faults were not of understanding, but I cannot repine my ignorance of your disdain, as it allowed me to learn what an exquisite woman you are.”

Elizabeth laughed and shook her head, her hand finally withdrawing from his. “After I argued with you and challenged you at every turn?”

Darcy’s fingers twitched, aching to touch her again. “I enjoyed our debates. You have a clever turn of mind, which would be entirely wasted if you simply agreed with everything I said.”

“There is no danger of me ever being that agreeable,”

Elizabeth quipped, her eyes twinkling with mirth. “But then, I had thought you enjoyed Miss Bingley’s constant flattery.”

“This may be the worst thing you - or anybody - has ever accused me of,”

he drawled.

Elizabeth blinked, her lips slowly parting, and then she gave a burst of surprised laughter. “If I had known you were so willing to make jokes at her expense, I am sure we might have been fast friends indeed.”

“I suppose you thought she and I were designed for one another,”

he replied, sensing that he had managed to match her banter despite the disgust he felt at the idea of being paired in her mind with Miss Bingley.

“Worse yet, I had supposed that you shared her disapproval of Jane becoming Mrs. Bingley - I feared you might attempt to dissuade your friend from paying my sister his addresses.”

Darcy knew he ought not be surprised by her perspicacity. His honor would not permit him to deceive her, but to own the truth would bring the magic of their newfound intimacy crashing down around him. He carefully deflected.

“You said something yesterday that puzzled me - that the evening before your family departed, you were upset about your sister’s marriage. It took me some time before I came round to the notion and could acknowledge my friend’s good fortune in finding such a bride, but you have always been her greatest supporter, have you not?”

“Of course.”

Elizabeth said. “She and Charles are well-matched - could you imagine either of them wed to somebody more similar to themselves? Fond as I am of my new brother, if he had chosen a bride as impetuous and exuberant as himself - oh dear, it is exhausting to consider. And Jane! Had she accepted the suit of a gentleman as demure and reserved as herself, they might never manage to make an heir together!”

Elizabeth gave a very charming little asp as she clapped a hand over her mouth at this indelicate impudence, but Darcy allowed a modicum of his amusement to show on his face. “You are perfectly correct in your… interesting insights,”

he said. “I had not thought of their differences in such a light as this - I am ashamed to admit that initially I thought only of the difference of their situations in life.”

For an instant, something between panic and fury flashed in her eyes, but she schooled her countenance and gave him a most sardonic brow raise. “Oh? Do you refer to the fact that she is a gentleman’s daughter, whose connections to trade are further removed, or that her family welcomed him with open arms while his own relations have retreated to sulk in Shropshire after failing to use Charles as a pawn in their own social aspirations?”

She smiled brightly, assured of her triumph, and Darcy shifted uncomfortably on the sofa. “My regard for you moves me to honesty as much as my honor, Miss Elizabeth,”

he said, his eyes begging for mercy. “So many years of assiduously avoiding the snares of fortune hunters in London has made me wary on my friend’s behalf, for he is so eager to approve of everybody he meets that I have long feared it would lead him to some harm. Given my family’s history with Mr. Wickham, I hope you can allow that it is perfectly justified to be so guarded. I mistook your sister’s natural reticence for disinterest until I considered the similarities of her character to my own sister.”

“And you had an epiphany,”

Elizabeth said drily. “You realized that reserved people deserve love and happiness as much as open-tempered individuals.”

“I ought to hold such a belief, if there is to be any hope for myself,”

he said, surprising even himself. His candor seemed to soften her pique, which had not been entirely playful. He pressed his luck. “But you have not answered my other question - why would you say that you were angry about her marriage?”

A slow smile spread across her face, and Elizabeth rolled her neck, gazing skyward as if the answer should be perfectly obvious. “Because I am a selfish creature and I did not wish to part with my favorite sister,”

she said, laughter bubbling in her voice. “I feel utterly foolish about it now, but I was quite put out that day - so much so that I likely made the Bingleys rejoice at how far away Macallister Manor is. Seeing Jane and Charlotte both married, sharing private jokes about it and preparing to leave me behind - well, it shall take some adjustment. Fortunately, as my father has reminded me, I have an attentive mother who will certainly manage to transform my present dilemma into… a different dilemma.”

Darcy silently assessed her for a minute, sensing a deeper melancholy behind her cavalier jesting. His hand edged closer to hers once more, until his fingertips brushed the smooth skin of her wrist. “Surely you cannot blame the Bingleys for wishing to reside further away - I think you would not always wish to live so near to Longbourn.”

“I suppose not.”

“I daresay you would like to reside closer to your favorite sister.”

Elizabeth returned his searching gaze as her fingers curled around his, hidden between them and resting on the sofa. “I was looking forward to seeing more of the country - of seeing Derbyshire. Gigi was singing its praises this morning.”

“We are both happier at Pemberley than anywhere else, although it has grown lonely there since it has been just the two of us.”

“Soon it shall be three,”

she said, leaving him in shattering suspense for a minute before adding, “I understand Macallister Manor is near enough that Charles is sure to visit you every day.”

He chuckled at her wickedness. “He has threatened to, yes. I suppose you would be delighted if it were your sister making such promises, but… a visit from Charles every day!”

Darcy groaned dramatically, and Elizabeth laughed. It was a relief to once again divert their conversation to innocent and amusing banter, though the phantom of his growing desire seemed to linger.

Rationally, he knew that he must give Elizabeth more than a day to accustom herself to thinking well of him. Darcy had ever been prone to reason and rationality over acting on emotion, but at present it was a struggle to maintain such principles when she was near enough to take into his arms. He might whisper every adoring thought he had entertained of Elizabeth Bennet into her ear, reciting months’ worth of private musings like poetry - though had she not abused the notion of love poems the very night they met?

Uncertainty churned in his gut. They had, in the space of two days, come to such an intimate and comprehensive mutual appreciation for every nuance of one another's character that Darcy was in no doubt at all of his own wishes where Elizabeth was concerned. But despite her warm praise and generous reassessment of his character, he dared not believe she had already come to return his ardor.

And so, like the tremendous blockhead he had ever been, he sat on the sofa, holding her hand, wondering if she could ever love him.