Mr. Darcy's Little Sister

by C. Allyn Pierson

  “The scoundrel thinks he has us by the b—,” he glanced quickly at his father and finished, “throat and that we will not dare call him out.”

  Darcy nodded grimly. “He apparently has an endless supply of gall.”

  “What are we going to do?”

  “I would say the first thing is to talk to Sir Robert in confidence. I think that we can safely trust his discretion, and I am sure he would wish to know this about his sister’s fiancé.”

  “Yes, do that.” Fitzwilliam stood up abruptly. “Apologise to Georgiana for me, and give her my best wishes for her presentation, will you? I cannot sit here and make cheerful conversation while that blackguard tries to victimise another young lady. I have work to do, and it may help take the bitter taste out of my mouth while I consider our options in the matter.”

  Both agreed and he left. A moment later, Elizabeth came into the breakfast-parlour.

  “I saw the colonel rushing off. Is there something the matter?” she asked in confusion.

  They explained Napoleon’s exile and the colonel’s duty at the palace, and her eyes grew very large.

  “So the war with Napoleon is definitely over. I can hardly believe it is true. I will tell Lady Whitwell and Georgiana.”

  Before she could leave, Lord Whitwell interjected, “Are you sure that you should tell Georgiana? I would not want her composure to be overstrained on such an important day.”

  Elizabeth smiled and gently said, “My lord, Georgiana is not a child and she is not a simpleton. You cannot hide a piece of news such as this, and she will not thank you if you try.”

  “I suppose that you are right, my dear; I am being an old fool. She must know sometime and will wonder why there is so much activity at the palace.”

  Elizabeth walked over and patted his hand, her eyes twinkling. “‘Old’ and ‘fool’ are the last words that I would think of associating with you, my lord.”

  He lifted her hand and kissed it and she ran back upstairs, her errand downstairs forgotten for the moment. Darcy stared at his uncle in surprise at his gallantry, and his lordship cleared his throat and turned back to his newspaper. Darcy picked up his paper and hid a smile behind its pages, Walker forgotten for a brief moment.

  Georgiana was disappointed that the colonel could not stay but said, “He was, of course, needed more at the palace! So the war is finally over.” Her eyes sparkled as she continued to dress. “My presentation is hardly of the magnitude of importance of Napoleon’s final defeat, although it will be an interesting story to tell my children someday.” She grinned at Elizabeth and her aunt.

  They finished their preparations and she swept downstairs to show her uncle and her brother her costume, curtseying to them both. Then she and her aunt left for the palace, Georgiana’s hoop skirt barely fitting into the carriage. The day was, fortunately, sunny and fairly warm, so she would not be too chilly after leaving her cloak in the carriage and entering the palace.

  Elizabeth and Darcy returned to Ashbourne House and spent the rest of the day discussing the news about Napoleon and awaiting Georgiana’s return. Kitty sat with them for a while but Darcy’s tension made her nervous, and eventually she excused herself and escaped upstairs to entertain Lucky while his mistress was gone. Darcy was ultimately reduced to pacing the floor of the drawing-room after abandoning all attempts to divert himself. Georgiana finally arrived home at about four o’clock, looking exhausted and relieved. Elizabeth and Darcy both kissed her affectionately when they met her in the hall.

  “I don’t need to ask how it went,” Elizabeth said. “I can see that it went well.”

  Georgiana sighed and sat carefully down on the sofa in her hooped skirt. “It went perfectly fine, but I feel like a limp piece of rag. What a day! There were more than a hundred women and girls to be presented and they kept interrupting the line when messengers came for the Prince Regent… Well, it is done and I survived without tripping on my hem or falling over during my curtsey or having my plume fall out of my hair. And, I need never do it again!” She smiled in exhausted contentment.

  “Why don’t you go and find Kitty and tell her about it,” Elizabeth suggested. “She has been waiting eagerly for your return.”

  Georgiana nodded and took herself upstairs. Elizabeth heard Kitty meet her on the way through the hall and smiled at their laughter as they went up together. Darcy sat on the sofa with his head resting on the back, gave a sigh of relief, and commented, “I feel as though I have been through a battle—and lost!”

  Elizabeth smiled and said, “My poor, dear husband! Now that Georgiana’s presentation is over you can relax. I have no doubt now that her first Season will be a success.”

  “I thank heaven for that…! Elizabeth?”

  “Yes?” She looked at him in surprise at his grim tone.

  “I need to talk to both you and Georgiana about something when she has changed and rested a little from her ordeal.”

  She stared at him for a brief moment. “I thought there was something else worrying you. I will go up and see what Georgiana is doing.”

  The two ladies were back downstairs within fifteen minutes. Darcy took them into his library where they would not be disturbed and they all sat down, Elizabeth and Georgiana staring at him with large eyes. As he paused to choose his words, Georgiana finally said, “What is it, Brother?”

  “I suppose there is no gentle or easy way to say this. This morning’s paper had an engagement announcement for Mr. Jonathan Walker and Miss Emily Blake.”

  “No!” Georgiana put her hand to her mouth.

  “I am afraid so.”

  “We cannot allow him to marry her!” she said in agitation.

  “We will not, but we want to proceed carefully so Walker does not realise we are moving against him. We do not want him to spread the story of your kidnapping in revenge.”

  “If it is a choice of damaging my reputation versus letting a young woman we know marry that evil man, I will risk my reputation,” she returned grimly. “I will not let that man ruin a friend’s life—not if I can prevent it.”

  “I am hoping it will not come to that choice. The colonel and Lord Whitwell know about this, but say nothing to anyone else. I am going out to my club. Sir Robert is a member and I am hoping that I will see him. I do not want to risk going to him at his home since Walker is staying with them.”

  They both nodded in agreement.

  When Darcy returned later he told them that he had not met Sir Robert, but he assured his wife and his sister that he would try again the next day.

  “If I do not casually run into him, I will risk sending an invitation asking Sir Robert to dine with me at the club. Now let us forget Walker and ready ourselves for dinner. We do not want Kitty to know that we are upset.”

  ***

  The next evening, they attended a large ball given by another acquaintance of Lady Whitwell’s, Mrs. Dalrymple, for her daughter Justina.

  Justina Dalrymple was a small, pretty, and vivacious girl of twenty years who was entering her third Season and who possessed a tart wit that amused the gentlemen, and she had rather a good opinion of herself. She had many admirers but had not deigned to accept the hand of any one of them, declaring to one and all that she would enjoy herself before tying herself to a husband. Her parents were anxious to have their daughter married before she was much older for fear that she would end up a spinster and made sure that every eligible gentleman in town received an invitation to the ball. Georgiana was slightly acquainted with Justina, and she whispered to Elizabeth that Justina was very pretty but her tongue was rather sharp.

  “In fact, she reminds me a little of Miss Bingley, who, by the bye, has just arrived,” she said in a dry tone.

  Elizabeth looked up and saw Caroline Bingley posed in the doorway, Bingley and Jane standing unobtrusively behind her. One of the gentlemen separated himself from the group t
hat was milling around the debutantes and approached the arriving trio; Georgiana suddenly realised that it was the Comte de Tournay. He was dressed in the latest fashion and was really a fine figure of a man in spite of his forty-plus years. He must be making the rounds of the parties to find another wealthy wife, she thought cynically. One would think that he would look for a wealthy widow closer to his own age rather than a woman young enough to be his daughter, but perhaps a widow would not be youthful enough for his discerning tastes—and might come with additional encumbrances, such as children. Georgiana could not picture the suave aristocrat as a doting father to someone else’s child.

  Georgiana greeted the Bingleys and then was claimed for the next dance by the eldest Dalrymple son, a handsome young man, if overly taken to preening like a peacock. She had told him that she would only dance with him if he danced with Kitty the next pair of dances, and he had agreed, perplexed that a debutante would want to help a competitor find dancing partners. When there was a break in the dancing, Elizabeth thanked Georgiana quietly for her kindness to Kitty and asked her if she had arranged the exchange of partners. Georgiana blushed and admitted that she had, saying, “I did not realise that you would notice. You are far too acute, Elizabeth! Do not tell Kitty, please.”

  “That was very kind of you, dearest.”

  “Not at all. I have no interest in a man who thinks he is prettier than I am, so why should I not direct him towards Kitty as a dancing partner?”

  Elizabeth smiled and shooed Georgiana back to the debutantes.

  The evening passed uneventfully, and Georgiana was satisfied with the number and quality of her dancing partners. She could feel her brother’s eyes watching her every move as she progressed around the room, and she could tell that he was a little nervous for her still, so she gave him a smile as she moved to the head of the set.

  About an hour after the ball began, Colonel Fitzwilliam arrived, handsomely outfitted in a beautifully cut black coat and breeches and snowy stockings. Elizabeth was standing by Georgiana when he greeted his cousin.

  “I am pleased to see you, my dear little cousin. I am sorry that I missed you yesterday morning, but I hear that your curtsey was flawless,” he said, bowing to her.

  Georgiana flicked a glance at Elizabeth and then returned the colonel’s courtesies. She moved off when her next partner, an impeccably dressed young gentleman with a pleasantly ugly face, came to claim his dances with her.

  ***

  The colonel turned to Elizabeth and asked her if she would like to dance.

  “I know that my cousin does not enjoy dancing and I would not want a handsome young lady such as you to be unable to enjoy the ball.” He smirked at Darcy, who just shook his head and rolled his eyes.

  As they danced, Elizabeth could not resist teasing the colonel about his own matrimonial ambitions.

  “You will never find a wife, Colonel, if you spend your time dancing with the married women.”

  “Very true, but I like to do a tactical analysis before plunging into the maelstrom of battle,” he said, his eyes alight with mischief. “It is a very difficult problem when the loveliest ladies are already taken,” he added with a courtly bow.

  “I thank you, sir, for the compliment; however, I suspect that there are probably plenty of pretty young ladies who would be happy to dance with you and with whom you could find ample consolation.”

  “It is not the dancing, but the predatory mammas that frighten me,” he said with a straight face.

  Elizabeth laughed and they continued their dance. After a moment the colonel added, still with a light tone, “Seriously, however, the mammas who are interested in the younger son of an earl seem to be those with no breeding and plenty of lucre; they wish to get their foot in the door of the nobility and their daughters have not the beauty or charms to attract an eldest son. It is quite frustrating.”

  “Perhaps you should not confine your search for a wife to the ladies of London, Colonel.”

  He smiled. “Perhaps you are right.”

  They finished their dance in silence, and when the colonel went off to ask the daughter of the house to dance, Elizabeth stood again with Darcy and watched the dancers. Elizabeth noticed that Georgiana gravely observed her cousin as he made the rounds of the room while at the same time trying to listen attentively to her various partners’ conversation.

  On the way home in the carriage, however, Georgiana threw off her serious mood and chattered about the ball with Kitty, who seemed to have had a better time than at the previous one, and the two girls went upstairs giggling together. Darcy and Elizabeth made their way sedately up in their wake, and Elizabeth sighed in relief at the success of the beginning of Georgiana’s Season.

  ***

  The next morning, Darcy left for his club, where he was still trying to catch Sir Robert Blake, leaving Elizabeth and Georgiana to eat alone. Kitty was a late riser and usually missed breakfast. Georgiana was lightly discussing the previous night’s ball with Elizabeth, when her sister decided to ask, “So tell me, my dear, what do you think of the young men in London? Have any caught your eye?”

  Elizabeth’s eyes widened in shock as a sudden flare of red rushed up Georgiana’s face and she averted her eyes.

  “I am sorry, Georgiana. I did not mean to embarrass you!”

  “No, no… I-I should like to tell you,” Georgiana whispered, as her eyes filled and a teardrop fell on her clenched hands.

  “If you are finished, let us go up to my sitting-room where we can be private,” Elizabeth said quickly.

  When they were settled in front of the fire, Georgiana paused to gather her thoughts then said, “I like the gentlemen I have met well enough, excepting only Mr. Walker, of course. Sir Robert is especially nice and very handsome, and I like his brothers and sister, too. The problem is that… well,” she paused for a moment, her throat constricted. She took a deep breath to calm herself and plunged on, “My heart is already taken.”

  Georgiana could see that Elizabeth’s thoughts went instantly to Wickham, and she quickly said, “Do not worry, Elizabeth; I am not in love with a married man!”

  She turned her eyes down and stared at her hands as they twisted her handkerchief and whispered, “I am in love with Colonel Fitzwilliam. Until my brother told us of his actual role at the palace I thought my cousin a dilettante, funny and entertaining but lacking any serious purpose in life. When I heard about his responsibilities and the respect in which he is held by the Prince Regent I struggled to change my opinion of the man I thought I knew but clearly did not. I finally understood why my father made him one of my guardians. Then I was abducted and when the colonel burst into my room to rescue me like a knight in shining armour…”

  She stopped and laughed once, harshly. “I sound like some dewy-eyed lack-wit. What I realised was that he was not a man lacking passion. He was quite ready to kill someone to protect me. I have tried to decide if I am suffering from an understandable case of hero-worship or whether I love him as I should love the man I marry. I have thought back over my entire relationship with the colonel and realise now that I have loved him since I was a little girl.

  “I remember when I was six years old and I was afraid to ride my pony. He spent the entire fortnight of his holiday teaching me to ride. He was so patient, and he never made fun of me for being frightened in spite of his being a grown twenty-year-old who was afraid of nothing. I did not see at the time that his care for and patience with a lonely little girl was far beyond what most men would show a young girl who was only a cousin and not his responsibility. He quietly goes through life doing his job without any fanfare. He does not try to impress everyone or put on an act. He is just himself, and that is a fine man who any woman could love and respect.”

  Elizabeth took her hand gently.

  “Well, dearest, there is no reason that you cannot marry Colonel Fitzwilliam. I will speak to your broth
er…”

  “No!” she cried, clutching Elizabeth’s hand until her sister winced. She released it immediately and said, “I am so sorry, Elizabeth, but please promise me you will not talk to my brother about this!”

  “But, why not, Georgiana? He could talk to the colonel…”

  “No! That is exactly what I do not want!”

  “But, dearest…” Elizabeth said insistently.

  Georgiana riveted her eyes upon Elizabeth’s and said, “Do you not see? I do not want the colonel to feel obligated to marry me. I do not want him to marry me only for duty to his family—I want him to marry me because he loves me… I want the kind of love and respect that you and my brother have for each other, not a cool, logical arrangement for the benefit of the family. Oh, it would solve so many problems! The colonel would have a wife with money, Georgiana would have a husband, and we would not have to worry about the threat of Walker revealing the kidnapping scheme because the colonel already knows,” she finished bitterly.

  “I begin to see the problem, my dear,” Elizabeth said rather helplessly. “But what can we do about it?”

  “He thinks I am a child; when he visits he kisses me dutifully and pats me on the head like he does Pilot. He rescues me at the ball if the young men get too importunate, but he does it as a duty to a child towards whom he has a responsibility. He even calls me ‘little cousin’—sometimes I could just slap him for that!” she said passionately.

  “Yes, I noticed him doing that,” Elizabeth said absently. “So… what do you want me to do, Georgiana?”

  “I do not know. I just do not know how to even begin to get his attention,” she sobbed. “I am seventeen years old and am no longer a child, but how do I make him see that, and how do I find out if he cares for me without risking awkwardness and humiliation for both of us? It would be mortifying if he found out that I love him and he does not feel the same towards me. And how could he? He thinks I am still six years old.”

  Elizabeth embraced her and Georgiana clung to her. She stroked her sister’s hair and said, “Well, Georgiana, my dear, the only answer I can give you now is that I will give this problem some thought and we will see what we can do. As far as I know, the colonel does not have a particular young woman he is interested in, so I think he is safe for the moment—although he might have a dozen young women courting him and I would not know!”