Page 47 of Elizabeth and Caroline
He considered. He was still for a long moment, and then he nodded slowly. “I see. You will arrive at a ball, and even if you are the picture of perfection and good breeding and the best of manners, they will have already decided that you are wanting, because of your lack of connections.”
“Yes,” she said. “And so, I thought—”
“Be what they silently accuse you of being,” he said.
“Yes, but not in a destructive way, sir, I swear! I thought… I don’t know. I thought something to do with my dress, something to make it either more useful or more comfortable, something that is against the rules but in a trivial way, and in a way that will make them secretly wish they had a useful or comfortable dress and—”
“You’re very brilliant, Mrs. Darcy,” he interrupted, gazing at her with a fondness that reminded her of the way he looked at her when she wasn’t wearing clothes.
She felt herself flush, and she tucked her chin down against her chest.
“No, I have no objection to that,” he said. “Do what you will, and I know you will have the whole of society eating out of your hand in no time, my very brilliant and very winsome wife. I am in awe of you, truly.”
“You… stop it,” she said, because now he was going too far. She was not nearly as laudable as he said she was. But she was smiling. She liked it when he praised her. She could not deny that.
“But I am thinking of what you were saying about my sister, and… what if we don’t find her a match and what if we don’t give her a Season. What if I send her off to school?”
“To school, you say?”
“Well, that description of what you said, a place with young girls her own age where she would have companionship and not have to worry about a husband yet? It sounds like a school to me. And when I was that age, of course, I was sent to school. It’s different for boys than girls, of course. She would not have the sorts of freedoms I did, but that is all for the best. She would, however, be safe and happy, I think.”
“I had not thought of that,” said Elizabeth, who knew that there were schools for young women, of course. It had not been something within the reach of her family, who could not afford something like that, and it was not necessary for a girl to have schooling, not a girl of any class.
“I like it better, frankly, than marrying her off,” he said.
“Do you.”
“What’s that?” He glared at her.
She sighed. “I am sorry, Fitz! I don’t mean to take you to task, especially when you are just on the heels of so loudly singing my praises, but it is worrying that you are so eager to send her away from you!”
He sighed, too.
It was quiet.
He got up from his chair and came across the room to her.
She looked up at him, chewing on her bottom lip. She would not bring up Mr. Wickham. She refused to bring up that man!
He held out his hand to her.
She put her hand in his.
He pulled her to her feet and smiled as he looked into her eyes. “I shall speak to Georgiana, then, and ask her what she would like.”
“I only…”Oh, don’t do it, Elizabeth!Dash it all, it was coming out, “I wonder if the reason she was so agreeable was that he was paying attention to her, and if you keep treating her like she is a nuisance to be discarded, she is going to keep craving that, and she will be susceptible to any kind of man who will pay her that kind of mind, no matter what he is like.”
He winced, but he didn’t let go of her hand.
“Oh,” she moaned, pulling her hand away. “I cannot keep my mouth shut.”
“No, no, it’s all right. I am hearing what you are saying. Perhaps a school in town. A day school. And she may accompany us to balls or to dinners in town, and she may dine with us every evening. She can even come stay here if she likes. No reason to have two households, so many servants, I suppose, if she wishes it?”
“You mean that?”
“When I was her age, I really valued my independence,” he said.
“What is independence without freedom, sir?” she said pointedly.
