Page 22 of Eavesdroppers Never Hear
“That was sufficient. You see…” she said with a significant pause. “…Mary is an aficionado of Fordyce’s sermons. Believe it or not, she was not close with any of the sisters until we returnedfrom Netherfield. Jane and I only recently started paying enough attention to determine much of what the good reverend says is quite sensible. You must balance the good against that which is utter nonsense, but overall, we find Reverend Fordyce better reading than we thought. That caused Jane and I to afford Mary more respect and attention than we have previously. We are significantly closer than we were even a week ago, much to our chagrin.”
She paused to judge whether the gentleman was bored yet and found him staring intently. “All that is neither here nor there. Her look was enough to tell me we had a moral obligation. Since I had no objection, I volunteered.”
“That is a lot to get from a glare! In fact, I would bet your elder sister got no such thing.”
“Can you not get that much from your sister?” she asked in puzzlement. She was describing rudimentary sibling communication. She could get a lot more information from a far subtler look from Jane, since her reconciliation with Mary was so recent.
Darcy sighed, looking dejected. “I fear I cannot. My sister is…” and then he stopped midsentence and spent several moments trying to work out what to say, while Elizabeth waited patiently.
“Georgiana is twelve years my junior… presently sixteen and not out. We inhabited vastly different worlds most of her life. I was at Eaton when she was born, and I might have seen her a few dozen times in the first years. When I was eighteen, I was off to Cambridge and not particularly interested in a five-year-old sister. I am ashamed of that now, but I doubt a better attitude would have made that much difference.”
“Probably not. That is an enormous age gap.”
“We saw each other occasionally on holidays and the like; but she was only ten to my twenty-two when our father died, and I was unexpectedly thrust into the management of Pemberley.”
Elizabeth decided to go where angels feared to tread. “About Jane’s age! I assume you were trained from birth, but… still… is Pemberley significantly larger than Longbourn? I assume it must be.”
Darcy looked sceptical, though his look was not what it would be if he suspected her of mercenary intent, but then again, if he suspected such he would still be at Netherfield.
“About five times, I would say. Your park here is lovely, but Pemberley’s is ten miles around.”
Elizabeth gasped, never having quite done the simple arithmetic involved in ‘ten thousand a year’ when she knew Longbourn generated two at best.
“I am impressed,” she said in some sympathy. “That must have been inordinately difficult.”
“It was!” he said simply, and Elizabeth thought there was unlikely to be much more he would say. She thought the scope of his responsibilities must have been enormous, with hundreds being dependant on his decisions.
She tried to produce a comparison that made sense. The work and responsibility probably did not increase in proportion to size—but it did increase. After all, Netherfield was larger than Longbourn, but the master and mistress would not really do very much more (presuming they were both equally industrious or indolent) than her parents. Pemberley would be much larger, and even trained from birth, it must have been a shock to take over a mantle in his early twenties that he expected to receive in his thirties or forties.
She did not want to dwell on Pemberley too long. “And your sister?”
Darcy sighed again. “I share guardianship with my cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam, the youngest son of my mother’s brother, the Earl of Matlock.”
Elizabeth nodded in acknowledgement, though she thought that was about treble what she needed to know.
“Georgiana was in school until last summer, so while we are relatively close given our situation… we are nothing like you and your sisters. Add to that the natural gap between the sexes, and we are not close at all. We share a deep familial affection, but do not know each other all that well.”
“You should not feel guilt about that… if you do, that is… presuming I am not sticking my nose where it does not belong,” she said awkwardly.
“Feel free to stick your nose wherever it leads you. I would be grateful for any advice or aid.”
Elizabeth felt the conversation was quite far from what propriety demanded, but she had no idea how to bring it back without seeming dismissive of what must be a difficult subject.
To make sense of his situation, she would have to imagine Charlotte and Lydia, without the four Bennet sisters between. Even with both being the same sex, Charlotte could barely have a conversation with Lydia, let alone without the help of the elder Bennet sisters. Charlotte had a similar age gap between herself and her sister Maria, but they had spent all day every day in the same house and shared plenty of chores.
Mr Darcy’s situation sounded very disagreeable. To be honest, she doubted the father’s wisdom in making his young son responsible for the child. An aunt might have been a more sensible choice, but what was done was done, and for all she knew, he did not have a single suitable relative.
“That seems an awkward situation. I can understand your struggle. I can barely understand my sisters and we share the same dinner table.”
He nodded. “It was hard for me, but I never knew if that was a failing of myself or my situation. I suppose it is a bit of both.”
“That is not an unnatural surmise. Perhaps you might have done better, but who can say. Tell me about her.”
Darcy warmed to the tale. “Georgiana is sixteen. She is an excellent musician and plays the pianoforte much better than any girl her age has a right to and makes a good showing with the harp. Her voice is… not so melodious as yours, but quite good.”
Elizabeth found herself smiling at the fact that he found her singing better than a scalded cat (or his sister was truly terrible).
“Her biggest problem is her shyness.”
