Page 123 of Miss Bennet's Dragon
I swallowed against the sudden heat in my throat. “When I spoke of the darkness of Pemberley, you fled.Why?”
“I cannot answer,” he burst out at the exact moment that Miss Darcy joined us, glowing with pleasure.
“Fitz?” she said, her smile collapsing to concern.
“You must excuse me.” He strode through the crowd until he was on the other side of the garden.
Fingers encircled my hand and squeezed. “Elizabeth. Are you all right?” I tore my gaze from Mr. Darcy’s back and met his sister’s blue, worried eyes. “Did you quarrel?”
“No. Yes. I do not know.”
“Here.” She led me to a shaded table, sat me down, and put something in my hand. A crumpet. I took a bite. Strawberries. “Tell me what has happened.”
I was being comforted by Mr. Darcy’s sister. This was not a good solution. But to pretend all was well was too disingenuous. “Mr. Darcy and I have a disagreement. Over his protectiveness.”
“I will certainly take your side. It is his most disagreeable trait.” She spoke with such sisterly annoyance that a laugh broke through my lips. She leaned closer. “Since I was eleven, I have lived within my brother’s protectiveness. Protection is well and good. But it can become foolish.”
“Excessively foolish,” I said tartly.
“Let us speak of something else. Fitz will return.” A corner of her mouth twitched. “He cannot leave without me.”
“True.” I took another bite of crumpet, leaned back in my seat, and looked around the garden.
Jane, radiating joy with Mr. Bingley at her side, was speaking with the Lucases. Everywhere, there were smiles and happiness. My tense anticipation of speaking with Mr. Darcy had distracted me from what really mattered.
An unnamable dread fell away with a lurch. So much had gone wrong in the last few months that I had trouble accepting a happy ending. But here we sat, surrounded by a miracle for Jane.
“I greatly enjoyed meeting your sister Mary,” Miss Darcy said. “I have even persuaded her to show me her compositions. I think she is shy about them.”
That caught my attention. “Compositions?Musiccompositions?”
“Did you not know?”
“I had no idea. Do women compose music?”
“Your sister does,” observed Miss Darcy, with the same self-assured manner I had seen in her music room. Her eyes were on Mary, who was speaking with Mrs. Trew, one of our tenants.
My eyes drifted to Miss Darcy’s necklace with its single golden musical note, then the gold embroidery on her dress. The Chinese dragons were rendered in a strange style, stretched like snakes yet capturing the motion of draca. They had no wings, but they reminded me of our drake.
One shape was different, with wide, webbed feet and a thin tail like a fish. It was surrounded by a few simple lines that suggested reeds. “There is an aquatic dragon on your dress.”
“The Chinese have their own myths. Dragons that change to carp, and back again.” Miss Darcy’s voice was distracted. She was now watching Jane and Mr. Bingley.
Softly, she said, “I shall never marry.”
I almost scoffed. When I was a few years younger, I had imagined that myself in flashes of rebellion or frustration. But Miss Darcy seemed serious, so I answered seriously. “It will not be for a lack of opportunity. Already, gentlemen admire you.”
“I do not desire their admiration.” She was quiet for a minute. “Once, a man asked me to marry him. I knew he was dishonest, but I said yes. Just to… to be what is expected. Girls should dream of being married. I thought I could act the role dictated by the adamant expectations of society. But it would be a cruel jail.”
Mr. Darcy had told me his sister’s history with Mr. Wickham, although I would never admit that to her. But this was a different explanation thanhis—more complex than a young girl seduced into thinking she was in love then admitting the truth to her beloved brother.
There was a question I could ask without revealing my knowledge. “Mr. Darcy said you have renounced marriage gold.”
“We chose that together. Fitz worries that my fortune makes me a target of unscrupulous men.” She bit her lip. “I have not told him I do not plan to marry.” I nodded to indicate I would keep it in confidence. “But I still have a fortune, with or without marriage gold. There is a more important reason. The more I learn of draca, the more uncomfortable binding leaves me. Fitz said my mother worried about this also, so together we decided we would not bind. Binding is… hard to understand. I fear draca have no choice in the matter. That they are slaves.” Her laugh was bitter for such a young woman. “Forced into an unwanted marriage.”
“I see why you enjoy Mary,” I said. Miss Darcy gave me an extremely startled look. “Mary has decided that society is unfairly and selfishly controlled by men. She denounces England as a patriarchy and disapproves of society’s expectation that ladies marry. You should share your thoughts on marriage with her.”
Miss Darcy riveted her attention on the ground at her feet. A flush spread below her bonnet.
