Page 28 of Her Brother's Keeper
“Disguise of any sort is my abhorrence,” he muttered. “I have the time; I simply cannot spare the attention.”
Mabel huffed.
“Come now, last time he was upon your back, he was no prince,” Darcy told the beast.
Unexpectedly, he heard hooves cantering up the road behind him.Devil take it, Bingley rose early for once and caught me out.He was conscious of a surprising feeling of…what? Frustration? For all his resentment, he realised, he had wanted to see Elizabeth, talk to her again, see how she did. Even, he had looked forward to showing Edward a real ride, without a leading rope—showing him what it felt like to trot, to gallop. He would have to send the note after all. He knew what that note ought to say.
It was not frustration; it was regret, real and thick.I do not know myself.
But it was not Bingley who trotted around the bend, but Georgiana, a wide grin upon her face, riding astride on her mare, Lady. She was not wearing a woman’s riding habit, either, but the breeches she wore only at Pemberley.
“Fitzwilliam!” she called joyfully. “There you are! The stable boy said you had gone in this direction and I hoped to catch you!”
“I am caught. I am not certain you are fit to be seen, however,” he said, looking askance at her apparel. “I thought we had an agreement—only at home.”
“I caught you, I caught you!” she giggled, then frowned at his obvious dismay. “Oh please? I wanted a real ride. It is why I rose so early. I can be home before anyone else leaves their beds, no one will ever know, not even Mrs Annesley, I promise!”
Since he found the female riding habits restrictive at best and dangerous at worst, he could sympathise…but what other young lady would take a chance upon being caught out in such an ensemble?
“Very well, this once. It is the country, but not our own country, where your name, local goodwill, and the privacy of our lands protect you.”
“Thank you! You are the best brother in the world!” Suddenly she looked at him with astonishment. “But where is Gallant? Why are you riding that horse? She has hardly moved in all the time I have been talking to you! Oh, Fitzwilliam, she is so nice and patient! But you do not like horses so docile! Is Gallant injured?” She rattled off her questions and comments almost all in one breath.
I knew it, he thought.I knew she would catch me.
Twenty-Three
RUN AWAY WITH THE NOTION
“It is not for my own pleasure that I ride out this morning,” Darcy began awkwardly, glad his cravat hid the flush that ran up his neck.
His sister peered at him with innocent expectation.
“Quite by accident, I happened upon a situation…an unfortunate situation wherein a young lady of gentle birth is raising, by herself, her young brother. Although he is three years old, he has almost no speech as yet. When frustrated, he becomes aggressive. He does not seem to understand the most rudimentary of instruction.”
“The poor thing is an idiot?” Georgiana asked sympathetically.
Darcy hesitated. “Perhaps. His sister does not believe it to be so. Hehaslearnt things.” He told her of Edward’s deep, even excessive fascination for animals. “It crossed my mind that perhaps I could teach him a little something about riding, and possibly, with the incentive of the horse, teach him something of proper behaviour. It is probably a useless exercise, butat the time I offered it, it seemed as if I ought to try. He is getting to be too much for his sister, but his alternatives are not happy ones.”
Hurriedly, he turned Mabel from her grazing, starting again on the road towards the properties of Longbourn, hoping to avoid more questions. Georgiana’s mount obediently followed.
His sister was silent for a few minutes. When she spoke, it was quietly. “Do you remember Mrs Blackstone?”
He nodded, recalling the kindly nurse who had once reigned supreme in the nursery during the worst years of his mother’s illness until shortly after her death. “Yes, of course.”
“She believed me a simpleton, because I could not always pay attention to what she said. She told the other nursery maids to speak slowly and carefully to me, because of it.”
“What?” Darcy was appalled. “I believed her so warm-hearted!”
“Oh, she was! She loved me! Shewassympathetic and patient. But she also thought me slow-witted, and so chided the maids for having expectations of me that I could not possibly meet. She did not hesitate to say these things before me, because I was so stupid, I would not understand regardless. She pitied me, and counselled the others to charity.”
“Georgiana…” Darcy was so horrified, he almost did not know what to say. “I am so sorry. I hope you know now how mistaken she was. I am certain that our parents would never have kept her in that position had they been aware of her shortcomings.”
His sister sighed. “Her replacement was much better. But I know I am not like other girls, Fitzwilliam. I have not the talent that so many possess, of conversing easily with strangers. I cannot catch the tone of their conversation; I donot understand what is obvious to most. I am loud when I ought to be quiet. I ask questions that seem natural to me, but which cause others to widen their eyes in surprise. I see…signs that I have erred, but I seldom can tell what it is that I have done wrong.”
He did not know what to say; he had witnessed this, even worried over it, but had not realised she knew it, as well. “I will tell you what it doesnotmean: stupidity. It takes time to learn the social graces. I too am uncomfortable with those not well known to me. It is not easy.”
“That is what Mrs Annesley says. She says that proficiency in the, um, social graces, is a common talent, exactly as skills in drawing and music, such as I possess, are uncommon ones. She tells me that similar to hiring a master to help those who cannot draw well, as we practise conversation and mannerly behaviour together, I will improve.”
