Page 35 of Her Brother's Keeper
“Elizabeth, no. It was an accident! Neddy did not mean it.”
“Unfortunately, we cannot know that, not for sure.”
“I do know it. I feel it!”
Elizabeth closed her eyes briefly. She felt the same way, and yet many, if not most, would call Neddy feral, and agree that he ought to be locked up, or drugged with laudanum, or otherwise confined. There was no possible way, after what he had witnessed himself of Neddy’s behaviour, that Mr Darcy would agree to allow his sister to continue to risk being harmed. “Thank you, dear. But I insist you talk to your brother, and…and do as he wishes. Whatever that is.”
“Very well,” Georgiana agreed reluctantly.
A few minutes later, she was gone, and Elizabeth was once again alone. Curling up on the faded settee, she gave in to sorrow, and wept—a little for herself, but mostly for all the ways she felt she was failing her brother.
Twenty-Eight
HORSE SENSE
Darcy noticed the scratches on Georgiana’s hands at tea. He might not have said or even thought much about it, except that when she caught the direction of his gaze, she immediately folded her arms, tucking her hands within her sleeves. That was when he realised the likelihood of the origin of the injury.
His first instinctive response was anger.
The child was beyond control, already, as a mere infant!
Georgiana, plainly, had taken the boy’s side, even though he had injured her. What she ought to have done was come to him immediately, and explain what had happened. He could not allow his sister’s soft heart to lead her into trouble.
Trouble?his conscience prodded.Or is this an excuse to separate her from Elizabeth, so that you might surrender the constant temptation to beg your young sister for information regarding her?
All week long, the craving for news of her had been a constant one. On the one hand, Georgiana shared nothing at allwith the Bingley sisters regarding her morning ‘rides’ and her time spent with Elizabeth. He did not blame her for that—after all, those two were so preoccupied with social standing, they would surely have multiple criticisms of a young lady who had abandoned the safety of Longbourn. Miss Bingley had assumed that his one dance with Elizabeth had been mere chivalry, and even said as much. Because Bingley’s ‘angel’ had thankfully been circumspect regarding Edward and Elizabeth, and Miss Mary seldom left Longbourn, Miss Bingley had by now seemingly forgotten that Miss Bennet evenhadsisters. Obviously, Georgiana had no intention of reminding her.
He had been restraining himself from asking his own questions. Did the child show any improvement? Was Elizabeth encouraged? Did she seem any happier?
Clearly, here were his answers. Edward could not be allowed to abuse those around him. He understood why Elizabeth protected him from the sort of mistreatment Mr Philips meted out, but he should be punished for injuring others.
It was while he was grappling with these thoughts, alone in the library—the least-used room in the house—that his sister approached him.
“Fitzwilliam, I must speak with you about something very important. I know what you are going to say and I am begging—pleading—with you not to say it.”
He frowned. “The child is responsible for those scratches, is he not?” He nodded at her hands.
She plopped down beside him on the settee in a most unladylike fashion. “Elizabeth told me I had to tell you, but I do not want to. You do not understand! She believes you will not allow me to return, but it will not happen again!”
So, Elizabeth had already decided for him, had she? Even though he had been leaning in that very direction, he was annoyed. “How will you prevent it?”
“For one thing, if he has another tantrum, I will not interfere. Elizabeth knows how to deal with him.”
“Hardly. She simply takes the ill-treatment upon herself.”
“Well, she is better at holding him in such a way as to avoid injury. As soon as she got him into the house, she made him go to bed, which obviously upset him, since he cried for about an hour, but it was the usual sort of crying. He did not understand, Brother!”
She gave him a rather lengthy and slightly convoluted explanation of their habitual routine, and how changing the sequence of their actions upset Edward, and her theory of why it did so.
He stood, pacing in front of the library’s hearth. “Do you mean to provide excuses for his terrible behaviour?”
“Do not you wish to understand why he loses his control over a change in routine?”
That was the trouble, was it not? He was trying to forget Elizabeth Bennet and her brother, and Georgiana’s involvement was bringing them right to the forefront of his mind.
“I do not. It is nothing to me,” he all but spat, sick of the whole struggle.
“I cannot believe that of you!”
