It was a particularly sunny afternoon when, a day or two after their dinner, Georgiana set out to call on Mr Egerton and his sisters. She had hoped to persuade her brother to come with her, but a knock at the door of Darcy's study had revealed him to be busily at work and not eager to be disturbed. She had reluctantly decided to call alone, although as she drew closer to the house she began to regret the notion.
I was invited, she reminded herself. Sally invited me. This was a heartening thought, and she rapped smartly at the door before any more doubts could assail her.
"Georgiana! Oh, I thought you never would come!" Sally declared, bounding out of her seat and wrapping her arms around Georgiana, as she was shown across the threshold of the sunny parlour. "Come and sit down, and Joanna will rout out Sidney. He is outside, I believe, pacing a trench in the garden."
Georgiana frowned at this, and Joanna laughed, her eyes dancing with merriment and mystery as she explained.
"He is puzzling over something, and he thinks best out of doors - now, as he did before. Of course, now he must think out of doors on his own two feet and contained to places he knows well. Here, he has a wall he may trail with his hands as he walks and he has made such a habit of it that I declare he has worn a path in the dirt." She shook her head. "Better he does it out of doors than in here, I suppose. I do not wish for our poor carpets to be worn away by his pacing."
"He is not troubled, I hope," Georgiana asked, thinking of the concerned scowl she had so often seen on her brother's face over the years, and wondering if Sidney Egerton was likewise plagued by the wrongdoings of others. It would be typical, she thought, with an annoyed sigh. George Wickham has already caused so much trouble for his family and ours. Is he continuing to disquiet Mr Egerton in his absence?
"Troubled? Oh, I dare say he is!" Sally giggled, her eyes drifting to the door and poised to swallow her words the instant it opened. "He is in love!"
Georgiana's eyebrows lifted.
"Do not tell me you could not see it?" Sally leaned forward with a significant smile. "He has quite lost his heart to Mary Bennet, and Joanna and I are just wild for him to propose and settle matters between them." She groaned, theatrically. "I am mere days away from seizing the moment and doing it myself, for he seems intent on procrastinating his happiness away." Something that might have been determination flashed in her eyes and she sat a little straighter. "I shall not allow him to. He deserves to be happy." She tossed her head, descending into mischief once more. "And, in any case, I have decided I shall quite like to have Mary Bennet as my sister."
"I wish them every happiness," Georgiana murmured, feeling a strange thud in her chest. She did wish them happiness, of course she did. Why, then, did she feel a flare of something that might have been...envy?
"I suppose that is why she has been so eager to befriend you," she continued, voicing her thoughts aloud almost before she was aware of it. "To have an ally in her quest for your brother's heart." Her expression remained serene, but inwardly she smarted, recalling more than one young lady who had likewise manipulated Georgiana into a friendship with ulterior motives. She was not sure she had ever had a friend that was hers alone, save for Wickham, and that had been disaster upon disaster. Her thoughts must have shown some in her features, for Sally's smile had melted and she was looking at Georgiana rather strangely.
"I do not think that is the case," she said, blinking rapidly as if trying to understand the concept Georgiana had placed before her. "If anything, it is I that pursued a friendship with Mary, and surely you do not think her capable of such cruel manipulation."
Georgiana paused for a moment, chastened to hear her unchristian opinion thus relayed back to her. It did seem uncharitable, now, and wholly inapplicable to Mary Bennet. She was no Caroline Bingley, after all. Surely it would be a blessing to all if she engaged well with the Egerton sisters she would one day be related to.
"Of course not." Georgiana laughed, but the sound was rather hollow. The door opened, then, admitting Mr Egerton and Joanna. Georgiana was relieved for the change in conversation, fearing that her misstep had damaged her in Sally's opinion and feeling that she would rather like to redress the balance.
"Miss Darcy has come to call on us, brother. We were just about to order tea."
"A fine idea," Mr Egerton said, bowing in the vague direction of Georgiana before feeling his way to a chair and sinking heavily into it. "I trust you are well today, Miss Darcy?"
"Very well, thank you."
"I must thank you again for your hospitality to us the other evening. I assure you our poor cook has suffered a hundred disappointments at not quite living up to the standards of the fare we enjoyed." He smirked as he said this, suggesting his words were not entirely true, but neither were they false, and designed, instead, to tease his sisters, who both harrumphed at him, before descending into laughter.
"I hope you will write out the recipe for your madeleine biscuits," Joanna remarked, as she settled into her chair beside her brother and beamed at Georgiana. "I should like to have our cook make them, although I shall wait until we are to have company or else I shall be in danger of eating them all!" She pinched at her slim waist and pulled a face, which provoked more laughter, and Georgiana felt all her awkwardness dissipate. How could she ever think Mary Bennet guilty of manipulating friendship with such a family as this? These were ladies it would be a privilege to know and befriend and all the better if she had also developed an affection for their brother and won his heart for her trouble.
"I thought Miss Mary Bennet played very well," Georgiana remarked, with a sly glance at Sally. The younger Miss Egerton nodded in silent approval of this, and Mr Egerton cleared his throat, clearly a little unsettled by so direct a mention of the young lady who was surely never very far from his thoughts.
"I had heard of her talent, of course," Georgiana continued, pausing to accept a cup of tea. "Being musical myself, I am always delighted to meet others who enjoy playing as much as I do."
"You played very well together," Joanna remarked, stout in her praise. "Better than some performances I have heard in London over the summer!"
Georgiana laughed, stirring her tea.
"You are too kind, Miss Egerton, but I shall accept the compliment, not that I require any more praise."
"What young lady is ever not in need of praise?" Sally remarked.
"I can think of one or two," Georgiana remarked, almost before she meant to. She tried to hide her guilt at so snide a comment in taking a sip of her tea, but did not escape the look exchanged between the sisters and thought that they, too, shared her feelings and perhaps even knew precisely to whom she referred, however obliquely.
Their conversation moved on, slipping as easily between topics as a dance and Georgiana was reminded, again, of just why her brother had formed and maintained these particular friendships. Mr Egerton and he were not dissimilar in their views, and the dry comments her host made to punctuate the ladies conversation might just as easily have come from Darcy's lips.
She was very much enjoying herself until the conversation took a turn she was not expecting.
"I wonder, Miss Darcy, if I might draw you into my confidence."
It was Mr Egerton who spoke, his attention focused on balancing his teacup on its saucer with more care and concern than a sighted man might need.
"I?" Georgiana was surprised, but honoured, to be addressed so. "Of course. How may I be of assistance?" She glanced at Sally, hoping for some clue as to what would come next, but she was sphinx-like, staring at a spot on the floor and allowing her brother all the time he needed to speak.
"It is about your brother. I dare say I should approach him directly with my query, but gentlemen so rarely speak of matters of the heart that I do not wish to put him on the spot, at least not until I have ascertained, to the best of my knowledge, where his heart lies."
"His heart?" Georgiana knew her brother possessed one, of course, but the fact that it was being spoken of so freely was a surprise to her. "Has he - has he confided something to you?"
She could not help but feel a little hurt. However agreeable Mr Egerton was and however much she might be growing in fondness towards him and his sisters, Georgiana did not like think of her brother forsaking her to confide his truest, deepest feelings to people who were, largely, strangers.
"No, I heard from...another." Mr Egerton spoke vaguely, but Georgiana could only assume his source was the only Bennet sister to whom he spoke for a considerable time without being overheard. "She had it on good authority that there was some connection, perhaps long past now, between Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet. I wondered, Miss Darcy, if you knew of such a thing, and if I might be able to secure your assistance in repairing whatever once existed between them..."