Read Online Miss Darcy's Companion: A Pride and Prejudice Variation by Joana Starnes - Free Book Online Page B

Since there is no avoiding any of the above, she might look upon them with less trepidation if she is given the opportunity to practise. We have kept ourselves to ourselves here, just as you have requested upon our leaving town, but now that she is restored to your protection it might do her good to mix in society more, in preparation for the future. That is all.”
    Silence fell at last, and neither seemed disposed to break it. Whatever Miss Bennet might have thought Darcy could not tell, but for his part he had begun to feel more than a little guilty for his earlier display of temper, and no less for having had to learn from a third party about Georgiana’s fears.
    He should have guessed them. He should have known without being told that she would be plagued by the same foreboding. He had experienced it himself several years ago and, truth be told, it had not fully left him. The proverbial Darcy reluctance to pander to dull crowds must have been passed down in their blood.
    He should have seen that Georgiana’s shyness would make her feel the discomfort even more acutely. But, in his defence, he had not expected the issue to come up so soon. She was so very young! Surely there was plenty of time until they had to consider her entry into society, leaving Pemberley, leaving him…
    Unthinkingly, he voiced his thoughts aloud, in an unconscious attempt at both defence and reassurance, for himself as well as his absent sister.
    “She need not fret. Her coming-out is very distant. She is fifteen, a mere child.”
    To his vast surprise, a small hand was laid comfortingly on his sleeve and he looked up to meet Miss Bennet’s glance, settled upon him with none of the earlier governess-like censure, but with something very much like warm understanding.
    “My father used to say that a man’s heart was more his own when he had no daughters, but the poorer for it. I suppose the same can be said of younger sisters,” she observed softly. He made no reply but a half-smile, and she continued, “Aye, Miss Darcy is full young, but ‘tis not so very long until she is sufficiently grown up to go out into the world, find her place, form an attachment. You should prepare yourself for it, Sir, or it will break your heart. As it would to discover she is so much in awe of you that she cannot disclose her feelings until there is a suitor on your doorstep, coming to ask for her hand in marriage. I hope you will not take further offence at my forthrightness,” she added as an afterthought and at that, Darcy surprised himself with a rueful chuckle.
    “I will not,” he said at last. “Your father was very wise, Miss Bennet, as are you. Wise beyond your years.”
    “I thank you. ‘Tis kind of you to say so.”
    “Now,” he resumed in a suddenly jocular manner, “within a terribly short time I have discovered you are also kind and cheerful, exceptionally well-read, fiercely independent and exceedingly outspoken. So, before I find myself shocked by further revelations and as a result disgrace myself with another fit of passion, pray tell me, what else are you?”
    She laughed lightly in response, a most becoming sparkle in her eyes.
    “Much as I would like to sum myself up in a satisfactory manner, Sir, I cannot find the words to suit the purpose. I could use other people’s words, but they might be misleading, so I fear you must find another way to settle the hopeless business. All I can say is that thanks to the kindness I have uniformly found at Pemberley I feel myself quite restored to Elizabeth Bennet, with all that it implies. For better or worse. I trust none of us will come to regret it,” she playfully concluded, her manner an admixture of diffidence and archness which Darcy found pleasing and also rather touching.
    Equally touching was her appreciation of the kindness she had been shown at Pemberley. It was good to know that, after everything she had endured, Pemberley was the safe haven that had allowed her to feel at ease