“I should be very happy to attend, Aunt,” said Miss Elizabeth.
“I am glad,” he replied, inclining his head as if this were all perfectly usual.
Outwardly, Darcy was certain nothing showed. Inwardly his mind was frantically at work, because there would nowhaveto be a picnic and it had to betomorrow. Mrs. Reynolds must be told within the hour and the neighbourhood within two. Lord Biggsworth was not in the country at present, but Mr. and Mrs. Atherton could be applied to, Sir Harold and Lady Carstairs, Reverend Mr. Pelham and his daughters. The kitchens. The cellars. Richard, who would never, as long as he lived, let this rest.
Georgiana was staring at him.
It was the smallest movement, but she had turned to him with her lips just parted, staring at him. She knew, as well as anyone breathing, that her brother did not decide to holdpicnics on a morning’s whim, that he did nothing on a whim at all.
He met her eyes and silently begged her to comply. She did not understand, but she offered him a very subtle nod and did not dispute him.
Across the room, Miss Bingley’s fan stopped. “I had no notion,” she said, “that we were to have a party tomorrow.” Her voice was smooth, and her smile was in good repair, but the fan had not resumed.
“It is but lately decided,” Darcy said.
“How . . . spontaneous of you.” She let the word sit. “I should never have thought it of you, Mr. Darcy. You are grown quite reckless. It is the country air, perhaps.”
“The weatherisvery fine just now,” he agreed, and said nothing further.
It was Mrs. Annesley, bless her good sense, who took up the dropped thread of conversation and asked whether the Gardiners and Miss Elizabeth had yet seen the falls at Matlock. They had, as it happened, and the morning carried on.
Georgiana recovered her courage from somewhere—perhaps from the discovery that her brother had just done a thing more frightening than anything she might be asked to do—and she managed to say to Miss Elizabeth that she hoped she was fond of being out of doors.
“Excessively,” said Miss Elizabeth. “It is nearly the only thing I do well.”
That was not true, but it was very like her to say so.
They did not stay much longer after that, and Darcy, watching the clock while his mind drew up lists, knew the call had reached its natural end. He saw the ladies to the hall himself, walked a half-pace too near Miss Elizabeth, and handed Mrs. Gardiner into her carriage.
“Until tomorrow, then, Mr. Darcy,” Mrs. Gardiner said, settling her skirts.
“Until tomorrow.”
He held out his hand to assist Miss Elizabeth. It was the briefest contact. A gloved hand in his, the light pressure of her fingers, nothing that could not be done before every eye in Derbyshire.
Still, she met his gaze as she stepped into the carriage, and for one foolish instant he felt as if tomorrow had already begun.
“Thank you, Mr. Darcy,” she said, in a voice he would recall syllable by syllable for a considerable portion of the evening to come. Then the steps were up, the door was shut, and the carriage was away down the drive. Darcy stood there watching it, not moving until it had passed out of sight behind the trees.
Then he turned to go in and met Mr. Leeds in the doorway, who had watched the whole departure from his post.
“Leeds,” Darcy said. “Be so good as to ask Mrs. Reynolds to attend me in the library. At once, if she can be spared.”
“Yes, sir.” The butler did not enquire. But Darcy thought he detected something almost like respect in the man’s countenance, though he supposed it might simply be resignation. “Will there be anything in particular I should warn her of, sir?”
“We are giving a picnic tomorrow,” he said. “I find I have already invited several guests.”
There was no change in Leeds’s face. A lesser man would have blinked.
“Very good, sir.”
“And we shall require rather more than a cold collation.”
Leeds appeared faintly appalled. “Of course, sir.” He bowed and withdrew, his vaunted dignity perfectly intact, while Darcy had the uncomfortable suspicion that his own had been sent down the drive after Miss Elizabeth Bennet.
CHAPTER 2
Elizabeth had smiled for nearly two miles before she realised it.