Chapter 9

"So, Lizzy, tell me, what other news do you bring?" Mrs Gardiner inquired after they had played with the children for a while, and while Jane was still doing so, being their favourite with her loving ways and gentleness.

Elizabeth told her about Mr Bingley and his sisters, about the assembly at Meryton in which she had first met the man and his friend, about Mrs Phillips having recently suffered a cold and...

"Lydia and Kitty are quite excited about the militia being stationed at Meryton for the winter, and Mama is no less so," she said with a small sigh, refraining from rolling her eyes.

"Well, let them have a bit of flirting, at least you can trust in there being a capable lady to look after them and see that they behave with propriety," her aunt smiled understandingly.

"Yes, that is true, aunt. At least they will not be allowed to run all too wild with a governess around. But really, I do worry how much Mrs Younge will be able to achieve with my mother so determined to have her daughters married."

"Can you fault her? With the entail, it is all too understandable that she would like to see you all safe and securely established."

There was little she could say against that. Mrs Gardiner was right, and still, her mother's ways did not much to recommend any of her daughters to any real gentlemen.

"So, the young man who has brought you here has been staying with your family, I understand?"

"You mean Mr Darcy? Yes, he did, though not voluntarily. He fell ill and we had little choice but to keep him," Elizabeth blushed at her wording, unwilling to let on how much she had come to care for the man since she had known him first.

Not that she had cared for him at all then. But in caring for him along with her sisters she had gotten to know him better and better each day. And as Kitty and Lydia had insisted on her having brought him there in the first place, that it was her duty now, to once in while sit by his side to read to him and not them, she had taken the greatest share in this care. After all, even her mother agreed that they could not completely leave him to his own devices. Elizabeth had done so willingly and while in the first few days he had been mostly asleep, soon they had started to talk about all kinds of topics, though carefully avoiding what had been foremost on their minds. - His sister's situation, the letter and his injury.

"He seems to be a most honourable young man, though he did strike me as a bit pale and I thought him rather rude not to have helped you out of the carriage."

"Jane and I declined, for he would have done so willingly, Aunt, but it would not do for him to exhaust himself and the journey already was quite strenuous."

"That I easily believe. No matter how pleasant a journey is, it can be very tiring indeed, and if he had been ill so recently, I will not hold his discourtesy against him," Mrs Gardiner assured, ringing for the maid to bring some tea.

"Fitzwilliam!" Georgiana exclaimed, looking surprised, but no sooner had the smile at seeing her brother appeared on her face, it was gone again and tears threatened to brim her eyes once more, as they had done so often in the last couple of weeks.

"Georgy, how are you my dear?" he replied, knowing the answer full well.

"Oh, Fitzwilliam, how can you even bear to look at me still after all I have done and how I am?"

Pulling her into his arms he kissed the top f her head before answering: "Georgy, you will always be my little sister, whom I love with all my heart, no matter what. And you should stop blaming yourself for the situation you are in. I should have taken better care of you by not just trusting Mrs Younge's references, but instead should have applied to the families she has worked for. Since then I have found that none of the references she has provided was legitimate. How these things are managed, I know not, and at any rate, it cannot be helped now. We will just have to make the best of the situation."

"But the child, Fitzwilliam?" she sobbed, her hands clinging to him even more than before.

"We will provide for it as best we can. I cannot promise for you to keep it, but all..."

"Keep it?" she cried out and let go of him abruptly, stepping back slightly, her eyes flashing with anger as he had never seen with her before. "I do not want to keep it! As a matter of fact, I want to be rid of it. I do not want to give birth to the child of this horrible, conniving, evil man."

He could not help the smile spreading over his features and placing his hands on her shoulders he said in a soft tone of voice: "I am glad to see that you, at last, decided to be angry at the right person."

Georgiana startled, looking at him wide-eyed, her mouth slightly open in her surprise. She looked so incredibly young and so horribly vulnerable, it was almost enough to break his heart. But there was also pride in her spirit, for he knew it took a great deal to let go of one's feeling of guilt, no matter how silly it had been. He had felt guilty over the very same man so often he had lost count of it, had felt wretched enough to have him lie awake at night, that this little statement from his sister, had been all he needed to know that eventually, she would heal.

"But..." she bit her lip.

"But?"

"I still should have known better."

"All you knew about George Wickham was good and honourable. Perhaps I should have told you about his machinations and doings, but I never dreamt of him trying to seduce you and make you consent to an elopement and so I thought it just as well, you did not know what a sordid kind of man he really is. I failed to protect you and..."

"And now you start blaming yourself when you have just told me it is Mr Wickham we should be angry with," she said, and suddenly looked anything but young and instead like a very wise woman.

The wisest perhaps, he had ever met.

"But Fitzwilliam, you do not look well? What is the matter?"

With some shock and some indignation at having been kept in the dark, his little sister listened to him and what he had to say.

"And once more it was because of me..." she whispered when he had finished.

"No, once again it was because of George Wickham." he smiled grimly before suddenly asking, just as the thought had crossed his mind: "Georgy, do you feel up to a dinner with some friends?"

"I think I might be, but surely you need to rest first, for you look awfully pale."

"But..."

"No brother, for once let me take care of you. When you are recovered, I will arrange the dinner, but not before."