A/N: Thanks for the reviews and suggestions. Please keep them coming. I will consider them! Another double-chapter posting day since each chapter is quite short.
Chapter 16: Carried Away
Mr. Darcy looked out of the window upon waking early the next morning and found that the storm had passed. He could see a large quantity of downed tree limbs and the top of the arbour in the garden was missing. He quickly got dressed himself without bothering his valet and went out intent on going to the river to see the extent of the devastation. He was secretly wishing for enough damage that the Bennet sisters would have to stay longer at Netherfield. As if Providence had listened to his wish for seeing more of Miss Elizabeth, not a hundred yards from the house, he saw the lady walking briskly ahead of him most likely also aiming at the river. An unbidden smile brightening his face appeared, and with his long legs, he caught up with her in only a minute. Miss Elizabeth also stopped to turn back to see who was walking behind him so early in the morning.
"Good morning, Miss Bennet. Are you well? It has turned into a fine morning after the storm," Mr. Darcy greeted with barely enough time to suppress his big smile.
"Good morning, Mr. Darcy. I am very well this morning. Are you taking a constitutional, or is there somewhere you want to be?"
"Both, I suppose. I was planning to go down to the bridge to see how it held up against the swift currents yesterday."
"Ah, that is my plan as well."
"May I have the honor to accompany you and carry your burden for you? After all that is what an errant knight should do for his lady."
Miss Elizabeth could not help smiling at Mr. Darcy's errant knight gambit. "You may, Mr. Darcy, and thank you. However, I do not have any burden for you to carry, unless you mean this rain cloak. I reserve heroic deeds to be assigned to my knight. Carrying a lady's cloak, especially a light one made of rubber cloth, would diminish the standing of my knight."
"Doña Elizabeth del Longbourn," Mr. Darcy put on an accent to pretend to be a Spaniard, "you do not know your own strength. This cloak you are carrying would bear down on a strong man and make him cry out in agony, so heavy it is. It can repel rain, snow and even mud, and is made of a magical material not woven and not found on these shores. It would indeed be my honour to take this burden off you."
Miss Elizabeth was quite amused by this side of Mr. Darcy, and decided to play on. "As you wish, Don Darcy." She handed over the rain cloak which Mr. Darcy carried easily. "You must be a very powerful wizard yourself since you appear to be carrying this magical garment with ease."
"Ah, no wizard. Just a humble servant of a great lady."
They walked on in companionable silence until they came to a downed tree blocking their way. Elizabeth turned to Mr. Darcy and said in a commanding voice, "My strong knight, remove this tree so that your lady can pass through."
The tree was actually quite large, and one person could not possibly move it. Mr. Darcy looked at the tree a moment and spoke with the accent again, "Senorita, this is not a tree. It is a mountain. I cannot move a mountain even though I am quite strong. However, I can carry you around it." Without asking for permission, Mr. Darcy picked up Elizabeth bridal style and walked around the tree roots to the other side. Elizabeth was so shocked that she screamed out:
"Put me down, you rascal knight!"
Mr. Darcy put her down on the other side and looked at Miss Elizabeth sheepishly. Seeing that she had a deep blush on her face, he immediately apologized profusely:
"Forgive me, Miss Bennet. I got carried away by my assumed persona."
Elizabeth laughed at this word play and said, "I was the one who was carried away by your assumed persona!" By that the tension was broken and they both laughed with abandon until their sides hurt.
When they arrived at the riverbank, they saw that the bridge was flooded over during the storm. The latticework of the truss was quite filled with debris and was missing a few beams. While Mr. Darcy examined the damaged truss more closely, Elizabeth walked up to the debris close to the bank and pulled out a large onion-like plant and said, "Ah, goosey struck again."
Mr. Darcy turned around at her voice and looked bemusedly at her. "Goosey?" he asked.
Elizabeth then told him the ills that the plant could bring to bridges when the plant pushed by rushing currents toppled over into the stream, loosening a large amount of soil along the way because of its shallow roots. She was puzzled that the plant was still around in this part of Hertfordshire. There had been no sighting of it for at least three years. Mr. Darcy asked about the curious name of goosey for the plant, and Miss Elizabeth looked a little embarrassed and answered that the plant's nickname of goosey drumstick was due to a little girl's fancy thinking that the bulbous part looked like the drumstick of a goose. She explained, "The drumstick is the femur of a goose."
Mr. Darcy looked at her a moment, and said, "I shall tell Bingley about this; and later this morning we shall look along the riverbanks on the property to eradicate them if they are found. Shall we go back to the house as breakfast will be served shortly?"
On the way back to the house, Mr. Darcy asked, "Were you that little girl?"
Miss Elizabeth was startled by this question, "Which little girl was I? I did not follow."
"The little girl who came up with the name goosey drumstick?"
Miss Elizabeth hesitated a little and replied, "Yes, it was I. My only excuse for coming up with such a silly name was that I was only eight years old. I never could have imagined that the name stuck, and I am forever linked to this childish name."
"I think it is quite descriptive. Now that you are grown, what other names would you have suggested to be more fitting?"
"How about Indian onion, or riverbank pest," replied Elizabeth.
"Perhaps, but none of these would be as memorable. Why Indian? Did this plant originate from the East Indies?"
"Aye. According to my father's botanist friend at Oxford, the plant was most likely accidentally brought to England from those shores."
They walked without conversation, talking only when pointing out various damages along the path. As they arrived at the downed tree again, they turned to each other and bit back a smile as if they held a secret between them. Miss Elizabeth arched an eyebrow while Mr. Darcy offered his arm to her so that he could help the lady to walk securely on the rough terrain around the tree roots.
When they neared the house, Miss Bingley was just coming down the steps.
Miss Bingley immediately went over to Mr. Darcy when Miss Elizabeth said good morning, and then went up to her room to tidy up for breakfast.
"I think Miss Eliza is addicted to having her petticoat six inches deep in mud. What could she mean by flaunting her independence without any care for decorum?" she asked disapprovingly.
"You must excuse me as I need to go up to my chambers to tidy up as well. Miss Elizabeth was down by the river to see the damage caused by the storm. The area was in fact very muddy. As you can see that my boots are also caked in mud. I do apologize for tracking so much dirt into the hall."
"Oh, that is no trouble. I must thank you for so tirelessly attending to matters related to the estate. With your vast experience managing Pemberley, I dare say you will leave nothing for Charles to do," said Miss Bingley coyly while batting her eyelashes.
"You should thank Miss Elizabeth instead. She is the one with the expertise and has suggested a solution. I shall discuss with Bingley today and see about fixing the problem. Now, excuse me," Mr. Darcy bowed briefly and strode up the stairs to his room.
Miss Bingley stood there, looking very vexed, and it was only in the morning. She could not comprehend how it was possible that the presence of Eliza Bennet at Netherfield Park managed to make her miserable every minute of the day.
Chapter notes:
1. Gooseys were entirely discovered by Elizabeth Bennet. They did not exist anywhere else, even in the East Indies. However, there are plants that can cause riverbank erosion such as some Ivies and Clementis. At least the notion of a plant causing problems for streams and bridges is plausible even though if you search on the internet, virtually all the entries are on how plants help stabilize stream banks.
