Yes! She said yes! Of course, Darcy knew he would have to figure out exactly which question she thought he was asking, but for now he could delight in the answer being YES! Darcy thought his grin would split his face. Then, he noticed hers was just as bright.
"It is a wonder this carriage can hold so much happiness," Aunt Susan said dryly. "Now, would either of you mind telling us the question Miss Elizabeth just answered?"
Oops! Darcy did not want to commit her to marriage based on their incomplete communication or discount the possibility by simply claiming a courtship. From her expression when their eyes met, she apparently was not sure which she had agreed to either.
"Our discussion was incomplete, Aunt," he replied. "Until Miss Elizabeth and I have some more private conversation to work out the details, I would prefer to remain silent on that point."
Miss Elizabeth's look of relief told him that was exactly the right answer. Aunt Susan's laughter told him she knew exactly what had just happened anyway. When Georgiana and Miss Catherine joined in, he and Miss Elizabeth began to laugh as well.
"I suppose we will allow that answer to stand for now," Aunt Susan said, still chuckling. She turned to her niece. "Have you and Miss Catherine had a pleasant conversation?"
"Oh, yes," Georgiana said enthusiastically. "She was telling me about how they had gone shopping for the furnishings for their new home last week and about all the little things she had not thought much about before – dishes and linens, pillows and candles, soap and all manner of things we take for granted because they have always been available in our family home."
Aunt Susan nodded. "Yes, I imagine that must have been a bit overwhelming. For gentlewomen of our station, unless there is some kind of catastrophic event in our lives, we rarely have to worry about our households to that level of detail all at once. Even when we marry, we can generally expect the home our husband brings us to will have many of those things already in place. The trousseau is meant to personalize the home and make it more our own, not to furnish it from top to bottom."
"If you will excuse me, Lady Matlock, you do realize that my sisters and I are not of the same station as you, or even of an equal to your niece and nephew?" Miss Elizabeth ventured. Darcy noticed she looked a bit worried again.
"Nonsense, child," Aunt Susan scoffed. "You are a gentlewoman. You are the daughters of a gentleman and a gentlewoman. Your uncle is a gentleman's son even if he chose an honest life in trade, and he has connections to the peerage through his mother's family. Your aunt is a gentlewoman from a reputable family even if an entail forced her from her father's home and made it so she had earn her keep or starve. No, you and your sisters are perfectly acceptable connections for our family and I consider you to be of our station. I will certainly be happier being seen at events in your company than in the company of Mr. Bingley's sisters, although I have tolerated them on occasion as a favor to my nephew and his friend."
"I hate to say this, but they are are now our sisters by marriage as well," Miss Elizabeth told her, with a quirk of her eyebrow to show she was teasing.
"Well, I will not hold that against you either. I expect your sister, Mrs. Bingley, is very much the gentlewoman as well."
"She is, Aunt," Darcy confirmed, although he knew his aunt was mostly teasing.
"There you go," Aunt Susan said breezily. "Problem solved. I must say every family has someone in it to blush for. My husband's sister, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, is one of those for us. She means no harm, but she is simply a fountain of undesired advice and obstinate opinions."
"Lydia," whispered Miss Catherine.
"Who is that?" Aunt Susan asked, turning to the younger woman.
"Our youngest sister," Miss Elizabeth explained. "She is just fifteen years of age and is sadly lacking when it comes to deportment or good sense. She has remained with Mrs. Bennet and we are unlikely to have much contact with either of them going forward."
"Ah, yes, William mentioned there was some distance between you and your stepmother and that your father had recently passed. I take it those lovely black shawls you are both wearing constitute your mourning?"
Miss Elizabeth nodded. "William?" she asked.
"Oh, I suppose he was introduced by his full name," Aunt Susan said. "That silly tradition of the Darcys...I just cannot call him by my family name, so I use the short form, as do most of our other family members."
"I think it suits him, Miss Elizabeth said shyly. "The other sounds so formal."
Darcy wanted to tell her that she could call him anything she liked. That seemed a bit premature at the moment. He would wait until he knew if they were courting or engaged. He really hoped it was the latter. And perhaps, he thought, he should wait for a bit more privacy as well.
"Does your aunt approve of your new household?" Aunt Susan asked, drawing Darcy from his musings. "Did she want you out on your own?"
Miss Elizabeth smiled. "Oh, she would have happily kept us with her. She tried to persuade us to stay, in fact. However, it would have felt crowded to all of us. When she was convinced of our determination, she helped us find our house and hire our staff. She wanted us to have trustworthy people and even allowed us to hire her favorite maid away to act as our companion. The maid is with our sister today."
Nodding approvingly, Aunt Susan said, "Ah, excellent. Even smart and responsible young women need good protectors."
"That is what our aunt felt. We also know better than to travel alone, whether by hack or by foot. Kitty was keeping me company today so we would both be safe."
"Very wise. Who else makes up your household?"
Darcy wondered where his aunt's questions were leading. They seemed rather intrusive – more like the questions Aunt Catherine would ask – but Miss Elizabeth gave no indication she was upset by them or thought them in any way out of line. She calmly responded to Aunt Susan and continued smiling as she did.
"We have a cook who doubles as the housekeeper, along with a single maid of all work. If we need the temporary assistance of a manservant, our aunt will lend us one of hers."
"I see. Well, that sounds about right for a small house with just the three of you. However, it will mean that my son and nephew should not visit you there unless your aunt or I are present to chaperone."
As Miss Elizabeth nodded understandingly, Darcy understood what she had apparently already known. In truth, he had been thinking how much easier it would be to visit the women at their home. He had forgotten how repeated visits by two men to a household full of women could appear. Even though he and Richard both intended marriage, it would not do to call any of their reputations into question.
"I am certain my aunt will agree with you, my lady. In fact, she, Jane and I had already discussed the matter in general terms before we moved," Miss Elizabeth said.
Both Georgiana and Miss Catherine still looked confused by the conversation. Apparently the discussion with Mrs. Gardiner had taken place outside Miss Catherine's hearing and Georgiana had simply not thought matters through yet.
"With three of us and our maid there, why would it be a problem?" Miss Catherine asked.
Aunt Susan replied, "Yours is a household composed entirely of women. If two gentlemen begin calling, it could be construed as no longer being a respectable household but instead being a house of ill-repute."
Both young women took a moment to understand the implications of the comment. The meaning hit them almost as one and they turned to each other with shocked looks. Aunt Susan smiled kindly at them.
"You girls are young enough not to be aware of such things or even the appearance of them. However, I am not surprised to find out that Mrs. Gardiner had already considered it. I am looking forward to meeting her again. I think she must have been only a little older than Miss Catherine when I saw her last, although she was very responsible even then. With the sudden loss of her father and home, she had to be." Aunt Susan considered for a moment and then shook her head. "No, no, this will not do. I can already tell we will be much in each other's company going forward and this is just too formal. May I call you by your names?"
"Yes, of course," Miss Elizabeth said. Miss Catherine nodded. "My family generally calls me Lizzy and my sister goes by Kitty, if you wish to use the more familiar names."
"May I call you by them as well?" Georgiana asked excitedly. "You can call me Georgiana or even Georgie, like my brother and Richard do."
The four women quickly sealed the agreement. Darcy felt a little left out. He knew it was not appropriate for him to use the less formal versions of Miss Elizabeth's and Miss Catherine's names until he at least knew if he was engaged. Swallowing his discomfort, he sat back and remained silent as they built their own new relationships.
Aunt Susan asked some questions about the Gardiners and their family. Through her questions, Darcy learned that Miss Elizabeth had four young cousins, two girls and two boys. He was surprised to learn that Miss Elizabeth had sold her first bit of piecework when she was twelve and had been doing special work for Madame Gaillard for over three years now.
"Does your older sister also do embroidery?" Aunt Susan asked
She spoke as if she were simply discussing the normal accomplishments of a young society woman. Darcy had wondered the same since it had seemed that Miss Elizabeth had done most of the embroidery on Mrs. Bingley's gown while Miss Bennet worked on the plainer sections.
"She can, although not to the same level of skill as I have gained. However, Mrs. Bennet could tolerate Jane's company better than mine, so Jane was more often required to stay at our family home. It would have been too difficult to hide embroidery, but Jane could do plain work right under Mrs. Bennet's nose if she was careful about it."
Miss Catherine added, "I never knew she was sewing shifts. She just seemed to always be mending something."
"Ah, I see," Aunt Susan said. "Shifts do not require close fitting and can be sold whenever you have a batch, unlike special commissions, which often involve specific time constraints."
"Exactly," Miss Elizabeth confirmed. "We kept the greater part of our wardrobes here and filled the trunks we carried back and forth with the supplies Jane needed or the finished product on the way back."
"Clever. Well, I hope each of you has at least one of your finely embroidered gowns available to you. I think you will need them for some dinners and other occasions I would like you to attend with me as the Christmas season approaches."
Miss Elizabeth looked embarrassed again. "Jane, Kitty and I have gowns appropriate for an event in my uncle's circle, but no higher. You must understand that until very recently we thought we needed to save every little bit we could to cover our expenses until we were old enough to access the interest on a fund our maternal great-grandmother left us. It not only seemed presumptuous of us to wear something of that sort given the events we were likely to attend, doing the extra work would take away from time that could be spent on paying jobs."
"I can understand that, but times are changing for you. I insist that each of you be provided with at least one gown of high enough quality that Madame Gaillard would acknowledge it as one of hers. You will be accompanying me to events and you will need to look like you belong next to me when I wear my new gown. I expect you to tell me if your current financial situation makes that a problem."
"Oh, Lizzy!" Miss Catherine said enthusiastically, "I would love to have a gown even half as pretty as Mary's. I can do some of the embroidery if you will help me."
Miss Elizabeth looked steadily at Aunt Susan. "It is not the cost so much as the labor involved, Lady Matlock. Although, I will admit I have often wanted an opportunity to wear one of the gowns I have worked on."
"Do you have another commission in the works?" Aunt Susan asked her.
"No."
"Well, then, I shall commission you to make the gowns for the three of you. Of course, Kitty and Miss Bennet must help and they must be true works of art." Aunt Susan said very seriously.
"Oh, but we could not let you pay us to make our own gowns!" Miss Elizabeth objected.
"You most certainly could. I insist on it. You will be attending parties at my invitation, so it is my responsibility to make sure your appearance is a credit to me. I could not find you anything better than what you can make for yourselves, so I will buy the gowns from you and return them as a gift. You must use the proper materials and the most current designs."
Darcy knew Miss Elizabeth was not going to win this battle. She seemed to realize that as well.
"Very well, but you must not expect work of that caliber overnight. It will take time to make three such gowns, even with all three of us working on them."
"Understood," Aunt Susan said triumphantly, "but you must treat this like any other commission. It comes before any new requests sent your way. No excuses."
"Jane is finishing an existing commission. I will let her know not to accept another until our gowns are done."
"May I come help you?" Georgiana asked. "I can sew and embroider. So long as my brother is not with me, I can visit your house any time, can I not?"
Miss Elizabeth laughed. "You may not be so eager when you see the standard to which I work. Kitty can tell you about the examination Lady Matlock's gown received when I brought it to Madame Gaillard. If we are to produce the same quality, then I will be looking at the work with the same eye for detail."
"Was it really that bad?" Darcy's sister turned to her new friend.
"Madame Gaillard looked at every stitch on the gown, it seemed to me," Miss Catherine said. "She would have noticed at once if something had been loose or even the slightest bit out of place."
Darcy saw Aunt Susan nodding approvingly. Apparently, that was exactly what she would have expected from the modiste.
"I still want to help," Georgiana said.
"You will be most welcome," Miss Elizabeth told her. "So long as your brother says you may come, that is."
Georgiana turned to Darcy hopefully. He laughed.
"Of course, you may. Just do not get in their way. This seems to be very serious business as far as our aunt is concerned."
"Silly boy,"said Aunt Susan, "you do not know the power of a properly fitting, well-made and flattering gown. It may not mean much to the men, but the women of the Ton will rip each other to shreds over something ill-fitting or otherwise poorly chosen."
"Oh, like Miss Bingley's special gown," Darcy said, forgetting for a moment that Miss Elizabeth had done the embroidery on it. He suddenly remembered and started to try and get his foot out of his mouth. Miss Elizabeth stopped him with a laugh.
"In her case it was less the gown than the fact that the colors suited her hair and complexion so poorly. It was probably the oddest color combination I have ever worked on, but a dark haired women with a more olive or golden complexion would have looked splendid in it."
"Tell me more about this gown," Aunt Susan ordered. On receiving a description, she wrinkled her nose as she said, "Truly? Orange and puce? And you made the colors work together?"
"I expect you will see Miss Bingley wearing it at some event," Miss Elizabeth said with a grin, "You may judge for yourself then."
"It almost makes me want to invite her to something on condition she wear it. But then I would have to spend time in her company. I suppose I will wait until I run across her by chance. With those colors, there is no doubt I will recognize the gown."
The carriage pulled to a stop a few minutes later. Darcy already knew they were not in a fashionable area of town, but the streets were relatively clean and the houses had the look of places that were being properly cared for. It was a good enough neighborhood if you did not expect too much of it. He was still hoping Miss Elizabeth would not be living here for very long.
When the footman opened the door, Darcy got out first so he could hand out the ladies, starting with his aunt. Miss Elizabeth descended last. Darcy kept hold of her hand as she stepped out and kept her back with him. As Miss Catherine led the way up the front steps, he leaned down and whispered in her ear.
"Will you marry me?"
He stood waiting, in silence, while she looked up at him searchingly. After a short pause, she squeezed the hand he still held before gently pulling her hand loose. She stepped away from him to follow the others up the steps. As she reached the top one, she turned back to look at him with the brightest of smiles and said one word.
"Yes."
