Author's Note: I already had this written when I posted the first chapter so I decided just to put this one up, too. I have a third one in the making, but I may or may not post it soon, depending on how this whole story is received and how well I myself enjoy it. Enjoy, nonetheless, and happy holidays :)
Wow, totally just dated this piece with last comment...
Chapter 2
Lady Drake left the piano-forte after her song had concluded and moved to a vacant corner of the room near the fire. She folded her hands across her lap and listened to the cheerful cackle of flames against the glowing logs, her eyes closing slightly behind her translucent veil. She yearned to be home, her true home. The one away from all of the complications of society. Things used to be so simple, she thought with a sigh. But things have changed.
"Lady Drake?" She looked up and her eyes connected with those of Charles' younger sister, her rosy face drawn into a sympathetic frown. "Are you all right? I haven't seen you dance once all evening!"
Lady Drake laughed softly. "I suppose I haven't been asked to do so, Miss De Bois. Besides, I'm not quite in the mood for dancing tonight." The young lady looked appalled.
"'No one's asked you'? Why, for the life of me, we must remedy that at once!" She turned, grasping Lady Drake's reluctant hand, and called for her brother. "Charles! Charles, how dare you not offer your hand to Lady Drake all evening!"
Her brother, upon his arrival in her formal sanctuary, bowed ceremoniously to Lady Drake and apologized. "You must accept my sincerest apologies, Lady Drake. How utterly careless of me—"
"Your attentions have scarcely been absent from Miss Brighton's figure, Charles, how could you have remembered when your mind was thus occupied?" Charles reddened furiously and Lady Drake laid a hand on his arm.
"Please, sir, I have not been in poor company," she assured him tiredly, though it did not show her voice. "The piano-forte has very oft been my dearest companion and it has not failed me tonight."
"Oh, no, Lady Drake, now your predicament is even worse!" Charles' sister moaned dramatically. "What horrible friends are we, Charles, to leave our guest so dejected!" Lady Drake, her temper beginning to flare beneath her stolid composure, cracked a smile and began to insist that she was indeed perfectly fine when a voice interrupted her.
"Lady, if I may intrude..." They turned to see a young woman of sixteen or seventeen standing behind them. Her hair was flaxen gold and framed her simple yet not plain features beautifully. In her hands were several sheets of dog-eared parchment, bound with string which she fiddled with absently. Lady Drake studied her face quizzically for a moment before raising her hands to her lips in surprise.
"Georgiana," she whispered, and the girl curtseyed in response before looking at her curiously.
"You know my name, Lady?" Georgiana asked politely, tilting her head to the right so that her curls slid to the nape of her neck. "Have we met before?"
"You don't remember..." Lady Drake murmured more to herself than anyone else. Her hands moved to her chin thoughtfully. "No, I don't expect you would, would you? You were so small, so young..." Her eyes grew misty and she hid them behind the shadow of her veil. "I was once a playmate to your brother a long time ago and dried your tears when you got that scar." She pointed to a faint, barely noticeable line above the girl's left eyebrow with a smile.
"Georgiana, I've been looking for you! Your brother wishes you to play..." Mrs. Darcy, hurrying from behind them, placed her hands warmly on the girl's shoulders before looking up. "I see you've met Lady Drake, then, dear?"
Georgiana opened her mouth to speak and glanced back at Lady Drake before replying. "Yes, yes we've just acquainted ourselves with one another," she answered with a smile and Lady Drake marveled at the girl's sensitivity to the situation. The lady looked beyond the girl as Mr. Darcy made his way towards them.
"Darcy! Why, we've just now so charmingly introducing your sister to Lady Drake!" Charles announced grandly, blind to the whole situation. Darcy looked from Georgiana to Lady Drake, a familiar vein in his left temple twitching slightly, so much that only his sister and Lady Drake could notice.
"I was about to compliment Lady Drake on her playing," Georgiana said calmly, smiling to her brother and then to the woman in black. "I hadn't the courage yet to ask her to look over my own compositions with her expertise."
"I would be most happy to, Miss Darcy," Lady Drake replied, offering a gloved hand for the manuscripts. Georgiana handed them to her happily and squeezed the lady's hands tightly in appreciation.
"It would mean so very much to me, Lady, your skills at the piano-forte are inspiring," she murmured breathlessly. Her eyes diverted back to her brother and she regained her stalwart composure. "Thank you."
"Georgiana, your own talents have been requested by our aunt and uncle in the sitting room," Mr. Darcy said shortly. His wife took Georgiana's hands and smiled.
"Shall we go together, Georgiana? I haven't a chance to speak with them all evening," Mrs. Darcy said, and the pair disappeared together into the crowd, leaving Charles, his sister, and Mr. Darcy alone with Lady Drake in a most uncomfortable silence.
After a moment, Lady Drake curtseyed deeply. "I believe I shall take my leave of you, Mr. Darcy. I have had a most wonderful evening but am forced to depart. Business calls on me much too early tomorrow morning for me to stay any later in your home. Goodnight, Mr. Charles, Miss Charles."
They began to protest as was expected but Lady Drake was quickly losing control of everything she suppressed beneath her skin and excused herself from their presence and Darcy's piercing gaze. She took her coat from the servant in the entrance hall and raced for the door when a voice she both dreaded and prayed to hear behind her gave her pause.
"Lady Drake!" Darcy's sure footsteps echoed in the hall behind her, and she turned, biting her lip hard to stop the tears. "Lady Drake, I beg of you, a moment."
"Please, Mr. Darcy, I—"
"Only a moment, Lady, I must insist." Her hands dropped limply and she stepped outside Pemberley Hall and to the side where he led, but her eyes remained loosely fixed to the ground. For a while, the only sound she heard was his labored breathing until he began to speak.
"There is...so much I have to ask you, to which I must have answers," he murmured through his breath. "You have done me and my family wrong, madam, notorious wrong." A tear slipped past her clenched lids and moved down her cheek.
"I would ask you why you came back here, why you dared show your face again, but then I would need ask why you left to begin with, when my father needed you most, at his very last hour." His voice grew strong with powerful emotion that vibrated in his words. "What ill has my family done you, lady, that you feel so inclined to cause us such pain?" Lady Drake's cloak fell to the stone steps as a shuddering breath escaped from her.
"The duration of my stay in England, however intolerable, will be no further drawn out than to break all business ties my late husband established here before returning to Scotland. My sincere..." her voice broke but she cleared her throat violently, angry that it betrayed her now. "...my sincere hope is that my temporary presence here may be as quickly forgotten as would be most apt to relieve any pain I have caused. Good-..."
Her words fell away as her tears spilled openly down her cheeks and she looked up along the great pillars that supported Pemberley Hall. She wrenched the black veil from her face and glared into Darcy's eyes, her own red and swelled with tears. Her dark hair fell loose from where it was bound behind her head. "My prayers were with him even when I couldn't be." She bent and picked up her cloak from where it lay crumpled to the ground. "He was as much my father as he was yours."
Lady Drake spun away and flew down the marble steps, oblivious to the rain which now began to fall suitably to the earth, drenching her form as the carriage she arrived in pulled up to the gate. "Drive," she gasped to the horseman as she threw herself inside. The vehicle pulled away to the pounding hooves of the horses and she closed her eyes tightly. She did not trust them to hold the tears she knew were apt to spill.
I think I like this one better than the first...anyway, hope anyone who read this enjoyed it. :)
