"Miss, wake up. Your brother requires you in his study."
"Whaaannnnaa…" Georgiana Darcy mumbled in confusion, but it only took a moment to realize that it was the middle of the night, her brother was supposed to be in Kent, and something very bad must have occurred.
Sitting up and rubbing her eyes, she stared at her equally sleepy and alarmed maid, Letitia, wondering what could possibly have gone wrong.
It took but a moment to come to the most likely reason driving him from Kent in panic. It seemed likely her aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, had finally run out of patience and attempted a compromise. She was not worried that her brother would marry her harridan of a cousin. He had long assuaged her concerns on that score by telling her in no uncertain terms that, if it ever happened, he would not only not consider himself honour bound, but he would also consider his long-ago promise on their mother's deathbed satisfied and cut the acquaintance entirely.
She was convinced that was the explanation, until a moment later she realized that scenario would necessitate leaving at first light, not last light as he had apparently done.
Shaking the cobwebs from her head, she finally threw off the covers and put her feet to the floor, belatedly realizing that she could speculate for a week without coming close to the truth.
Letitia had already bustled back into her closet while Georgiana got her wits about her and returned carrying clothing.
"Your brother instructed you to dress for travel and pack a trunk for a fortnight in Kent. He will explain later. He is presently writing some letters in his study. He woke the cook to prepare coffee and a basket of food and expects you ready to travel in a half-hour. You are to dress warmly."
That advice was at least sound, as the middle of the night in London was not Derbyshire, but it was cold enough.
True to form, she appeared in her brother's study at the required time, and found him in quiet consultation with her companion, Mrs Annesley.
"Georgiana, I have a rather difficult explanation to make, but I only want to do so once. You and Mrs Annesley are to join me in Kent, though not at Rosings. We must stop for one more passenger, and I shall explain all."
Thinking there was little point in protest, not to mention it would displease Mrs Annesley, Georgiana just accepted his stricture with good grace. She was not the least bit busy anyway, and waiting another hour or two would not kill her.
An hour later, she found herself in Cheapside, of all places, meeting the woman Mr Bingley had abandoned the previous autumn (the one the two lunkheads thought she did not know about).
Her immediate impressions of Miss Jane Bennet hit her like a runaway coach.
The first observation was that, even in a dressing gown and recently woken from sleep, she seemed the kind of woman that made her question the entire male sex's sense, or at least, it would have if she had not already been quite sceptical. She knew Mr Bingley walked away from Miss Bennet, but she could not think of anything short of having a murderer in the family that would justify such a defection. The woman was beautiful and exuded kindness; and a man with his sisters certainly had no right to complain about her family. He was clearly an idiot of the first order.
The second realization followed quickly.
Since Mr Bingley stopped just short of having her brother choose his cravats, he either approved of the defection, or might even have encouraged it. That thought gave her a big smile, because it meant she got an immediate promotion to the second stupidest person in her family, which seemed worthy of a certain amount of boastfulness.
The other realization was that Miss Bennet looked like the two of them could pass for sisters. Since she had no experience with sisters, or even moderately amiable female relatives for that matter, she envied Miss Bennet her relations.
A few minutes later, her feeling of elation was stomped into the mud, because she did have a murderer in the family.
The next half-hour felt like she had personally been thrown off the cliff like poor Miss Elizabeth, because the revelations just kept piling up, one after another after another. The moment she assimilated one incomprehensible fact, another followed right behind. Anne an attempted murderer! Anne dead by her own stupidity (which promoted her to at least the third stupidest). Miss Elizabeth near death and unlikely to dance or even walk again! And most shocking, her brother had acted badly enough that Miss Elizabeth despised him! Her brother, scion of the ancient and venerable Darcys had somehow found the one woman in England who would not fall all over him, and he offended her.
The world had run amok!
By three o'clock, Georgiana had experienced more sisterly activities than she had in the whole course of her life.
Miss Bennet and Mrs Gardiner seemed like just the sorts of sisterly and maternal influences she had desperately desired as far back as she could remember. Earlier conversations with her brother implied that Mrs Bennet was more like Lady Catherine than the kind lady who served as her first-ever positive exposure to people from trade. She, of course, had Mr Bingley's sisters as examples of daughters of trade (regardless of what they thought their status was), but she had not found their behaviour propitious. On first blush, Mrs Gardiner seemed to be all that a lady ought to be. Upon learning she was from Lambton, Georgiana hoped her brother would allow her to keep, or better yet advance, the acquaintance.
Miss Bennet seemed the sort of woman who was both kind and sensible, and she had reacted quite well to the shocking news from her brother. Of course, Georgiana thought Miss Elizabeth's sister forbearing from smacking him was entirely enough to mark her as a truly kind woman, since she wanted to hit him herself.
Another twenty minutes found her sitting next to Miss Bennet in the forward-facing seat of the larger Darcy coach, with Mrs Annesley and her brother across from her. She wondered if anyone would get any sleep in the next few hours but doubted it.
Miss Bennet was kind enough to notice her nervousness and try to mitigate it, and she wondered if that meant she was the best of sisters or just average. Miss Bingley was a good example of the worst of sisters, and she could not think of a single example in her family of the best, or even mediocre when it came right down to it.
She only hoped her brother might eventually marry someone as kind as Miss Bennet!
Of course, she ruefully reflected, with the promise her brother had made to Mr Gardiner, it seemed entirely possible she would not get someone like Miss Bennet, but that lady herself—an idea she approved of heartily. It stood to reason that, if one had two cousins in want of wives, and two kind and eligible ladies in want of husbands, it would be best to avoid pairing one gentleman with the lady who despised him. Love could certainly grow over time, and she had a hard time imagining any man who could not come to love Miss Bennet.
A half-hour into the trip, she noticed her brother's nervousness had not reduced in the least. In fact, he was agitated well beyond what he had been before announcing the attempted murder.
It startled her when he finally began.
"Miss Bennet, I hate to add to your burden, but I have a confession to make, several, in fact; and I owe both you and your sister monumental apologies. I would defer it, but you need to understand the situation I will be placing you in."
"They say confession is good for the soul, Mr Darcy," Miss Bennet replied with admirable control.
Georgiana sat in growing horror while her brother spoke of the conversation Miss Elizabeth had shared with her cousin the colonel. She kept looking back and forth between her brother and Miss Bennet, wondering at what point the lady would lose control and scream.
To learn that her brother had interfered between Miss Bennet and Mr Bingley made her blood boil, though she could see little effect on Miss Bennet. To learn that he had been such an insufferable and arrogant fool the first time he fell in love made her feel very much better about her mistake with Mr Wickham.
Speaking of that scoundrel, her brother gave a history of the man and apologized for not clipping his wings earlier. He even mentioned an attempted elopement but omitted the fact that Georgiana was the victim, much to her relief. She knew that she would have to inform the lady sooner or later, but she vastly preferred later. She found herself rather keen to know exactly what punishment her other guardian had cooked up for the man but thought she could find out at her leisure.
A thoroughly exhausting hour later, when her brother had taken just about all the blame for everything bad that happened since the dawn of time, Miss Bennet had yet to do or say anything, except encourage him to continue from time to time.
When he finally finished, Georgiana watched Miss Bennet chewing over the story for several minutes at least, while her brother just looked nervous and miserable.
She had just about decided that she had moved her status up to the tenth or eleventh stupidest person in the family, with Lady Catherine, and Anne filling two of the available slots, and her brother taking the next eight, when Miss Bennet finally spoke.
"I will offer you forgiveness, Mr Darcy, but that is far more an indication of my character than yours."
"I agree," he said softly. "I thank you, little though I deserve it."
She stared at him much harder than Georgiana would have thought possible and asked the imperative question.
"You have said you were in love with my sister, but your love was… in some way… insufficient?"
"Yes. It was entirely selfish, and not well thought out at all. I now see clearly that it was all about me, and not about her."
She stared at him a few more minutes, until he felt compelled to add something.
"I do believe it is true love, despite how awkwardly I have handled it. I like to think I would have grown into it, but that ship seems to have sailed some time ago."
Miss Bennet stared unnervingly another minute. "Suppose Lizzy agreed to marry you even if she did not love you, or even if she still despised you? Would you accept her and treat her well?"
"I would. Love can grow, but even if it did not, I would strive to make certain she never repined the connection," he said.
It sounded rather optimistic to Georgiana, but what did she know?
Miss Bennet nodded long enough that Georgiana began to suspect she was quietly punishing her brother rather than needing time to think.
"Will you agree to keep your ignorant and officious opinions out of other people's business in future?"
"I have learned some hard lessons. You may rely on me."
She nodded, and thought about it some time, while Georgiana was on pins and needles waiting her response.
"I will tell you two things."
He waited patiently for her to get her thoughts together.
"Firstly—even though your actions after the ball were abhorrent, and even I can barely forgive your officious interference … in the end, I suppose you did me a favour. You saved me from attaching myself to what Lizzy calls the Snake Sisters and a man with the poor sense to take romantic advice from YOU!"
Much to her surprise, her brother laughed somewhat freely, which earned him a soft smile from Miss Bennet.
Georgiana was surprised at his laugh, since she said 'you' with the tone of voice her brother would use to say 'Wickham'.
Her brother continued. "It is quite a treat to hear Miss Elizabeth's words come from your mouth, madam. I applaud you."
Georgiana found herself hugely relieved, and wondered if the lady was saving the worst for last.
Miss Bennet looked hard at her brother, and finally added her last point.
"Lastly—I will not promote your suit with Lizzy, but I will tell her what you have done, I will convince her to disregard Mr Wickham's poison, I will make her forgive you for interfering with your inconstant and weak-willed friend, I will tell her I count myself lucky to escape the connection, and I will make her at least listen to you. Beyond that, you must fend for yourself."
"That is far more than I had hoped for or deserve. I thank you."
She stared at him hard enough to make a grown man quake in his boots.
"Do not make me regret it!"