AN: I don't want to make any promises but I really hope to have more writing time in the near future. In the meantime here is a tidbit more:
The next morning, soon after the family breakfast, Mrs. Bennet, accompanied by her two youngest girls, arrived to visit Jane and form her own opinion of her daughter's health. Had she found Jane in any apparent danger, Mrs. Bennet would have been miserable, but she was by no means pleased to find her in the breakfast room, in such good health that even she was hard-pressed to find a reason she should stay, especially after Mary Jones arrived and pronounced her patient fully recovered. Her only consolation was in Mr. Bingley's showing equal concern for Jane's leaving so soon.
To Mr. Darcy it was a welcome intelligence Elizabeth Bennet attracted him more than he liked and the feelings of admiration he kept picking up from Georgiana were compounding the problem. His only regret was that she was leaving so suddenly, he would not have a chance to make a point of his disinterest. If he had raised her hopes a day where he did not speak to her would be material in repressing them. With this in mind, he agreed to accompany Bingley to Longbourn the next day to ask after Miss Bennet's health. He was determined on this visit no sign of admiration should escape him and if he could avoid it, not to talk to her at all. In this he was successful for though he and Bingley sat for more than half an hour with some of the ladies, Miss Elizabeth Bennet did not join them.
Where could she be? Surely she must be aware that her mother would embarrass Miss Bennet by speaking of her beauty, and her youngest sisters would be teasing Mr. Bingley to hold a ball. Should she not be present to turn the conversation by some witty remark? How was it that the woman who had walked three miles for the sake of her sister's well-being was not present to defend her now? But perhaps she did not trust herself to be near him. If any woman were wise enough not to reach so far beyond her station it would be her, but he could not depend on it, and there was no benefit to be gained by ignoring a woman in her absence. His visiting at all could easily have the opposite effect to what he had intended.
When they finally rose to leave Darcy repressed a sigh of relief. Without the younger Miss Bennet, there was nothing of interest to hear. How even a man of Bingley's affable nature could endure all but the eldest Miss Bennet was beyond him.
The two of them made their way to the place where they had left the Griffins[i] and on their rounding a small copse of trees Darcy started in surprise and Bingley exclaimed, "Miss Bennet, we had quite despaired of seeing you."
Elizabeth Bennet, along with a sister, was standing with the Griffins. From Georgiana Darcy felt amusement and delight.
Miss Bennet curtsied. "Georgiana and Eleos have been so kind as to allow me to introduce my sister Mary. The four of us have been conversing for some time."
"It has not," added Miss Mary Bennet, "been a conversation as one would normally define the word. Griffins do not speak as humans do."
"I am sure no one thought your sister meant our bondeds were speaking English." Darcy's tone was sharper than he intended, annoyed that anyone would bother to say such an obvious thing.
"In the sense," said Elizabeth, "that the four of us are making ourselves understood to each other I stand by my choice of word."
"I can easily believe the Griffins understand you." Said Darcy, "But even, if for the sake of argument, I accept your previous claim that Griffins make distinguishable sounds. You could not possibly understand enough to comprehend any nuances of meaning."
"And yet I can not claim English to be superior in this regard. I have often spoken with others at length without understanding them at all. But in a short time, by asking questions and listening for a tone of pleasure or displeasure in the reply, we have learned that Eleos is delighted with the hunting at Neatherfield and hopes he and Mr. Bingley will visit the Lucas Children; and that Georgiana misses Pemberley but is happy to be with you and spend time with her friend."
Despite Georgiana confirming this to be true Darcy said, "That is no more than could easily be guessed by knowing their dispositions."
"Do you find it more likely that I would so easily discern their dispositions without any sort of conversation than that we would be capable of having one?"
He could not help smiling as he made her a slight bow, "I concede you that. But the unlikeliness of one ability does not prove the existence of the other. You must allow that the questioner would need to be very lucky in her choice of questions to learn so much by this method."
"I take it you have an alternate explanation."
"I do not. But my not having thought of a more likely explanation does not prove that none exists."
"Then we will leave you to ponder what it might be." With that, she curtseyed to Darcy, Bingley, and Eleos and, to Darcy's surprise, patted Georgiana on the beak. Georgiana returned the gesture with a nuzzle. With that Miss Bennet turned and ran off, the sister made a quick courtesy and followed, leaving Bingley and Eleos to go on to Lucas Lodge and Darcy to return to Neatherfield with Georgiana and ponder how his plan to display his disinterest had gone so awry. Why did her eyes have to sparkle so when she spoke? Why must she always be saying something so engaging he could not help but reply?
He felt another wave of amusement combined with affection for Elizabeth from Georgiana. "Yes, well next time I will take my horse."
The chirp she made in reply could almost have been taken for a laugh[ii].
{0}
Marry returned to her instrument and Elizabeth continued her walk rejoicing as she gambled about that Jane had healed so quickly and allowed them to come home.
Too many people had doubted her observations on the different sounds Griffins made for her to take particular offense at Mr. Darcy's doing so. It was more or less what she expected of him. She only wondered that such a sweet, shy[iii], yet affectionate griffin like Georgiana would have bonded with such a proud disagreeable man. She wished she could ask the Griffin what made her so fond of him, but such a conversation would be difficult to have with someone who could only respond in the positive or negative. Mr. Darcy was not wrong in saying she would need to know what questions to ask. And yet, even in the short time they had been speaking Georgiana had managed to communicate her deep love for her bonded. And, there had been something more that Elizabeth could not discern, some hint that Georgiana was …worried for him? …worried she would disappoint him? Elizabeth could not make it out.
i Why Daskalos hasn't invited them in is unclear. Perhaps he wanted to finish his book.
ii This was, in fact, a laugh.
iii Griffins bond as often with those whose personality balances their own as they do those with similar traits. The shyness of his bonded should not be taken as an indication that Darcy is shy.
AN: Thank you again to those who are still with me.