Chapter 8

The next morning Elizabeth was disappointed not to see a little runabout in the car park when she arrived. He did say he had meetings this morning, she consoled herself.

It was a nice walk up to the front door and Emmy from the ticket booth just told her to go ahead inside. It felt strange to wander through the house on her own. She wondered what Elizabeth Darcy thought the first time she saw Pemberley. She remembered a story from William that his seventh great grandmother had come with her Aunt and Uncle to tour the estate before she knew she was going to marry Fitzwilliam Darcy. It seems they had met before, although she couldn't remember where. His journal told of meeting her at Pemberley, unexpectedly and the shock it gave him that she was in his house. She spent a few days in the area, as her aunt was from Lambton, before departing for home unexpectedly. They were married three months later, so this Elizabeth assumed that that Elizabeth had appreciated Pemberley as much as she did.

It took her a while to make her way to the office area. She wandered through the rooms imagining what it must have been like to live here two hundred years ago. She imagined giving a fancy dinner with a dozen servants in the dining room or throwing a ball in the exquisite ballroom. She had toured the master and mistress quarters and although she knew it was common for husband and wife to have separate bedrooms, and sometimes mostly separate lives, she still thought it was less than romantic. All those Regency novels she had read, the ones that convinced her to study history, told of the families' lavish lifestyles but rarely canvassed the lives of the servants. She could imagine being a maid in such a large house. So many stairs! Hauling hot water up four flights of stairs everytime the mistress wanted a bath! Thank heavens for modern plumbing.

She finally reached the conference room and Georgie was waiting for her. "Good morning Elizabeth, hope you slept well." Georgie asked with a question in her voice.

"Very well, thank you. Chatterley house is a lovely place to stay. How are you coming on the website addition for the Audiotours?" Elizabeth asked to change the subject.

"It's all set to go as soon as we go live. I've got the handsets on order and the additions to the employee manual ready for training. Other than recharging, there is not much that the employees need to do with the tours. I think it will negate a lot of the questions we get asked, but isn't that the whole reason behind them?"

They spent the rest of the morning going over the signage that would be ordered as soon as the script was finalized. It was a balance to have signs telling guests what number on the Audiotour corresponded with which location, but did not detract from the original look of the rooms. They were recreating the signs that the named bedrooms were labeled with. They would be made out of wood instead of the usual plastic signs that were ubiquitous in other houses. It was going to be a bit more expensive, but well worth it in the long run.

There were a few last details to finish before the final walk through and reading of the script. They had some time to kill before the tourists left and they could have the house to themselves.

Georgie invited Elizabeth to her suite to look over photos of the house in more recent times. A lot of the photos had William in them. There were pictures of him on horseback, in his little runabout, at his desk with a spreadsheet on the screen (that made her smile), walking the paths, swimming in the pond. Georgie was an amateur photographer and a lot of the photos were very good. Elizabeth felt a bit voyeuristic looking at family photos. She noticed no recent photos of their parents. There were formal portraits of them in the portrait gallery, but no presence in the photos Georgie had taken.

During their conversation Georgie mentioned in passing that her parents had died when she was 13, before she started taking photos. Her brother had been 23 when they died in a car accident and he had taken care of her and the estate since then. That was a lot to take on for such a young man. Her esteem for him rose even more.

The question passed her mind, why had he not married? In old families like this it was important to have children to pass along the estate to. She forced the question out of her mind and continued to pay attention to Georgie as they went through photo books.

A knock on her door at five roused the two from their pleasant pastime. "Georgie, have you seen Elizabeth? She's not in the conference room and Richard says he hasn't seen her since lunch time." The look on his face when Georgie opened the door with Elizabeth standing behind her was one of astonishment. "El.. Miss Bennet, this is where Georgie has you hidden. I hope you have had a good day. Mrs. Reynolds says dinner is almost ready. I thought we would eat early and have time to do the final read through. Shall we?" and he gestured for her to join him. Elizabeth truly hoped that he did not hear the giggle from his sister.

Dinner was pleasant. Mrs. Reynolds had joined them for dinner as she did most nights. William explained that she had taken over the role of mother to them when his parents died. She was more family than employee. He explained that Richard and Anne had a cottage on the estate and they were expecting an addition to their family in a few months. He had a wistful look on his face as he told the tale.

After dinner Anne excused herself to lay down and Richard, Georgie, William and Elizabeth headed through the house to the front door to begin reading the Audiotour. Elizabeth had not told Georgie or Richard about her idea of having William record the script. She handed him the script and said, "Let's hear you read it." William shot her a look of annoyance but took the script and began to read aloud.

"Welcome to Pemberley. Your tour begins in the grand foyer. The house was built in 1765 and was designed by John Gibson who also helped design the Houses of Parliament..." Once he finished the script for the first location, Georgie was the first to compliment Elizabeth on the script. She then turned to her brother, "William, you sounded like Sir David Attenborough when you read that." She missed the look that William shot Elizabeth.

"Don't you think he reads well, Georgie? Maybe he should take up a second career as a newscaster?" Elizabeth turned and winked at him. He returned a sheepish smile.

They continued on their tour reading the script in the blue sitting room, the ballroom, the billiards room, the master's suite, the mistresses' suite, the guest room where Edward the Seventh stayed for two nights in 1905, and finally the library. William had read the script in each of the rooms, but when they got to the library he merely handed the script to Elizabeth and crossed his arms in front of him. She nodded and read the script aloud with all the feeling that she had conjured up that first day at Pemberley. Georgie's eyes bounced from Elizabeth to her brother. There was definitely something going on between those two. It took all of her reserve to not bounce on her toes and clap at the thought.

Richard had been watching the interplay between his cousin and Miss Bennet throughout the evening. He had never seen his cousin show any lady this type of regard. He thought something might be up when William asked Elizabeth to dinner and even more so when he accepted a dinner invitation from her for the next night. He had given up pushing his cousin to look for a wife; he was never interested in any of the fine ladies he had brought to Pemberley back in his bachelor days. Once he had met Anne, he gave up the pretense of helping his cousin.

Richard and Georgie had the same idea. Nodding behind the backs of the other two involved in the read through, they silently wandered away and left those two to their own devices. Elizabeth had been looking at the items that she mentioned as she read the script and William had been looking at her while she read about them. When she finished, they were looking at each other and neither one noticed that they were alone in the library. Where they had met in the first place. Elizabeth turned to ask Georgie what she thought about the script so far and turned all the way around before she noticed that Georgie and Richard were nowhere in sight. This broke William out of his daydreaming and he also looked around and noticed that they were alone.

Elizabeth was the first to speak. "I didn't think I did that bad a job of reading the script aloud. Where did they go?"

"I don't know," was William's bewildered response. "I guess they figured that we didn't need their help anymore." He paused. "I guess we might as well finish the rest of the script. There's only six more stops on the Audiotour, it shouldn't take us long. I haven't seen any changes that need to be made so far."

They finished the rest of the tour, taking turns reading the script and when they finished, in the original kitchen and servant's hall, now known as the snack shop, they just stood and looked at each other. Neither one was in a hurry for the project to end.

Elizabeth finally shook herself out of her reverie and said, "I really think you should read the script for the Audiotour." He was staring at her. "It will save you some money, give the narration an authenticity that no voice actor could ever give it. If you don't mind coming to London. To work in the studio with me," she paused, then quickly added "and the sound engineer." She was nearly whispering by the end of her rambling. She could not look away from him. His eyes couldn't leave her either. They just stood looking at each other until they heard a door open and close somewhere nearby. The spell was broken.

She quickly began again. "I need to head back to London tomorrow. The studio is available next week Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. Would any of those days work for you?" Elizabeth said with the best professional voice she could currently conjure up.

"Um, yes, well, I think Wednesday or Thursday would work for me. How long do you think it will take?"

"We usually can knock it out in one day, if all goes well. I'll book the studio for Wednesday and hope it is available for Thursday if we need a fall back date. The studios are near Grosvenor Square. Do you need me to book a hotel for you?"

"No, that won't be necessary. I have a home near there, I'll have them open the house through the weekend. As long as I am going to London, I might as well get a few things done."

Elizabeth tried not to stare at him, but she was not used to people with the kind of money he so blithely mentioned. A house near Grosvenor Square, and Pemberley, and who knows what other holdings he had. She decided she needed to dial back her reactions to this man. She wasn't in his league. It wasn't the 1800s anymore, not like they couldn't marry unless she was of the same social standing as he was, but still, she was still paying off what her scholarships didn't cover and living in a tiny apartment in Woolwich. Where did those thoughts come from? Yeah, definitely time to dial it back a bit.

"Yes, well, I best get going. It's a long drive back to London. I will see you at the studios on Wednesday, say 9 AM? I'll email you the directions. Thank you for dinner. Say goodbye to Richard and Georgie for me. See you then," she said and headed for the employee entrance.

"Let me give you a ride to your car. It's late and the paths are not well lit." She could not turn him down, but she was determined to keep her distance. Things were getting a bit too, um, too, um, she couldn't think of the word. Unprofessional. Close. Warm.

She kept the conversation strictly work related until they reached her car. As usual, he got out of the runabout and walked her to her car. The last one in the lot, of course. "Thank you again for dinner. I will see you Wednesday at 9. Email me if you have any questions." With that she got into her car and quickly left the car park.

He just stood there, watching her drive away, trying to figure out what went wrong. She had been so friendly until they talked about London. He thought they had been working well together. He thought she had enjoyed dinner with him. Had Georgie said something to scare her off? That didn't sound like his sister. She would be thrilled if he and Elizabeth got together.

Whoa, where did that thought come from? He had been tempted to ask her to go out to dinner with him in London, maybe invite her to his house there. Had she picked up a vibe that made her uncomfortable? He didn't think he had said anything too forward. He just shook his head as he headed back to the house. It was going to be a long weekend. He hoped Georgia and Richard didn't tease him all weekend about, well, her.