Chapter 15: Getting to Know You
The next morning, Elizabeth took an early morning stroll through the snow-covered garden. It was still snowing, so she dared not leave the formal garden, though she longed to run through the woods. She was not careless, so she would not go where she could not be seen by others.
She always enjoyed the quiet that befell snowy gardens. Birds may sing in the distance, but their sound could not reach her. Only the quiet crunching of her half boots on the gravel disturbed the silence. The cold bit at her fingers and nose, but she felt invigorated by the chill.
Looking back at Netherfield, she spotted her sister's room, and envisioned Jane looking out as she paused in reading her book. Of course, her sister rarely sat beside such a cold window, so it was unlikely, but it allowed Elizabeth to daydream of the day when Jane would be mistress of Netherfield. She was so lost in her thoughts that she was thoroughly surprised when a snowball hit her back that she almost fell over.
Having grown up playing in snow fights was in her favor. She quickly turned around and found the source of the snow, Mr. Darcy and Lord Devon were quickly building more ammunition. Darting behind a large hedge, she began to build her own snowballs. Peering around the hedge, she noticed Mr. Darcy in search while Lord Devon kept building. She took her four snowballs and crept along the hedge so that she was behind Mr. Darcy. Jumping up, she pelted both men with two snowballs each before she quickly turned and ran farther from the house where the hedges would afford more safety.
Both men startled by having been bested so quickly. By the time they found her running figure, she was out of range. Lord Devon's pile of snowballs would be useless as he could not carry them. With a grunt, he lifted three and took off after Elizabeth, only to be pelted by two more snowballs as she surprised him around a hedge.
Mr. Darcy was better off. Knowing that Lord Devon would be Elizabeth's easiest target, he took only two snowballs with him as he went around the hedge on the other side. He would have taken her by surprise, but a fallen branch made him trip, giving away his position. She aimed one snowball at his chest before dashing off toward the forest for cover, laughing all the way.
The three kept the game up through the forest. Enough snow had fallen through the trees that they could keep building ammunition. While Elizabeth was only hit a few times, the gentlemen fared far worse. Lord Devon's coat was ruined from the moisture. Mr. Darcy's jacket was built of finer quality, but enough snow had crept inside. Both were feeling quite chilled, but they were immune because of the brightness in Elizabeth's eyes.
The fight ended when Elizabeth stopped suddenly at the sound of a carriage, causing her to be hit by two snowballs at the same time. She hardly felt them as she shouted, "They are here!" and took off at a full run following the carriage.
The gentlemen looked at each other askance. Lord Devon spoke first. "It will look horrible if we chase after her. I am curious who could make her so happy at the sound of a carriage heading for Longbourn. I don't even have more energy to run. I propose we walk at a leisurely pace and find out."
Mr. Darcy nodded and turned toward Longbourn at a slightly faster pace than would be his wont. Lord Devon had to jog a little to keep up, and it made Mr. Darcy smile inwardly. His height was good for something, it would seem. He would look the better man as they arrived at Longbourn.
Elizabeth arrived at Longbourn just as her cousins were clambering out of the carriage. Despite her sisters standing on the landing, they ran to Cousin Lizzy with a release of energy that had been pent up in the carriage. Elizabeth returned their embrace by swinging them around one by one. She then herded them into the front hall with a promise of sweets once they had all refreshed themselves. Only then could she greet her favorite aunt and uncle from London.
The reunion included tears of joy on both sides of the embrace. Elizabeth had always regarded her aunt and uncle as the most sensible and understanding relatives she had, besides Jane, of course.
They had all taken their seats just as Mr. Darcy and Lord Devon arrived. The group stood in greeting, and Elizabeth performed the introductions. Lord Devon instantly took a seat beside Mrs. Bennet while Mr. Darcy chose a seat farthest from anyone and looked out the window instead of speaking to Mary, his closest companion. When she asked after his health, he responded succinctly and returned to looking out the window. Mary picked up her book and resumed reading, unperturbed by the gentleman.
The room was loud, Elizabeth thought, but that seemed no excuse for Mr. Darcy to shun the company. Most certainly, he was too good for the likes of them, but then why did he come. He could have just as easily returned to Netherfield where his dull character would not disturb anyone.
Elizabeth could not dwell on his behavior before Lord Devon brought her into the conversation with her mother. Mrs. Bennet wanted to hear all about Mr. Bingley's engagement to Jane and how he courted her at Netherfield. Lord Devon embellished how Mr. Bingley carried Jane from room to room so that she would always be comfortable. Elizabeth tried to tone down his embellishments so that Jane would not be uncomfortable hearing the gossip that would surely arrive at Netherfield before they could return home.
"Lord Devon, she is assisted by a footman just as often. Mama, you must not believe a word Lord Devon says. He is making sport with his story telling. Has Lady Lucas visited since we went away?" She attempted to change the subject to no avail. Mrs. Bennet only wished to hear about Jane and her suitor.
Elizabeth turned to speak with her aunt. In doing so, she noticed that Mr. Darcy was intently watching her. She eyed him for a moment in a silent challenge for him to join them, but he resisted and looked out the window again. Elizabeth just barely refrained from rolling her eyes as she began a conversation with her aunt.
Mr. Bennet joined them after a quarter hour as the tea was being served. This forced a change in seating, and Elizabeth ended up beside Mr. Darcy and Mary. They ate in silence for a time until Mary decided she had been out enough and moved to the music room to practice. Her mournful tunes traversed through the halls to the drawing room. Mr. Darcy squirmed a little in his seat but said nothing.
Mrs. Gardiner rescued them as she took a seat beside Elizabeth. With Mrs. Gardiner, there was plenty to speak of. Elizabeth told her aunt about the play they had been reading. As this was also Mrs. Gardiner's favorite play, this was an easy topic. She even managed to successfully bring Mr. Darcy into the conversation. He spoke little, but his comments were insightful.
When the tea service was cleared, Mr. Bennet invited the gentlemen to a glass of port in his library. Mr. Darcy was the last to rise, and he bid Elizabeth and her aunt a warm adieu before he followed Mr. Bennet out of the room.
Mrs. Bennet then took Mr. Darcy's vacated seat and immediately asked about London fashion. "You wrote that long sleeves are fashionable again. What else can you tell us? My Jane must be the most fashionable lady in Hertfordshire."
Elizabeth once again rolled her eyes at her mother's predictableness. The conversation was mostly one-sided, as Mrs. Bennet rarely waited for Mrs. Gardiner to respond before moving on to another idea. Lydia and Kitty helped in that endeavor. The discussion was interrupted by the children returning downstairs insisting on playing in the snow.
Elizabeth offered to escort them to the garden. She first began instructing them on making snow angels and castles, hoping to avoid another snowball fight. Her dress had barely dried enough while they were sitting in the drawing room. However, a snow fight was inevitable with her boisterous cousins. This time Elizabeth was not alone. Lydia and Kitty quickly joined the fight, so Elizabeth took her older cousins, Cecily and Margaret, while her sisters kept the boys distracted. She showed them how to make a snow fort that could easily survive the snowballs made by three and five-year old boys.
Then Elizabeth showed how well she could aim by pelting her sisters and male cousins with snowballs while Cecily and Margaret missed most of their targets.
Mr. Darcy watched the action while he sipped port with Mr. Bennet with a longing he did not fully understand. He even began to see Lydia in a new light. She was still a child at heart, not brought up to see her actions as anything improper by her parents. The fault for her behavior was not entirely hers. And now, with the boisterous activity, her behavior was perfectly proper. With a sister like Elizabeth, Lydia would never be like Georgiana.
With a pang, he saw that he had not raised Georgiana with warmth and ease. He had never played in the snow with her beyond snow angels. He had been too serious for such endeavors after losing their mother. Georgiana grew up to be a serious child, and he regretted it. He could imagine the warmth that would infuse his family with Elizabeth by his side.
Laughter drew him from his thoughts, and he turned in time to see three pairs of eyes on him. "Forgive my woolgathering. Did you ask me a question?"
"Not at all." Mr. Gardiner replied, followed by another laugh.
Lord Devon took mercy on him. "Mr. Bennet mentioned that you would prefer to risk your health by returning outside before you have had time to dry instead of remaining by the fire with the port. I begin to understand his aspersion."
Mr. Darcy blushed. "My sister is far too serious. I was imagining how Pemberley might be different if my sister had…" How could he phrase it so that Mr. Bennet would not wish for pistols at dawn? Elizabeth was her father's favorite child. "The influence of an older sister."
"Someone less serious than yourself, perhaps?" Lord Devon asked. "I certainly have never invited you gambling with me for that reason."
Mr. Bennet eyed Lord Devon carefully, but Mr. Darcy responded, "Indeed, I have a tendency to be far too serious."
"Well, perhaps we ought to join Elizabeth." Mr. Bennet stated. "She is probably tired after so much adventure, seeing as she came from Netherfield park. Not that she would admit to the fatigue. Mr. Darcy, would you consider taking our carriage home so that Elizabeth might rest?"
Lord Devon happily accepted the offer before rising to join Elizabeth outside. This caused a rift in the previous order. Kitty and Lydia joined Elizabeth as Lord Devon and Mr. Darcy joined the two young boys. Soon the gentlemen had a fort of their own to repel the attack. The fight lasted a quarter of an hour before Mrs. Gardiner exclaimed that her children must not get too cold and ordered everyone indoors.
Mr. Darcy sat beside Elizabeth once again, sipping chocolate to warm their insides, however, Mrs. Gardiner sat on his other side and pestered him with questions about Pemberley and Derbyshire. Once he understood she hailed from Derbyshire, he warmed to her, and they spoke of common acquaintances with ease until the carriage was ready.
Elizabeth sat opposite the gentlemen on the ride home. She looked out the window until she could no longer see Longbourn. The smile on her face told her companions that she was very happy with her afternoon. Mr. Darcy was content to watch her. Lord Devon was preoccupied with thoughts of his own. He was startled from his reverie by humming.
He looked over to Elizabeth who was happily humming a Christmas carol. She did not even seem to know she was doing so.
Mr. Darcy knew she was humming, and when the time came, he chimed in with, "Good tidings we bring, to you and your kin."
Elizabeth blushed as she realized she had been caught. Instead of letting it bother her, however, she simply joined in the singing. Lord Devon found he could not be left out, and so the carriage ride was spent singing joyfully. They arrived at Netherfield in buoyant spirits to find Miss Bingley at the steps waiting for them.
"Oh, thank heavens you have returned. I had prepared a search party to go looking for you just as we saw the carriage. You have been gone for hours!" Miss Bingley proclaimed.
Mr. Darcy bowed in greeting. "You have our apologies for giving you cause to worry. We certainly did not plan on our adventure today. One thing led to another until we arrived at Longbourn."
Mr. Bingley joined his sister on the stairs. "Very well, come in! Come in! No sense in remaining out of doors in this weather. Jane is sitting in the drawing room. She thought it likely you meandered to Longbourn after you went into the woods."
Everyone filed inside and offered their outerwear to the waiting servants. Elizabeth then hurried to join her sister while the gentlemen warmed up with a brandy in the library before joining the ladies.
"Shall we continue the play?" Lord Devon said as he tripped over a stool that had not been in his way. He might have had two brandies in the library and was feeling the effects of them. "With the Gardiners at Longbourn, we may have less time. They plan to bring festivities to us when they can. Now, where did we leave off? Oh yes, I am to fall in love with Beatrice! The best part."
He pulled out his copy of the play. "I do much wonder that one man, seeing how much another man is a fool when he dedicates his behaviors to love, will, after he hath laughed at such shallow follies in others, become the argument of his own scorn by falling in love – and such a man is Claudio." He paused for breath. "I have quite the lines here. I am only just begun. But begin I must as this is the scene where I am fooled into loving my sweet Beatrice, by the name of Elizabeth. At least the soliloquy fits for Bingley." Everyone turned to Mr. Bingley and Miss Bennet who were completely ignorant of the rest of the people in the room.
He continued before anyone could laugh too much. Finishing with, "Ha! The Prince and Monsieur Love! I will hide me in the arbor."
Colonel Fitzwilliam moved over to Mr. Bingley with a book open to the right page. Playing the prince, he said, "Come, shall we hear this music?"
"Oh, we are reading again, are we?" Mr. Bingley coughed to cover his embarrassment. "Yea, my good lord. How still the evening is, as hushed on the purpose to grace harmony!" He stared at his words. "What did I even say there?"
Elizabeth smiled before responding, "Poets love a good evening to write verses. As a man in love, you should begin to learn such mannerisms."
Elizabeth then recited Balthasar's lines to keep from a discussion. When it came time to sing Balthasar's song, Jane sang with her. Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley enjoyed the performance very well. As the song ended, Jane explained that they would all sing together at home.
The room was silent for a time. They were astonished by the loveliness found in two beautiful sisters with beautiful voices. Even Miss Bingley could not deny the pleasure she had felt.
The colonel coughed and said, "By my troth, a good song."
"And an ill singer, my lord." Elizabeth responded as Balthazar.
When it was time for Benedick's line, Lord Devon prefaced it with, "You know these are not my words. An he had been a dog that should have howled thus, they would have hanged him."
The colonel laughed at Lord Devon's remark and continued. "Come hither, Leonato. What was it you told me of today, that your niece Beatrice was in love with Signior Benedick?"
Mr. Darcy shifted uncomfortably when it was his turn to join in the play. "Most wonderful that she should so dote on Signior Benedick, whom she hath in all outward behaviors seemed ever to abhor."
Elizabeth watched as Colonel Fitzwilliam, Mr. Bingley, and Mr. Darcy all conspired to convince Benedick that Beatrice loved him. None of them were comfortable. Lord Devon, on the other hand, took the seat beside her and shifted ever closer to her until her thigh was against his. Mr. Darcy noticed and was very displeased. He spoke his lines with a trace of anger, especially when he said, "An he should, it were an alms to hang him. She's an excellent sweet lady, and, out of all suspicion, she is virtuous."
Mr. Bingley spoke up for his future sister with, "And she is exceeding wise."
Mr. Darcy nearly growled as he watched Lord Devon eye Elizabeth mischievously. "In everything but in loving Benedick." He then turned away before the others could comment on his incivility.
Elizabeth noticed, and offered him a shy smile. It perked him up and they finished the scene with tranquility. Lord Devon took his next reading far too seriously. He paced up and down behind Elizabeth as he described all of Beatrice's virtues and declared his love of Beatrice to himself.
Elizabeth did not let him take a breath when he finished before she invited him into dinner, as part of the play.
"You take pleasure then in the message?" Lord Devon resumed his seat beside Elizabeth.
With a saucy smile, Elizabeth replied, "Yea, just so much as you may take upon a knife's point and choke a daw withal." Elizabeth shuddered slightly and looked at Jane, who also disliked the idea of choking a blackbird.
When Lord Devon finished his response, Miss Bingley announced that dinner would be served soon, effectively breaking up the party. She disliked seeing Elizabeth get so much attention, though she no longer sought Mr. Darcy's favor.
AN: Well, here we are with an appropriately long chapter. I hope you enjoyed it. What will happen when Beatrice falls in love with Benedick?