Thanks for sticking with this story! I love this chapter and feel like I am getting clearer on everyone's thoughts, feelings and relationships! For context Lizzy is turning 16 this summer and Georgiana 13. We are currently in the middle of their birthday celebration at Pemberley. This summer will likely be 2 more chapters before we move on. I am grateful for everyone who likes follows, favourites etc and of course for any reviews. Love the feedback!
They spent nearly an hour sampling the sumptuous fare Pemberley's kitchens had prepared. It included Elizabeth's favourite treat, chocolate mousse as well as Georgiana's – lemon squares.
"I still do not understand how you can prefer something lemon-flavoured over chocolate," Elizabeth said as Georgiana popped another bite of the aforementioned treat into her mouth.
"They are delicious," she answered, mouth full.
One admonishing look from Miss Baxter had the young girl offering an apology. Though she still had not quite finished chewing. Lizzy and Mary laughed and Miss Baxter simply shook her head.
"I must agree with Miss Elizabeth," Darcy said. He held a nearly empty bowl of mousse which had been his second.
"I would appreciate your concurrence more if it did not mean less chocolate for me," Elizabeth told him. Darcy responded by plucking the last mousse from the tray beside him. Lizzy knew she should look indignant, argue to be allowed the final treat as it was her birthday, but she could do nothing, but stare at the look of mischief he gave her as he raised the spoon toward his mouth. At the last moment he placed it back down.
"You must, of course, have the last one." He bowed his head slightly and held it out to her. When he raised his eyes she saw they were bright with mischief and so Lizzy did not chide herself for her inability to respond and instead congratulated herself when she saw her hand reach up to take the offered bowl. It was even steady until her fingers closed around it and encountered his. Both had removed their gloves to eat and so as their fingertips overlapped, she felt as if all the heat in the room was concentrated on the places they met. She could do nothing but stare at their fingers certain she would soon see evidence of the fire that seemed to be ignited in those points of contact. Though it seemed an eternity later, when she considered it Elizabeth was sure Darcy pulled his hand back almost immediately. He looked at her in concern for a moment before standing. "Once Miss Lizzy has consumed all of the chocolate on the premises shall we move on to the games?"
The others declared their readiness and finished their various plates. The servants, who had entered several minutes earlier came forward to begin clearing the dishes as everyone stood and made their way to the end of the room where the games awaited.
An hour later it was Lizzy and Darcy who had most often claimed victory.
Darcy won Blind man's buff. Though generally a children's game, the adults threw themselves into it with gusto and it was nearly a quarter of an hour before victory was declared. Mr. Darcy, who proved incredibly quick and spry for a man of somewhat advanced years, was the last to be tagged out.
Lizzy beat them all at conkers. Only Mr. Darcy came close to knocking out as many of the others as she.
Mr. Barlow and Mrs. Gardiner won their respective tables at whist, but Lizzy won at Hazard quite handily. Darcy tied up the win tally with her in the unique version of charades Miss Baxter had created for them. Though he was a hopeless actor he made up for it by being far and away the best guesser.
And so it was that as they began their final game - Skittles - everyone was eager to see if Darcy or Lizzy would best them all and claim the prize. By the time they had played through two elimination rounds Mary, Lizzy, Darcy and Georgiana were the ones left competing. With Miss Baxter in charge of resetting the pins and Mr. Darcy keeping score, the foursome competed over a final round.
"Well done, Miss Darcy," Mrs. Gardiner declared, clapping her hands in her enthusiasm. Five pins were down with four remaining. Unfortunately for Georgiana on her second roll she only added one more pin to her count. Mary knocked down seven between her two rolls. When Darcy stepped up for his turn the entire party seemed intent on distracting him.
"Are you sure you want to stand that way?" asked his father and Mr. Barlow agreed, "he does look rather unsteady. He's also too far to the left."
"No, he is too far to the right for sure," Mr. Gardiner disagreed.
Darcy ignored them all and moved to roll the ball. Mr. Darcy coughed loudly as he did so. The ball didn't even make it to the end of the carpet instead rolling off midway onto the floor and then hitting the wall. The second ball was better – no distractions presented themselves – six pins fell.
Everyone laughed and Georgiana declared, "at least I have company in last place."
Although Darcy did not look put out and laughed with the rest Elizabeth spoke up.
"He should be permitted another turn."
"If he cannot concentrate amid some distraction, he does not deserve the win," Mr. Darcy said. He was smiling at his son who looked back at him shaking his head seemingly trying to contain a laugh.
"But, Sir, is it fair for him to have to contend with distractions other players are not subject to?" Elizabeth insisted.
"A fair point," Mr. Darcy conceded. "Shall you be content if I time my next commotion during your turn?"
"I suppose," she said, quite seriously even though the others, including Darcy, seemed to find only humour in the situation. "It is not exactly the same as I will know it is coming but it seems the best we can do."
"Lizzy is always very concerned with fair play," her uncle explained to those less familiar with her nature and history.
"Indeed, the first time she beat me at chess she refused to check me," Mr. Barlow added. "I had nodded off several times during the match and she concluded our facilities were not equally prepared and so we had to wait until the following night for her to claim her victory."
"Well then, on with it, Lizzy," Mr. Gardiner urged. "The score stands at Darcy and Miss Darcy at six and Mary at seven.
The pins were reset. It seemed that in an effort to ensure Lizzy's distraction be equal to Darcy's every member of the party excepting that gentleman had a sudden convulsion of some sort – there were coughs, sneezes and stomps. Still Lizzy was able to knock down four pins with her first bowl and three with her second meaning she and Mary would bowl the final round against one another.
The sisters waited while Miss Baxter reset the pins. Mary knocked down eight. Mrs. Gardiner congratulated her and Georgiana cheered her efforts loudly. The others clapped and predicted her victory. Mary thanked them but appeared mostly unconcerned by any of it. Elizabeth knew better She could tell by the way her sister shyly tilted her head and pressed her lips together she was pleased to be the subject of praise and attention.
Elizabeth took her turn and knocked seven down with her first try. Mary watched with affected nonchalance. Standing beside Georgiana they watched Elizabeth move back to the starting position to bowl her second ball. When stepping forward to release her ball Elizabeth tripped slightly which threw off her roll and caused her to miss the pins entirely.
"Mary wins!" Georgiana declared, offering her friend an exuberant embrace.
"Well, done Miss Mary," Mr. Darcy said. The Gardiners and Mr. Barlow offered their words of praise as well.
As Mary accepted the enthusiastic support Darcy moved behind Lizzy, bending slightly and speaking in a low voice he asked, "what was it that caused you to lose your footing, Miss Elizabeth? You seemed all but assured of the victory which would have sealed you as the winner for the day as well."
Elizabeth turned from watching her sister's blossoming smile at the little celebration of her triumph to face Darcy.
"It is unfortunate but could not be helped."
A quirk of one perfect brow alerted Elizabeth to the possibility of his being onto her. This was confirmed when he responded, "Could it not?"
"No indeed."
He regarded her for a moment before bestowing on her the rarest of gifts, that small, crooked smile. If her sister's moment of enjoying some praise was not adequate recompense for her pretence that smile would have been wholly sufficient.
"You are a good sister, Miss Elizabeth," he said quietly before going to join the others.
As a result of Elizabeth's loss at Skittles, intentional or not, there remained a tie between herself and Darcy for the top prize. He tried to insist it should go to her as the birthday girl.
"I cannot accept that, Sir, as I had no say in the date of my birth and it is no accomplishment of mine to have been born at all."
"I see," he answered. "Your overdeveloped sense of fairness will not allow you to assent to be awarded the prize on the very reasonable basis of you being our guest of honour on your birthday."
"I will concede it is a reasonable basis on which to break a stalemate, but if I am being asked for my preference it would be to earn the prize."
"Are you so certain you could best me on another field?"
"I would like the opportunity to do so," she answered.
"It is consistent with your character to insist on proving yourself," Mr. Darcy said approvingly. "Although I concur with Fitzwilliam that it is perfectly reasonable to award the prize to you based on the tiebreaker of your birthday, but if you both agree I think I have a good idea for the final game.
"Very well, Sir," Darcy said, "let us proceed." After Lizzy nodded her approval Mr. Darcy called the others over to the side where they proceeded to whisper among themselves. At one point Mr. Darcy beckoned for a nearby footman and seemed to give him some instructions before returning to the others.
"Do you know what he means to propose?" Lizzy asked Darcy as they stood side by side watching the others who were now speaking with their heads close together.
"No," he answered. "I hope you do not mean to repeat your self-sacrifice. I would prefer to best you fair and square."
Conceding, in her mind, the justice of the facially insulting implication she might not try given her actions on the last game, Lizzy chose to focus on the more flattering inference that Darcy found her to be a worthy opponent. She intended to prove him right by beating him.
"We have decided that the final game to determine our winner will be a guessing game of sorts," Mr. Barlow informed Darcy and Elizabeth. The latter of whom thought the group looked entirely too pleased with themselves for it to be that simple.
"Charades?" Darcy asked.
"No, no, something tailored to our players," Mr. Gardner said, then turning to Mr. Darcy, "perhaps, as this was your brilliant idea, you would explain?"
"Certainly," he answered. Just then two footmen entered through the far doors each carrying a chair, Mrs. Reynolds followed, directing them. They exited and returned with two additional chairs repeating this until they had created a small seating cluster with six seats. "Let us sit."
He led the group to the chairs with Elizabeth and Darcy following.
"Does Miss Elizabeth not get a seat?" Darcy asked after all six chairs were taken by the rest of the party and they were left standing.
"No, apologies Lizzy, but you and Master Fitzwilliam will stand for this particular game," Mr. Gardiner told her.
"The guessing game?" Lizzy asked.
"Yes, let us get on with it. I want to see Lizzy beat Fitzwilliam."
"I appreciate the vote of confidence, Georgie," her brother said dryly. "Now please advise us how to play this particular guessing game."
"To put it simply it is a guessing game about you," Mr. Darcy answered.
"About me?" Darcy asked.
"Yes, and about Miss Elizabeth."
"We will ask you questions about her and Mr. Darcy or Miss Darcy will ask her questions about you," Mrs. Gardiner explained.
"Very well," Lizzy agreed though she foresaw several ways this game could go poorly for her.
"I have the first question, "Georgiana said, her enthusiasm evident. "What book is Fitzwilliam reading right now?"
"I believe he is reading two books at present," Lizzy answered. "He is re-reading the Republic and is reading Progress in Agriculture: A Detailed Account of Modern Techniques as Applied to the English Farm for the first time. I believe Mr. Darcy recommended it to him."
"Your memory is quite precise," Darcy responded, turning to the others he added, "Miss Elizabeth is correct. We spoke about this quite recently."
"One point for Miss Elizabeth," Miss Baxter said.
It occurred to Elizabeth that winning this game might mean revealing how very closely she paid attention to her "opponent".
"What is Elizabeth's favourite flower?" Mrs. Gardiner asked.
"Lilacs," he answered with confidence.
"Is that correct, Lizzy?" Mrs. Gardiner asked. "I had thought it was daisies."
In the interest of fairness Lizzy admitted Darcy was correct but her cheeks seemed destined to get progressively pinker throughout this game. As with the other games they were fairly evenly matched.
She knew the name of his first dog, Harold and his favourite horse, Poseidon.
He knew her middle name, Anne and the book she was currently reading, Thomas Hutchinson's history of Massachusetts which her father had gifted her before she left for the summer.
He did not know what arrangement she was working on with her music master – she could hardly blame him, she barely remembered that it was Mozart's Sonatina in C major before Mary said it. She did not know what two languages he spoke beyond English. Her answer was French and Italian, the former she knew and the latter was a guess. In reality, Darcy spoke French and German.
"Should I not be awarded partial credit?" Elizabeth pressed when Mr. Darcy revealed the answer.
"I suppose," he conceded. "Then it would only seem fair to give Fitzwilliam a question where he could also get partial credit. That way he has the opportunity to win outright, tie or lose with this potentially final question." With that their host looked to the Gardiners and Mary.
"I may have an appropriate question," Mary offered. "Although possibility it is too obscure. It has to do with our family."
"Family is fair game," Mr. Darcy assured her. "Elizabeth speaks about hers more often than Fitzwilliam speaks German so I think it should work."
"I agree," Darcy said, aiming Elizabeth's favourite smile at Mary. "I am quite ready, Miss Mary. Do your worst."
Elizabeth watched Darcy charm her sister with conflicting emotions. She would never admit it to anyone, but she really did covet those smiles and to see them given to others – she had to stifle an unreasonable surge of jealously. The more powerful reaction though was annoyance at him. Was she not already sufficiently under his spell? Did he need to add "demonstrating understanding and kindness to her shy younger sister" to his incredibly long list of irresistible actions and traits. It was unreasonable. Then as she watched Mary stumble over her next words not out of her usual awkwardness or diffidence but, Lizzy was certain, as a reaction to the aforementioned charm and smile Elizabeth found her sense of humour once again.
"Yes, Mary we are on tenterhooks. Ask away," she said, drawing Mary's attention and snapping her out of the Darcy-induced trance. His power was considerable, it was not just her.
"Of course," Mary said, smoothing her skirts and looking back at Darcy. "Can you name Elizabeth's sisters from eldest to youngest?" Just when Darcy looked about to answer – with an air of confidence she added, "and our ages."
"I see what you are about, Mary," Mr. Gardiner laughed.
"Yes, well Jane is the eldest, Lydia the youngest and in between is Miss Elizabeth, yourself, Miss Mary and Miss Catherine who I believe you call Kitty."
"Very good, Sir," Elizabeth said. "And our ages?"
"You are sixteen, as of today."
"Of course, you know that. We are celebrating my birthday after all."
"And of your sisters I know you best. I assure you; you could ask me your age any other day of the year and I would know it then too."
His response seemed calculated to steal the air from her lungs and unbalance the ground on which she stood. But of course, it was not. He had simply stated facts – fairly unremarkable ones at that. His intentions not withstanding Lizzy was left breathless and unsteady. Heedless of this Darcy went on.
"Miss Bennet is seventeen. Miss Mary fourteen. I believe you will turn fifteen sometime in December."
"That is right," Mary said with a degree of awe in her voice. "I believe our birthdays are close to one another."
Elizabeth did not like the sound of anything of Mary's being close to anything of Darcy's.
"Indeed, yours in the thirteenth and his the thirty-first," she said, hoping she had concealed her impatience.
"Are you seeking bonus points, Miss Elizabeth?" Darcy asked with that infuriatingly adorable quirked brow. "I will leave that determination to the judges and continue with my answers which now become less certain. Miss Catherine is, I believe, thirteen and Lydia eleven."
"Three out of five," Mrs. Gardiner declared. "Kitty is twelve and Lydia ten."
"Well since three-fifths is more than one-half does that mean Master Fitzwilliam is the winner?" Mary asked.
"It is not entirely fair though as I had the chance to get to five where Miss Elizabeth only had two potential answers," Darcy pointed out.
"You two and your fair play," Mr. Darcy huffed. "At this rate we will never get to the prize!"
"We have five Fitzwilliam cousins perhaps if Lizzy can put them in order of Fitzwilliam's preference we can be done with it then," Georgiana said, perhaps as a jest, but Elizabeth did not think before speaking as she knew the answer.
"That is simple enough – Stephen is his favourite, then Rebecca then Anne, then Frederick. The viscount is his least favourite but I think only because he continues to lose to him at both fencing and chess. Two things Master Fitzwilliam generally excels at."
"That is correct, to the last detail," Darcy stuttered.
There was a moment of stunned silence followed by a peel of laughter from everyone, including Darcy.
"I think our Georgiana has been telling tales on you, son."
"No, you mustn't think that, Fitzwilliam. I did not even know you disliked Edward so very much. I do talk about our cousins a great deal, but I do not think . . ."
Georgiana sounded truly distraught, but before Elizabeth could save her with the truth Darcy swept her into his arms. "It is no matter, pet. I do not blame you."
After placing his sister back on her own two feet Darcy fell into step next to Elizabeth as their host called them to adjourn to the parlour where she would be presented with her prize. Darcy offered her his arm, which she took with as much deliberation and grace as her feelings and their present circumstance allowed.
"I did not mean to cause any trouble," Lizzy whispered, then even more hesitantly added, "or betray your confidence."
"Please do not make yourself uneasy," he said, placing a hand over hers where it rested on his arm. This time with the barrier of their gloves Lizzy was able to keep her composure somewhat. Though not completely. "It is not as if you shared what I told you it was more your, very accurate, extrapolation from the times we have discussed my cousins. In truth, I admire your insight."
"Thank you," she said, the smile clear in her voice. "If you are not averse to continuing to share family stories with me I shall continue to be an eager listener and might request your next be the tale of distractions that you and father seem to have experienced together. I imagine it might be interesting."
"Perhaps," he laughed.
Elizabeth was sure that regardless of anything else that might happen that day and for the rest of her life this birthday - where she played games at an indoor picnic, ate chocolate mousse and walked the halls of Pemberley on the arm of her Mr. Darcy having made him laugh - would not be topped if she lived to be a hundred.