Excerpt
From a visit to Ramsgate to
meet Georgiana Darcy:
“Fascinating!” Elizabeth eyed the contraptions
with a touch of envy.
“I have sea-bathed every week since I arrived,”
Miss Darcy said. “My doctor thought it would help improve my health. The water
is very cold, even on a day like this.”
“I would not like it.” Miss Bingley gave a
fastidious shudder.
“I wish we had time to try it.” And Elizabeth
sighed for a lost opportunity.
“I have arranged for a sailing trip around the
bay for later today, which may mitigate your disappointment.” Mr Darcy pulled
his watch from his pocket. “I agreed to meet the boat’s owner at two, leaving
us time for a walk here and a light nuncheon at the cottage first.”
“Then do let us walk! I do not wish to miss
anything this day.” Elizabeth, hoping Jane would forgive her, singled out their
cousin Galahad and tugged him along the shoreline.
The tide was still out, and they walked along the
firm, still-damp sands that, in an hour or two, would be underwater again.
Elizabeth searched for bounty in the seaweed strewn along the line marking the
closest the sea would come to the lands. She enlisted her cousin’s aid, making use of the more capacious pockets
with which a gentleman’s clothing was equipped, and filling his with shells and
smooth, frosted pebbles of white or green or amber. Glass, perhaps?
“Yes. Fragments of glass worn to smoothness by
the sea,” Cousin Galahad said, when she asked. “Perhaps from a shipwreck, or
from some drunken sailor casting his rum bottle overboard.”
Elizabeth laughed. “Well, they are pretty, however they fell into
the waves.” She glanced around. They were a little distant from the others, who
were engaged in trying to make out which hedge visible on the cliffs above
belonged to the house inhabited by Miss Darcy, an enterprise involving much
pointing and walking backwards to peer upwards while shading their eyes with
their hands. She determined to speak while she had the chance. “I told Miss
Darcy that my sisters and I have always wished for a brother. Allowing the use
of his pockets would not be the least of his charms.”
He gave her a searching look, studying her eyes
and face. No fool he. But then she had never thought him one.
She smiled. “I hope you do not object to me thinking of you
as I would my brother if I had one?”
He huffed out a laugh that started in something
very like chagrin but ended in genuine amusement. “No, I do not object.” He took her hand and
raised it to his lips. “I will gladly carry your shells and glass, cousin, and
be a useful brother.”
They had reached an understanding without having
to say more. She smiled again. “Thank you! I
will try not to exceed the limits of your patience.” She glanced towards the
others, who had turned back and were making their way towards the path to the
harbour and from there, she assumed, intending to return to the cottage for the
promised noon repast. Both Jane and Mr Darcy were looking towards them, and she
raised a hand, to reassure them their intentions were understood. “We had
better catch up the others before they wonder what we are about.”
She put her hand on the arm he offered, and they
walked briskly across the sands in the wake of the rest of their party.
Cousin Galahad laughed again. “I suspect that when you marry, Lizzy, you will
do more than fill your husband’s pockets with shells. You will lead the poor
man the merriest of dances!”
“But that is what marriage should be, do you not
think? A dance, where both know the steps, love the tune, and can sing it in
harmony.” Elizabeth laughed up at him as they toiled up the rough stone stair
to the top of the harbour’s east wall at the point it met the cliffs. The road
to the cottage was to their right, their companions walking up its slope. Her
eye caught by a movement to their left, and she half turned towards the harbour
itself, which was fronted by shops and small houses.
Miss Darcy’s companion, Mrs Younge, stepped onto the road
from a shop. Behind her, a shadow moved. Stopped. Retreated. The shopkeeper, no
doubt, seeing her from his premises.
Mrs Younge, without a glance behind her, dropped
a curtsey. “Mr Palmer. Miss
Elizabeth. I hope you are enjoying your visit? Ah, I see the rest of Mr Darcy’s
party are ahead of us. May I join you, if you are returning to the cottage?”
“We would be delighted.” Cousin Galahad offered
his free arm with a flourish. “How are you finding Ramsgate and the cottage,
Mrs Younge? Miss Darcy's health appears improved.”
“Oh, she is. I am very pleased by the
changes in her.” Mrs Younge’s smile was demure and restrained, as became a
young lady’s companion. “I impute it all to Ramsgate, the sea air and regular
sea bathing. Our stay here has been to everyone’s great advantage. The
companion’s smile broadened. “Miss Darcy will have no cause to repine. I will
make certain of it.”
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