Christmas at Pemberley

Part 15

The next morning, Georgiana woke early. Pemberley was silent and still shrouded in darkness and she could not even hear the excitable sounds of the Gardiner children as she dressed and went downstairs.

She had been enjoying her solitary breakfast, grateful for the opportunity to reflect on the previous evening in silence until the door flew open and a weary-looking Mrs Gardiner escorted her children into the room.

"You do not mind us taking breakfast with you I hope, Georgiana? I could not persuade my little hellions to remain in their room a moment longer!"

"Not at all!" Georgiana laughed, helping Mary Gardiner to clamber onto the chair nearest to her and smiling across the table at the little girl's older brother who, at the rather advanced age of six, was quite capable of seating himself without any assistance. "I hope you are all hungry!"

"George is always hungry!" Mary announced, as she reached for a piece of bread and shoved it into her mouth without buttering it.

"Well, you shall need a good breakfast this morning, all of you." Georgiana poured a cup of tea and passed it to Mrs Gardiner who sagged, exhausted, into her own chair and gratefully took the cup and saucer from Georgiana's outstretched hand. "I have a project I am hopeful that you will be able to help me with." Her voice was laden with mystery and true to her hopes, succeeded in capturing the attention of the young Gardiners, who all leaned forward to listen. "I want to put on a little concert for Christmas for the people who live in town and I am hoping that you will sing for us."

"In a choir?" George asked, doubtfully.

"Yes, in a choir," his mother answered. "I think it is a very good idea and will certainly keep you from getting in too much trouble while you are here."

"Will there be other children as well?" Mary asked, chewing and swallowing before reaching for another slice of bread. "I don't think it will be a very good choir if there are only us three in it."

The baby, who was being bounced agreeably on her Mama's lap, giggled with delight and Georgiana tried not to laugh at the notion of a choir consisting of a bickering brother and sister and a baby.

"I hope so!" she confided to Mary. "I'm hoping that all of the children in the village will want to join, once they see how much fun we shall have. But I might need you to help me persuade them. I thought after breakfast we could take a walk and call on some of the parents and see who feels like singing some Christmas carols."

"At the church?" George piped up. "I think concerts ought to take place in elegant buildings and there are no elegant buildings around here that aren't houses." He sighed, looking for a moment like a miniature version of his Papa, upon whom he clearly modelled his sense of world-weariness and from whom he had learnt such aphorisms as concerts ought to take place in elegant buildings. Georgiana swallowed a laugh, but it was Mrs Gardiner who answered her son first.

"Mr Lambert has already agreed to let us use the church, hasn't he Georgiana? In fact, he was very eager to help with the concert preparation. I am sure you will see him today and inveigle him into joining you."

Georgiana looked at her friend, certain she would see amusement in the older lady's features, but Mrs Gardiner kept her face studiously blank, whilst she juggled her youngest child and her breakfast.

"Oh." George looked a little disheartened at this news and turned beseechingly to Georgiana. "Is he old? Our minister at home is old. He doesn't much like children, in concerts, at Christmas, or any other time." He harrumphed, again looking like a miniature Mr Gardiner, and sank his weary head into his pudgy little hands.

"Mr Lambert is not like Reverend Baker," Mrs Gardiner reassured her son. "I met him myself last evening and he was far more cheerful and friendly than that. You needn't worry George. Here, Georgiana spent a great deal of time with him last night. I am sure she will be only too happy to reassure you of the curate's good character."

Now Georgiana was certain her friend was teasing her, for it was just the type of sentence that would ordinarily spring form Elizabeth's lips, accompanied by dancing eyes and a merry laugh. Mrs Gardiner merely examined her plate with care and Georgiana was left to frown and wonder if, perhaps, her friend meant nothing at all by her words and it was Georgiana who read more into them than was there.

Nothing Mrs Gardiner had said was untrue, after all. Mr Lambert was young, younger than Georgiana's own brother, she wagered, and he was certainly cheerful in his way. She bit her lip, recalling he vivid description he had offered to Georgiana of his life at school training for the curacy and how he had confided, during their dance, that he was still quite unsure of what he was doing and whether he should succeed or fail would doubtless be decided by his performance in the Christmas services. Such openness and honesty, accompanied with the self-deprecating smile she had never quite noticed on Mr Lambert's face before that moment, nor how handsome it rendered him, had gone a long way to raising him in Georgiana's estimations and she was forced to acknowledge, at least in the privacy of her own mind, that she had been mistaken in her first assessment of the new curate. He was not always bad-tempered, nor did he judge her quite as harshly as she had believed him to. A strange excitement took hold of her, then, as she reflected on the fact that she would see Mr Lambert in just a short while. How peculiar, that the man she once vowed never to see again had become the high point of her day!