A Continued Affection

Part 19

It was a particularly sunny afternoon when, a day or two after their dinner, Georgiana set out to call on Mr Egerton and his sisters. She had hoped to persuade her brother to come with her, but a knock at the door of Darcy's study had revealed him to be busily at work and not eager to be disturbed. She had reluctantly decided to call alone, although as she drew closer to the house she began to regret the notion.

I was invited, she reminded herself. Sally invited me. This was a heartening thought, and she rapped smartly at the door before any more doubts could assail her.

"Georgiana! Oh, I thought you never would come!" Sally declared, bounding out of her seat and wrapping her arms around Georgiana, as she was shown across the threshold of the sunny parlour. "Come and sit down, and Joanna will rout out Sidney. He is outside, I believe, pacing a trench in the garden."

Georgiana frowned at this, and Joanna laughed, her eyes dancing with merriment and mystery as she explained.

"He is puzzling over something, and he thinks best out of doors - now, as he did before. Of course, now he must think out of doors on his own two feet and contained to places he knows well. Here, he has a wall he may trail with his hands as he walks and he has made such a habit of it that I declare he has worn a path in the dirt." She shook her head. "Better he does it out of doors than in here, I suppose. I do not wish for our poor carpets to be worn away by his pacing."

"He is not troubled, I hope," Georgiana asked, thinking of the concerned scowl she had so often seen on her brother's face over the years, and wondering if Sidney Egerton was likewise plagued by the wrongdoings of others. It would be typical, she thought, with an annoyed sigh. George Wickham has already caused so much trouble for his family and ours. Is he continuing to disquiet Mr Egerton in his absence?

"Troubled? Oh, I dare say he is!" Sally giggled, her eyes drifting to the door and poised to swallow her words the instant it opened. "He is in love!"

Georgiana's eyebrows lifted.

"Do not tell me you could not see it?" Sally leaned forward with a significant smile. "He has quite lost his heart to Mary Bennet, and Joanna and I are just wild for him to propose and settle matters between them." She groaned, theatrically. "I am mere days away from seizing the moment and doing it myself, for he seems intent on procrastinating his happiness away." Something that might have been determination flashed in her eyes and she sat a little straighter. "I shall not allow him to. He deserves to be happy." She tossed her head, descending into mischief once more. "And, in any case, I have decided I shall quite like to have Mary Bennet as my sister."

"I wish them every happiness," Georgiana murmured, feeling a strange thud in her chest. She did wish them happiness, of course she did. Why, then, did she feel a flare of something that might have been...envy?

"I suppose that is why she has been so eager to befriend you," she continued, voicing her thoughts aloud almost before she was aware of it. "To have an ally in her quest for your brother's heart." Her expression remained serene, but inwardly she smarted, recalling more than one young lady who had likewise manipulated Georgiana into a friendship with ulterior motives. She was not sure she had ever had a friend that was hers alone, save for Wickham, and that had been disaster upon disaster. Her thoughts must have shown some in her features, for Sally's smile had melted and she was looking at Georgiana rather strangely.

"I do not think that is the case," she said, blinking rapidly as if trying to understand the concept Georgiana had placed before her. "If anything, it is I that pursued a friendship with Mary, and surely you do not think her capable of such cruel manipulation."

Georgiana paused for a moment, chastened to hear her unchristian opinion thus relayed back to her. It did seem uncharitable, now, and wholly inapplicable to Mary Bennet. She was no Caroline Bingley, after all. Surely it would be a blessing to all if she engaged well with the Egerton sisters she would one day be related to.