Miss Darcy's Companion: A Pride and Prejudice Variation Read Online Free PDF Page B

about her – not diffidence but deep-set reserve, and of all people he should be able to recognise the difference. That, and the extreme caution of one who no longer felt entitled to expect much good of the world.
    A measure of sympathy for Fitzwilliam’s chivalrous instincts came to Darcy – he could detect the same impulses in himself. Perhaps she deserved the chance that others would not vouchsafe her. Perhaps she would be grateful for it, and bestow that gratitude on Georgiana. It was worth a try at least. It would not be an irreversible, binding contract.
    “Miss Bennet,” he decidedly spoke up, “if you are to become Georgiana’s companion, every expectation I have of you narrows down to her being kept comfortable, safe and, above all, happy. She is, you might have noticed, a trusting and shy child who has grown to her fifteen years of age without much youthful company and without a mother’s guidance. No one would expect you to supply the latter. All I ask is that she finds a loyal friend in you. Is this something you would be prepared to undertake?”
    The gentle smile that overspread Miss Bennet’s pretty features made her look positively handsome.
    “Gladly, Mr Darcy. It would be an honour and a pleasure.”
    He smiled back.
    “Very well. My sister is generally at home on Sundays, and today is no exception. If you have no pressing engagements, would you like to spend some time with her?”
    “I thank you. I would like that very much.”
    They walked to the music room together and, as soon as she saw them enter, Georgiana stopped discordantly in the middle of her difficult sonata and verily leaped from her seat.
    “Elizabeth!”
    Elizabeth, was it? It was surprising and very reassuring to discover they had acquired such an easy intimacy in the month they had spent together in Lady Malvern’s house despite, or perhaps because of, Lady Stretton’s strictures. Before he could open his lips, Georgiana turned to him in cheerful expectation.
    “Does this mean you have decided, Brother?”
    His first natural instinct was to cautiously delay committing himself with a definite answer. He ignored it.
    “Let us say we have agreed to try, sweetling. And, Miss Bennet, should we all decide after a while that the arrangement does not suit us, fear not, barring the unlikely circumstance of gross misconduct, you will get a better character from this house than from Lady Stretton. This is to reassure you in case you have any qualms about giving notice.”
    “I have none, Sir,” she replied with the briefest twitch of her lips, and Georgiana clasped her hands together.
    “Oh, Brother, can she not remain with us as of today? Must we send her back to that–… to Lady Stretton?”
    “You are still with Mrs Rossiter for now,” Darcy reminded her. “But if you are in such a haste to leave her, Miss Bennet could always share her unvarnished thoughts on Hartfield’s conduct with her ladyship and she would be free to join us by dinnertime,” he observed with mock solemnity and at that Miss Bennet’s reserved manner dissolved into a genuine and quite delightful laugh.
    “I would not go that far, Mr Darcy. But I am quite certain that my days in Lady Stretton’s nursery are numbered.”
    “I am pleased to hear it. Well, young ladies, if you would excuse me, I will leave you now,” he said airily and was gone.
    The beginnings of quiet chatter reached him before he had closed the door and Darcy walked back towards his study with a good feeling about the upcoming addition to their household.
     
    * * * *
     
    Thankfully for all concerned, two months later Miss Harding was fully recovered and ready to resume her duties. Slyly perhaps, Lady Stretton was kept uninformed of the position Miss Bennet had been offered and gladly accepted. Thus, the lady was deprived of the satisfaction of demanding that Miss Bennet remain in her employ till Michaelmas, just to be awkward.
    By early August Miss Bennet was already a part of the