A Continued Affection

Part 11

Standing to attention, ready to receive his guests, Darcy could not help but watch Georgiana, who flitted first one way and then another, moving furniture an inch here and there, seemingly incapable of being still for a moment.

"Georgiana!" he called, gently, when he had silently observed her for a few moments. "Anyone would think you were nervous!"

"Of course I am nervous!" she hissed, pausing at the window to peer out into the gardens before turning to smile at him. "Oughtn't I to be nervous, meeting your friends for the first time?"

"It is hardly the first time," Darcy protested. "You have known Bingley and his sister for years, and you met the Egertons only a few days ago. And as for the Bennets..." He paused, then, unsure how to follow his words. He might say, they are hardly my friends, but that would be a lie, wouldn't it?

"Yes?" Georgiana's gaze was fixed on him in breathless anticipation and Darcy shifted his weight uncomfortably from one foot to another, fearing something in his expression betrayed his opinion of the Bennets such that it would confess the truth. He said nothing, merely smiled in a manner he hoped was reassuring and reached a hand out to his sister, who obediently came to his side.

"You are worrying unnecessarily," he told her, his expression softening when he saw just how genuine her concern was. "It is not as if we have never held a dinner before!"

"No," Georgiana acknowledged. "But this is the first time since..."

She did not need to say any more. At once, Darcy saw her insecurity for what it was. This was the first time they had hosted friends since that fateful trip she had made to Ramsgate. She was not so much nervous about meeting his friends, but of disappointing him. Her looks betrayed as much, as she failed to meet his gaze but looked continually past him, pale and anxious.

"I admit it is not my choice of an evening, either."

His confession, or perhaps the wry, self-deprecating tone he deployed, made her look at him and he smiled. "I should much prefer we dine alone, you and I. But that is because I am old and curmudgeonly, and count very few people amongst my friends." He sighed. "Fortunately, they are mostly those who are attending this evening. Now, if only we might have persuaded Colonel Fitzwilliam to come..."

"He is in Kent," Georgiana answered, automatically, with an equally sly smile at her brother. "But he is due to reach London within the week, according to Anne. Perhaps we shall invite him to dine then, if tonight is a success?"

Darcy rolled his eyes, uncertain quite how Georgiana had succeeded to move from anxiety about a single evening to already planning its successor.

The door to the parlour opened, then, admitting the first of their guests to arrive, and to Darcy's everlasting relief he welcomed Charles and Caroline Bingley into the elegant, if austere, parlour. He glanced around the room, surprised that it was not quite as austere as he recalled. Perhaps all of Georgiana's fussing had been worth it. Here, he saw a vase of freshly cut greenery, and there, a needlepoint pillow he thought ordinarily lived in one of the unused guest rooms but had been promoted to a position of prominence on a chair by the hearth.

"You look a little bemused, Darcy," Charles remarked, taking the glass he was offered and nursing it with amusement. "Had you forgotten your invitation?"

"How could I?" Darcy replied, through gritted teeth. "It is all I have been able to think about."

"I'm sure!" Charles laughed. "Well, we are certainly pleased to see you again, aren't we, Caro?"

He glanced towards the door, which remained closed, and Darcy was left to wonder if he was not more pleased to anticipate seeing certain of Darcy's guests than Darcy himself. In any other person, he would find such transparent distraction an irritation, but in Charles Bingley, it served merely to remind Darcy that his friend's affections for Miss Jane Bennet were deep, as well as genuine. It cheered him to think that, in Bingley's case if not his own, the affection might be returned.

"Oh, indeed! We have spoken of nothing else." Caroline Bingley took a step away from Georgiana, moving closer to Darcy in a manner that was surely not accidental. "It is so pleasant to be all together again, and with Georgiana here too!" She beamed.

"I am surprised I was so missed," Georgiana confessed, with a sly glance towards her brother. "I might have insisted upon your sending for me weeks ago, had I known!"

A merry gale of laughter bounced across the friends, ceasing only when Mr Egerton and his two sisters arrived. Sally bounced over to join Georgiana and soon the pair were deep in a discussion of music, leaving Caroline very much on the edge, although, Darcy saw, she did not seem unduly upset by this and used the opportunity to move a little closer to him, cornering him entirely as Bingley was introduced by Mr Egerton to his elder sister.

"I hear you could not escape inviting the Bennets this evening." Her smile was fixed, her voice icy, and Darcy imagined many young men might be cowed by such a question. He was not often intimidated by young women who sought to manipulate or control situations by malice, though, and rebuffed her words with a grim smile.

"We are all friends, Miss Bingley. I could hardly exclude them."

Caroline sniffed, as if she thought exclusion the very least he might do to the family she had brought her brother to London to avoid.

"Well, at least we may -"

"Miss Bennet!"

Before Caroline could say another word, the last of Darcy's guests arrived, a loud, merry bunch, all smiling and laughing and talking at once. They were nine in all and their arrival more than doubled the number of guests in the parlour and made it busy, crowded and full of conversation. Ordinarily, Darcy might find such a sudden change unnerving, but that evening he could only remark on how enjoyable it was to be in the very midst of such unfettered happiness. His gaze swept over his guests, seeing the way Jane Bennet lit up at Charles Bingley's unselfconscious greeting, and the way she slid neatly to his side, as if she had always been there. If he had had the same doubts as Caroline about the veracity of Miss Bennet's affection for Charles Bingley they were all put to rest in that one movement. Mary, too, seemed to blossom as she was tugged into a friendly group with Georgiana and Sally Edgerton. This pleased him more than he expected, for Georgiana and Mary had yet to meet, but outgoing Sally soon facilitated a friendship he felt a strange knowledge would be a fine one.

This surprised him perhaps more than the way his eyes roamed the room to locate Elizabeth, who was standing in a small circle with her aunt and uncle, who had changed little in the past four years. Darcy was moving almost before he was aware of it, his hand outstretched in greeting.

"Mr Gardiner, Mrs Gardiner. How pleasant it is to see you." He did not say again and hoped that the pointed omission had not gone without notice. Mr Gardiner nodded vaguely, as if he thought it likely they had met before, but he was not to be the first to say as much. Mrs Gardiner, far cleverer than her husband and more perceptive than Darcy had given her credit for when first they met, looked at him with a broad smile.

"Mr Darcy, we appreciate your invitation. You must allow me to speak to you about Pemberley at some point this evening. I am not sure you are aware that I spent my childhood in nearby Lambton..."

Darcy nodded, pleased to lose himself for a moment in conversation before he risked another glance at Elizabeth, whose expression was unreadable, but not unwelcoming.

"And Miss Elizabeth," he said, turning to greet her with a smile he hoped conveyed his genuine pleasure at seeing her again, no matter how routinely he attempted to deny himself. "Good evening."