Family (a Pride and Prejudice fanfiction)

Wishes and Promises

"Must you leave for London so soon? I had hoped you would stay longer than a week." Georgiana reached for her brother's hand. "Fitzwilliam, don't go so soon."

"I must. Charles—Mr. Bingley—is restless here, and I want to take him to town to give him some employment." Unspoken was their mutual agreement that Miss Caroline Bingley couldn't possibly leave Pemberley soon enough, and she wouldn't go without her brother.

Georgiana knew better than to ask if she might accompany them. Before the disastrous affair with Mr. Wickham the previous summer, she had been supposed to make her debut this year. But she had lost her taste for it, and Fitzwilliam would not hear of it now. Perhaps next year they would both be ready. And she did love to be home, here in the big spacious light-filled rooms and the fields to ramble in and the peaceful quiet. If only he would stay, too, she could be perfectly happy.

Something had changed in her brother. Always reserved in company, he was usually his lightest and most at ease in her presence. Now he gazed off into the empty air, his face pensive and worried, and had difficulty holding onto the thread of a conversation. He had not forgotten Miss Elizabeth Bennet, that much was plain to Georgiana.

She left him to his accounts; he had a stack of bills and papers on the desk in front of him to deal with before he could leave for London. Georgiana wished it was twice as high. Walking out onto the broad terrace, she looked across the fields and sighed. Oh, if she were only a man. If she were a man, she could saddle a horse and ride away—to London with Fitzwilliam, perhaps, or, better, to Hertfordshire, to the home of the Bennets. She would ride into the courtyard and swing down from the horse and demand to see this woman who had altered her beloved brother so.

Or perhaps, if she were older and out in society, she could take a carriage and drive across the country and take tea with Miss Elizabeth. They would talk, and Miss Elizabeth would avow her own love for Fitzwilliam and Georgiana could smooth away the obstacles that were causing Fitzwilliam such distress. Then she and Miss Elizabeth could be friends and call each other by nicknames. She would refer to Miss Elizabeth as Beth. Or Betsy. No, definitely Lizzie. And Miss Elizabeth would call her Georgy. No one ever had before, and Georgiana thought it would be lovely to have a friend who did.

What would Lizzie have to say that could convince Fitzwilliam how wrong he was? Because surely Lizzie loved him; who wouldn't? Georgiana thought if she could only decide how Miss Elizabeth Bennet would convince him, then she could use the same tactics. She hated to see him so unlike himself, so severe and unsmiling, her beloved brother whose smile lit his face just as the stars lit the night sky.

Thinking hard, she paid too little attention to where she was going and ran into Charles Bingley as he was coming out of the house, her nose smashing against one of his buttons.

"Oh, Miss Darcy, I am sorry," he said, horror-stricken, as she stepped back, rubbing her nose.

"My fault entirely, Mr. Bingley. I should have been watching where I was going."

"As should I, it seems."

"What is it that has you too lost in thought to see someone in front of you?" she asked, looking up at his guileless countenance. Maybe he would tell her what Fitzwilliam would not.

Mr. Bingley's smile faded. "Nothing of consequence, I'm afraid."

Tucking her arm into the crook of his elbow, she walked with him. "I am sorry you are all going to be leaving so soon. We have barely had a chance to catch up." His sister's constant match-making attempts aside, she quite liked this big friendly open-hearted man; her regret at his hasty departure was genuine. And knowing that his affections were turned elsewhere, she need not worry about giving the wrong impression.