Christmas at Pemberley

Part 21

It was already getting dark by the time Daniel bade the Darcy family goodbye and began the short walk home. Mrs Darcy had been only too eager to press him to join them for dinner, and even her husband had seemed quite genuine in his encouragement to Daniel to stay, but he was firm in his refusal. He had not dared to risk a glance at Georgiana to determine where her feelings lay. His own were still new enough to him that he preferred to nurse them in private a while longer.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, he reminded himself as he walked. And I have quite enough to be thinking about in preparing for that! He would have another round of parish visits, followed by Georgiana's concert, the midnight services and then Christmas Day. His smile grew. It was a relief to think of spending the afternoon with the Darcys - and not only for Georgiana's sake. For the first time since he had arrived in Derbyshire, he felt as if he had friends. Indeed, for the first time since he had begun this rocky, reluctant journey into the ministry he felt as if people might, possibly, care to know him for himself. The feeling was refreshing, but he knew it would serve him ill to indulge in it too long. I will only think of it until I get home, he thought. Once he crossed the threshold of his own humble house, he would be swept up in work, and have little time to think of anything else. Until then, though, he allowed his thoughts to dwell a little longer than perhaps they ought on a certain pretty young lady, whose hair shone like spun gold in the pale winter's light, and whose smile he longed to see again, turned towards him in a joke, perhaps, or in response to some story he had shared with her...

He walked in a daze, scarcely aware of where he was going and certainly paying no mind to what lay ahead of him so that he was almost to his door before he noticed the dark shadow of a carriage. He frowned, knowing he himself did not possess one, and yet feeling a strange recognition. His heart thudded heavily in his chest as he stepped across the hearth, sensing as if by magic, the presence of someone he had never thought he would see in that particular place, and certainly not so soon.

"Mother?"

His question carried him into the small room that qualified as a parlour, looking unbearably poor and shabby in comparison to both Pemberley's and the one he knew his mother had left behind her in London. He swallowed his shame, reminding himself that the house was perfectly serviceable for his needs as a bachelor curate and had always suited him quite well until that point.

There was a fire blazing in the hearth and Daniel was surprised to see a slim figure hunched over in front of it.

"Rob?" He flew to his brother's side, welcoming the enthusiastic embrace he always received from this version of his brother, who had lost his reserve and polite indifference along with many other characteristics in his lasting bout with illness.

"Hello, Daniel!" he beamed, toothily at him. "Mama, look, it's Daniel!"

"So it is, dear," Mrs Lambert said, wearily.

Daniel settled his brother back into his chair and turned to greet his mother.

"What are you doing here, Mother?" Daniel asked, whipping his hat off his head and clutching it awkwardly at his waist. He glanced over his shoulder. "Did Father come?"

"Your Father remained at home, Daniel. He was a little unwell and did not care to travel." His mother's smile was pained. She did not elaborate, but Daniel did not need her to. Father would not have tolerated the suggestion of removing from London, at Christmas or at any other time. He needed to be in the centre of the social whirl and being rid of his wife and son would only improve the season's appeal for him.

"Well, I am pleased to see you." Daniel's sentiment was genuine, although his smile did not quite reach his eyes. "I only wish you might have written in advance. I could have prepared something - I might at least have been at home!"

"We wanted to surprise you!" Robert exclaimed, before clamping his hand over his mouth in a pantomime of shock that he had blurted out the very secret he had evidently been under great duress to keep.

"And surprise me you have!" Daniel replied, turning to punch his brother lightly on the arm. Robert laughed and fought back, lacking the co-ordination he had once possessed, but with all the familiar affection of any older brother. Daniel looked at his mother. "Have you eaten? You will want something after travelling so far."

"Thank you. Your housekeeper has been looking after us admirably." She permitted a small smile for the son she had not seen in a long time, but it was bittersweet. The same bittersweet feeling that Daniel felt when he first took up this position. It was a job, and a good one, one he ought to be grateful for, but he could not help but lament that it had not been his, originally. It had not been won by his own talent or skill, nor had it even been the type of job he might have sought had he been afforded the opportunity to choose. This was Robert's job, Robert's house, Robert's life - and Daniel was the one living it. He thought, then, of Georgiana, taunted by the notion that, had Robert made a full recovery, had he never even fallen ill, to begin with, then he would have been the one to make Georgiana's Darcy's acquaintance. He would not have alienated her upon first meeting, either, he thought, ruefully recalling that fateful first time their paths had crossed at the tea room and how Daniel had lost his temper. It was a testament to Georgiana's good nature that she did not hold that outburst against him but had given him the opportunity to start over, and to see what a treasure he might have missed, had he held fast to his own first opinion.

"What is the matter, Daniel?" Mrs Lambert asked, looking at her son with a strange light in her eyes. "You look a little peculiar. I hope you do not object to your brother and I travelling to spend the season with you." Her eyes shone. "It is your first church, after all, and I did so wish to see you succeed, your first Christmas."

Guiltily, Daniel chased his regrets away. He might have lost his own freedom of choice in his career, but Robert had lost more. His parents, too, had laid their own wishes aside to care for the son who, had Providence been kinder, would now be caring for them.

"Nothing is the matter, Mother." Daniel stooped and kissed her faintly on one cheek. "I am merely a little tired. I had a busy day."

"Oh?"

Her unspoken question was enough to press Daniel to elaborate and once he began he found it difficult to stop. He told his family about the choir that Georgiana was putting together and the fact that he was late returning after a visit to Pemberley to call on the rest of the Darcy family.

"Darcy?" Mrs Lambert said, sharply. "Of course, it had not occurred to me that they would be here for Christmas. I recall his mother." Her voice noticeably softened the way it rarely did when discussing social connections formed in London. His mother had clearly been fond of the late Mrs Darcy.

"Well, mother, if you are to be here for Christmas I will be able to introduce you to her son and his new wife." He paused. "And his sister."

If Mrs Lambert noticed the way her son's demeanour changed at the fleeting mention of Georgiana Darcy, she had the grace not to mention it, and the evening progressed far more happily than Daniel might have presumed it could, had he the notion that his mother and brother were to descend in time for Christmas.