For the Love of a Bennet Chapter 2

A small family of two bachelors, a young lady, and her companion reunited at the Darcy townhouse in Grosvenor Square, London. The tall, Ionic doorcase at No. 45 boasted the genius of architect Samuel Wyatt behind its opening. But very few had seen the inside of the home in over a decade.

The new master of the house, Fitzwilliam Darcy, refused to entertain as his parents had delighted all of high society. Instead, one of the richest men in England chose to keep a quiet life of raising his young sister with the aid of his cousin, Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam. The two men finished their obligatory visit to Kent for Easter at their aunt’s estate, Rosings, and returned to town to see that their charge, Georgiana Darcy, focused on her lessons. 

The previous summer they had allowed Georgiana to visit Ramsgate alone, with only a companion. The first test of her own household proved to be a near disaster as she narrowly escaped the charms of an old friend of the family: Mr. George Wickham. Destitute and penniless, the man preyed upon the young girl’s loneliness, convincing her to elope with him. When Darcy arrived a day early and she confessed the entire plan to him, both he and Richard decided it would be some time before they allowed her to live alone, again. They also resolved to lavish her with more affection and attention, at the advice of her new companion, Mrs. Annesley, so a repeat of the seduction could not occur. As both men preferred to show their affection to the young lady of the house through gifts, neither returned to London empty-handed.

Richard bestowed Georgiana with new sheet music from a composer she had never heard before, Maria Frances Parke. Astonished that a woman had her compositions published, Georgiana was assured that if she continued her practice and made her own compositions, they also could be published, under a false name. Her brother, Fitzwilliam, commissioned a new charm for her bracelet that was a custom of the D’Arcy family from as far back as anyone could remember. Once she married, her bracelet would be put away for her daughters. While she remained a maiden, Georgiana loved collecting the small trinkets that jingled when she shook her wrist. The newest addition was of a tiny bird in a gilded cage.

Grateful for her gifts, three weeks after the men she loved best returned to her, she performed the Parke piece for them before dinner. Not wishing to upset his youngest cousin, Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam waited until after the small concert to relay his newest orders.

“Beautiful! I wondered how the piece would sound,” Richard said, complimenting his young cousin’s playing. After both men ceased their applause, Richard cleared his throat to garner their attention. He offered Georgiana his arm to lead her into the dining room, with Darcy close behind.

“I am not long for London, I’m afraid” he said, in a regretful tone. He pulled out Georgiana’s chair, and kissed the top of her head as he had since she was first eating with them as an adult. 

“You cannot continue to do that. It’s unseemly,” she said, with a laugh.

“Still,tonight’s dinner will be one of my last,” he said, after taking his seat on the other side of the table. He made a great show of pulling his serviette in an exaggerated, swift motion, and laid it across his lap. “I’ve been assigned to a new post.”

“Must you go? You and Brother just arrived!” Georgiana Darcy reacted poorly to the news of her cousin, and guardian, Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam accepting a temporary duty assignment to Brighton. She had hoped they would all remain together until they left for Pemberley with the Bingleys in late summer. 

“You would not miss me so much if you had come with us to Rosings,” Richard pointed out, before lifting his small wine glass and draining the red contents in a single swallow. A footman stepped forward to refill the delicate stemware in a silent choreography of service as Richard trimmed off a dark bit of crust on his slice of pheasant pie. He looked over at Mr. Darcy, the owner of the town home he preferred over his parents’ when he stayed in London, but Fitzwilliam Darcy ignored the conversation around him. His melancholy since Rosings had yet to lift, and only Richard was privy to the full details of his cousin’s rejection by Miss Elizabeth Bennet in the garden paths of Rosings.

Conspiratorially, he caught Georgiana’s eye as she, too, looked at her brother for support of her position, only to also be ignored. She sighed and Richard winked. Then Georgiana brightened and sat up in her chair.

“I was remiss in rejecting the invitation to Rosings, but is there an invitation to come to Brighton?” she asked innocently and tried her best to keep her hope in check. She knew it was too soon to ask for permission once more to visit a seaside town on her own. But surely with both of her guardians in residence, such an endeavor could hardly be more dangerous than a summer in the crowded streets of London.

Richard mulled his charge’s request as he tried a forkful of pie. To his dismay, the filling inside was quite dry, matching the overcooked pastry shell. To avoid coughing, he again reached for his red wine, as he did not care for white, and downed the contents. With food this poor, a condition his cousin Mr. Darcy would never have abided before, he would find himself in his cups far earlier than planned. Richard put his fork down and prayed the next course held not the issues plaguing the first.

“A family excursion, on the back of my orders?” He explored her aims and she nodded enthusiastically.

“We might see the King! Pardon me, the Prince Regent!” she continued, and Richard nodded slowly. 

Brighton was a playground for the dandiest of dandies of London, a side-effect of the Prince Regent and his many mistresses, making the seaside town their home away from court. Richard waited for Darcy to chime in at some point and put his sister off, but he received no such aid. Georgiana pounced on his weaker position. 

“Brother, wouldn’t you love such a trip?” she asked, slyly, looking directly at her elder brother. 

Fitzwilliam Darcy was too embarrassed to confess he had not been attending to the conversation.

“A trip? Yes, you know how I hate London,” Mr. Darcy added, vaguely pushing his meat pie around on his plate.

Richard frowned, then remembered his wine. “You wish to go to the seaside, eh there, Darcy?” Richard watched as Georgiana held her breath.

“The shore? Heavens no, full of smugglers, vagrants, and the unprincipled.”

“But you just said yes!” Georgiana pouted. “Richard must go to Brighton, and I so dearly wish for us to go with him!”

Fitzwilliam Darcy blinked a few times as he took in his suddenly demanding sister. She had always been so pliable, reasonable, even. He would have to speak to Mrs. Annesley about Georgiana’s conversation skills when he next took an interview with her companion. Unfortunately, Mrs. Annesley’s sister had fallen unwell, and so Georgiana’s care was left to her brother and cousin, though to Mr. Darcy’s perspective, Richard was running off for army diversions, and leaving him with a sixteen-year-old woman who knew too much of her own mind. Thankfully, the woman would return to her duty the following week.

“Perhaps a compromise can be struck. Hmm?” Richard tested as neither man ever denied Georgiana a desire they could deliver. Both pitied the young woman as the lamentable orphan she was at eleven. 

Georgiana stuck out her lower lip just enough to appear sympathetic as she waited for her cousin’s proposal.

“Why don’t I leave first and make arrangements for the two of you? Should take no more than a fortnight and then you can join me?” Richard offered, enjoying Darcy’s scowl. At first, he had not been keen on the idea of his cousins tagging along, but on second thought, their company would spare him some of the most boring social events such a large camp of officers attracted. He was going to relieve a disgraced Colonel who had lined his own pockets with monies for the cavalry units in Brighton. While Richard was never one to turn up his nose at many of the benefits of being such a senior officer in His Majesty’s Finest, he abhorred outright theft. He detested even more that punishment for such irregular books was a reassignment for the guilty, and extra work for the innocent to bring the battalion back in line on an economy of resources. 

“But why can’t we just all go together? Surely it cannot be too difficult to make travel arrangements for a seaside town?” Georgiana asked, impertinently.

Darcy coughed and Richard squirmed uncomfortably in his seat.

“Georgie, your cousin is not taking a holiday, he is going for the needs and necessity of the army.”

“Quite right.”

“And for us to tag along with him as he arrives for duty is unseemly,” Mr. Darcy finished.

Georgiana furrowed her brow in thought. “But if we arrive later, then it is just one big happy coincidence that our family chose to holiday in the same location our cousin was stationed.” She placed her pointer finger to her lips as though the plans were a grand secret and the two men laughed at her childish antics. Feeling bold, Georgiana pushed a point about her brother.

“And you will finally stop being so sad all the time!” she said, directing her words towards her brother.