P&P Prelude to Pemberley: Georgiana Darcy has a request

Welcome to the first scene in our Pride & Prejudice prequel! P&P: Prelude to Pemberley tells the story of the time leading up to the events of Pride & Prejudice, including what Darcy and Elizabeth were doing and thinking, Georgiana Darcy’s story, the events of Ramsgate, how Mr. Bingley came to lease Netherfield, and much more! Join us on our journey as the Austen Variations authors post the events of 1811 in real time on the date they happened – 214 years in the future.

Georgiana Darcy Makes a Request

January 8, 1811

“I imagine your cousin brought you down with him chiefly for the sake of having somebody at his disposal. I wonder he does not marry, to secure a lasting convenience of that kind. But, perhaps his sister does as well for the present, and, as she is under his sole care, he may do what he likes with her.”

“No,” said Colonel Fitzwilliam, “that is an advantage which he must divide with me. I am joined with him in the guardianship of Miss Darcy.”

“Are you, indeed? And pray what sort of guardians do you make? Does your charge give you much trouble? Young ladies of her age are sometimes a little difficult to manage, and if she has the true Darcy spirit, she may like to have her own way.”

As she spoke, she observed him looking at her earnestly, and the manner in which he immediately asked her why she supposed Miss Darcy likely to give them any uneasiness, convinced her that she had somehow or other got pretty near the truth.

                               – Pride & Prejudice, Chapter 33

“Going already?” Colonel Fitzwilliam asked Darcy. “I had hoped you might stay a few more days. It was good having you at Matlock for Christmas.”

Darcy rubbed his forehead. “That was my original plan, but I think it is best to get Georgiana back to Pemberley before she offends all of her cousins.”

“Oh, they are always squabbling over something, swearing to be lifelong friends one day and then eternal enmity the next,” Richard said easily. “My sister was unbearable at that age. Not that the rest of us were better, but I remember going out to the stable to hide from her when she was in one of her moods. Georgiana is an angel in comparison, though I will admit that I was not proud of her the other night.”

“Nor I, which is why we are leaving. I do not know what is wrong with her. She never used to be like this.” When she had arrived home from school in December, she had seemed in good spirits and excited to be back at Pemberley. And at some moments, when the music from her pianoforte had drifted past his study as he worked, it was a pleasure to have her there. But then her mood had plummeted, for no apparent reason. How could one young girl’s ill humor blanket an entire manor house? It seemed impossible.

He had hoped going to Matlock and having companionship her own age would help, but her behavior there had been erratic, sometimes shy and withdrawn, and the next day irritable and demanding. At dinner on Twelfth Night, she had been loudly rude to her young cousin, who had burst into tears and run from the table. What had happened to the sweet, well-behaved girl she used to be?

When he had made his heartfelt apologies to Lady Matlock afterwards, she had laughed and tapped his arm with her fan. “It is nothing. She is at the difficult age, no different from any other girl of fifteen. She is starting to think for herself and to realize that we adults do not in fact know everything. Be patient, and she will grow out of it.”

If that was true, he thanked God that she would be off at school for most of that time!

He clapped Richard’s arm. “Wish me luck for the journey. I will be trapped in a carriage with her all the way back to Pemberley.”

His cousin laughed. “Send word if you need rescuing. I will come and be just as baffled as you are. Girls that age are a complete mystery to me. Give me a regiment of raw recruits any day!”

***

Darcy’s fears seemed to come to naught, though. Georgiana was on her very best behavior as they set off in the carriage, making polite conversation about the Christmas gaieties at Matlock and asking him about how he had enjoyed it. Not a word that would be out of place in a London drawing room.

Perhaps he had been making too much of a few bad moments.

She told him about how much her Fitzwilliam cousins were learning from the governesses, the details of geography and botany they were studying. Odd; he had not realized she cared particularly about those subjects. Perhaps he should try sharing some of his own books with her.

Then she sighed. “None of my cousins go to school. Only me. Why can I not have a governess instead, like they do?”

Darcy examined her question as if it were a trap, as it quite possibly was. She knew the answer already; he had explained it long ago. “It is a question of propriety. A girl cannot live in the household of a young bachelor without damaging her reputation. That is why our father decreed on his deathbed that you must go to school.”

She turned to look out the window. “And you do not want me with you.”

“That is not true,” he said reflexively, even though there was a hair of truth in it, especially with her current attitude.

“You could marry, and then I could live with you.” She turned back towards him, her gaze steady.

Good Lord, how was he to explain this? “Marriage is not to be entered into lightly, and I have not yet found a woman I wish to wed.”

“But I do not want to go back to that school!” she wailed, tears filling her eyes. “I hate it there! It is horrible!”

Given how much he had despised Eton, he had no doubt it was true. But when he had begged not to go back, his father had explained to him the importance of doing his duty. There was no better example to follow than his father’s. Still, he could not see that argument going anywhere with Georgiana right now. Instead he asked, “What is it you do not like?”

She pouted. “The girls are cruel. And the teachers are unkind.”

Somehow he doubted that, given that Miss Dalrymple’s Seminary was a highly reputable school. “What is horrible about them?”

“You do not believe me! I hate them. They are so strict, and I just cannot do anything to please them.” She buried her face in her hands. “I will die if I have to go back there.”

“I do not understand. I have been given to understand that your teachers are pleased with your diligence.”

She sniffed. “My diligence, yes, but not my performance. Miss Dalrymple only praises me to you because she does not wish to lose my fees.”

If he argued the point with her, she would become even more distraught, and the remainder of the trip to Pemberley would be a nightmare. Perhaps he should apply a tactic of his own, one that might make her school look a bit better. “I could ask our aunt, Lady Catherine, whether she would be willing to have you live with her until you are ready for your Season. Then you could have a governess.” An offer he knew Georgiana would refuse.

All the color drained from her face. “Not Lady Catherine! Anything would be better than having to tolerate that old harridan!”

As he had expected – and it meant that her school was not that bad. After all, he managed to tolerate Lady Catherine every year at Easter. “Well, we have a few weeks before you go back. Perhaps things will look brighter by then.” As soon as the words left his mouth, he knew they were a mistake.

“Oh, you do not understand!” She burst into sobs, burying her face in her hands, her thin shoulders shaking, as if there were no hope left in the world.

Even he could tell that this was genuine distress. He shifted across the coach to sit beside her and put his arm around her shoulder. “Tell me, then. Make me understand.”

Slowly she stilled, pressing her face into his arm. “You will laugh at me.” Her voice was half-smothered by his coat.

“No, I will not.”

She was silent for a minute, and then the words poured out. “The teachers make us recite our lessons, and I simply cannot do it. Whenever I try to speak in front of others, my throat closes up and I cannot breathe. Then they say I have not learned the lesson and punish me by forcing me to eat my dinner at a table all by myself, with all the other girls mocking me. Sometimes they will not even allow me to practice the pianoforte until I speak my lesson, and that is unbearable. And I do know the lessons, I do! I simply cannot speak it.”

His heart went out to her. “Have you explained that to them?”

“A hundred times, and begged to be allowed to give my responses in writing, but the headmistress says I must learn to speak in public so that I can manage the Season. That my dance partners will not accept my conversation in the form of writing. And the girls say the most horrid things about me.” Her voice was getting higher and higher. “I hate them all!”

What was he supposed to say to her? He could sympathize with her inability to recite, but everyone had something they could not do. There were boys at Eton who had been horribly bullied because they lacked ability on the playing field or because of their birth or small stature. He had come in for his own share of it because he was somehow always giving offense to others, even when he did not mean to. But he had always understood that school was something to be endured, not enjoyed.

Still, he had advantages Georgiana did not. She had lost her mother so very young, and then their father when she was barely ten, only to be left to the care of a much older brother whom she barely knew. One who knew almost nothing about the needs of a young girl, much less an orphaned one.

Perhaps he should be more sympathetic, even if he had no idea what he was doing. “If you wish, I will make some inquiries as to whether there may be another school that would be better suited for you.”

She looked up at him. “I would rather have a governess, one who would listen to you, but if that cannot be, a new school would be better than nothing.”

And perhaps now they could be on decent terms for the rest of the trip back to Pemberley. And he did want her to be happy. He just missed the days when a little attention and a gift or two was all it took to make her smile.

Read all the scenes in Prelude to Pemberley here!