Darcy and Fitzwilliam: A Tale of a Gentleman and an Officer

“No, no, Colonel. No, she was vastly amused, actually. As a matter of fact, we laughed all the way here.” Emily gently placed her hand on his arm. “She was asked to leave the ladies’ retiring room. It was all quite humiliating. It seems several of the ladies mistook her for a servant and were incensed at her entering.” Emily shook her head sadly. “When she began to explain, they laughed at her, called her a backwoods colonial.”

Georgiana’s tears threatened to fall at any moment. “Why must people be unkind? She is such a delightful and gentle woman.” She looked intensely at Emily. “Amanda, I mean.” Emily stared at her blankly before Georgiana repeated what she had said. “Yes, a really delightful and gentle woman.”

Finally, Georgiana kicked her new friend’s ankle.

“Owww… oh! Yes. She, I mean Amanda, is a most wonderful person. She volunteered to escort me this evening. I know my aunt, uh, warned her that there would be repercussions against her, you know, being American and having no, um, social station or family to speak of, but being such a lovely person, she did not want me to miss this evening.”

Emily saw concern cloud the colonel’s face and decided she was doing splendidly. She immediately infused her narrative with a little more drama, a bit more dash, nearly overturning a vase with her emotional hand sweep. “Oh, how thrrrrilled Amanda was to be finally allowed out this evening, the poor, poor dear. Then to be brutally insulted in a ladies’ area! The indignity! The humiliation! The odor! Shocking! And dear Amanda forever thinking of others, you know. Yes, always kind and patient she is, and positively the most beautiful woman alive, don’t you think so, too? Even in the morning when her hair sticks out all over and she has that little drool on her lip and her eyes are all crusty…”

Georgiana vigorously shook her head and then cleared her throat, but nothing could dissuade Emily’s eloquence now. “It is not I alone who feel this way. No, no, no, I tell you, men fall over themselves into dead, writhing heaps, swept away in stoopid admiration wherever she goes, follow her around like stoopid little apes. Little hairy apes. Ouch! Georgiana, don’t pinch me like that. Where was I?” Her eyes darted from Georgiana’s exasperated countenance back to the colonel’s. “Oh, she has a little boy, you know, lost custody of him to my old aunt when Cousin Augustus passed. Now she has to beg to be allowed to see her son, you know, her own son! Beg, I tell you! No, that is just so very wrong, unnatural, uh, don’t you think? What a magnificent mother she is, too, kind and patient. She is just so very, uh, lovely and beautiful. Did I say that? I did? It must be true then, ha, ha, ha. Yes, yes, yes, lovely and beautiful. And kind. A really good, good mother…”

Fitzwilliam and Georgiana stared at Emily for several moments after her performance faded to a halt.

“Where is she now?” Fitzwilliam’s voice was filled with warm compassion. Emily nearly swooned in her amazement. The idiot had believed her.

“She is outside on that farthest back balcony. She thought to hide there until she was able to compose herself a little.” Now it was Emily’s eyes that threatened moisture. “She’s been crying a bit, I have to tell you. She could, um, probably do with some comforting, you know.” Fitzwilliam nodded, already headed toward the balcony. The two girls stood in silence.

“Sorry about the pinch, but gad, you were doing it up a bit brown, don’t you think?” Georgiana and Emily watched her cousin’s retreating form.

“Was I?” She turned a worried look back to Georgiana. “Oh, dear, I so hoped he wouldn’t notice my few blunders. I was trying to get in all the bits we wanted. Did I mention kind? Yes I did, didn’t I? I liked the ‘mother’ comment, also. He seemed moved by that, did he not? Huh! It worked much more quickly than I thought it would. Very promising, Georgiana,” Emily said with a chuckle. “Yes indeed, very promising.”

Chapter 9

The encounter in the ladies’ retiring room had humiliated her, and had convinced Amanda more than ever that she would never become accustomed to these people, she would never belong here. She sighed, wishing she had thicker skin, was not so easily hurt, then shuddered from the cold evening. She began to mumble to herself, wondering why Emily had asked her to wait on the balcony. If she had known she’d be going outside, she could have brought her wrap.

“May I join you?” Fitzwilliam hesitated for a moment in the doorway and then approached her, removing his coat to place over her shoulders. “If you notice, I did not provide you with an opportunity to deny me.”

She gazed at him, grateful for the warmth of his coat and the kindness of his smile. “Thank you so very much,” she said. “My blood was beginning to freeze out here.”