Page 54

PERFECTLY WELL-MATCHED

B y the time Georgette and Anderson returned to the party, the ballroom was more than half empty. A footman was petitioned for information, and their attention directed to the crowded veranda.

“It must be time for the fireworks!” Georgette grabbed Anderson’s hand and tugged him towards the doors, going not onto the teeming veranda but a smaller, less public balcony.

It was not as high up as it had seemed when she was little, but it gave a superior view and, as she had expected, it was not unoccupied.

“There you are!” Lilly held out her hand and pulled Georgette to the parapet.

“Georgette! Where have you been?” Sarah asked.

Fitzwilliam, on Sarah’s other side, said, “I think it might be better not to enquire, dearest. ”

Georgette raised an eyebrow. “Dearest, is it? My, my, we must have been gone longer than I thought.”

Whatever her cousin replied was drowned beneath the deafening crash of the first firework and a loud chorus of gasps from those gathered below.

Georgette did not need to hear his words to discern his happiness—or Sarah’s. She spoke over her shoulder to Anderson. “They are engaged!”

Anderson grinned and turned to shake hands with Fitzwilliam, then bowed to Sarah. “Happiness looks exceedingly well on you, Miss Bentley.”

Georgette rolled her eyes when her friend nervously licked her lips. “You really must practise accepting compliments, Sarah. You cannot grimace so every time someone remarks on your beauty. I am sure my cousin will oblige you with some flattery.”

A succession of screeching rockets lit up the sky, commanding everybody’s attention. Amid the distraction, Georgette caught Lilly’s eye and mouthed, “Does Mr Darcy know?”

Lilly nodded. Leaning backwards, she pointed beyond Saye, standing on her other side, to the far end of the balcony. Georgette peered around them both, and there were Elizabeth and Mr Darcy. Elizabeth waved merrily.

“She looks extraordinarily pleased with herself,” Georgette said as she waved back.

“She ought to—she has just got married!”

“Faith! How long was I gone? I thought I only missed supper. ”

The next several fireworks were so loud that even shouts could not be heard, but at length, Lilly was able to explain. “They stole away to Pemberley two days ago. None of us noticed because we were all too busy being miserable.”

“They came back to see my fireworks, which you are both missing, thanks to your endless chatter,” Saye complained, though without any hint of true vexation in his voice.

Even had Georgette not learnt of his engagement earlier, she would have guessed by the gleam of heartfelt delight in his eyes.

For once, she could not tease him, not when it was the happiest she had ever seen him.

When Anderson stepped close to wrap her in his arms and kiss her temple, it was the happiest she had ever felt.

The finale to the fireworks was truly spectacular.

Over and again, the night sky was rendered incandescent as an endless stream of rockets shrieked into the air, every one exploding into glittering cascades of light.

The final, vast explosion was accompanied by a roar of approval from below that gradually ebbed into enraptured silence.

As Georgette joined everyone in watching the illuminations fade, she realised it was not the last embers raining from the sky that she could see.

“It is snowing!”

For a few magical moments, time stood still as snowflakes danced about on the frozen air before them.

Then Saye swore, and all hell broke loose .

“What is wrong?” Sarah exclaimed.

Fitzwilliam gestured to the veranda where what could only be described as an exodus was occurring. Guests were elbowing each other, masks were being crushed under foot, and the ballroom doors looked in imminent danger of being torn off their hinges as people fought their way through.

Saye gave his brother a none-too-gentle shove towards the door. “Find Aurelia before those idiots cause a stampede.”

“What is happening?” Elizabeth asked.

“Everyone is leaving before they are snowed in,” Darcy replied. “This is why balls are not generally held at this time of year in the peaks. I ought to help.”

“Never a dull moment with your cousins, is there?” Anderson muttered to Georgette before offering to accompany Darcy.

As the two men departed, Anderson began expressing his thanks for what Darcy had done for him, and before they exited the balcony, they could be seen shaking hands. Georgette answered Elizabeth’s querying gaze with an explanation of what her new husband had done to help secure their engagement.

Elizabeth gave an unsteady smile. “I had no idea, though I cannot say I am surprised. It is not the first time he has helped bring two people in love back together.”

“And now it is your turn—I hear congratulations are in order. ”

“Thank you. And to you, too, on your engagement.”

“Georgette?” Sarah interrupted. “Where have you been all evening?”

“I think Fitzwilliam was right—we would do better not to ask,” Lilly replied with a sly glance at Georgette. “I am coming to understand that our darling friend has more secrets than any of us ever suspected.”

They would have been disappointed to know the truth.

It was true that Georgette and Anderson had enjoyed their share of clandestine rendezvous—they had been eluding scandal longer than the rest of her friends had been in love—but that evening, they had occupied themselves with the simple pleasure of conversation.

Having been plagued with uncertainty for the entirety of their acquaintance, they had never dared to make any serious plans.

Always, they skirted around matters any other affianced couple might consider pedestrian—where they might summer, what colour they might decorate the drawing room, what they might call their children.

The freedom to discuss such things without the fear that they would never come to pass felt like the most exquisite indulgence.

Georgette’s felicity notwithstanding, she did not consider it imperative to disclose all her confidences in the course of one house party.

With a vague smirk, she said, “And we must be allowed to keep our secrets, Lilly, otherwise I should be insisting that you explain how my cousin’s chamber pot ended up in your bedchamber last week. ”

The snow had manners enough to allow everybody who was not staying at Matlock to depart in a timely and, with one or two exceptions, orderly fashion.

After that, it blanketed the surrounding fells so that the following day, the view from every window was a glistening wintry vista.

Despite the early end to proceedings the previous evening, the house was still quiet at noon.

Anderson had never much cared for lounging abed while there was daylight left of which to take advantage.

Thus, after a few words in the right ears amongst the servants, and a little time directing his man to persuade Georgette’s maid to rouse her mistress and dress her warmly, he arrived at the top of the slope behind Matlock with his beautiful bride-to-be and a rather ropey-looking toboggan.

“Are you certain that is safe?” Georgette enquired dubiously.

“No. I shall go first, if you like, to test its strength.”

“I did not come all this way in the freezing cold to go second!” She playfully nudged him out of the way so she could take her place, then squawked when the toboggan began sliding down the hill before she had properly seated herself.

“I could be tucked up in my nice warm bed like all the other sensible ladies, you know.”

Anderson crouched behind the toboggan to hold it steady. “But you are not, and that is why I love you. Ready?” At her nod, he gave the toboggan a shove. It slid forwards slowly at first, then quickly gathered momentum until it was sliding away from him at an alarming pace.

When Georgette shrieked, Anderson began to run after her, but she was travelling too fast, and in the blink of an eye, the toboggan hit a rise, twisted violently to one side, and threw her off.

The air was instantly filled with her laughter, and Anderson’s heart, already hammering its alarm, swelled with affection as he skidded down next to her.

“Are you hurt?”

She shook her head and accepted his help getting up and patting the snow off her coat. “No, and I have discovered the toboggan is perfectly sound. It only wants for somebody who is able to steer it.”

“Will you leave it to me to teach our children to drive?”

“Yes—if you leave it to me to teach them to shoot.”

“We have an accord, madam.”

“Come, then, sir. You had better prove yourself a worthy master.” Georgette picked up the leading rope and began pulling the toboggan back up the slope.

Anderson took it from her. “Will you be disappointed if I do not fall off as well? ”

“You are only saying that so that if you do, you can claim it was done for my benefit.”

He did not fall off, and Georgette rewarded him richly for his success when he re-joined her at the top of the rise.

“Are there any hills near Gilchester Hall steep enough to sledge on?” she enquired.

“Plenty. And Glastonbury Tor is close by, which is always full of people whenever there is snow.”

“Is Gilchester warm? I cannot abide a draught.”

He smiled tenderly at her, delighted to hear her speak so eagerly about their life together.

“The house shall be as warm as you wish it to be, my love. And painted whatever colour pleases you and filled with as many children as you choose. I shall be content regardless of any detail, as long as you are there with me.”

She kissed him, but it did not last long before they were interrupted by shouting from farther down the slope.

“Look at that! Brazen, the pair of them!”

“Certainly not the sport I envisaged when I was told they had come up here to play in the snow!”