Page 68

“Oh, Georgiana… be careful… I’m not sure…

” Elizabeth’s words of caution were of no help when a gust of wind caused Miss Darcy to put one hand on her bonnet, keeping it from blowing away but loosening her grip on the folio.

The breeze promptly plucked the Haydn score from her grasp and playfully blew it along the path.

Lizzy moved quickly enough to snatch up one page while Georgie retrieved another from a little boy out for a walk with his nurse.

The two ladies looked around to see John extracting a third page from a helpful bush.

Shuffling the papers back together, Georgiana continued to peer about anxiously.

“Oh—how could I be so foolish? Thank you! But there was a fourth page—did anyone see where it went?” Just then, a flash of white caught her eye and she turned to see the final sheet floating toward the duck pond.

Without a thought, Georgie ran toward the water, though there was little hope of capturing it before it was soaked.

At the last moment, however, a gentleman walking by made a quick move and captured the paper before it could fall.

Thinking only of her music, Georgiana stepped up to him with none of the timidity that usually defined her interactions with strangers.

“Thank you so much, sir! I was afraid I’d lost that page through my carelessness. ”

The gentleman continued to stare at the sheet, barely glancing toward the lady.

“Oh, yes… yes, of course. It was no problem at all. But… please, pardon my forwardness… this is surely by Joseph Haydn, and yet I don’t recognize the piece all.

Could this be some new composition?” He finally raised his eyes to the young lady.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Georgiana noted that he was a fairly young man with wavy brown hair and serious blue eyes, but in her excitement she quite forgot her shyness.

“Indeed! I only just discovered it at Signor Romano’s!

He said that one of Herr Haydn’s students was sorting through his teacher’s old papers and found this forgotten sonata for pianoforte.

It was just a draft, but complete enough that he transcribed a final copy to be published! ”

The gentleman’s excitement was palpable. “Brilliant! I’ve always enjoyed Haydn—particularly his double variations—he has an ability to take the simplest melody and use it to take you to so many different places!”

Georgiana could not help but respond; “Oh yes, and his humor! His ‘Surprise’ symphony is one of my favorites.”

At this point the two noticed that Mrs. Darcy had joined them. Intrigued by the sight of her normally diffident sister involved in animated conversation with an strange gentleman, Lizzy had slowed her steps, as much to observe the interaction as to give the pair a few more moments to converse.

Elizabeth discerned a slim young man in his mid-twenties, perhaps not classically handsome but with a certain honest joie de vivre in his eager face that she could not help but like.

He was dressed in a conservative fashion but, on closer inspection, she decided that the impeccable tailoring and fabrics were of a standard that even her fastidious husband would approve .

The thought of Mr. Darcy reminded her that she should be taking a more active role in chaperoning her newest sister. “Well Georgiana, I see that your afternoon of musical rapture has been saved by a white knight guarding the duck pond.”

“Elizabeth! We’ve just been speaking of Mr. Haydn’s work. Oh, I must make introductions. This is my sister, Mrs. Darcy… but, oh dear… I do not know who you are at all, sir.”

“Lord Jonah Somerset, at your service ladies,” he responded with a grin and a bow.

Elizabeth smiled in approval. “Excellent—and in turn please allow me introduce you, Lord Jonah, to my sister, Miss Darcy.”

After the conversation of Haydn had continued for some minutes, Elizabeth checked her watch and determined that her husband would be returning home soon.

Reluctant to put a halt to Georgiana’s unabated enthusiasm for her new acquaintance, she waited for a pause in the pair’s conversation to suggest, “Lord Jonah; we must be getting home, but I wonder if you have time to join us for tea? Perhaps we might even take it in the music room?”

Georgiana seconded the invitation eagerly. “Oh yes, do come! The house is just over on Brooke Street and my instrument was tuned only this morning.”

Without hesitation, the young gentleman agreed. “Thank you, Mrs. Darcy, Miss Darcy. There’s nothing I should like to do more!”

The happy couple started in the direction of the Darcy townhouse, still chattering about music and followed by a contemplative Elizabeth and a watchful John.

Elizabeth recognized Somerset as the family name of the Duke of Grafton, but she was not certain how Lord Jonah might fit into the family tree.

Upon arriving at Derwent House, the ladies and gentleman handed over their wraps to the servants, though, in truth, Miss Darcy barely paused and soon swept her new acquaintance away to the music room.

Elizabeth paused to inquire after her husband (still not home) and ask for tea to be sent in before picking up her new book and following in Georgiana’s footsteps to do her duty as chaperone.

Lord Somerset was admiring the various instruments in the room while Georgiana gave their history.

The pianoforte was a fine Broadwood, less than five years old, a gift from her brother.

When he admired the harp, the young lady’s smile softened.

“It was my mother’s. Brother has offered to buy me a new one—one of the pedals on this tends to stick—but I cannot part with it.

It has such a warm sound that it makes me feel as if she is with me when I play it.

But you must think me terribly fanciful… ”

Georgiana lowered her eyes in embarrassment and was turning away when Jonah assured immediately; “Not at all! Or else, you shall think me equally fanciful when I tell you I am quite certain that instruments have personalities. The piano in my sister’s house, for example, is quite pompous and dislikes me immensely…

which is quite unfortunate because whenever I’m there for dinner, she asks me to play.

I doubt if Herr Mozart himself would recognize his own compositions! ”

Georgiana raised her eyes and, feeling reassured, managed a smile, which the gentleman found he liked very much. “Did your mother pass on recently?”

She shook her head sadly. “No, it was only a few months after my birth. Indeed, I have no memories of her other than the stories told to me by my father and brother. She was very musical, which is why I’m so sentimental about her instruments, I suppose.”

At this moment the tea arrived, prompting the pair to remove to the chairs where Elizabeth had already settled herself. “I spent several months with my own dear mother as she recuperated from an illness this last spring; I can only imagine the pain of losing a parent,” admitted Jonah.

As Georgiana offered her sympathy, Elizabeth joined the conversation while handing the gentleman his teacup. “I hope she is now recovered?”

Nodding his thanks for the tea, Lord Jonah answered with a gentle look in his eyes.

“Yes; Mama is a force of nature—it was a shock to see her so stricken. She was bedridden for more than a month, and I did my best to keep her entertained. She has not much talent but a very great enjoyment of music, so I’ve been in Gloucestershire much of the past year, doing what I can to keep her amused. ”

The conversation carried on amicably until the refreshments were finished and, with Mrs. Darcy’s permission, the young couple returned to the pianoforte and began exploring the new Haydn composition.

Elizabeth settled down with her new book, deciding that in the situation of Miss Georgiana Darcy comfortably interacting with a newly met and seemingly respectable young man, she would happily ignore Society’s conventions for the proper length of a visit.

Not much later, Fitzwilliam Darcy arrived home and was pleased to hear that his wife and sister were in the music room. Opening the door quietly, he took note of Georgiana at the piano but his eyes were all for his wife.

Elizabeth looked up and smiled to see her husband. She stood to meet him and he took both her hands in his, rubbing his thumbs across her palm and kissing her cheek. Looking into his warm eyes, she commented softly, “You seem pleased to be home, Mr. Darcy.”

Fitzwilliam squeezed her hands and replied in a quiet tone meant for her ears alone; “Dearest, loveliest Elizabeth. Walking back from Alfred’s, I was struck by how much my life has changed for the better.

Instead of a cold, lonely house where I undoubtedly would have retired to my study and tried to lose myself in work for the evening, I had the warmth of a home to look forward to.

My lovely wife, you cannot know the changes you have made around here. ” He rested his forehead against hers.

Elizabeth was recalled to the present by a sudden silence from the pianoforte. Still holding her husband’s hand, she drew his attention toward the other side of the room and spoke in a more public tone; “Sir, we’ve been entertaining a new acquaintance this afternoon.”

Smiling to Jonah, she noted that it was he who was currently seated at the pianoforte, and amended, “Or perhaps I should say that he has been entertaining us? Lord Jonah, please allow me to introduce my husband, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy. Mr. Darcy, this is Lord Jonah Somerset. He has done your sister a great service this afternoon, by saving her new music sheets from the ducks in the Grosvenor Park pond.”