Page 138 of What Change Entails

“They are my tenants.”

“That does not require intimacy.”

“No,” he agreed. “It requires respect.”

Miss Bingley paused.

She had expected a different answer.

Before she could continue, Elizabeth passed nearby carrying a basket of apples beside Georgiana. A small boy tugged at her sleeve asking some question Darcy could not hear. Elizabeth bent to answer him.

The child grinned.

Darcy watched her longer than he should have.

Again.

Miss Bingley saw that too.

Her expression hardened almost imperceptibly.

“Miss Elizabeth appears determined to make herself universally beloved.”

Darcy nodded slowly. “She succeeds without visible effort.”

Silence followed.

Brief.

Dangerous.

Miss Bingley recovered first. “You admire her greatly.”

“Yes.”

No escape remained after that answer. Nor did he particularly desire one.

Miss Bingley’s smile returned too quickly. “She is certainly lively.”

Darcy bowed slightly and left before the conversation worsened further.

By late afternoon the meadow had become gloriously untidy.

Blankets spread everywhere beneath the trees. Children slept in improbable positions after exhausting themselves thoroughly. Bingley had somehow become involved in a wrestling match with two tenant boys. Mrs. Gardiner sat speaking with Mrs. Reynolds while Georgiana listened nearby with increasing ease.

Lydia climbed directly onto the low stone wall bordering the orchard despite repeated warnings.

Elizabeth stood beneath an elm tree distributing sliced pears to several younger children while Horace waited beneath her hand with unbearable patience.

Darcy stopped walking.

The sight caught him unprepared.

Sunlight moved through the leaves overhead in shifting gold fragments. Elizabeth responded to something one of the children said, then bent to wipe sticky pear juice from a little girl’s chin using her own handkerchief.

No elegance.

No performance.