Pemberley to Waterloo: Georgiana Darcy's Diary, Volume 2 by Anna Elliott

Author:Anna Elliott [Elliott, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Wilton Press
Published: 2011-12-25T05:00:00+00:00

Saturday 18 February 1815

No word from Edward yet. But of course, there wouldn’t be. I suppose it will be weeks before I can expect that any letter he sends will arrive here.

This morning Elizabeth and I did have a surprise visitor—Ruth Granger, come up from her cottage to pay a call. She doesn’t usually come so far in the wintertime—for of course she doesn’t keep a horse or carriage—but she said she’d accepted a ride for part of the way from Mr. Smith, who was coming this way in his farm cart. And she’d walked the rest.

Ruth doesn’t usually walk so far, either, on account of her health. But today she did not look any worse the wear for the exercise. She was wearing a dark-purple coloured Spencer over her gown, and the wind had whipped colour into her cheeks. And even apart from that, there was something—something different about her. A feeling—a kind of restless energy or hidden drive. I couldn’t entirely describe it, even to myself. But I noticed it right away, from the moment she sat down with us in the drawing room.

She wanted to see baby James, of course. Who has grown so much since he was born I can scarcely believe it. I suppose that’s what everyone always says about babies—but it really is true. James has started to smile now, too—anyone who comes to pick him up from his cradle gets rewarded with a huge, toothless grin.

Ruth held him and bounced him up and down on her knees—which earned her another gummy smile. She’d brought Pilot with her—which rather scandalised Mrs. Reynolds—but James waved his fists and made excited baby sounds at the sight of the big dog. Elizabeth and I laughed and Elizabeth kissed the top of James’ head and said, “I keep forgetting how much of the world he still has to discover. He’s never even seen a dog before today.”

And then James started to fuss a little—which usually means he’s hungry or tired or both—so Elizabeth took him upstairs to feed him and put him down to sleep.

Ruth and I were alone, then, after Elizabeth had gone. And almost the first thing she said to me was, “I’m going away.”

“Away?” Even though I had noticed something altered in her, I was still more than surprised by the words. “Ruth, what do you mean? Away where?”

“To Brussels.” Ruth was sitting up very straight in her chair, her hands clasping and unclasping in her lap. “I’m— A former employer of mine has offered me a job there. Lady Denby. I was only with her about a year—this was before I came to Pemberley—and then her little girl was sent off to school. But she—Lady Denby—has kept in correspondence with me ever since. She and her daughter are now living in Brussels—a number of English families have gone there to settle, since the end of the war. Lady Denby says that society there is very fashionable and gay. But her own health has suffered

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