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Mary Bennet couldn’t stand her own sister deporting herself the way she was doing it. There was something deeply immoral and disturbing. Incensed, Mary fidgeted in her place while her sister shamed her in every possible way.
Hasn’t Elizabeth learned anything? How she dared to touch her husband that way and riposting every remark with that acerbic tone? To Mary it doesn’t matter if this was a small familial reunion with her sister’s husband, her sister in law and her sister. That was not the way her mother taught them to be an honorable lady in this society.
The harsh words were boiling at the back of Mary Bennet’s throat and the need to open her mouth and let them fall on her sister’s head with all its righteous weight. Mary couldn’t endure it anymore but before she can speak her mind Georgiana put her hand on Mary’s arm and dared some words in a quiet, quivering voice.
“I hope I won’t get you cross, but Lizzy has told me you are the best of her sisters when playing the pianoforte is the issue,” Georgiana had a hesitant smile on her lips, “may you help me with this new piece of music? I would very much appreciate another opinion on the execution…”
Mary let out her breath in short gasps. Music was not the first thing in her mind but it was most unbecoming to be rude when she was a visitor to Pemberley. Being civil at the moment demanded every bit of her resolution but she smiled to Georgiana and nodded slightly.
“May I abuse of your cordiality,” Georgiana said after a brief show of reluctance, “and ask you to come to the next chamber. My best instrument is there…”
Mary felt the urge to resist her invitation and stay in the room to rebuke her older sister, but to do it without losing the moral high ground was a conundrum she couldn’t solve.
“If that will be more agreeable to you,” Mary rose from her sitting place. There will be time to express her mind to Lizzy in the sternest terms. “I present no objections.”
“Oh, I thank you!” Georgiana gave words to her gratitude and took Mary’s hand to guide her out of the room.
Mary’s first impulse was to pull her hand out of Georgiana’s, but the warmth and gentle touch was as pleasant as it was unexpected. Georgiana’s hand was soft and Mary felt horrible mortified by how different her own skin felt. That embarrassment suited well to her vanity, which had led Mary to believe her skin was soft.
“This new piece,” Georgiana explained and let Mary’s hand go, “Lizzy said it was a love song, but I can’t get it right… probably because I have never heard it before.”
Mary looked at her own hand because the sudden emptiness, she can almost felt the caress pour out of her open arm. Georgiana had time to put her music sheets in order and lifted the piano cover by the time Mary raises her head.
With a smile, Georgiana invited Mary to take a sit and try her hand at the keys. Mary sat in front of Georgiana’s beautiful instrument, shoulders squared and spine erect. Mary felt her fingers warm, but atrociously rigid. Mary took a gander to the music sheet and wonder if she could approach such a complicate sequence with such an uncooperative pair of hands.
The first notes, stilted and out of compass, abandoned the instrument. Mary, following her custom, played the piece half the speed, a quirk she developed to help her poor memory. Georgiana sat by Mary’s side and peered into the keyboard. Mary gulped and put her spirit to work in the piece with effort, trying to close her mind to the fresh and exceptional fragrance Georgiana was emanating so close to her nose. Any other moment, Mary would have ranted on the immorality to wear such a distracting aroma, but her wit was otherwise engaged in the piece.
“Oh, I see it now…” Georgiana rested her weight on Mary’s shoulder. “You are so precise. I wish I could strike the keys with the same accuracy and the same resolution.”
Mary held her breath in a vain attempt to contain the explosion of joy inside her breast. Praise was seldom given to her best attempts and Georgiana was given it so freely that her head was spinning so violently that it was difficult to her to keep her mind on the keys, but she knew if she lost her concentration all that praise would have been wasted.
There was only one virtue Mary Bennet was sure to possess and that one was discipline. Mary forced her mind to focus on the next bar just to make Georgiana’s smile stay on her face.
Georgiana extended her hand and passed the sheet so Mary could read the next part. Mary smiled when she noticed the way Georgiana put one of her perfect curls behind her ear, noticing for the first time how beautiful Lizzy’s sister-in-law was.
“I believe…” Mary found hard to say the words and hesitated to issue the invitation in a candid way, “maybe if you care to play this part with me you will achieve what you are seeking of this piece.”
Georgiana’s smile was kind and wide; her hand touched Mary’s arm briefly before she scurried over the bank and started to follow Mary’s cue but one octave higher.
“From the top, pray,” Georgiana invited once they ended the piece once. “I find this speed quite comfortable to learn.”
“Next time we will play it the way it was meant to be, do you agree?”
Georgiana Darcy put her hands in her skirt, her bottom lip quivered with disinclination. “I wish some things were not as they were meant to be…”
Mary, uncertain of what to do and which could be the better words to use, covered Georgiana’s hand with hers. The warmth returned to her fingers and Mary sensed life running through them and she couldn’t resist the temptation to caress the halo of perfect curls around that gloomy face.
Miss Darcy leaned toward Mary and her lips touched Mary’s lips gingerly. Why Miss Mary Bennet chose to accept the kiss? The turmoil inside her mind didn’t allow her to form an opinion besides how truthful and sensible that chaste caress was.
“Maybe,” Mary ventured after Georgiana recoiled with an expression of confusion. “Perhaps we should play again, before your brother and my sister wonder what is keeping us quiet.”
“Perhaps is for the best.” Georgiana admitted with sadness clearly depicted in her countenance.
“And mayhap can we talk about this situation later?”
“Perchance while taking a constitutional around the park?”
Mary Bennet couldn’t resist the smile that accompanied that inquiry so she signaled her acquiescence with a short gesture of affirmation before putting her disciplined hands on the keys.