It was still day and Mr. Darcy was with business in London, as Georgiana so kindly informed. He was awaited to return tonight, just in time for dinner. Elizabeth spent the time actually touring the house, with Georgiana as her guide. It was more interesting because the girl was going through the rooms at incredible speed since she found her house boring.

“Is it just you and your brother?” Elizabeth asked curiously.

“Yes, and the servants. Oh and Mrs. Spotts, my governess. But she’s been rather gloomy lately,”

“How so?”

Georgiana seemed uncertain if she should give such details to a stranger and Elizabeth chuckled, finding her apprehension refreshing.

“Don’t worry, you don’t have to answer. I’m sure Mrs. Spotts would find it unpleasing to discuss her business behind her back,” Elizabeth added seeing the conflict in Georgiana turn into relief. “Better off, what exactly does she teach you? Embroidery, drawing, piano?”

“Yes, she does, except for the piano. Brother has decided to have a different tutor, a woman who has more refined tastes in the art of music,”

Elizabeth tried not to laugh at the similarities between Mr. Darcy and her mother.

“What about you, Miss Elizabeth?” Georgiana asked leading her guest into the drawing room.

“Liz,” Elizabeth corrected the girl but she was sure Georgiana will not call her so cordially so soon. “I did not have a governess as a child but my mother was more than happy to educate me. She was…overbearing, at times. I felt like I didn’t have a choice but to please her. I was always first at everything she enjoyed, like the piano, because I believed that once I will successfully reach her goals, she will let me live my life the way I wanted.” Elizabeth explained, her eyes narrowing at the musical instrument in the middle of the room.

“Does that mean you play well? It has been too long since anybody has played for me,”

Elizabeth could imagine that most people whom Georgiana met were more interested in seeing her play rather than the other way around. So, she decided to entertain this teenager for the time being.

“I play quite well, actually,” Elizabeth said with a smirk as she sat in front of the brown piano.

Now that she was in this spot, she realized the instrument was handcrafted, carefully and masterfully, and the sound was going to resonate through the whole house. But Elizabeth had a problem: most of the pieces she knew were not yet composed. She was sure that everything she knew from Brahms and Chopin came later, and she wasn’t sure what Beethoven composed yet. If she remembered correctly, the songs that people used to sing in movies about the Regency period were baroque. She pouted at the idea of playing Bach, it was so cold and tempered. She thought about it for a bit before she decided to go with Scarlatti’s Keyboard Sonata in F Minor.

As her fingers glazed upon the piano keys with melancholy and elegance, the emotions transmitted through this piece were clearly not the happiest. Georgiana sat and watched this strangely dressed woman play with such ease and yet with such mellow eyes.

When Mr. Darcy arrived home that evening, he walked towards the drawing room from where he was sure that his young sister played a new piece. However, he stopped at the door when he realized it was not Georgiana, but someone else. He didn’t dare make a sound as he listened and watched. The woman had long brown hair and a long neck. She stood with her back straight, her hands moving so gracefully alongside the keys. The side of her face that he could see was of a woman with a high nose, thin lips, and blushing cheeks. Her side profile was sharp and so were her eyes when she finished and turned on him. She got up and obviously did not know how to react, but she eventually curtsied.

“Brother!” Georgiana leaped from her seat and hugged him with a big smile. “I’m so glad you have arrived! We have a guest,”

“And who might this guest be?” He asked, his wary eyes setting on this woman dressed in a floral dress and with some sort of jacket over it.

“I am-“She stopped as she realized what she was about to say, “Elizabeth Bennet,” she finished, feeling like she was in a sitcom. “You must be Fitzwilliam Darcy,”

He nodded, his eyes never leaving her even while his sister grabbed his hand and brought him closer to their guest. From this distance, she could see that he was very imposing as a man. She couldn’t help but tilt her head to the side and compare him with Colin Firth and Matthew Mcfadyen. This Darcy had very dark blue eyes, his hair was more towards a lighter shade of brown. He was taller than her, but not by much, he was dressed in the usual Regency man attire and he looked tired. Mr. Darcy was in a sense a combination of all actors who played him; another reason why this dream was most definitely created by her subconscious in order to buy her body time to heal.

“And what may we owe this unannounced visit to, Miss Bennet?” he asked already displeased with her.

“I have…stumbled into your gardens and got lost,” she said slowly, hearing how silly it sounded. “I was with my mother and my sister when our carriage broke and we decided not to wait for someone to find us, so we just started to walk and I got lost and found your domain and-“ she stopped because it was just so clear that she was lying.

Darcy raised an eyebrow, a facial movement that she had seen him often do in movies.

“The important thing is that I am lost and they left without me,”

“I will call for a carriage and you will be able to meet with them tonight. Where are they waiting for you?”

“Home,” she said, trying really hard to find a solution. “But my home is very far from here. An ocean is separating us. They most definitely are on their way to America,” she added quickly, not entirely lying since she has been living in New York for the past three years.

“Then you are from America?” Georgiana asked, her curiosity reaching new heights.

“You do not sound like an American,”

Elizabeth stared at him, wondering if he even knew anyone outside Europe. It was hard to figure out because he had a poker face. The only emotion coming from him was stranger danger.

“I was raised in London, maybe that’s why. Anyway, could I possibly take a bit of your time, Mr. Darcy?” Elizabeth asked, looking straight into his eyes.