IN THE STUDY, DARCY allowed Richard to question Georgiana. He did not trust himself to speak.
“Your aunt Ellsworth certainly didn’t allow you to leave the way you did.”
A barely disguised smirk crossed Georgiana’s lips. “Aunt Ellsworth went to visit her sister overnight. She arranged for a neighbour, Mrs. Hargate, to stay with me. I sent a note to Mrs. Hargate saying our plans had changed.”
“So my aunt is just now discovering your duplicity,” Darcy said.
Georgiana flushed.
“Have you no concern for how worried she will be, when she discovers your absence?” Darcy asked. “How humiliated that you escaped from her care in this way? You complained she allowed you no freedom. Yet at the first opportunity, this is how you behave?”
“I am tired of being treated like a child.”
“Georgiana,” Ric
