Page 9 of United By Happenstance
“A thrilling day, truly,” he amended. “When Lady Catherine made her attack, I would never have imagined it could end in anything but disaster—in the worst of mortification and the end of all association between us.”
“Nor would I,” she agreed, “but then, I had not expected you to leap into the fray with me. Nothing forges a necessary alliance quite like facing a common enemy.”
“Indeed, and even enemies will touch toes under the table when they sup at the banquet of a common foe.”
His implication was a little painful. She shook her head. “You were never my enemy, Mr Darcy.”
“Of course not,” he said with chagrin. “I was merely thelast man in the worldyou could ever be prevailed upon to marry.”
She frowned. “Ah, yes, I did say that. I also once told my sister Jane that nothing would induce me into matrimony but the deepest love.” She looked up at him, her eyes a little wide. “I would regret such prognostications more deeply if I did not see their fulfilment now.”
He smiled down at her in amusement. “Oh? Have you made yourself your own oracle?”
“Only in this matter. Your love for me somehow survived great disappointment, and mine for you grew from my own mortification today. Such a thing must have deep roots if it will persist amidst all those misfortunes. I suppose we must deduce, therefore, that with such a love between us, you are, in fact, the last and only man Icouldever be induced to marry.”
He laughed, loud enough in his surprise that the others in the room turned to look at them. He mastered himself under their curiosity, and quickly moved to stand. He bowed to their hostess and said, “It has been a delight to meet you today, Mrs Gardiner. But I am aware that it is passing five o’clock, and I would not waylay your plans to dine.” He glanced at his sister, adding, “Would it be convenient if we were to return at another time to call?”
Mrs Gardiner agreed to this readily, and their company all stood to make their polite farewells.
After Darcy had bowed to his hostess and the ladies began to gather towards the door, he turned once more to Elizabeth. “I will return tomorrow whenever you wish. You have only to say.”
Elizabeth handed him his hat, feeling oddly uneasy as she considered matters of discretion and decorum that he, being so well-bred, might wish to observe, and which she was increasingly willing to overthrow. “My aunt has already deduced some form of understanding between us. You will not be unwelcome, even if you come a little early for a call. The house is always busy with the children here, you understand?—”
“So I imagine.”
“—and Jane, Jane will be here, surely, as well. Perhaps my uncle also?—”
“I shall be glad to make his acquaintance and see your sister again.”
Elizabeth could not miss the amusement in his voice and look, and the pleasure of seeing him so diverted by her eager chatter chased away her embarrassment. “Then it is settled,” she agreed.
“What is settled?” asked Miss Darcy curiously, coming to take her brother’s arm for their departure.
“You will come again tomorrow whenever you wish,” said Elizabeth. “And then you may meet my elder sister, Jane.”
“I would be delighted to meetanothersister,” said Miss Darcy with an earnestness that added peculiar weight to her words. It was just heavy enough an implication to confirm Elizabeth’s own suppositions about the girl’s powers of observation. Elizabeth could only smile and press her hand as she extended it in graceful farewell.
The Darcys went away in their carriage only moments later. Elizabeth might have succumbed to the sudden pang of desolation she felt had Jane and Martha and the four Gardinerchildren not come hurrying home to meet her again with cheer and delight.
She had just kissed each young cousin and swung the littlest of them up in her arms when Jane, herself unburdened from carrying the child, wrapped both arms around Elizabeth.
“Oh, Lizzy! It has been such a long time,” she said in relieved tones. “I am so glad you are come back to me.”
Such familiar comfort wrapped around her in the figure of her sister was more than welcome. It soothed Elizabeth’s tumultuous spirits like nothing else. “And I am glad to have you with me,” she replied, her voice breaking with emotion.
Jane pulled back enough to look into her sister’s face, her concern too evident.
“I am well! I am well!” Elizabeth insisted quickly, dashing at the strange, sudden tears. “There is nothing the matter with me, but I have so much to tell. So much has changed, and so quickly. My heart is reeling. I have never felt such a disarray of emotions. Indeed, the last few hours could scarcely hold them all.”
“Come upstairs with me, my dearest,” said Jane, reclaiming the child and passing him to back to Martha. Her tone was firm as she took Elizabeth’s arm with gentle force. “There is time enough before we dine to unburden yourself, if only a little. Where is my stalwart sister? This is most unlike you.”
Still dazed by her own force of feeling, Elizabeth allowed her sister to steer her past her aunt who was giving instructions to the nursemaid, past the door to the sitting room and up the stairs. They had barely gained the bedroom and shut the door when her sister’s large, beseeching eyes begged her to speak. So Elizabeth did, at first haltingly, unburden herself of what had transpired in Kent, especially her rejection of Mr Darcy’s surprising offer, then a little of what he had revealed in his letter regarding the untrustworthiness of Mr Wickham—sparing the name of Miss Darcy—and his disclosure of his own involvementin discouraging Mr Bingley’s suit, and why he had acted so officiously in the interest of friendship.
Jane was very quiet and stood listening. Elizabeth kept breathing and went on, talking of how the delay in her departure from Hunsford had led to the day’s events with Lady Catherine, including the dowager’s insulting insinuations, Mr Darcy’s defence of her, and his sincere apologies.
It was harder to then explain how her own feelings had changed in the face of such humble honesty, how she had been persuaded to not only accept his apologies and his feelings but to return them. How even now, she wished forhisreturn.
Even as she spoke, it sounded like the story of another young woman’s confusing journey into love, as fantastical as a tale of a little girl getting lost in some mysterious wood and finding her own way.
