Page 83 of Shields and Roses

"Stiff and sore and not a little woozy, but I will make do. You, however, have better things to do than make polite conversation with an old man. Pour yourself a cup of the coffee, put one or two of those pastries on a plate and head out to the bench in the rose garden. It is time for that conversation you have been waiting to have."

"I have your permission, sir?" he asked, not quite believing Bennet meant what he thought.

"I would not have suggested it if you did not. I trust you will behave as a gentleman. Also remember you will be in full view of every window on that side of the house. Propriety will be satisfied by that."

Darcy bowed. "Yes, sir. Thank you, sir." He only just remembered to follow the instructions to provide himself with coffee and a pastry before he headed to the side door with which he was becoming so familiar.

He saw her before she saw him. Lizzy sat on a bench, obviously enjoying the same sights and sounds he had enjoyed from his room not long before. The early morning sun glinted in her hair, illuminating bright gold highlights in the otherwise dark mass of curls arranged in a simple hairstyle. The effect was only marred by the bar of dark bruising he saw on her throat as he came around to the front of the bench to greet her. He saw she was nursing a cup of some hot drink and had a plate with part of a pastry placed on the bench beside her.

"Mr. Darcy!" she said in surprise when she finally noticed his approach. Her voice was low but did not sound as hoarse as the day before.

"Miss Elizabeth," he greeted her, bowing as well as he could while holding his breakfast.

After a slight pause, they both spoke the same words almost in unison.

"I want to tell you how sorry I am..." they stopped, both smiling as they realized what they had done.

"I know why I am sorry," Darcy said, "I acted badly and even though my intentions were good, I did not behave as a gentleman should. I have wanted to apologize to you for so long, but words do not seem to be enough. I will do whatever is needed to show the depth of my remorse. I cannot help but wonder, however, what you feel you need to apologize for?"

"I am sorry for being overly sensitive, for running away and hiding from you when I could have resolved your confusion months ago. I am even more sorry for not allowing you the chance to apologize even though I knew you were seeking me out for that very purpose. I behaved childishly and I let you suffer for far too long."

"The mistake about your name was my fault," Darcy said humbly. "I was eavesdropping, and as a result, I only heard part of your conversation with Lord Sheldon. I felt so sure of the information I had overheard that I did not even think to confirm it during all the confusion that happened during our introduction. Honestly, I was too delighted to have finally met you to truly notice anything at all beyond your agreement to dance with me."

Lizzy looked away, slightly embarrassed, then she realized he was still standing there awkwardly, with a mug in one hand and a plate in the other. She moved her own plate and scooted to one side of the bench, gesturing for him to take a seat. He carefully settled into place, balancing his plate with the pastry on one thigh. He took a sip of his coffee, and they enjoyed the morning air in silence for a moment.

"You are now aware that Rose is Lord Sheldon's family name, are you not?" she asked after a time.

"Oh, yes," Darcy chuckled. "Richard took great pleasure in informing me of that fact. He also informed me of your identity and nearly fell out of his chair laughing as he did."

"How did he know?" she asked.

"Your necklace – the shields and roses. He asked me if there was anything special that distinguished my Miss Rose from all the other young women with dark hair and fine eyes who graced the ballrooms of London. I described your necklace and he knew it was you at once."

"Well, as I told you, I wear it to every formal event." She colored at the compliment he had offered but did not address it in her speech.

"We immediately rushed to the Gardiner house in hopes of finding you there. I knew Bingley was to have dinner that evening with your sister and the rest of the family. You were not there, but I had the pleasure of meeting all the others when we joined them for dinner."

"Mary sent me a letter about it the very next morning. She thought well of you. Of course, it did not hurt that you are a close friend of Mr. Bingley."

Darcy chuckled again. "It is funny," he said, "when Richard recommended Bingley to me as a friend several years ago, he said that Bingley would provide me with good company and I would help him along in society in return. Now, it seems that Bingley is the one helping me in society, at least the society I care about."

Miss Elizabeth chuckled softly as well. It turned into a cough, and she took a few sips of her drink to calm her throat.

"Does talking hurt a great deal?" Darcy asked.

"More than I would like," she said, "but that will hardly stop me."

"You are definitely your father's daughter. He would not be stopped yesterday either, although I know he has paid for it."

"Yes, he is hurting this morning. He will retire to his study soon and I doubt he will be moved from it until late in the day. When we spoke this morning, he told me I should ask you about the discussion with Colonel Forster but would not explain why. Do you know?"

"I think so. We had to resort to rather drastic measures to gain the Colonel's cooperation and your father felt I should tell you about it. Perhaps, though, I should start from the beginning..."

He told Lizzy about arriving and having to convince the aide to let them in. She was surprised when he told her of Colonel Forster's animosity towards Richard. "I would have thought two military men of similar rank would get along better," she said.

"There is a difference between the regular Army and the militia. Because they do not fight outside the country, the militia is not as highly regarded, and their officers are often on the receiving end of comments about their cowardice or laziness in choosing what is considered an easy form of service. It seems Colonel Forster is particularly sensitive to those differences, and he appeared to think Richard was trying to, well, to pull rank, I suppose. He had also been prejudiced against us by crafty half-truths from Wickham and he was stubbornly determined to defend the honor of his own man in the face of all proof to the contrary."

"How did you finally convince him to listen?" she asked.