Chapter Four

CHAPTER FOUR

MR. DARCY NURSED a glass of wine in the corner and watched Elizabeth dance with one man after another. He’d watched her entire dance card fill up, so he’d known that she would be dancing with them, but he’d been so flush with his idea of nobility and charity that he had not realized she’d spit on all his offers.

He was very, very stupid.

He should go, truly. He would, except that would require not having seen all her dances with other men, and that was entirely unacceptable for reasons he could not fathom.

“You’re very stupid,” said a voice.

It was Richard. Darcy smirked, lifting his glass. “Suppose you know all about being stupid, hmm?”

Richard chuckled, settling in next to him, leaning against the wall. “She doesn’t like you.”

“Oh, I noticed,” said Darcy.

“I sort of want your blessing,” said Richard.

Darcy laughed helplessly. “You must be jesting.”

“No,” said Richard. “No, not at all. It’ll be good for her family, anyway, and you can see that. If she’s connected to me, then the rest of them have a tie to respectability. All this business about whether or not she was Benlolk’s mistress, it will disappear. No one cares anymore, not if we give them other things to talk about.”

“You think I care about her family?”

“I think you care about her,” said Richard. “I’m not wrong, am I?”

Darcy drank some of his wine, sighing.

“You wish her to be happy,” said Richard. “You clearly can’t make her happy, but perhaps I could. If I could, you’d want that for her, would you not?”

“The devil take you,” said Darcy, sighing.

“Would you not?” Richard pressed.

“Yes, all right,” he muttered into his wine glass.

“So, your blessing? You’ll give it?”

“Richard, for the sake of all that is holy, you cannot press me—”

“Fine,” said Richard. “I shall wait, then, but in the meantime, you won’t attempt to sabotage me either. Cede her to me, if you don’t mind.”

Darcy drank even more wine, saying nothing.

“Truly? Not even that?” said Richard, sighing, pushing off the wall. “What more do you want, Fitz? She doesn’t like you.”

“I don’t trust you with her,” said Darcy, lifting a shoulder.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“I mean, why are you going after her? You weren’t interested until she had a dowry.”

“That isn’t true. I was interested, but you were mad for her, and even if you hadn’t been, I couldn’t afford to be interested in her.”

“I’m no longer mad for her?”

“Well, you are, but pointlessly, because she simply doesn’t want you in that way.”

“I think she could do better,” said Darcy.

“No, you don’t. You think you’re going to get her for yourself somehow.”

“I said I was here to protect her,” said Darcy. “I can’t imagine what this hardship is for her family.”

“Hardship? Are you mad? They have come into wealth and property. It’s no hardship. It’s the end of hardship.”

“Spoken like someone who’s never had the responsibility and pressure that comes along with wealth and property,” said Darcy. “Really, though, you should understand. You were raised with such things, and you should see it. It’s a burden, you idiot.”

Richard scoffed.

“They need a friend to be there for them in the midst of the difficulties,” said Mr. Darcy. “And she needs someone to make sure she’s not marrying a man who doesn’t have her best interests at heart.”

“If she chooses me, you won’t get in our way, however?”

Darcy sighed heavily.

“Fine, then,” said Richard. “We’re going to war over her, it seems.”

“ Richard. ”

“I like my chances better than yours,” said Richard, shrugging at him, giving him a careless smile.

ELIZABETH WAS COLD and tired as she stood out on the front steps. She was waiting for the carriage to come round. They were here quite late, though they were not nearly the last guests here.

It was a difference between balls in the country and balls in the city, she supposed. A ball in the city started later, ended later. It was nearly three in the morning. If she and her family had stayed so late at a ball in the country, they would have been the last ones there. This one might go until sunrise, she thought.

It was odd, because the person who’d really caused the holdup tonight was her father, which surprised her. He professed to hate London and not to wish to be here. If the colonel was right, then the rumors spreading would be particularly devastating to her father, and she thought that if he heard just one of them, he’d have packed them all up.

But her father had been talking with other men for hours upon hours. They had only recently been able to convince him that it was time to leave.

Now, Elizabeth was waiting for their carriage. As soon as she saw it, she would go back in to tell the rest of the family. She likely could have left this task to a servant of the house, but she had to admit she wanted a bit of time to herself, away from the men.

She’d never been paid male attention like this.

Maybe it was the fairy princess dress, but deep down, she knew it was as Mr. Darcy had pointed out. They were hunting fortunes, and she had one for sale.

Behind her, the door opened.

As if summoned by her thoughts, it was the man himself.

“Oh,” he said. “Miss Bennet, my apologies. I had sent word for my carriage some time ago, and I thought I heard its approach. Nothing here, though. I shan’t tarry here, never fear.” He began to duck back inside.

“Mr. Darcy!”

He paused.

“I believe I should apologize, truly,” she said.

He hesitated. “No, no, there’s no reason to be polite now. We both know where we stand. It’s all right. We can be free with the other now.”

“It’s only that your letter, what you said, it did change my opinion of you. Truly, it did. It’s me, I’m afraid. I censure your pride, but I seem to have a fair amount of my own. Those men I danced with tonight, they were all so very complimentary and they seemed so interested in everything I had to say. So polite. So well-mannered. So proper and so…” She looked away. “You’re correct that I’m not prepared for it. I am, as you said, lacking in instruction when it comes to fortune hunters. I have never had anything to hunt.”

“Oh, that’s not true. You’re quite huntable, Miss Bennet.” He cringed. “Oh, dash it all, have I said that aloud?”

She laughed. “I understood what you meant.”

“It’s a mortifying position to be in, you understand, being the one who desires someone who doesn’t desire the other? I am not very good at navigating it.”

“It isn’t that way, exactly, is it?” She hunched up her shoulders. “You don’t desire me, not anymore.”

He looked away. “You don’t wish me to, that much is clear.”

“I didn’t say…” She wished she could disappear. “I think about it, you know. I think about the day you proposed. I think about what would have happened if I did things differently.”

He turned to look at her, clearly shocked.

She looked away, feeling her face heat up.

“Miss Bennet, are you saying you think about what might have happened if you accepted me?” His voice was gravelly.

She lifted her gaze to his. But now, they were staring into each other’s eyes, and she lost the capacity to form words. He was a handsome man, that was the truth of it. He was tall and he had a fair countenance and his shoulders were ever so broad and she liked how much larger than her he was and—

The sound of horse hooves on the cobblestones, wheels on the road.

She turned to see that two carriages were approaching. “Oh! Well, there’s our carriage. I must go and gather up my family members, I think.”

“Miss Bennet,” he said.

She looked back at him. “I don’t know, Mr. Darcy. I thought it would be different when I saw you again, but I got so angry with you, and I didn’t seem to be able to control myself. I would not be that way if I could help it, of course. But perhaps you bring it out of me.”

“And Richard? He doesn’t bring that out of you?”

“Richard…?” Then she realized. “Oh, Colonel Fitzwilliam.” She bit down on her bottom lip. “He seems very interested in me, I suppose, and my family could stand allies as we attempt to make our way into these new circles of acquaintances and friends. Connection to him, it seems only intelligent.”

“So, you’re being practical?”

“No, I do like him. He’s… likable.”

“And I am not likable,” muttered Mr. Darcy.

“I only mean—”

“Attend to me, Miss Bennet, he is after your money.”

“I don’t think he—”

“If you need allies, consider me,” he said. “I have nothing to gain from associating with you. There is nothing I can take from you.”

She swallowed. “W-well… but you also seem to be… that is, I am quite confused about how I feel—”

“Think about it?” He gave her a small smile, and she was struck again by how very handsome he was. Had he always been this dazzling or did he look even better since he’d proposed marriage to her?

Her voice was stuck in her throat.

He took her hand and kissed the back of it. Then, with a little wave, he was down the stairs and into his own carriage. It pulled out onto the street, leaving her there alone.