Chapter 3

As he rode back to Netherfield, Darcy wondered what was happening at Longbourn. He was a little reassured by Bennet’s apparent care for his daughter, but not at all happy with his own impetuous request to offer for Miss Elizabeth.

He shook his head; it had been a foolish thing to do. And Bennet hadn’t told him to go away and forget about it. Instead he had told Darcy to call upon Miss Elizabeth if he meant to offer for her.

He was committed. It wasn’t that he hadn’t been thinking of offering, he reminded himself. But it wasn’t the right time. He had planned to go to Pemberley with Georgiana over the Christmas season, and consider carefully whether he could follow his heart.

But hearing Collins’ words had made him feel so ill, he’d not been able to think of anything but protecting Miss Elizabeth from that odious man.

So, if he went to Pemberley, someone else might take her heart, marry her and Darcy would have lost her forever. No, he must not expect that she might wait on his own convenience; if he had found the woman he wished to marry, then he must be about it at once.

Regardless, it was done. He knew the longer he was in company with Miss Elizabeth, the more he would fall in love. And she was a gentleman’s daughter. It was time to put aside the difficulties of her mother’s dreadful birth and the behaviour of the family, and concentrate on what he might be able to say to his family so they would accept his choice.

* * *

He was distractedfrom his thoughts as he rode up to the front door of Netherfield. His own coach was there, and second coach, laden with his trunks. He frowned; he’d forgotten he had arranged to return to town.

He dismounted, and a groom hurried up to take the horse as his valet approached him, looking worried.

“Well, Mr. Maunder, what’s been happening while I was gone?”

“Miss Bingley has ordered the house shut up, sir. She has gone to town with the Hursts, having dismissed the staff.”

Darcy sighed. “She must have risen early to have been ready to leave so soon.” And he had been a guest; he could hardly demand the house be reopened. “I had better go to see Mrs. Nicholls.” He turned to the steps. “And I have decided to stay in the country. Please leave my coach here for me, and take the other to the inn at Meryton and obtain the best rooms you can, and for all my staff, too. I am not sure how long I will be staying.”

He hurried up the steps, knowing he could leave the arrangements with his very competent servants, and at the door he met Mrs. Nicholls, who was looking quite anxious.

“May I arrange coffee for you, Mr. Darcy? We have not yet begun sheeting the public rooms.”

Darcy hesitated. “I would not wish to be any sort of trouble. Is the kitchen able to provide it? If not, it does not matter, I only wish to speak to you for a moment.”

It was only a few minutes when a maid with red-rimmed eyes carried in the tray of refreshments, followed by the housekeeper. He turned from pacing up and down the room, and nodded at them. “Thank you.”

He waited until the maid had left the room, and then turned to the older woman. “Shut the door, please.”

When they had some measure of privacy, he began. “I understand that has Miss Bingley ordered the house closed and dismissed the staff.”

Mrs. Nicholls’ face was impassive, as all good servants had learned to be, but he could sense her displeasure. “Yes, Mr. Darcy.”

He sighed. “And, looking at the maid’s expression just now, it is without pay.”

“Yes, and without references, too. Apart, of course, from the essential staff mentioned in the lease.”

He shook his head. “I don’t imagine Mr. Bingley would approve of it.”

“As you know, he left at dawn, sir. But he left no instructions about closing up the house.”

Darcy nodded. “I have no authority to order the house to stay open, Mrs. Nicholls, so I have told my man to take my belongings to the inn at Meryton. However, I will undertake to ensure that all staff receive three months’ wages, so they will not suffer over the Christmas season, and I will be writing to Mr. Bingley to ask him if he intends to return and if I may have the house reopened — for me to stay for a few weeks, even if he decides not to return.”

His speech was rewarded by a rare smile from the housekeeper, and a curtsied thanks. He barely heard her murmur to herself as she opened the door. “Perhaps Miss Bennet will not break her heart after all.”

* * *

Lunchat the inn was better than he had expected, and Darcy thanked the landlord before handing him the letter he’d written to Bingley. “Could you arrange this letter is sent express, please?” He turned back to the comfortable chair in the private parlour and put his book beside the coffee cup on the side table.

He hoped Bingley would agree to let him reopen Netherfield. Staying at the inn, with its restricted accommodation and lack of a library would be a strain on his temper.

The coffee cup stopped halfway to his mouth, as he stared out of the window. There would be less time to read here, certainly. If he was to call on Miss Elizabeth, he must prepare adequately; he must take care not to offend her.

Bennet had said she disliked him, and he felt himself flush. He must be sure to apologise to her for his slight at the assembly; but apart from that, her father was surely mistaken.

While they were both at Netherfield, she had been flirting with him, teasing him, and making impertinent comments.

Darcy had been entranced by the chestnut curl that always escaped her pins, falling down beside her left ear, and causing him to force his hand to remain still and not lift it and wind it around his fingers. He had waited with delight for that delicate eyebrow to arch before she sweetly spoke some cannonball to obstruct his breathing and make his heart stutter in his chest.

For the first time, he acknowledged to himself how much he loved her, and that for weeks now, he had watched her, enjoying her presence, and that his efforts to find fault had merely been an attempt to deny his love to himself.

He finished raising his cup and sipped it, smiling to himself. Finally, he knew what had ailed him these last weeks. And the knowing of it was a release of the strain of trying to deny himself.

No, he would marry her, and she would love Pemberley. And Georgiana would be pleased to have a sister like her.

He frowned; her father must know her better than he did. He must not ignore that. He huffed a laugh. Miss Elizabeth was a decided character, and if she indeed disliked him, he would have to work hard to gain her admiration.

He pondered for a few minutes more, and then got to his feet and crossed to the table, where he drew a sheet of paper towards him. He must try to remember what he had heard through that open window; all that she had objected to in Collins’ bungling offer. Then he could counter her objections.

He huffed a laugh and shook his head. He had plenty of material there to begin his task.

And he hoped he’d hear from Bingley tomorrow that he was ordering Netherfield reopened.

Perhaps his friend would return, and he recalled what he had heard Mrs. Nicholls murmur.