What Lady Catherine said was true, and the shame Darcy felt on that account filled him again.
The instant he had put together why Lady Catherine had arranged for Lord Rochester and Elizabeth to face each other he had been filled with a sense of horror because he had not asked Elizabeth to marry him before he knew her true circumstances.
He loved her. He admired her more than anyone else he had ever known. And he desired nothing more in life than to have the right to protect her forever.
But he had not even, at least not until the last few days, even considered the possibility of asking her to marry him. Andnow...it seemed to him as though making an offer to a girl who would now be wealthy and titled, when he had not when she was poor and believed herself to be illegitimate, would mark a weakness of his own character.
He had not been worthy.
She was in fact, as she always had been, too good for him.
Darcy did sit down, staring at his hands. If Elizabeth needed him, he would still do anything for her. Even if he was unworthy to protect her, she may stillneedhim.
“Rather a surprise to you,” Colonel Fitzwilliam said to Darcy. “Youlike her a great deal. It cannot be wholly unpleasant to learn of her birth.”
Hartley stood with them. Those tears that he easily shed covered his face. “Alive...she really is alive. Papa did not kill either of them. All this time...do you think I might speak with her? Would she—she is rightly frightened of Papa. She remembers it clearly. But—Papa,” Lord Hartley spoke to his father who after a conversation with Lady Catherine had begun to strive towards the door. “You must wish for us to be a family. To live together as friends. You must not press Elizabeth so far. With what she remembers, if you attempt to force her to return with us, she will be likely to avoid us and—”
“She is my daughter. I will have her with me. She will come under my authority once again. Lady Catherine has told me enough that I know that damned small fellow mangled her education. I shall rectify that. I shall startnow. She has been stolen from me, but she is nowmineagain.”
“Papa, if you are not so impetuous,” Lord Hartley said, “I hope that we can convince Elizabeth to freely come with us. She must want to know both of us, to know her position and the house she belongs to.”
“She is not yours,” Darcy said. “She is her own person, nearly of age, and fully capable of making her own decisions.”
“Darcy,” Lord Rochester said with a blaze in his eyes, “if you attempt to interfere once more with my management of my daughter, I will call you out.”
Darcy stared at the man, his throat working.
“Papa, you are overwrought. Let us all rest.” Lord Hartley grabbed his father’s arm. “This cannot be managed tonight. If you approach Elizabeth in this manner—Mr. Darcy, do you think she would accept my presence?”
“Mr. Darcy has nothing to do with a woman whose lawful guardians have never permitted him to speak with her,” said Lord Rochester. “Robert, you do not care sufficiently for the dignity of our house. No stomach. I saw you crying.”
“If Lord Rochester kills you,” Colonel Fitzwilliam said to them all with a fake cheerfulness, “I will avenge you, Darcy.”
Something about his cousin’s eyes suggested that he was joking neither about the fear of Lord Rochester trying to kill Darcy nor the plan to kill him afterwards.
“Papa! Elizabeth has been returned to us, beyond any hope that I ever had. Do you wish to destroy what hope we can have a reconciliation?” Lord Hartley replied desperately. “I wish to rejoice in my found sister. And in knowing, at last, that you did not...”
Lord Rochester glared at his son.
“I would at least take it kindly,” Hartley said with a forced smile that oddly reminded Darcy of Elizabeth’s manner, “if you did not threaten to duel one of my dearest friends.”
“What reconciliation? She is a child who was kidnapped from her father. I shall now return her to my house. Lady Catherine, might I have the aid of your footmen to ensure that no one interferes with my recovery of Lady Elizabeth from the relations of her thief.”
Lady Catherine seemed rather startled by this herself. “Rochester, she will return to you in good time. But she is anindependent sort of girl. She has a bit of the iron that is in you in her. It would not be wise in my view to—”
“I am her father. This is my right. I demand all my rights. Will you help me assert my rights.”
Lady Catherine sighed. “Always so stubborn. Too sure of yourself, too unwilling to listen to counsel.” She rang the bell. When the butler came in, she said, “Assemble all of the footmen, we are going to all walk over to the parsonage.”
Colonel Fitzwilliam had a grim look to his face. He whispered to Darcy, “Order your carriage called round to the parsonage. Quickly now. Do you have a gun in your luggage?”
“For a visit to my aunt’s house?”
“I’ll give you one of mine then.”
The two of them stepped out the door, followed by Lord Hartley. He looked pale. “My father is mad. It must be the apoplexy. Or...”
“This is who he has always been,” Darcy said as he walked quickly towards the exit to the house nearest the stables.
