Darcy squeezed her hand. He said softly, “You will be safe. You are so brave.”
“I think I shall faint,” Elizabeth said. “And such a day, to be filled with so much. I feel as though I hardly understand anything. Such a day.”
“It has been a busy day,” Darcy said with a smile. “Such a day.”
Elizabeth closed her eyes and placed her head against his shoulder. Her breathing was still hitched and agitated.
For several minutes they were all silent.
At last, Elizabeth opened her eyes, but she did not move her head, or the soft hair from where she pressed against Darcy’s arm, “Colonel Fitzwilliam, I am most grateful to you for protecting me from the consequences that would have followed if my shot had found its mark.”
“I doubt that they would have hung you, with the circumstances.” Colonel Fitzwilliam shrugged. “It seemed the wisest course to avoid anything of the sort. It is too easy to kill.”
“Mr. Darcy,” she said quietly, not looking up from where her head was against his arm. “I thank you also. You do not worry—can he charge you for taking his child from him, or something?”
“I do not believe so,” Darcy said doubtfully. “I would be surprised if he could do anything to you at present, legally that is.”
“That is my guess as well,” Colonel Fitzwilliam said. “The law would do nothing to aid you if you were in his house, noteven if everyone knew it was against your will. But I do not consider it likely that you would be forced into his care either. Not at your present age... A pity almost that I stopped you. The tale would have fully compensated for what I have lost in it being proven that my uncle didnotmurder his own child.”
Elizabeth giggled in a hysterical way. “If I’d killed him that would have been a good story too. I shot at him. I meant to kill him. Hammer back, pull the trigger. Bang.”
She needed his comfort. Darcy put his arm around her and held her tight. “You are safe, Elizabeth, you are safe.”
“Hahahahaha. I nearly shot my own father. The man of my dreams. Hahaha. I always dreamed about him. Hitting me. Shouting bastard. Hahahaha. Shooting the man of my dreams.”
Her whole body shook.
Darcy kissed the top of her head. “You are safe. You are safe.”
She sobbed into Darcy’s coat. He murmured again and again that she was safe, that she was brave, and that he was proud of her.
Slowly she settled herself.
He gave her his handkerchief to dry her eyes with and blow her nose. Once she had done this Elizabeth said, “I apologize. Lord Hartley, I particularly apologize to you.Youhave right to unhappiness on account of what I did.”
“Nonsense,” he said. “Call me Robert. We are brother and sister. I’ve certainly thought of shooting him. But then what child has not had a detailed fantasy of killing one of their parents?”
Elizabeth nodded seriously, as though it made perfect sense. Colonel Fitzwilliam appeared to be about a third as disturbed as Darcy felt.
“I hope,” Elizabeth said quietly, “that Lady Catherine will not make much problem for Mary and Mr. Collins. They dependgreatly on her for their entertainments and position. But must I flee the country? What legal right does he have over me at this age? Of course I cannot marry without his permission.” She laughed again, in a way which showed that hysteria was not wholly banished. “I can’t marry without his permission. Hahahaha.”
Darcy was quite concerned, and he could see that Hartley was also worried. Colonel Fitzwilliam slightly smiled, andheshowed no concern at Elizabeth’s manner, and he was the only one of them who had any experience with how people might act after surviving a battle.
“Were you planning,” Colonel Fitzwilliam asked, “to get married at any soon date?”
Elizabeth’s laughter became more hysterical, but when she calmed herself, she sat herself up and pulled away from Darcy. She primly held herself erect. The loss ached. “I can never marry...except I can. I can now. Everyone will know, and there is nothing shameful, at least not formeaboutthissecret.”
“You always were able marry if you wished,” Darcy said. His voice was quiet.
“To think that I confessed to you this afternoon that I was illegitimate—” Then to the two other gentlemen. “For such I thought myself to be. And so much has happened. I do not think it has been a full four hours yet.”
“There can be hours or minutes,” Colonel Fitzwilliam said, “when the fates of men or nations change more than in entire ordinary decades.”
Elizabeth smoothed out her dress. “So strange. The daughter of an earl. No wonder Papa—Mr. Bennet I mean—hid this from me. He wished to keep it from me until I was of age, do you really think it will be safe to return to Longbourn? If Lord Rochester organizes a pursuit, would he have the right to take me? He is most concerned about his rights.”
Hartley snorted. “That is all my father has ever cared about. His rights. But he wasn’t a murderer. At least not that.”
Elizabeth opened her mouth but then frowned and shrugged.
