Georgiana grimaced. “She said some cruel things.” She bowed her head. “I have not been very kind to Elizabeth or Jane.”
Darcy reassured her, “You could not have chosen anyone more disposed to forgive than those two ladies.”
She did not look so certain. “In time for the wedding?”
If there was going to be a wedding.
Richard supplied what Darcy could not say. “He and Elizabeth had a… misunderstanding.”
“About what?” The ensuing silence grew more uncomfortable the longer Richard and Darcy stared at everything in the room except the source of the argument. Georgiana was not fooled. “Was it about me?”
“In a way. Elizabeth is convinced her sister loves Bingley.”
“And you meant him for me!” Georgiana buried her face in Darcy’s crumpled handkerchief. “Oh, what a disaster! But”—she peeked from behind the cloth—“if Jane truly loved him, would she not have fought harder for him?”
Darcy sighed. “That was what I argued. I called her indifferent.”
“You did not!” Georgiana cried.
“Oh, yes, he did,” Richard commented. “Dunderhead here claims to have more insight into Miss Bennet’s character than her own sister does. Elizabeth, with three younger sisters, is well-versed in the ways of sixteen-year-old ladies. She contended that your inclination toward Bingley was likely not of the till-death-do-us-part variety.”
Georgiana grasped onto Darcy’s arm with both of her hands. “You must apologize at once, or I will have ruined everything! I beg you not to allow it! Please, go to her and apologize.”
“I shall try.”
“Grovel is the word,” contributed Richard.
“I shall do my best, but”—had Darcy’s arms not been immobilized by his little sister, he would have shoved his hands into his hair and pulled—“she was severely disappointed… to the point of calling off the wedding.”
Georgiana’s reaction stupefied Darcy. He had expected a gasp; instead, she grinned at him and squeezed his arm. She finally let go to cross her arms and tilt her chin. “I am told that Elizabeth is disposed to forgive.”
Impertinent lass!Darcy shook his head, a smile breaking through his gloom.
Richard roared.
They did not hear the ruckus out in the hall until the door burst open and Bingley’s butler stepped inside. The poor man was so flustered that Darcy thought to offer him a chair.
The cause of the butler’s shaken appearance brushed past him. “Darcy, I shall have a word with you,” snapped Her Ladyship, Aunt Catherine.
Uncle Hugh entered next. “Not now, Catherine.”
Anne came in next, rolling her eyes, her voice dripping with exasperation. “I wanted to return to Kent, but Mama insisted we come here.”
Aunt Catherine stabbed the Aubusson carpet with her cane. “You do not know what is best, Anne. Your engagement to Darcy has been a long-standing arrangement since you were infants. I shallnotallow a country chit to make a fool out of my nephew and ruin your future.”
Uncle Hugh looked heavenward. After a deep breath, he spoke with strained forbearance, “Darcy is a grown man, fully capable of making his own decisions without your interference. It is about time you got that through your thick skull.” With that, his patience had reached his limit. It took Richard and Aunt Helen’s intervention to separate the quarreling brother and sister.
Darcy was frozen in place. It struck him like a lightning bolt: he had very nearly done to Bingley what Aunt Catherine had been doing to him since birth. Had he really expected Bingley to wait years and then marry the lady of Darcy’s choosing? How arrogant and high-handed! Granted, he had taught Bingley a great deal and had made no official claim on him for Georgiana, but Darcy hadhopedit would happen and did everything he could tomakeit happen.
Richard had challenged him; so had Elizabeth. Although Darcy had heard their words, had thought he understood them, it was not until this instant, seeing a glimpse of himself reflected in his most unreasonable aunt, that Darcy finally recognized how right they had been.
He had been ridiculous, arrogant, and nonsensical. That Elizabeth saw this in him and still favored him at all was a miracle that infused Darcy with hope. If Elizabeth might love him, even just a little, with these terrible faults, he could not let her go without a fight.
Taking his aunt Catherine by the shoulders and stopping her mid-rebuttal, Darcy did his best to adapt Bingley’s pretty speech to his present circumstances.
Aunt Catherine slapped his hands away. “Have you gone mad?”
Clasping his hands before him, Darcy replied, “Thank you for believing me to be the best match for your only daughter and wanting to entrust Anne’s happiness to me. However, she has made it plain to me that she does not wish to marry at all, and I am in love with a lady whom I do not deserve but shall marry on Monday, if she will still have me.”
