“If you would take pleasure from our dances, may I add to your delectation by requesting the supper set as well?” Darcy added. He did not miss the happiness written on her face.
“Yes, thank you, Liam. I would like to dance that set with you as well,” Elizabeth agreed.
Darcy knew he was grinning like a fool as if he was the cat who had discovered all of the cream, and it was his and his alone. He did not realise that his happiness at her answer had revealed both of his dimples.
For her part, Elizabeth was beyond pleased he had asked for two of her significant sets. It proved to her that she was not the only one of the two who was falling in love. Thanks to what both Andy and Rich had told her, she knew Liam would never open the ball nor dance the supper set with one for whom he did not care. It went far further than being cousins by marriage.
Bringing up the rear, other than the two guards riding behind them, Mary and Richard had noticed something significant had passed between Lizzy and Liam. “I think he has finally gotten up the courage to solicit Lizzy for a dance or two,” Richard opined. “If Liam were not unsure of Lizzy’s feelings towards him, I believe he would be asking for more than two sets at your ball.” ‘Like I would love to ask of you,’ Richard added to himself silently.
“It is hard to see Lizzy’s true feelings through her playful and teasing façade,” Mary responded. “However, I can tell you that if Liam requested a courtship, he would receive a positive response. It is in her eyes. You can see that she has deep feelings for him and uses her humour as a foil to mask her true feelings in case they are not returned in full measure.” Mary got a wistful look. ‘I know Mama and Papa want Richard to wait to declare himself until next year. I, however, wish there was no such restriction.’ Her parents were reasonable; she would speak to them when she and the others in the party returned to Devonshire House for a belated midday meal.
“So it seems they are both holding back for the same reason. I will put Liam out of his misery and share your insights into Lizzy’s mask with him.” Richard paused. “Mary, I will be resigning from the army right after your ball. It is time.”
Mary felt great relief at Richard’s declaration. Even if…when…he offered for her, she would have never demanded he leave the army, but she would have been worried for him every second he was away from England and in a combat zone. That was no longer something about which she needed to concern herself.
“Did I tell you that I will be accompanying my parents and cousin to Kent on Monday?” He asked quickly. Mary shook her head. “It is time to go defang my Aunt Catherine. Father thought he could leave the status quo for longer, but after sending her lackey forth, having stoked the fires of his delusions to the point they took over his life, she cannot be left at the helm of Anne’s estate.” Richard looked at Mary and wondered how much she knew about his cousin in Kent. Obliquely her cousin by marriage. “Have you been told about Anne?”
“Mama and Grandmama Anna have mentioned her and that she is of indifferent health, but not more than that.”
Richard told Mary about Anne being almost taken by scarlet fever and the disease leaving her heart and lungs much weaker. He explained that since she turned five and twenty in July past, the estate, the de Bourgh fortune, and de Bourgh House on Berkeley Square were all hers. “However, her indifferent health supposedly does not allow her to manage her holdings as she needs to do. My father, who is the executor of the late Sir Lewis’s will, has implemented all of the clauses which bar Lady Catherine from accessing estate funds or causing too much damage. When we meet with the solicitor at the estate on Tuesday, an addendum to the will is to be read. My late uncle was aware that Anne’s health would more than likely not allow her to take charge of everything.”
“Has she always been alone at Rosings Park?”
“Yes. That is unfortunately correct. My Aunt Cat—she hates being called that—would not allow Anne to make any friends in the area because, she claimed, there was no one high enough to associate with her daughter. Then of course there are the absolute untruths she tells about Anne and Fitz…Liam…being engaged to one another.”
“What does Lady Catherine hope to gain if they were to marry?” Mary raised her hand. “You need not say it; it is as plain as the nose on my face that Liam has eyes for only one woman, and she is ahead of us.” She inclined her head towards Lizzy.
“Once my Aunt Anne and Uncle Robert had both been called home to God, Aunt Cat began to tell a fiction that Anne and Liam had been betrothed in their cradles. The only problem, well, one of many, was that as he is three years older than Anne, they were never in their cradles at the same time, and it is well known that neither my late aunt nor uncle ever made any such promise or signed any marriage contract. In fact, first his motherand then his father, each on her or his deathbed, charged Liam to make a love match like they had enjoyed.
“The only reason Aunt Cat is pushing her lie is that she thinks that if Anne and Liam were to marry, he would take Anne north to Pemberley and leave her to rule over her fiefdom. Unfortunately, she does not only employ delusional underlings, but she is also rather delusional herself.”
All Mary could do was shake her head. To her it seemed like Lady Catherine saw her daughter as a pawn in her game to take complete control of Rosings Park. Given her own mama and the other strong, loving women she and her siblings had been raised by, it was very hard to comprehend a mother who saw her daughter as a means to an end.
“Then I am well pleased I will not meet your aunt. Regardless of the fact I should respect my elders, I doubt I would have been able to stop myself from issuing the woman a well-deserved setdown,” Mary asserted.
“Trust me when I tell you that no one in the family would be anything but impressed if you took my aunt to task.” Richard grinned.
Mary and Richard noticed that Liam directed Zeus to close the gap between himself and Lizzy’s mare once again as he had when he had spoken to her previously in an intimate fashion. They assumed he had more to say to Lizzy.
“Are you aware I will be one of the party who travels into Kent to deal with Lady Catherine?” Darcy enquired once he was close enough to speak easily.
“No, I had not been told that,” Elizabeth replied. “Do you know how long you will be there, and who besides you, and I assume Uncle Reggie, will be among those who travel to the de Bourgh estate?”
“You guessed accurately about our uncle. Aunt Elaine and Richard will also travel with us,” Darcy revealed.
Elizabeth twisted herself to look back at Mary and Richard, who were deep in conversation. “If I did not know better, I would say that Richard is busy informing Mary about his being part of the group travelling to Kent,” Elizabeth opined once she turned back to face forward.
“As soon as the date your father gave Richard as the first time he may declare himself to Mary passes, I am positive he will be asking Mary a rather important question. I know he has been counting the days.”
“It is good they are second cousins. There is a treatise Mama and I read which claims that first cousins marrying one another can lead to deficiencies in any children produced by the union. Given how prevalent that is among the upper ten thousand, it is not a very popular opinion.”
“So then there should be no problems of that nature between cousins by marriage who have no blood ties at all.” The tips of Darcy’s ears turned red with embarrassment. He had not meant to make such a direct hint about his feelings for Elizabeth. When he ventured to look at her, rather than being upset, he saw her face suffused with pleasure. Could it be that he had been worried for no reason, and she was open to hearing him speak?
“You are correct, Liam. There would be noimpedimentto such a match.” Elizabeth blushed becomingly as she said the last.
Darcy could not but grin from ear to ear. He had not misheard her. Elizabeth had given him a clear message that his suit would be welcomed. “When we return to Devonshire House, you do not object to my seeing your father to beg a private audience with you, do you?”
“No, Liam, I have no objection to your doing so.” Elizabeth felt warm all over with the anticipation of what was to come.
