“No. Go to my bed and sleep a little longer. The maid must see you there to avoid gossip.” He smiled faintly. “What would Mr. Collins say if he heard my new bride slept on the couch?”
She giggled and stood. He watched her cross the room, her loose curls falling past her shoulders. His gaze lingered on the graceful line of her ankles and calves as she slipped beneath the coverlet.
“Did you rest well on that hard couch?”
“I did. I was exhausted from the long day and from the shock of seeing Nicholas and his wife. I wish I had known what he truly valued. I would have hardened my heart against him.”
Darcy folded a blanket. “He did you no lasting harm, and you must remember he was very young. What was his age when he left you?”
“Nineteen.”
“He was but a boy, Elizabeth. Most men are not ready to commit until their late twenties. I believe you should forgive him.”
She huffed. “He could have told me he meant to go away to university and find a well-dowered woman. He might have given me two or three years’ notice so that I could prepare myself. Instead, he told me the day before he left.”
Darcy folded another blanket. “Perhaps he did not know. Could his father have withheld the information to spare himself years of complaint?”
“Perhaps. Mr. Jones did not like conflict. His character is much like my sister Jane’s. Such persons will avoid contention whenever possible.”
Darcy folded the last blanket and nodded. “Like Bingley. I hope he has the strength of character to send Caroline north to his uncle.”
Elizabeth sighed. “Sir, I am sorry that your good name and reputation are at risk, and all on my account.”
He stopped near the bedside, the folded blankets in his arms. “Think no more of it, Elizabeth. I chose to marry you as you chose to marry me. We agreed to take the risk together, and I donot repent my decision. I believe, as you do, that it was the right one.”
Richard was startled awake at six o’clock by Darcy’s valet. He groaned. The night’s adventure had broken his rest, and he was exhausted. He dragged himself from the bed, bathed, dressed, and went down to the breakfast parlor.
He started slightly when Bingley spoke from the corner. The man was never up before half past ten. Had that termagant squealed to her brother? Had she decided to make good on her plan to entrap him? And he had just been feeling guilty about giving her the fright of her life. It had all been for nought. Richard flushed but steadied himself. Years of service had taught him to wait, watch, think, and then speak or act, whichever was appropriate.
He crossed the room with deliberate calm and began to serve himself from the sideboard. Bingley, who looked worn and sleepless, set his cup of coffee down and joined him.
“You look beaten, Bingley,” Richard said lightly. “What gives?”
“My sister,” Bingley sighed. “She decided to leave. Today. Before breakfast. She had Stevens drag me from bed at four o’clock. Her trunks were packed, and she was dressed. She demanded the carriage be brought round.”
Richard grinned. “So, she is gone?”
“Yes. I sent her to my uncle Ambrose, who owns an estate in the hill country north of Selby. He is strict. She thinks she is bound for Aunt Almira in Leeds, but that is much too urbane for my sister. She would find mischief there in no time. I sent my head coachman and my strongest man to attend her. If the gods haveany mercy upon me, they will cause my cousin Augustus to fall in love with her and keep her.”
Richard raised his brows. “Bingley, you might help that love along. Sweeten the pot with another five thousand pounds added to her dowry. Tell me, is this cousin a clever man? Could he manage her?”
“All my cousins are clever. We were all sent to study at Cambridge or Oxford. And we have all shown ourselves to be good with whatever enterprise we have set our hand to. But my Bingley cousins are not men of resolve, whereas Augustus, from my mother’s side, has a strength of character that could withstand my sister’s willfulness.”
Richard paused and turned back to him. “If he is so clever, why is he buried on this remote estate you speak of?”
“My uncle Ambrose runs a sheep farm on ten thousand acres. Augustus resides there now, supervising the construction of new shearing sheds and hogg houses. The sheep dips are already built.”
Well, well, perhaps Miss Caroline has met her match.
Aloud, he said, “It seems a large dowry may not easily sway this cousin. That branch of your family must be quite wealthy.”
Bingley said, “They are, but my north-country cousins have a soft spot for red-haired lasses. They believe them livelier in the bedchamber.”
Richard thought back to the night before. Nothing in Caroline’s demeanor led him to believe that to be true of her. She seemed the sort of woman to withhold rather than bestow affection. Last night she had dressed to tempt and to tease, yet even a little tipsy, she had shrunk beneath the covers.
He shook his head pessimistically. “I wish your cousin well. “Excuse my bluntness, Bingley, but it will take a strong man to tame that particular shrew, and I do not envy the man who will have to do it.”
Bingley laughed. “Nor I. I know how difficult it is. A constant struggle, and I am exhausted by it. I will add the extra five thousand to her dowry, and after breakfast, I shall write to my cousin, asking him to consider taking her for wife.”
