“I have long understood that your liveliness is just what I need to perhaps soften my own severity, and improve my manners. And I have hoped that there are things within my own nature that could add to your character as well.”
“Your superior understanding of the world,” she supplied. “And your excellent judgment. I have long known I could not marry a man that I did not respect as my superior—Mr Collins taught me that immediately—and even when you angered me, I still had to respect you for your honour and your probity, among other things.”
He was vastly pleased she had said so; she could read it in his face. “You have said more than I might ever have dreamt of on entering this room.” He glanced around. “This delightful, charming room that I shall forever honour. But I must say one more thing to you, and that is simply that I love you, dearly andcompletely, and will make it always my foremost object to see that you are happy.”
“I love you too,” she said. “And it will be my glad delight to see to your happiness for all of my days.”
“You locked them in?”Wickham asked Miss Lydia.
He had not been invited to the ball—likely Darcy had seen tothat—but Miss Lydia had urged him to come regardless, saying that so long as he arrived late enough to miss the reception line, no one would notice him among the officers. He had to, after all, to see how Darcy was doing. He had determined that, if need be, he would do as he must to ensure Darcy got the girl, so that he would get his money.
But it seemed dear Miss Lydia had taken care of things in his stead.
“I did!” she replied unrepentantly. “They fight all the time. They will either kill one another or end up in love, I am sure of it.”
Wickham wondered when it was that Miss Lydia had become so perspicacious. “Well, let us go see how things are proceeding.”
Very shortly thereafter, they were tiptoeing down the hall below stairs, by the kitchen. They both listened for a time, hearing nothing at all coming from within. Wickham had just turned to ask Miss Lydia whether she was certain they were yet in there when he heard it—a little breathy moan of pleasure.
Miss Lydia’s eyes flew wide, and she looked like she might burst out laughing, so Wickham grabbed her by the hand and they ran, silently, a short distance away where they could speak without fear of being heard. As soon as she could, Miss Lydia burst into giggles.
Wickham barely stopped himself from kissing her. Vexatious as she was, she had singlehandedly won the bet for him. He knew not to what extent the pot had grown, but reckoned he was in for a sizeable piece. Would Hurst, he wondered, know the fullness of it? Or could he be perhaps contented with some part of what he was owed so that Wickham himself might enjoy the rest?
“Lizzy must have accepted him. She would never be so wanton otherwise,” Miss Lydia said with another burst of giggles.
“So it seems she has,” Wickham agreed. Elizabeth Bennet had always seemed to be the fiery sort, Wickham thought ruefully, and Darcy had so long denied himself carnal pleasure, he would be a powder keg to her flame. Who knew what some time in supposed privacy might result in for the pair of them?
“Let us give them about half an hour more. Then you will go to your father and tell him you are worried about your sister. Send him down here to catch them—that should lead to some fun, to be sure!”
“There was something I wondered about,”Elizabeth said.
For a man presently incarcerated in a cupboard, Darcy was blissfully happy. He should be well pleased to remain a week if it meant he was with her.Though I doubt I could remain a gentleman for a week, he thought.It will be hard enough if we must stay here until Mrs Nicholls retires for the night.
“What is that?”
“I thought it very strange—did not you?—that your cousin should have been given land and yet seemingly had no interest in going to see it.”
“That is true,” he said slowly. “I should have imagined he would be travelling to Salt Hill straightaway.”
“Salt Hill? He told me it was called Saint’s Hill! And I thought it doubly strange when he told me that he had never seen the place despite it being quite close to Matlock and the seat of his own relation. Surely at some point he would have seen the place?”
“No, it is not in Derbyshire. Middlesex, I believe.”
“He told me Derbyshire. I am certain of it.”
Therewassomething amiss in it all; Darcy could not quite put his finger on it. He had been so very occupied with winning Elizabeth that he had paid no mind to Fitzwilliam and his new land. It was difficult to make himself care about it, however, not with Elizabeth on his lap, absently winding her fingers in the curls at his neck.
“Do you think it is possible...” Elizabeth began slowly. She stopped herself then, saying, “No, that cannot be.”
“What cannot be?”
“Lord Saye accidentally said something to me yesterday. He started to say ‘that is why we—’ but then he stopped himself and would say no more, save for one other comment about the colonel’s intentional cruelty to you—which his lordship described as needful.”
“Needful?”
She nodded. “They were both, it seems, excessively alarmed by the notion of you proposing to Miss de Bourgh. To add to all of that, I began to think of how strangely the colonel has behaved towards me, almost as if he wished to give the appearance of wooing me, but not actually wooing me.”
“No?”
