Darcy felt his gut tighten, but he spoke evenly when he said, “I know how to win a lady’s heart as well as the next man does.”
“I have never seen it.”
“Just because you have not seen it does not mean I am incapable of it.”
“What I have seen is your habit of keeping the ladies at a distance. Old habits die hard, do they not?”
“I love Elizabeth Bennet, and I shall do whatever it takes to win her, against any man, be he relation, friend, or foe. You may depend upon it.”
Fitzwilliam stood. He wore no sword, so it was a second or two before Darcy understood his upright stance and his meaning in raising his right arm, palm straight and pointed left, over his face, then lowering it sharply. A fencer’s salute.
Darcy rolled his eyes but then returned the gesture. “You pledge me a fair fight then?” he asked wryly.
“With all honour,” Fitzwilliam replied.
There was a silence between them as Darcy—and his cousin too, he supposed—considered the words that had passedbetween them. Fitzwilliam was first to drop his gaze, though there was no shame in his countenance. He looked, to Darcy’s eye, quite pleased with himself.
At length, Darcy said, “Let us begin by going to Bingley. If we have no means to so much asseethe lady, this entire contest becomes near to impossible.”
CHAPTER TWO
The two gentlemen exited Darcy’s town house in silence. Darcy’s carriage had been brought round, and Fitzwilliam stopped briefly to look at it.
“Something wrong with my carriage?” Darcy asked as they entered and settled themselves.
“Did you not tell me you had lately commissioned one new?”
“I did.”
“An engagement present for Miss Bennet, was it?” Fitzwilliam regarded him with an impertinent grin and raised brows.
“A premature commission, but yes,” Darcy replied, feeling a flush of embarrassment heat his face. He hoped the shadows within the carriage concealed it. He reached up to knock, signalling his men to begin driving.
Fitzwilliam shook his head. “If you had spent more time considering the proposal itself, and less time commissioning engagement gifts, we would not be having this conversation.”
Darcy did not reply to that.
“I daresay it was an appropriate gift for her, though. From what you have said, I should imagine Miss Bennet does not have her own conveyance.”
“The Bennets had one carriage that I ever saw. I know not if there were others.”
“Then perhaps we ought to sweeten this wager a bit,” Fitzwilliam suggested. “If you lose, the carriage is mine to give to her.”
“And if you lose? What shall I have?”
“I do not intend to lose,” Fitzwilliam replied loftily. “Like I always tell my men—if you go into battle imagining defeat, then you are sure to be defeated. The vision of victory must always be in mind.”
Darcy clenched his jaw and looked out of the window. Fitzwilliam was behaving like a presumptuous idiot, but that hardly signified. An uncomfortable truth was beginning to take root within him: Fitzwilliam might win. Elizabeth liked his cousin, and she hated him. The advantage was his cousin’s.
You wish me to keep victory at the forefront of my mind, and so I shall.
At their club,they found Bingley seated at a table full of younger gentlemen. His appearance—cravat wilted, hair tousled, eyes red-rimmed—led Darcy to believe that they had all been at the infamous game at Boodle’s, likely all night.
He and Fitzwilliam took their seats and sat for a time, mostly in silence among the chatter. They were not gentlemen Darcy typically consorted with, nor did his cousin. They were a younger set, men whose money was new and for whom London life remained nothing but an endless round of parties. Nevertheless, uninterested as Darcy was in the discussion, he found his ears pricking up at several references to Bingley’s ‘angel’ and thegeneral understanding that there would be, soon, one less man among their ranks.
When at last the others had excused themselves, Bingley offered a smile to his friend. “Darcy! Colonel! Have you heard about this nonsense they got up to at Boodle’s?”
“A little.” Fitzwilliam signalled to the servant to bring fresh drinks. “Forgive me, we did not intend to send your group scurrying off.”
