“I can see that. But why on earth do you think I gave a fig about Elizabeth Bennet if you did not consider yourself honour-bound to me?”
“I assumed your reasons were the same as my own. Family, duty, reputation.”
Anne gave him a small, crooked smile. “When all along it was plain old jealousy.”
Worse and worse. She had not only believed they would marry, she had desired it! He looked away to the fireplace, searching for something to say that would lessen the injury of the misunderstanding. Nothing occurred to him. There was nothing he could say that would mitigate the fact that he neither considered himself promised to her, nor had he any intention of becoming so. He adjusted his attitude in his seat and let out a sharp sigh.
“Cousin, I beg you would forgive me. It never occurred to me that you?—”
“Oh, do not torture yourself, Darcy. You do it far too well. You will make me feel bad. You must understand, I wasjealous because I have been brought up to believe you were mine by right. But my heart is not engaged. I am fond of you, of course, but only in the way one is fond of a favourite cushion.” She shrugged. “You are nice to look at, and you are useful in an uncomfortable situation.”
“Charmed, I am sure.”
“I do notmeanto be charming. I am attempting to break an engagement that apparently never existed. It is very difficult to do something unkind when everybody is so pleased with the result.”
“Are you pleased?”
“I believe I am, yes. That is the point. I never questioned the arrangement because there was never anybody in my mind more worthy to be my husband than you. My mother taught me—taught both of us, I dare say—to think meanly of all the rest of the world. I have been encouraged to think you and I are superior to everyone who matters, and best suited for each other as a consequence.
“My short time in Hertfordshire opened my eyes to the possibility of there being better alternatives for me. I do not mean to say I now consider youunworthy.Far from it. You are one of the best men I have ever known, Darcy.Only, we have much less in common than I used to think. And, well, I certainly do not feel about you the way you feel about Miss Elizabeth.”
He was too taken aback and too overcome with the exhilarating anticipation that accompanied every thought of Elizabeth to answer.
Anne nodded as though satisfying herself of something. “You love her, do you not?”
“Yes,” he replied simply, eschewing any more syllables, for no quantity of words could ever convey the expansiveness of what he felt.
“I thought as much. I assumed at first it was a passing fascination. Georgiana made it sound more, but I could not believe you were serious—not considering her condition in life, which you must admit isdire, and her disposition, which even from your sister’s bizarrely quixotic account left a good deal to be desired. But then I saw you with her.”
Darcy had been about to vehemently defend Elizabeth’s honour, but this last remark quite knocked him off balance.
Anne pulled a pitying face. “Dear Darcy, look at you, all bemused. But it is obvious to anyone who knows you. You areonlyhappy when you are with her. At all other times, you are an awful object, impatient with everyone, angry at everything. But when you are with Miss Elizabeth, you smile—youjoke, for heaven’s sake. I never knew you could. She lightens you, somehow. It is quite touching now that I have ceased being vexed by it. And, of course, nobody could mistake your feelings after you left your sister there, so you had an excuse to go back.”
Darcy did not smile, though not because he was unhappy. Rather, he felt too much to be light-hearted. “That was not my purpose for leaving Georgiana there, at least, not the one I avowed to myself. When I left, it was with a promise to Bingley that I would return for his feast a week on Monday, and a resolve to reason myself out of any irrational sentiments before I did. I hoped the trip to Rosings would remind me what I owed my family.”
Anne laughed bitterly. “That worked tremendously, then.”
“Quite. Your mother had not been in the house more than a few minutes before I realised I owed her nothing.” He did not mention how significantly Anne’s own performance over the last fortnight had aided him in his volte-face.
“So now, yourrealpurpose in leaving Georgiana at Netherfield has come to fruition. Bravo! I only hope Miss Elizabeth will accept you.”
Anne said it laughingly, but with just such a hint of sincerity as pierced Darcy’s felicity like a hot knife. “What?”
“Well, she did not seem very pleased with you at dinner last Thursday.”
Relief banished a measure of his alarm. “I am happy to report that was a misunderstanding. Bingley informed me that thanks to a letter from his sister and some of your choicer remarks at Lucas Lodge, the Bennets were all under the impression he had brought Georgiana there as his betrothed. It took most of the evening for the mistake to come to light.”
“I see. I thought she must still dislike you for saying she was only tolerably handsome.”
The knife cut a little deeper. “That is the second time you have made reference to that remark.”
“Do not deny you said it.”
“I shall not, but I should like to know howyouknow I said it. If Bingley told you, then he has been unusually indiscreet.”
“Not as indiscreet as you saying it directly in front of her in the first place.”
The knife was in up to the hilt now and being twisted. The memory of Mr Bennet’s odd little smirk as he accused him of slighting one of his daughters made Darcy feel suddenly bilious.
