Darcy kept his countenance carefully neutral so as not to alarm her with the extent of his consternation. “I did not realise they intended to go there. They said nothing of it.”
The woman shrank into her seat. Perhaps he had not kept his countenance as blank as he had intended.
“I am afraid I cannot answer for that, sir.”
“I can.”
Darcy turned around slowly, undesirous of appearing unduly irate. Anne was walking calmly into the room with Georgiana behind her as though they had been nowhere more contentious than the drawing room. She lowered herself with exaggerated state into a chair and arranged her skirts before troubling herself to explain.
“The notion occurred to me when the carriages were all brought out of the stables. I thought it the perfect opportunity to visit my new friend, Miss Elizabeth.”
Darcy bit back his words, clamping his mouth closed on a most ungentlemanlike outburst. He knew not why Anne had expressed surprise over his always being angry about things when she gave him such constant reason to be vexed. With forced composure, he asked Mrs Jenkinson to leave them.
“What have you done?” he enquired of Anne as soon as her companion was gone. She looked wholly unrepentant. His sister, on the other hand, looked petrified, and he regretted not asking her to leave also.
“We have not done anything, Brother,” she said in the same, timorous tone she always used when she had done something she thought would displease him—which wasall the timeof late. “We only went to pay a call on Miss Elizabeth and her sisters.”
“Through three feet of snow? What was it you wished to say to her that was so urgent it could not wait for more clement weather?”
She flinched and looked anxiously at Anne, who sighed affectedly. “It is notthree feet.Itis not even one!But I own, I did not think it would get so heavy. What does it matter? We are back safely.”
“Which is whythatis not what concerns me,” he retorted. “Though I should have been a good deal less forbearing had any harm come to my sister. Or my coachman. Or my horses!” He took a deep breath to dispel the anger that stretched his composure tauter by the moment. “Do not prevaricate, Anne. Tell me what you said to Miss Elizabeth.”
She seemed—finally—to comprehend the extent of his displeasure, for she lost some of her defiance and sank backwards a little into her chair, two spots of colour reddening her cheeks.
“I was only attempting to help you, Darcy.”
“By telling herwhat?”
“That you and I are not engaged.”
Darcy ignored Georgiana’s gasp. That she, too, had been ignorant of the misapprehension was of little comfort at this stage.
“You did not consider me capable of imparting the details of my own marital status? Or deciding the best moment to do so?”
“I thought it would have more effect coming from me,” Anne replied. “I have, after all, spent the last several weeks convincing her of the opposite. And it is only my affection for you that allows me to admit I may have been quite insistent on the matter. Rather too insistent, I fear.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, to be frank, I am not at all sure that my disclosure had the desired effect.”
He glowered at her, too conflicted to speak, until she took the hint and continued. “One might have expected alittlerejoicing. I suppose I ought to applaud Miss Elizabeth for not doing so, for it shows a more modest understanding of her situation than I had previously credited her with. She is right notto expect that she will receive an offer from such a man as you simply because she has learnt you are not engaged to me. Nevertheless, I did not expect her to be cross about it.”
Darcy was still framing a sufficiently emphatic rejoinder when the door swung open, and a footman appeared, who took one look in his direction and seemed to change his mind about entering.
“What is it?” Darcy barked.
He mumbled that he had brought tea.
“Bring it in then,” Anne said impatiently, “unless you would like us all to come and drink it in the lobby?”
Darcy turned away, disliking his cousin’s manner of addressing servants—so like her mother’s—and liking even less the fumbling incompetence of the man as he emptied the tray onto the table. The sound of teacups being set shakily in their saucers eventually ceased, and Darcy barely waited for the door to click closed behind the departing footman before turning to glare at Anne.
“Why was she cross?”
“How am I to know? Mayhap I was right the first time, and she does not like you.”
“I am sure that is not the case,” Georgiana interposed in a voice that was half reproach, half whisper, as though she were frightened by her own boldness. “Admittedly, a few of her relations seem to have a somewhat poor impression of you, Brother, but it can be nothing that will not improve on acquaintance.”
