“You had better ask Mrs Newton,” Darcy replied. “She seems to know a good deal more than I do.”
“I doubt that, sir,” she said, smiling meaningfully, “but if you will insist on making me adopt the pretence, then I shall reveal everything I have heard.”
“Do your worst—I am all anticipation to discover who my mystery lady is.”
“I do not know her name—only that she is very pretty, and she makes you smile.”
“My dear, you have just achieved that!” cried Newton—and, indeed, Darcy had chuckled upon hearing the paltry extent of Mrs Newton’s information.
“I am not making it up!” she objected, though she, too, was laughing now. “Mrs Daniels saw them together, and by her account, Mr Darcy was quite enraptured.”
Miss Stevens made a noise of disgust. “Mrs Daniels could make a scandal out of a nun’s wimple.”
“There is no suggestion of scandal,” Mrs Newton admonished.
“Happy news,” Darcy said drily.
“Which puts an end to it,” Newton said, “for what other reason could there be to conceal an understanding with an attractive young lady?”
“Only Darcy can answer that,” Goodman replied with a sly grin. “But judging from the way he adamantly refused to introduce her to Atkins in Hyde Park last week, my guess is that he wishes to prevent the rest of us from discovering her, that he might keep her to himself.”
“You cannot mean Miss Elizabeth Bennet?”
Darcy regretted the words before they were all the way out of his mouth. Mrs Newton’s eyes gleamed with victory; Goodman sat up straighter in his seat; all those who had not yet abandoned their own conversations to attend to his now did so.
“I do not know—doI?” Goodman replied lazily. “I suppose I might, if she is the same dark-haired beauty you were seen talking to outside White’s the other week.”
“Or the same young lady you were seen handing into a carriage over near Covent Garden,” Mrs Newton added.
Darcy cursed to himself. It had never occurred to him that Fitzwilliam’s rumour might pertain to Elizabeth! He had assumed it must be a woman of his own circle—one with whom he had dined or danced. One whose family was known to his and would not be considered a reprehensible connexion. He had not fought to disentangle himself from Elizabeth’s powerin Hertfordshire only for his reputation to be imperilled by the association here in town!
Knowing the worst thing he could do would be to respond with indignation, he did his utmost to answer composedly. “It was Miss Bennet I ran into on St James’s Street, though we did not talk for long. Whether she is the same woman to whom your various reports refer, I could not say—but, much though I hate to disappoint you, she and I are not involved in an intrigue.”
“How are the two of you acquainted?” Mrs Newton enquired.
“We met last year when I stayed with a friend near her father’s estate. I should be happy to introduce you, if we ever happen to be in the same room at the same time, but we are not on such familiar terms as makes that likely.”
She managed to look disappointed as she thanked him.
“Your interrogation of Darcy is over, I presume, my dear?” Newton asked his wife. He looked a little sheepish, as well he should, that one of his guests had been so mercilessly impugned. Darcy was relieved to see a look pass between them that heralded a decisive change of subject.
He forced himself to join in as though he was wholly untroubled by what had passed. Indeed, there was little else to be done unless he hoped to raise the suspicions of the wholeton. Elizabeth would have made a better job of it. She would have made a mockery of Mrs Newton’s insinuations, charmed Goodman into silence, and outvied all Miss Stevens’s attempts to bewitch him.
Such reveries could not lull him into forgetting those causes of repugnance that had resolved him against any attachment to begin with. He shuddered to think what this dinner would be like with Elizabeth’s younger sisters at the table; if any of Elizabeth’s aunts or uncles were to make an appearance and begin discussing their trades—or, God forbid, if Mrs Bennet should attend and take it into her head to wrap her legs aroundanother of his friends. If word spread that he was connected to such a family, he and Georgiana would be made pariahs before the Season even began. His one consolation was that Newton and his friends were not his usual set. It could only be hoped that this rumour never reached beyond the limit of their sphere.
13
MRS BENNET BIDS LONDON ADIEU
The resolve to walk out from Gracechurch Street more frequently did not last the whole week. The snow melted, but in its wake, a hard frost settled, and not even Elizabeth was tempted to brave the cold. By Friday, she was struggling with ennui.
“I take it you are not in a humour for embroidery,” her aunt said.
“I am rarely in a humour for that, but it holds absolutely no interest for me today.”
Jane looked up from her own stitches with an indulgent smile. “I think our aunt would prefer it if you ceased pacing, though, Lizzy. You will wear out the carpet at this rate.”
Elizabeth dropped into a chair, exhaling loudly. “Forgive me. I am just longing for some air and exercise.”
