“In or out, miss? There’s other passengers waiting,” the postillion called down impatiently.
With a pained glance in Darcy’s direction, Elizabeth said, “I apologise for…before,” then pulled herself up into the carriage.
Darcy wanted, desperately, to tell her not to be embarrassed, how beautiful she had looked asleep, that he would hold her all day and all night if she wished it, but no sooner had Elizabeth’s foot left the step than a boy appeared from nowhere to fold it up and slam the door closed behind her, banging it with the flat of his hand and calling for the postillion to drive on. Elizabeth was jerked away from the window as the horses heaved the carriage into motion, and she did not reappear.
Darcy watched her go until he heard someone behind him say, “Is that not the chap who’s secretly betrothed to a pauper?” At which point he turned on his heel and strode to his own waiting carriage.
It was enough to make him despair. Bingley had not been having relations with Mrs Bennet after all, his and Elizabeth’s every accidental meeting had been for nothing, and the resulting rumours had boiled up to the almost inconceivable point of them being physically mobbed. He did not despair, though. Indeed, for most of the journey back to Berkeley Square, a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, daring him to give in to it. For however disastrous the afternoon had been, surely women did not seek comfort in the arms of men they hated. It allowed himto hope as he had never dared hope before that all was not lost, and he might yet win Elizabeth’s heart.
29
SANCTUARY IN KENT
“Youfell asleepon him?”
Elizabeth nodded, and Charlotte, who was already sitting wide-eyed with astonishment at her tale, bit her lips together in an unsuccessful attempt to conceal her amusement.
“Oh, Eliza! That is truly mortifying.”
“Why do you think I was in such a hurry to get out of London?”
She had left that very morning with the blessing of her aunt and uncle. She had not informed them of the incident at the Four Feathers, but a mock marriage announcement between her and Darcy, printed that morning in her uncle’s newspaper, had persuaded Mr and Mrs Gardiner that her reputation was now in danger. Hasty arrangements had been made, and she had arrived at Hunsford Parsonage one hour ago, where she had wasted no time in regaling Charlotte with her sorry tale.
“Thank you for taking me in. I know I have chopped and changed my plans, but I could not face another day in town.”
“It is no trouble,” Charlotte replied. “You are only a few days earlier than you originally planned, and from what you have told me, I am surprised you did not come sooner. I wish you hadbrought Jane here with you rather than submit yourself to such unpleasantness merely to stay with her in Gracechurch Street.”
Unable to reveal to Charlotte her real purpose of searching for Mrs Bennet, Elizabeth had given Jane’s melancholy as her reason for lingering so long in town. In explaining the extent of the furore surrounding her and Darcy, she comprehended just how weak an excuse it was; she ought to have quit London weeks ago. Indeed, she wished she had, for none of her investigations or lies had saved her parents’ marriage, and every one of her encounters with Darcy had made it less likely that he would ever connect himself to her.
“She likes to be with my young cousins. I did not wish to drag her away.” This was, in part, true. “And in all honesty, for a long time, the situation with Mr Darcy did not seem so very bad. It was diverting at first—even to my aunt and uncle. Then it was more tiresome than worrying. It only became dangerous yesterday.” She did not add that somewhere in the middle of it all, she had fallen irrevocably in love with Darcy, rendering the whole business profoundly painful.
“What possessed you to go into the inn in the first place?” Charlotte asked.
“I saw him go in and hoped he might agree to see me home. I was so lost by then that I did not stop to consider the risk.”
Though she loathed the necessity of yet another lie, ‘losing her way on a long ramble’ had seemed an infinitely safer explanation for her presence at the Four Feathers than her real object. There was, thankfully, some truth in this explanation as well. It had been seeing Darcy enter the inn that had persuaded her to follow suit. Before then, she had dithered about outside for an age, trying to decide what to do for the best.
“Instead, we were hounded into a cupboard and forced to hide like criminals from a baying mob.”
“I would tease you again about falling asleep on one of the most illustrious—and fastidious—men in the country, but I cannot laugh at the actions which drove you both to hide in the first place. It must have been terrifying.”
“It was not much fun. They were all but rioting over the hope of a token from a woman none of them actually knew. It was as though they were possessed. One of them snatched my bonnet clean off my head—I shall never see that again. And you would not believe the things they were saying about us. That I was Mr Darcy’s mistress—or worse. Truly, it was disgusting.”
“You are far braver than I, Eliza. I do not think I would have been able to sleep with that going on. I should have been far too afraid.”
Elizabeth wrinkled her nose in chagrin. “I was excessively tired.”
She had also felt indescribably safe in Darcy’s embrace. In the moment when two men burst into their hiding place, she had been genuinely frightened for her life, and the impropriety of seeking solace in his arms had been immaterial. When he had given it, holding her tenderly and whispering his assurances in that rich, soothing voice she had come to know and love so well, she had felt as though the weight of the world had lifted from her shoulders. She doubted it was ever to be repeated, but should Lady Rothersea’s cousin ask her again whether it was heavenly to be in Darcy’s arms, Elizabeth would be more than happy to confirm that yes, it was.
“I am almost too afraid to ask what he said to you when you woke up,” Charlotte said tentatively.
“That he thought it would be for the best if I went home.” Elizabeth felt a real pain in the vicinity of her heart at the recollection of it, but she could not help but laugh at Charlotte’s obvious disappointment. “Were you hoping I would say that heproposed? Come now, I expected more good sense from you. If he was going to offer for me, he would have done so by now.”
“Yes, I suppose that is true, but…well, he seems stubbornly opposed to the idea, despite giving the impression of being far from indifferent to you in Hertfordshire, asking you to dance more than once and staring at you constantly. And this was a particularly damning encounter. You were alone together in a room for how long—an hour? Has he no regard for your reputation?”
“We were not seen by anyone of any consequence, and besides, we are already the talk of the Season. There is not much that could make anyone more preoccupied with our supposed engagement. Not evenhalfan hour alone in a storeroom.” She grinned. “How disappointed everyone would be to discover that all I did in there was sleep.”
“You joke, but are you not offended by his determination to avoid the alliance?”
