“I amthis closeto running you through,” Fitzwilliam growled,holding his finger and thumb half an inch apart to demonstrate Bingley’s precarious mortality. “You have no right to be relieved. She is not yours!”
“I should be relieved under any circumstances at such happy news,” Bingley mumbled.
Darcy’s lip curled contemptuously. “Would you leave us, Fitzwilliam?”
It was decided then; the Titan would be his executioner. The door closed behind the colonel. Bingley flinched when Darcy moved, but he came no closer, only turned his back and stalked to the window. There he remained, ominously still.
Unsure of what exactly he was presumed guilty, Bingley thought it safest to say nothing at first. Yet, the longer Darcy remained silent, the more anxious he grew until he could stand it no more. “Darcy, I?—”
“How long?”
“Pardon?”
“How long have you been planning to take her from me?”
“That is not how it was.”
“No? Then pray, explain this!” He whirled around and slammed his hand on a nearby table.
Bingley’s ribs protested when he leant sideways to read the crumpled letter Darcy had slapped down, but that was nothing to the horror that settled in his stomach as it dawned on him what the letter contained. Imprecise memories floated back—of a bawdy tavern song, an argument with Louisa, and an instruction to Peabody to post the letter professing his love for Elizabeth to the man she would go on to wed.
“Do you still deny you have admired her since before I even returned to Hertfordshire?”
“Well, it?—”
Darcy’s hands landed on the arms of Bingley’s chair, bringing their faces nose-to-nose. “I ask you again. How long have you been planning to take her from me?”
“No time at all, for I did not plan it!” he answered, scraping his chair backwards and scrambling out of it.
“Of all the depraved, incestuous schemes,” Darcy snarled, circling on the spot to follow his progress. “To make off with your wife’s expectant sister! How did you ever think such a plan would succeed?”
“I swear to you. I never planned it!” He edged away along the wall. “It was but a stupid suggestion made on the impulse of the moment!”
“Was it? Then how is it that my cousin’s wife received a letter from Jane begging her to thwart yourplanto take Elizabeth away?”
Bingley banged his head against a wall sconce. “Ow!” He ducked under it. “I have no idea!”
“Enough with your damned lies!” The manner in which Darcy clenched and unclenched his fists was frankly terrifying.
“I am not lying! I truly cannot explain it. No, wait—it is possible that Jane wrote to her about Amel—” He stopped but not soon enough.
“About what?” Darcy demanded in a tone that brooked no objection.
Bingley swallowed—or tried to. Curse his reckless tongue! “Amelia.”
“Damn it, I am in no humour for equivocation, Bingley! Who the bloody hell is Amelia?”
“She was a maid at Netherfield.” He prayed to God Darcy would not recall which maid. “I, er…we had a dalliance of sorts. It was reprehensible, I know. I would never usually…with the…only she was more than commonly willing—most determined, in fact.”
“Jane’s letter mentioned a woman with child.”
“Er, yes. There was that small complication. I only found out about that after arriving home from my wedding tour. She came to the house while we were away. But I dealt with it! Well, I thought I had. I was not aware anybody else knew. Indeed, it might never have been discovered had I not decided to send her away, but Lizzy gave me hope that Jane might yet love me, and I thought, to stand a chance of keeping it that way, it would be best to ensure that she never found out. So I wrote to Amelia and…offered to send her…to…”
He ran out of words. He rather wished he had run out of them sooner. The force of Darcy’s glare had begun to actually hurt. His tone, when he spoke, was glacial.
“You laid with the maid who looked like Elizabeth.”
It was a statement, not a question. He remembered.Oh God!A bead of sweat trickled between Bingley’s shoulder blades. “It was not such a remarkable likeness—” He was sliding down the wall, blinking away a blinding flash of white light before he comprehended thatDarcy had hit him. Then came the pain. Then, worse still, came the Titan’s rage.
