“That will do for now.”
He reached for her hands and pulled her up off the stool and into his embrace, his mouth upon hers ere she was on her feet. It was over too soon, yet for all its brevity, his kiss left her breathless and flushed.
“I am so in love with you, Elizabeth.”
“Despite my humming?”
“Your humming is Mozart to mine ears.”
She giggled, but her smile faded as her thoughts sobered. She placed a hand upon his chest and looked up at him earnestly. “You know, Fitzwilliam, you are not your father. And Mr Barnaby’s son is not George Wickham. You are not destined to repeat their mistakes.”
He sighed heavily. “I know, but I cannot abide the thought of imposing the same blight upon my own children.”
“It will not go the same. We shall make sure of it. Do not allow your resentment for a bad man lead you to offend a good one.”
“You are right, of course.” He kissed her once more and released her, turning to retrieve his papers from the table. “I am sorry we can no longer go to Buxton tomorrow,” he said, holding up a letter from the pile and peering at it as though noticing it for the first time. “I am certain you will like the place very well.”
“I am sure I shall.” She returned to her stool and picked up her brush once more. “But it will still be there next week. We need not explore the whole of Derbyshire in my first month here.”
He did not answer, for he had begun reading the letter, and his countenance, so recently relieved of its angry glower, was very rapidly being overspread with an even stormier expression. “God in Heaven, what is the man thinking?” He threw the sheaf of papers back on the table and turned away in disgust, one hand planted firmly on his hip, the other rubbing his jaw.
“Whatever is the matter now?”
“Montgomery has offered for Anne.”
Elizabeth winced. “Well, you knew it was probable. You will just have to accept it.”
“That is precisely what he expects me to do,” he said, turning to face her. “He wishes me to stand up with him at his wedding. To set aside all my grievances with Lady Catherine as though our estrangement were nothing more than a trifling squabble! But I cannot forgive her, and so I must disappoint him.”
Elizabeth set her brush down. “Will you not even consider a reconciliation? For your friend’s sake and your cousin’s, if not your own.”
“How can you even entertain the notion after the way she has treated you? She has been insufferable throughout this whole affair.”
“She has always been insufferable. She is hardly likely to change at this late stage.”
He gestured widely with his hands. “And so I told Montgomery, yet he has chosen to ignore my warning and offer for Anne anyway!”
Elizabeth sat back in surprise. “Did you advise Mr Montgomery against marrying Anne?”
“I did not,” he said firmly. When she raised an eyebrow in challenge, his gaze hardened. “I gave him no unsolicited advice.Hesoughtmyopinion of the match.”
Her surprise ceded to dismay and then anger. “And you clearly expected your reply to put him off! What did you say?”
“The truth! That Lady Catherine is poisonous and disloyal.”
“He is not marrying Lady Catherine!” Elizabeth cried, coming to her feet. “I am beginning to think this has less to do with Mr Montgomery’s happiness than it does your resentfulness.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Your poor friend came to you for your opinion—nay, I daresay your approval of the match. You did him a disservice if you thought only of your own objections in answering him.”
“I resentthat!” he replied icily.“I said nothing that was not true of the woman who would be his mother were he to enter into the union. Do not underestimate with what caution a man must considerthatencumbrance!”
Nothing was as likely to provoke Elizabeth’s ire as a reminder ofhis previous disdain for her family. “You may have been honest about that,but did you consider what comfort it might be to Anne to have a husband or what comfort she might afford his motherless son? Did you mention that his investment would save Rosings or that you should like to be his cousin? Or did you omit all these facts in favour of persisting with your grudge?”
Darcy hesitated, but righteous indignation rapidly overtook any remorse he might have been about to express. “I have been used to consider that a wife will support her husband in such matters.”
“Forgive me if I do not agree with your every utterance, Fitzwilliam, but I shall not feel obliged to if you are wrong!”
