Dreading what new disaster had befallen her house, Elizabeth dared to step forwards and peer into the room. The patched-up area of ceiling where the leak had been was no more; in its place was a gaping hole, with a new stream of rainwater pouring through it. Beneath it stood Mr Darcy, his shirt soaked through and plastered to his chest in a most revealing manner that made her draw in a sharp breath. Mr Hartham, who had entered the room beside her, made a small appreciative noise that perfectly articulated what was going through her own head.
Mr Darcy stepped out of the deluge and wiped the water from his hair and eyes. He did not look at Elizabeth, which felt to her like an accusation. She stepped back out of the room, as did Mr Hartham, who whispered under his breath, “Refused him, you say?”
She sent him a desperate look, pleading him to say no more.
“Have someone run and fetch Tucker, would you, Richard?” said Lord Saye calmly to Colonel Fitzwilliam. “And send my man up if you see him. I need him to move my trunks to another room. I have decided to let Darcy have this one.”
Colonel Fitzwilliam left the room and hastened down the stairs with only the briefest nod to Elizabeth.
Mr Hartham gestured after him. “I think we had better go.”
Elizabeth nodded, too mortified to draw attention to herself by bidding anyone farewell, and together they snuck silently out of the house.
10
Despite the late hour at which she found her bed, Elizabeth had tossed and turned for some time before sleep claimed her. At length, she had hit upon a plan she thought might be agreeable to all: to simply return Lord Saye’s money to him and urge him to find somewhere else to stay. Indeed, Mr Hartham had mentioned only last night that a house on the north side of the town had been unexpectedly vacated; she hoped it might do. Mr Gardiner agreed to accompany her to speak to his lordship, and they set out after breakfast, both of them still unaccustomed to the cacophonous chatter of seagulls at all hours.
Her eyes were grainy and her body felt heavy and clumsy from the want of sleep, but the sea air was invigorating. “I do love the seaside,” she told her uncle. “I know we have not been here long, but there truly is nothing equal to it.”
“Perhaps you will wish to live here, once renovations are complete. You will have the means to hire a companion.” He chuckled as he added, “And I do notdoubt you would have a sister or two to stay with you, whether you wanted one or not.”
“Something does tell me that being in possession of a fine home by the sea will subject me to a great deal of company,” Elizabeth replied agreeably. Her cheer evaporated in the next moment as her mind strayed to the company presently occupying said fine home. “I fear it will be more difficult to extract Lord Saye’s party than to refuse my sisters. Nothing seems to deter him, not even the ceilings caving in!”
The image of Mr Darcy—of all people—standing beneath the hole in her ceiling, drenched through, with bits of plaster in his hair, tormented her.And yet still as handsome as ever.She scolded herself for thinking such a thing.He must be unutterably furious and more convinced than ever that anything associated with the Bennets is barbaric and inelegant!
Mr Gardiner clucked and shook his head. “What I still fail to comprehend is how his lordship thought it sound to simplyarriveat a place.”
“I believe Lord Saye, like most wealthy and titled men, is accustomed to having his way of things. My hope is that for however unceremoniously they appeared, I might persuade him and his guests to decamp with equal alacrity.”
They arrived at the house, and Elizabeth paused to look at it. No matter the problems it brought her, she still felt a little thrill each time she beheld it.Herhouse! Who could ever have imagined such a thing?
And who could ever have imagined that one of my first guests would be the man whose marriage offer I spurned!
Once at the door, she was presented with another problem. Was it appropriate that she and Mr Gardiner should simply enter? She had done so the night before,but that was when she believed it to be unoccupied; it felt entirely wrong to do so now. But if they knocked, who was there to answer—had Lord Saye brought servants with him?
It was the arrival of Mr Tucker that solved the dilemma; he had no reluctance whatsoever to opening the door for them and gesturing them through.
“I have a woman coming today to take up the position of housekeeper—a Mrs Wiggins,” he told them as they entered. “Her references suggest she is excellent. Perhaps, Miss Bennet, you would like to make her acquaintance? If you like her, she might well become your housekeeper once his lordship and his friends have quit the place.”
Elizabeth nodded. “Thank you, yes.”
“You should know, Mr Tucker, that my niece hopes to persuade Lord Saye to seek alternative lodgings,” said Mr Gardiner.
Mr Tucker chuckled. “Miss Bennet must be of infinitely more persuasive character than I if she is able to effect that.”
“I had hoped, rather, that the ceiling raining down in chunks on his lordship’s family might do the trick,” Elizabeth replied. “It is one thing to imagine sleeping rough, but being amid the reality of it can be far different.”
“I could not agree more.”
Mr Darcy’s words announced his arrival in the vestibule. Elizabeth, whose back had been to him, jumped a little. She turned, feeling all the awkwardness of their horribly recent nocturnal encounter, and forced herself to meet his gaze. “Ah…you are already awake. I hope it is not our arrival that has disturbed you?”Again,she thought, instantly regretting her choice of words.
“I tend not to sleep well when I fear the ceiling may collapse on me at any moment,” he said coldly, all the civility that he had shown when they met on the Promenade the previous afternoon now gone. “Or that I might find strangers creeping about outside my bedchamber.”
While he ostensibly spoke to all, it was clear his words were directed at her, and they made her flush uncomfortably. She glanced at her uncle but he, already engaged in a conversation with Mr Tucker about shipping contacts and building materials, only said an amiable “Good day” and wandered with the foreman into the next room. Elizabeth privately congratulated him for such a want of deference towards the man who had so emphatically scorned his condition in life but a few short months ago. It gave her the strength to set aside her embarrassment as she addressed Mr Darcy.
“Your party arrived early,” she said defiantly. “Lord Saye’s lease has not yet commenced, and thus I had every right to be here at any hour. The house is mine, after all.”
He raised an eyebrow. “I heard nothing in Hertfordshire of you owning property.”
