A wholly inadequate explanation on paper that felt even more deficient when Fitzwilliam read it aloud with perfect indifference.
“We comprehend she was very good to you,” Ladbroke replied. “But, you know, it would not do to appear over grateful.”
“Meaning?”
“You are aware, I presume, that the relatives with whom she is staying live near Cheapside. Gracechurch Street is the direction she gave when we sent for her uncle to fetch her. Seriously, Darcy.Gracechurch Street.” He scoffed contemptuously. “You must take care to give them no reason to think they can expect anything from you. Give these people an inch, and they will take a yard.”
Darcy winced. This, then, was how he had sounded to Elizabeth. With this same unfounded and despicable contempt had he paraded his prepossessions before her.
What, other than their residing in the City, makes you suppose they expect anything from me?
“That alone would be enough to rouse my suspicions. But if it is proof you desire, the uncle has already come sniffing around once.”
“What?”Darcy scrabbled to replenish the ink on the pen.
He has called here? For what purpose?
Ladbroke deferred, with a look, to Fitzwilliam, who answered, “He claimed to have come on behalf of his niece to enquire after your well-being.”
Hope exploded in Darcy’s chest, dislodging a nebulous memory that bubbled to the surface of his laudanum-addled mind and popped into coherence: “Darcy, please do not die.”People who cared whether one lived or died were surely beyond enmity. His other memory—of Elizabeth’s dismay at hearing Wickham traduced—abruptly blurred and transformed into something that might just as easily be construed as concern forhim.Perchance he had not lost her after all.
It did not occur to you that her interest might have been genuine?
“It would not matter if she were in complete earnest,”Ladbroke objected. “They are of absolutely no consideration in the world, Darcy.”
She is a gentleman's daughter.
“Aye. A gentleman of paltry income whose estate is entailed upon Lady Catherine’s parson, we are reliably informed.”
“By whom?”
“Lady Catherine, of course. You know how she likes to be an authority on every subject. Her new incumbent is cousin to Miss Bennet, apparently. Once she discovered she knew the identity of your saviour, she was most forthcoming on the matter. That is all by the by, though. The material point is that unless you wish to saddle yourself with the most inferior connexions in Christendom, you must not encourage them.”
I care nothing for her connexions. I owe her?—
But Fitzwilliam was leaning over him, reading his words as he put them on the page, and before he could writemy life,Ladbroke interrupted.
“Yes, yes. We have attempted to reimburse the family, but they have resisted. My guess is that they hope, by refusing immediate recompense, to secure a more lasting reward.”
“What do you mean, you have attempted to reimburse them?”
Ladbroke screwed up his face. “Eh?”
Darcy shoved the pen in the ink and almost broke the nib scratching out,
What do you mean!
“Calm yourself,” Fitzwilliam said. “You have only just awoken. You must not overexert yourself.”
“What do you think I mean? We are not brutes,” Ladbroke said, ignoring his brother. “You bled all over her clothes, apparently, so my mother offered her a sum of money to replace them.” He waved a hand insouciantly in the air. “Plus a token amount in recognition of her assistance. Enough to dissuade them from embroiling you in any scandal—or so we hoped.”
After a moment of disbelief, Darcy threw the pen down in despair and pinched the bridge of his nose. Elizabeth cared enough to have sent her uncle to ask after him, and his family had attempted to buy the man off and then sent him on his way. The cruel irony of him ever having disdainedherrelations made a mockery of everything.
“Perhaps you had better go,” he heard Fitzwilliam say quietly. Darcy could almost hear Ladbroke roll his eyes in response, though his cousin’s parting words were more generous.
“I shall see you in a while, Darcy. It is very good to have you back with us.”
Fitzwilliam saw Ladbroke to the door and on his return, dragged a chair with him, in which he sat, crossed his arms, and leant back until the front legs lifted off the floor. “What is all this about then?” he enquired. “You seem more concerned about this Miss Bennet than you do about the very real prospect of being imposed upon in some way. I comprehend that she assisted you, but that does not oblige you to be shackled to her forevermore.”
