“Lizzy, you are reading far too much—”
“No. I watched her last night. I saw where her attention lay. I saw where her stares were directed.”
Jane hesitated. “You mean… Mr Darcy?”
Elizabeth did not answer at once. She could still see him across the room—too distant to be chance, too deliberate to be coincidence. Could still feel the way the space between them had been kept, measured, enforced.
“She believes,” Elizabeth said slowly, “that I offended him. That whatever drove him away began with me.”
Jane shook her head. “But you did nothing improper. He seemed rather pleased when you were dancing the supper set—indeed, I am sure I saw him smiling, and once or twice he looked almost close to a laugh.”
“Oh, no, the dancing was rather pleasant. We got on quite decently, though he did seem a bit tired, even slightly clumsy in some of the figures, which I found odd. But he was… I was…” Elizabeth looked down at her twisting fingers. “I came perilously close to enjoying myself.”
“Yes, I saw,” Jane said with a suspicious grin. “In fact, I daresay you were flirting rather shamelessly.”
Elizabeth’s mouth dropped. “I did no such thing!”
Jane laughed. “I was only teasing, Lizzy. But you did both appear rather agreeably engaged. So, what did happen?”
She frowned. “I really do not know. It was over supper, that…” Elizabeth stopped. “Well, it was only a bit of a misunderstanding, I suppose. Surely, not enough to run a man out of the county, but Miss Bingley would not know that. She only assumes thatsomethingoccurred, and I am the most convenient cause.”
Jane was quiet now, studying the letter anew.
Elizabeth rose and crossed the room, the restlessness returning at once. “She had hopes,” she said. “You know she did. Hopes she did not trouble to conceal. And now he has gone—without explanation, without a cause anyone can fix—and she must place the fault somewhere.”
Jane’s voice was small. “She would not be so unkind.”
“She would beexactlyso unkind, and in exactly this manner.”
Elizabeth turned away and moved back to the window, though she did not look out again. She rested her hand against the frame and stood there, breathing through the ache that had settled behind her eyes.
“So,” she said at last, with an attempt at lightness that convinced neither of them. “That is that, then.”
“Lizzy…”
“He has gone,” Elizabeth said more quietly. “And I am to be the reason for it, whether I consent to the distinction or not.”
Jane crossed the room and stood near her, close enough that Elizabeth could feel the warmth of her presence without turning. “We do not know that he has gone far,” she saidgently. “Nor that he intends to be absent long. Such departures are sometimes made in haste and repented just as quickly.”
Elizabeth shook her head. “No. He does nothing by halves. Not when he has decided.”
Jane hesitated. “Lizzy… if you fear that something whichmighthave been—”
“No!” she blurted abruptly, then checked herself. “No. That is not it. I have no romantic designs on Mr Darcy. At least, I…” Her brow furrowed. “Well, clearly there issomething,but I am not sure what it is.”
She looked away again, searching for words that would not betray her into false ones. “It is not the loss of what was never promised that troubles me,” she said at last. “It is the removal of the only person who might have told me plainlywhatoccurred. What isstillhappening to me. And why.”
“Lizzy, I do not pretend to understand, but surely Mr Darcy is not the only person you can speak to. What of Papa?”
Elizabeth shook her head. “He understands less than I do. Look, Jane, we shall not improve matters by standing about. If I am to be blamed, I may as well do so from a position of dignity.”
Jane smiled at that. “And what would that be? Mr Collins is still downstairs, you know.”
“It hardly matters today. He seems to give pain no matter where he is. Come, let us walk to Lucas Lodge and see how Charlotte fares today after drinking so much punch.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Darcy arrived at hisLondon house without warning anyone of his coming. The servant had scarcely time to register who stood before him as Darcy stepped inside, his coat still fastened, his gloves carried loose in one hand.
