She squeaked—an undignified, involuntary sound—and sprang upright, skirts gathered clumsily in her hands as she lurched back a pace.
A large, hairy dog reached her and stopped as though he had struck the end of some invisible lead.
He dropped neatly into a sit no more than a step away, chest lifting with exertion, ears forward, tail still. His head tipped slightly as he regarded her, alert and intent, but making no move to advance.
Elizabeth’s heart hammered once, then slowed. “Oh,” she said faintly. “Brutus? Out for a little ramble on your own?”
The dog remained where he was, panting with a pleased canine grin that flashed his long white teeth. She let out a careful breath and lowered her skirts, her pulse still quick but no longer quite so wild. Whatever else he was, he did not appear inclined to leap.
Then the brush behind him burst apart.
Elizabeth did not wait to see what emerged. Instinct sent her retreating at once—two quick steps back, blind and hurried—and her heel caught hard against a root that she could have sworn wasnotthere a moment before. The ground tilted beneath her, sudden and absolute.
She gasped and pitched backward.
“Miss Elizabeth!”
Darcy broke through the brush at speed, branches snapping against his coat as he crossed the remaining distance in a stride and a half. His hand closed on her arm anddrew her upright with a force that left no room for protest, his grip firm, certain, and gone almost as quickly as it came.
She found her footing again, breath stuttering.
He stood close—too close—his chest rising sharply, his coat tugged awry by thorns, his hair disordered, his face stripped of every careful reserve.
Only then did colour climb his cheekbones, as though awareness had arrived a heartbeat late. “I beg your pardon,” he said, releasing her. “I feared he had startled someone.”
“Iwasstartled,” Elizabeth managed, still watching the dog, who continued to sit as though awaiting further instruction. “More by you than by him. But I do not appear to have suffered lasting harm.”
Darcy exhaled. His shoulders lowered a fraction. “He should not have run ahead of me. I hardly know what has come over him of late.”
Brutus glanced back at his master, then returned his attention to Elizabeth, ears flicking as though he were listening for something only he could hear.
Elizabeth’s heart began, belatedly, to resume its proper pace. She released her skirts and straightened, newly aware of the space between them. Her hand, where his had briefly closed about it, retained a faint, lively warmth, as though some quick current had passed and left her more wakeful than before.
Not a shock this time. Not a painful warning. Merely… a notice.
“No harm done. He did stop and sit. I had expected… well. Some sort of excitement.”
Darcy almost smiled. The expression did not complete itself, but it altered his face enough that she noticed. “He has his own mind, but is usually not inclined to mischief.”
“As I am relieved to discover.” She hesitated, then added, “He looks as though he expects me to say something.”
“He often does. Sometimes I think he speaks the King’s English.”
Elizabeth looked down at the dog again. “Good morning, then,” she said. “You gave me quite a fright.”
Brutus’s tail thumped once against the ground.
Darcy cleared his throat. “I am truly sorry to interrupt your walk, Miss Elizabeth. I had not realised anyone would be here.”
“Nor had I expected I would be discovered in so dramatic a fashion,” she replied. “We are even.”
He inclined his head, accepting the truce. “If you would prefer not to be disturbed further, I shall take him another way.”
She surprised herself by answering too quickly. “No—please. I mean—there is no harm done. And you may as well know that I have a particular fondness for dogs. The larger the better.” She smiled—small, reflexive—and let her hand fall to Brutus’s head before she had quite decided to do so.
The dog accepted the attention gravely, as though this were the proper conclusion to their meeting today. His ears flicked once; he leaned, just perceptibly, into her fingers.
Darcy watched the exchange with an expression of polite reserve that did not quite mask relief.
