Her father scoffed. “There can be no genuine friendship in apartnership entered into merely for propagation and the rearing of a child.”
That was not a possibility yet, but she would not allude to that to her father. “I disagree. We will be friends, caring friends, because we choose it.”
“You want to stay with him?” Her father gave her a sceptical look. “Has he truly been your devoted lover since the day he arrived in Ramsgate?”
“No, he called me ‘tolerable’ and said I would marry no one of consequence with a family like mine.”
Her father bellowed a laugh that Elizabeth did not feel equal in joining. “I think this young man could be my favourite son-in-law!”
“Papa, I want a home, a husband, and a family—and my only chance of that is with Darcy. I have to commit to this new life. But I appreciate that you came all this way to meet Darcy and ensure my happiness.”
“It was convenient for me. I must retrieve your mother and sisters from Ramsgate. They do not expect me for another week, but I had to go soon enough, and since you were in London, I decided to do all my little nuisance tasks at once. I will not tell your mother I will be early,” he added with a wink.
She was an afterthought. A chore to be done that was put off for as long as possible. He might care, but her father’s behaviour was a language as much as were his words.
“Your husband is a rather severe, proud man,” her father went on.
In some ways he was, but he was also so much more than that. His merits as a brother and a landlord would likely make him a caring husband and father. Darcy was generous, and a companion who exhilarated her spirits, with an honesty that she found she admired more and more. “I like him,” she whispered.
“And does he like you? Your lively talents would place you in the greatest danger of an unequal marriage. You could scarcely escape discredit and misery if you cannot remain faithful to one another.”
She drew back. It was one thing to fear that a man her father did not know might be an unfaithful husband, but did her father truly think that she would not be a loyal wife? No matter how theirmarriage came about, she would not forsake the promises she made. Had her father implied to Darcy that she might be disloyal?
“I will treat Mr Darcy well,” she said. “And he will be good to me.”
She felt as though all the ways her father had not been good to his family hung unspoken in the air. But one look at him told her he had no similar feelings. He saw no fault in his behaviour and never would. In a brighter voice, she asked, “Will you stay to dinner? And you must stay here rather than in a hotel.”
“I do not think your husband is ready to sit across the table from me and be forced into polite conversation. Once you tell him you are not fleeing his protection, he might be more amenable to my company. Come to Hertfordshire when your little performance in town is over. Your mother will want to show you off to the neighbours.”
She rang for the carriage to be brought round for her father. After parting from him, she added hurriedly, “My marriage is not an impulsive mistake.”
“Ah, there you are wrong, my little Lizzy. It was the height of impulsivity. We have yet to see if it will be a mistake.”
She went upstairs to the drawing room and found Darcy holding a book. He sat very upright with the book clasped in his lap. His shoulders shifted as he heard her enter, but he did not look up. She was certain he was no longer reading, if he ever had been.
“Did you invite your father to stay?”
“I did, but he is otherwise engaged. He looks forward to seeing us in Hertfordshire in December.”
He turned a page with a swift flick of his finger, his lips pressed in a line. How worried was he that she wanted to leave? Perhaps he was fearful she wished to leave, but would stay only because she felt that she had to for the sake of appearances. After what her father implied, how could she assure Darcy she was committed to him?
“My father is not angry, you know,” she said softly. “I do not think he actually wants me home.”
“He came all this way to bring you home if he could.”
“Not really,” she said, sighing over it. Her father would always be an indolent man. “His chief wish, as always, is to have little trouble in any business as far as his family goes.”
Darcy nodded, keeping his eyes on his book. “But he still asked you to leave. He still fears for our respectability and assumed you could not be faithful.”
Did Darcy fear she could be unfaithful? What would a proper wife, a chosen wife, do to reassure her husband? Neither of them knew how to be a spouse, and they did not even have a foundation of love to begin with.
She walked to his side and sat on the arm of his chair, forcing him to look up at her. “I am not leaving,” she breathed. “And not because it would be much talked of.”
Darcy closed his book and set it aside. “If you want to go, I won’t?—”
“I don’t.”
He looked at her with a glow of regard. All the haughty composure he wore when she came in was gone. Darcy wanted her to stay, and not because they were forced into this situation or because of appearances. Her heart raced away as she realised how deeply she wanted to stay with Darcy, too. Maybe they could have a relationship with more than just esteem and confidence after all.
