“Or? Pray speak. You make me wretchedly anxious.”
“I regret to say it, but you must enter that room prepared for every issue. It may be that he is as culpable as she.”
“No!” Elizabeth cried with force. “No!”
“I comprehend your worry, but you must be prudent. Should he indeed be guilty, you might find yourself in peril. Mr Darcy has not spoken plainly of this…but he prepared for this possibility.”
“Mr Darcy did not speak plainly because we possess entire confidence in the colonel. I shall enter that room persuaded of his innocence.”
“Do as your heart tells you. First, I shall accompany you, and you will present me. I would have him know that I am in the adjoining chamber.”
Elizabeth assented, though with impatience. Now that she was so near, she longed only to act, and every further word seemed idle.
Chapter 19
A soldier conducted them into a chamber that appeared plain, a striking discord with the refined exterior of the house. It was now employed as an office, for a vast desk occupied the centre, yet all the other furnishings of a parlour had been left in place—pieces of an elder fashion, faded, ill-kept, even shabby, which for a moment diverted Elizabeth from her apprehensions.
Then the colonel rose from the desk where he had been writing, and her heart began to beat in a wild rhythm. However, no one could have discerned it, for her countenance was impenetrable as marble. He was unchanged—perhaps somewhat leaner, and his hair cut shorter than of old—but in all else he was the same gentleman she had known at Rosings.
No,cried a voice within her,he can be guilty of nothing, save of yielding too readily to a lady’s caprice and to his own manly inclination.
“My dear Miss Elizabeth, what a surprise to see you here!” he spoke with his accustomed smile.
“Colonel Fitzwilliam, allow me to present my uncle, Mr Gardiner.”
The gentlemen exchanged the courtesies proper, while Mr Gardiner had leisure to observe the chief actor in that adventure which had occupied them for a fortnight.
“Have you come to behold the wonders of the sea commended by Doctor Richard Russell?”
It was clear that the colonel suspected nothing intricate, and even less a circumstance that concerned him. He thought it a mere visit of civility, and he was indeed glad to see her and to meet her uncle.
“In truth,” Elizabeth said, her determination stronger than ever, “I came to speak with you.”
At that instant, a change passed across his countenance, as though he began to perceive the purpose of her visit. He knew of her journey to Pemberley, where she had certainly encountered his parents.
“May my uncle be permitted some refreshment whilst we converse?” she asked, faithfully following their plan.
When they were alone, the kind and smiling air she remembered vanished, replaced by an expression of anxiety and faint mistrust.
“You met my mother at Pemberley,” the colonel proffered in a dry tone, with almost a shade of reproof.
“Yes—” she faltered, awaiting his intent.
“And did she complain about my betrothed?” he asked without the preface which courtesy might have required.
Elizabeth’s astonishment was so plain that some of the colonel’s suspicion softened into a kinder look.
“No, most assuredly not. Lady Matlock spoke with approval of your betrothed for persuading you to take a station in London.”
Elizabeth perceived that the colonel understood, or at least suspected, that beneath her outward graciousness, his mother did not esteem his intended wife. She wondered whatLady Matlock might be when her dislike was declared openly, and she shivered.
That short exchange restored some measure of confidence between them.
“If you came neither for the sea air nor on account of my betrothed, Miss Elizabeth, then for what urgent purpose are you here?”
Elizabeth did not hesitate when she spoke, looking into his eyes. “I came indeed concerning Miss Henry, but it has nothing to do with your mother…or family.”
“I should have thought you the last person in the world to offer counsel in affairs of the heart. I recall that you rejected my cousin’s proposal because he presumed to direct Mr Bingley’s life.”
