I made no less than four attempts to apologize and get her to open the door, all of which were rebuffed. Between each one, I left more and more time, hoping that if she had more time to calm down, she would be more amenable to speak to me.
I wished to get back in her good graces. I did not relish what she was going to say about me when we got out of this predicament. If she repeated the things I had said to her, I should sound like some kind of villain, truly, and I wished to find some way to explain myself.
But she stayed firm, and the hours ticked away, and it was full dark, and the wind began to kick up outside, whistling into the old house. The door was entirely gone, the wind rushed right inside, chilling me where I huddled on the landing in the darkness.
I began to shiver.
I bore it as long as I could, but eventually, I opened the door into the bedroom.
“Mr. Darcy!” came her voice in the darkness, near to the door, though I could not see her.
“I’m very sorry, Miss Bennet,” I said, shutting the door, “but it is ever so cold out there and I cannot bear it much longer. I shall sit right here, far from you, but allow me to stay in thisroom, where the wind cannot get in, where everything is shut up tight. Please.”
“All right,” she said.
I huddled in against the wall. I was still shivering, but it was a great deal warmer in here, and I thought I should soon warm up.
“Your teeth are chattering, sir.”
“I think that will stop quite soon,” I said, sucking in noisy breaths and hugging myself.
“Why haven’t they come looking for us?”
“I do not know,” I said. It was troubling. They should have sought us out here by now. I had a pocket watch, and I knew that it was past eight o’clock, far later than dinner would be served on a night like tonight. Not late enough for anyone to be abed, but soon enough, perhaps, it might be considered time to retire. They must be seeking ussomewhere.
Perhaps they were simply looking in the wrong places.
I mused over that for a time.
“Your teeth are still chattering.”
“Yes, well, I’m sorry about that,” I muttered, a bit cross.
She was moving. A warm weight of something landed on me. It did not smell good, it smelled of must and dry leaves, but it was a blanket. She settled down next to me, with the blanket. “There. Better?”
“Much,” I said, my chest tight with the goodness of it. I had been so cold. “Thank you for sharing, Miss Bennet.”
“Yes, just… don’t touch me,” she said. “There will be no huddling close for body warmth or anything of that nature.”
“Yes, noted,” I said. “I am sorry for whatever I said, you know. I swear it.”
She sighed. “You frightened me. You sounded horrible.”
“Yes, I suppose I did. I would never trap a woman in… I would never lie about a woman and ruin her reputation. I knowwhat that would mean for her, for her whole family. Believe me, I know.”
A long silence, and then, “It’s your sister, is it not? The woman whose reputation was threatened?”
Drat, how easily she’d guessed. I said nothing.
“Well, you may be assured I shall say nothing of it to anyone, not even Jane, and I tell her everything. I can see why it would send you out of sorts.”
“Can you?” I was stupidly grateful for her saying that. “You don’t think I’m acting like a madman?”
She laughed. “No, you are acting like a madman, Mr. Darcy, but I suppose it makes sense.”
“I thought to just marry her to Bingley.”
“The man with whom she—”
