“But it is a reason.” He had released her hand, but she reached out to touch his fingers lightly with her own. “And we both know you were not unjustified.”
“Oh, but I was. Considering how rudely my aunt had been behaving towards you for weeks, I was in no position to criticise the manners of anyone’s relations!” Darcy grimaced. “I was a proud fool and an unmitigated beast to you, and I can only apologise most fervently.”
She gazed at him, thinking how very much he seemed to have changed since that dreadful day in the parsonage at Hunsford. “Since it seems to be a day for making apologies,” she said, “let me make it clear that yours is accepted and you are forgiven unreservedly, and then you must let me apologise toyou, because I was unconscionably cruel that day, without the slightest justification whatsoever.”
“Well, Bingley...” Darcy began, but she pinched the back of his hand lightly, making him startle.
“Mr Bingley isn’t a child. Perhaps you encouraged him to leave, with your observations of Jane’s indifference - and I will concede that to one who does not know her well, her serenity might very well appear to be indifference - buthemade the decision to go. And from what I observed at Pemberley, he might very well make the decision to return, too.”
“Very likely,” Darcy agreed, “especially since I intend to recruit him to our present cause. I plan to write to him tomorrow and ask him to return to Netherfield and open it up in order to host Fitzwilliam’s and my families, so that Miss Lydia may be married from Longbourn.”
Elizabeth lifted a shaking hand to her lips, recognising the magnitude of Darcy’s actions; not only was he making it almost certain Bingley would return to Netherfield and thus to Jane, but he was also expressing in the strongest terms his support for Lydia’s marriage to his cousin. His presence at a wedding from Longbourn would make it clear there was nothing havey-cavey about this marriage, even if nobody else from the Fitzwilliam family chose to attend.
“I will also be asking Bingley to escort Georgiana from Pemberley,” Darcy added, “as I think she too should attend our cousin’s wedding, and I rather think she would like to meet your sisters.”
“Oh, Mr Darcy,” Elizabeth said from behind her fingers, quite overwhelmed. “You are being... well, far more generous than my family deserves.”
He hesitated, shook his head, and then said quietly, “Not true, but I will confess... my first thoughts are not of your family. They are of you.”
She felt her eyes widen as she stared up at him. What she, or he, might have said next would remain unknown, however, because they were interrupted by a great clattering of carriage wheels outside, drawing both of them to the window to look out.
They both recognised the coach in the same moment, the overly ornate vehicle drawn up outside the Forster house looking quite out of place. A bewigged, liveried footman opened the door and pulled down the step.
“Oh,no,“ Elizabeth said, at the same time as Darcy.
He glanced down at her with a half-smile which quickly disappeared as he returned his attention to the scene outside the window, of the footman helping a furious-faced Lady Catherine de Bourgh down from her carriage.
