Lady Hortensia looked to Mr Pritchard, who nodded.
The gentlemen surged to their feet, cheering noisily and talking over each other as they offered their congratulations. Richard caught Darcy by the arm before he could escape, and James Blackwood came up behind him and lifted him bodily from the floor.
"Put me down, Blackwood."
"Accept your laurels, man," Mr Hadley called. "You have saved us from disgrace and defeat."
James only laughed and held him there a moment longer.
When Darcy was finally returned to his place, he sat down and arranged his coat and cuffs with such injured dignity that Elizabeth laughed aloud. He looked across at once, and the severity of his expression only made her laugh harder. At last his mouth gave way, and he bowed to her from the sofa.
Lady Hortensia thumped her cane against the floor until the gentlemen returned to their seats. "That will do. Mr Pritchard, you may record three points to the gentlemen."
He opened the ledger and entered the result. "The gentlemen now lead by eleven points to ten. Two points remain to be decided in the captains' debate."
Chapter Nineteen
1781 – Chaffley Hall, Derbyshire
"Iknow you let me win, George. Do you think me a fool? Or some simpering young lady who will bat her eyes at you and thank you? I thought you were different."
Lady Anne did not wait for his answer. She turned away and crossed the lawn towards the lower gardens, her pace quick enough to make it plain that she had no wish to be followed.
George remained where she had left him, staring after her dumbly. Only moments earlier, he had drawn back his arm for the final throw just as Anne laughed at something said behind her. She had turned towards the sound, and the afternoon light had caught the ebony curls at her temple. Her lips had curved before parting into a bright, unguarded smile that softened her whole face. George had blinked, the sight of her holding him for one fatal second too long. His fingers had released the ball early, and it had struck the grass short of the stake before rolling towards the roots of a nearby shrub.
The ladies had cheered. Lady Hortensia had awarded the point, and George, still amused by his own failure, had smiled at Anne in the hope that she might understand what had happened. Instead, she had taken one look at him and gone pale with anger.
"Anne," he called, disregarding his teammates who had come over to playfully remonstrate with him. She did not turn.
"Anne," he tried again, setting off after her at a run. Behind him, conversation continued around the game, though he was aware of a shift in attention towards him. He knew that people were watching and he did not care.
He caught up with Anne where the lower lawn narrowed between two clipped hedges. The path dipped only slightly from the house, leaving them plainly visible to anyone still standing near the terrace. Anne heard him coming but did not stop until he called her name for a third time.
"What?" she demanded, turning on him. "Have you come to explain how gallant you were?"
George stopped a few feet away, breathing harder than the short distance warranted. "I did not let you win."
"You threw the ball into a shrub."
"Because I was looking at you, my heart, and you were magnificent."
The anger in her face did not disappear, but it changed. George saw the question before she asked it. "You expect me to believe that?"
"I expect you to believe the truth." He took a step towards her, then checked himself when she drew back. "You laughed and I was lost. That was all it took."
Anne folded her arms. "And then you smiled at me as though I ought to be grateful."
"I smiled because I had made an idiot of myself and thought you might find it amusing. I did not understand what you believed until you spoke."
She looked away, towards the path that ran beside the maze. "I cannot bear being indulged as if I am a small child. My brothers do it and my father. Half the men I meet treat me as if I haven’t a thought in my head. I thought you saw me more clearly than that."
"I do." The words had escaped before he could soften them, but George found he no longer wished to. He had spent days choosing caution when plain speech would have served him better. "I have been falling in love with you since you accosted me over the archery bows," he said.
"Then you smiled at me and offered to rescue me from the wilds of Derbyshire." George moved closer, his gaze fixed uponhers. "You were so fierce and beautiful and witty that I could think of very little else for the rest of the day. Since then, I have listened for your voice in every conversation and found myself agreeing to any foolish contest that might place me beside you."
He took her hand. "You notice the things others overlook, yet you have no patience with anyone who deserves a scolding. You make me laugh when I least expect it, and somehow the air in a room feels altered the moment you enter it."
Anne's eyes lifted to his. He had meant to speak more carefully than this. He had meant to go first to her father and present himself as a dignified, serious suitor. He knew he fell well below her in rank, though his family was wealthy and well established. Every one of those sensible thoughts deserted him. Instead, he was standing in Lady Hortensia's garden declaring himself with an audience of half the household watching from the lawn and grass stains on his shoes.
