Lady Hortensia conferred briefly with Mr Pritchard while the room filled with argument. Harriet maintained that Elizabeth had made the finer speech. Sir Geoffrey insisted that her concession must decide the contest, while the Blackwoods began bickering amongst themselves.
Lady Hortensia struck her cane against the floor. "Miss Elizabeth offered the more affecting defence. However, Mr Darcy identified the weakness in the proposition and persuaded his opponent to concede it. The final two points of today's contest therefore go to the gentlemen."
The gentlemen broke into loud applause as Mr Pritchard opened the ledger and entered the result.
"Having also secured the three points awarded for the riddles," he announced, "the gentlemen have claimed all five points available today. At the close of the fourth day, the score stands: Gentlemen, thirteen. Ladies, ten."
Harriet gave a groan of despair, while the Blackwood brothers rose as one and turned towards Darcy with expressions which immediately caused him to step down from his platform and raise a warning hand.
As the room broke into conversation, Elizabeth joined the ladies and accepted Harriet's indignant assurances that she had been robbed. Lady Frances was more measured, conceding that Mr Darcy had argued with irritating precision, while Clara maintained that Elizabeth had made the finer speech even if the wording of the proposition had made victory almost impossible.
Elizabeth half listened to the conversation around her. Her attention had already returned to Darcy. He stood with Colonel Fitzwilliam near the front of the room, smiling at something his cousin had said, but his gaze found hers almost at once. There was warmth in it still, the same warmth with which he had kissed her hand before the debate and helped her onto the platform. Nothing in his manner suggested retreat.
Yet he had argued against constancy with such calm conviction. He had spoken of the wisdom of reconsidering a chosen course, of the courage required to disappoint others and of the necessityof abandoning a decision once reason showed it to be mistaken. Until that moment, Elizabeth had thought only of the pleasure between them and the growing certainty that Darcy's feelings were no passing amusement. Now, for the first time, another possibility presented itself.
What if affection had carried him farther than judgement approved? What if, once the excitement of Chaffley Hall had passed and reason reasserted itself, he decided that he could not in good conscience attach himself to a woman of her family, fortune and consequence? He had spoken often enough of obligations and expectations. Perhaps he had lately allowed himself to forget them.
Elizabeth dismissed the thought almost as soon as it formed. It had been a debate, and Darcy had been required to defend the position assigned to him. To search his argument for private meaning would be foolish.
Even so, when he smiled at her across the room, the answering warmth in her chest was accompanied by the first faint stir of unease.
Chapter Twenty-One
Dinner that evening was quieter than the one before it. The gentlemen had won all five points awarded during the day, but the coming maze prevented even the Blackwood brothers from celebrating with their usual abandon. The ladies were still smarting from the defeat, while Harriet had taken such exception to Sir Geoffrey's repeated observations upon the score that Clara had been obliged to take her for a short walk in the gardens to calm her down.
When the final course had been cleared, Lady Hortensia rested both hands upon the head of her cane and looked down the table. "The gentlemen now lead by thirteen points to ten," she said. "A creditable advantage, though not, I think, sufficient to justify the confidence some of you have displayed since the debate."
James Blackwood, who had been reaching for the decanter, slowly withdrew his hand.
Lady Hortensia continued. "Tomorrow's contest in the hedge maze will be worth five points. The winning side will receive all five."
Mr Ashcombe spoke before the murmurs had settled. "All five? Then four days of competition may be overturned by a single event."
Lady Hortensia turned towards him. "Yes."
He appeared wrong-footed by the simplicity of the answer. "That hardly seems proportionate."
"The earlier contests have determined the position in which you enter the last," Lady Hortensia continued. "The gentlemen have earned a lead, but not an insurmountable one. The ladies remain close enough to take the Challenge if they win tomorrow. That is precisely as it should be."
She glanced towards Mr Pritchard, who opened the ledger and ran one finger down the page. "If the gentlemen win," he said, "the final score will stand at eighteen points to ten. If the ladies win, the final score will stand at fifteen points to thirteen."
Across the table, Darcy was already looking at her, his gaze heated. "It appears you are not defeated after all," he said.
"Did you think I was?"
"Not for a moment."
There was such easy certainty in the answer that Elizabeth's irritation at the score softened. "Then you have shown better judgement than some of your companions."
Darcy glanced towards Mr Ashcombe. "That is not a particularly difficult achievement."
She laughed, and his expression warmed in answer.
Lady Hortensia allowed the noise to continue for another minute before raising her voice again. "You will receive your instructions at the entrance to the maze after breakfast. Until then, no one is to enter it, question the gardeners or attempt to persuade any member of my household to provide assistance."
Several people looked towards Amelia. Her face coloured at once.
Lady Hortensia followed their gazes and sighed. "I was not referring to Miss Harrington. The rest of you may stop behaving as though you have never made a mistake."
