Page 24 of Conundrums & Coincidences

“I would tell you that I like him very much and that we are mutually attached.”

Darcy pressed his lips together so firmly they must have formed a straight line.

Slender fingers pressed lightly upon his forearm. “But he and I have no stronger an attachment than friendship.”

Darcy muttered, “Perhaps you might inform him of that. He seems utterly ignorant.”

“Do you think so? I confess that, due to a lack of eligible gentlemen in my neighbourhood, I have not the necessary experience to properly determine the extent of a gentleman’s interest in me. I knew nought of yours until that evening at Hunsford.”

Genteel laughter burst forth from Miss Rigby and Mr Monroe, evidently over something Mr Hadley had said. Elizabeth looked over her shoulder and sent them a smile. Then, she looked Darcy in the eye and apologised again for her ill-treatment of him at Hunsford and for believing Mr Wickham’s tale. “I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life that evening. I do not mean that I regret my refusal of your offer, for I could not have accepted you at the time. I did not know you well enough. Nor did you know me. But for two long months, I wished for your forgiveness.”

“Your admonishments were well-deserved. But, because you wish it, you have my forgiveness.” And more. Much more.

They had, by then, turned onto the lane leading to the manor, and a neighbour riding a bay cob wished them a ‘good day’ before passing by.

“Since we are mending fences, there is something I have been meaning to tell you for days now. Before I left London, I received a reply from Bingley. He plans to reopen Netherfield as soon as he returns from Scarborough. I can give you no further assurance of how matters thereafter may unfold for your sister, but we can always hope.”

And you, Elizabeth—inadvertently or not—have given me hope by saying you did not regret your refusal of my offer because you could not have accepted me at the time. So, does that mean you would accept me now…or soon?

All his suffering was quickly turning to dogged perseverance. Perseverance, he knew, built character, and character produced hope. With a spring in his step, instead of continuing on to the house, Darcy took leave of Elizabeth and the others and strode towards the stables.

His purpose was twofold—to ensure his team was well tended and to examine his and, if necessary, other carriages in the coach house. He was unsure where his next puzzle might be hidden, but Darcy was certain of the solution to the one in his pocket.

The first is to supply with what you need.

With the second cheese and wine are better.

Put together, like the wind you may speed.

Horses, alas, know restraint and fetter.

While he inspected the stalls housing his team, a helpful stable-boy named Jimmy followed him, asking and answering questions and treating his horses to pieces of carrot.

“Do you ken Miss Bennet, sir?”

“I do. Do you?”

“Oh yes!” The expression on Jimmy’s face gave Darcy the impression the boy was lost to a daydream. “Miss Bennet is the kindest, prettiest lady I ever met! She gave me comforts!”

Darcy’s fingers stilled behind the horse’s ear he had been scratching. “Did she?” I wish Elizabeth would give me comforts.

“The comforts had pistachios!”

The innocence and cheerfulness of children always added relish to Darcy’s existence, and he wished for a family of his own.

A quarter of an hour later, he walked away from the coach house with not only a new puzzle in his breast pocket—the solution, indeed, had been ‘equipage’—but a huge grin upon his face as he remembered the rest of his conversation with the boy.

“I think you mean Miss Bennet gave you comfits, Jimmy, not comforts.”

“Oh? Well… I don’t know, sir. Those sweet pistachios gave me comforts, no doubt about that.” The boy had paused for a moment. “Of course, that was afore I got the toothache.”

13

THE PLOT THICKENS

On Monday, lost in a brown study and oppressed by a crowd of widely differing emotions, Elizabeth made her way down the grand staircase, her steps slower than was customary.

A worrisome dark cloud overshadowed her elation at having made amends with Mr Darcy. The foreboding gloom was due to the threats she had overheard between Miss Kensett and Mr Fordham.