Page 4

Four

Darcy hearda young woman’s voice, faint and distant, barely cutting through the fog of his mind. As he struggled through the thick cloud enveloping him, he heard Colonel Fitzwilliam’s voice beside him. “Darcy, can you hear me?”

“He is coming around,” someone said in the background.

“Darcy, can you hear me?” Colonel Fitzwilliam asked again.

“He is stirring,” cried Miss Anne de Bourgh, Darcy’s cousin.

A cool cloth was laid on his forehead, and he heard a glass being filled with water. Someone placed a glass to his lips. He was so thirsty that he drank eagerly, causing most of the liquid to spill over his chin. A gentle, linen-clad finger wiped away the spilled water, and another glass was brought up to his lips.

Sunlight streamed through the windows as he drew a cautious breath. The cool, crisp air filled his lungs as he turned toward the light, momentarily savoring the sensation despite the protest of his aching ribs.

Darcy tried focusing his eyes. He struggled to sit up, but a wave of dizziness swept over him. The room spun in a slow circle—the furnishings whirled around him like dancers at a ball. He fell back against the pillows.

“What happened to me?” Darcy asked.

“You suffered a riding accident,” said the colonel. “You were found unconscious.”

“How long was I unconscious?”

“For more than a day,” Colonel Fitzwilliam replied. “A couple of villagers found you severely injured on the outskirts of the estate. They carried you here to the house.”

Darcy tried again to sit up, but the pain in his side overwhelmed him. He noticed his cousin Anne sitting next to him—her pallid complexion and hollow eyes betraying her distress.

“Thank heavens you have awakened,” she said.

Anne got up, retrieved the glass, and refilled it with water. She sat down next to him and handed him the glass. He sipped some of the water and handed the glass back to her.

Darcy gritted his teeth as a sharp pain shot through his side.

“The physician said you have a few badly bruised ribs. You suffered a leg wound and a head wound. He strongly suspects that you have a concussion, too.” His spirits now lifted at seeing Darcy was out of danger, half-serious, half-jokingly, he added, “Oh, and you suffered a sprained ankle as well. Other than that, there is nothing much the matter with you.”

Darcy was hardly in the mood to suffer his cousin’s verbal jabs. He raised his hand, touching the bandage on his head. “My personal physician from town?”

The colonel nodded. “We summoned him immediately to attend you, what with the local doctor having done all he could.”

“Have the two of you remained here all this time?”

“Where else would we have been?” the colonel asked. “And not just the two of us,” he added. “Miss Bennet has stayed here with us this entire time,” he said, gesturing to the young lady near his side.

In truth, Darcy had hardly noticed the young lady. She was fairly tolerable, with her hair arranged in a bun and her hands clasped in front of her. She stepped closer to his bed and curtsied. “Mr. Darcy, what a relief to us all that you have awakened at last. Mere words cannot adequately convey how worried we were.”

That voice!It jolted him, setting him inexplicably on edge. He stared blankly at her, struggling to place her face in his memory, yet finding nothing recognizable. “Pardon me,” he said, “but I do not believe we have been introduced.”

The young woman seemed taken aback by his declaration. For that matter, the expressions on his cousins’ faces ranged from surprise to embarrassment. As though unable to mask his own confusion, the colonel looked at Elizabeth and shook his head. Shooting her a silent apology, he then faced Darcy.

“Surely you jest, old fellow.”

“Do I look as though I am speaking in jest?” Mr. Darcy asked, his voice a mixture of irritation and frustration.

“And what of myself? Surely you know who I am, and you know who Anne is as well.”

“Why would I not know you, my closest cousin and Anne, my betrothed?” Mr. Darcy asked as he continued to stare in confusion.

“Your betrothed!” a trio of distinct voices rang out in unison.

“That is correct. Cousin Anne and I are to be married,” he declared.