Chapter 1 #2
“Just so.” Darcy did not seem to catch the humour. “Were she less shy, she might have atoned for what her parents could not give her. But as it is…” He shrugged as the words hung in the air.
Richard completed the thought. “As it is, she is not worth the time of the young countesses and marchionesses, who care only for their elevated status and none for a genuine heart and honest friendship.” Darcy nodded. “What does Mrs North propose?”
“Georgie has begged to leave school. She has completed her classes and excels at music, and wishes to be anywhere but there. Mrs North agrees, whilst apologising for not having brought Georgie out of her shell. Should we decide to leave her there, Mrs North will of course continue in her efforts, but if student, headmistress, and other students feel leaving is best, staying hardly seems to be the best course to chart.”
“And, as fellow guardian to the girl, you require my agreement.” A yawn crept up on him, and the heady glow of the ball now seemed far in the past.
Darcy’s dark head inclined. “Your counsel, more like. I know little of the hearts of fourteen-year-old girls. You have a younger sister, who has passed through that difficult age and emerged as a worthy woman of society. I know about farming and crops and how to manage my estate. What is your advice?”
The droplets of brandy were beginning to blur. Richard finished the contents of the crystal cup in one burning gulp and exhaled. His eyelids were quite heavy all of a sudden, and the fire a bit too warm.
“I believe my advice is not to ask a drunken man for his advice. I would wish to mull this over, perhaps ask Mother or Eleanor, and offer my thoughts tomorrow or afterwards. My sister will surely have some words of advice. How desperate is Mrs North for your response?”
“This has been brewing for a year. Another week will make little difference.” Darcy followed Richard’s example and finished his brandy.
“But what of you? I have seen neither hide nor hair of you since you returned to London from Newmarket. If I did not notice my food costs doubling, I should not know you were living in my house.”
Richard pushed a hand through his light brown hair. It somehow helped to clear his mind.
“I was denied again,” he said with a dejected sigh. “I completed my assignment with Colonel James at Newmarket and requested orders to somewhere important, and once again, Father stepped in with his unaccountable influence and had them refused.”
“He loves you, Richard, and does not wish to see you injured or killed in battle in some foreign place.”
“Aye, but I chose the military as my career, and I feel as useless as a pimple on Prinny’s backside.
Training one set of green recruits after another on how to walk in straight lines and which end of a musket to hold and which to load might be important for the Empire, but I feel like a nursemaid.
” He took a deep breath. “I want to fight. I want to do something, to take action. But this is all for naught. I shall resign my commission forthwith, regardless, and see about taking some land.”
This brought Darcy to attention. He sat up straight in his chair, brows furrowed. “You are resigning your commission? But this is what you wanted, from my earliest memories of you. What can you be about?”
Now Richard allowed a smile to break across his face. “I mean to be married, Darcy! I mean to ask her tomorrow, and do what every good husband ought to do, which is stay at home and dote upon his wife.”
“Who is it to be? Not the Ingalls girl? She is all feather and preening and no brain. You will not be happy with her.”
A scowl replaced that grin. “Not happy? She is perfectly sensible—I think—and she is a right beauty! She smiles at me as if I were the only man in the room. I shall be perfectly happy, exquisitely happy, with her. I shall leave off being Major Richard Fitzwilliam, and we two shall be Mr and Mrs F, which I believe shall please us both greatly.”
“Be warned, Richard. She is not what she seems.”
The late hour and the unwanted criticism of his diamond did little for Richard’s mood, and his voice, when he replied, was harsher than he intended.
“What? How do you know this? You have not graced the inside of a ballroom or soirée in two years or more. How can you possibly know of Miss Ingalls’ character? You say this to vex me!” Richard realised he was shouting. That would not do. He took a deep breath, which did clear his mind somewhat.
Darcy’s brows knitted, creasing a V on his noble forehead.
“I am not quite the hermit you paint me to be, Richard.” He took another sip of his drink and crossed one ankle over the opposite knee.
“Whilst you were playing nursemaid to the green recruits in Newmarket, your dear mother did insist I join her for an evening or two. I met Miss Ingalls at some ball or another. My lack of social standing did not appeal to her, it seems.”
“Your lack of standing? But you are one of the wealthiest men in Derbyshire!”
The answering laugh was more of a grimace. “Wealthy, perhaps, but Miss Ingalls has her own fortune. No, cousin, like the young ladies at Georgiana’s school, she seeks a title.”
“Surely not. Her father’s wealth came from trade.
She is aiming high, is she not? Well, I have a great pedigree behind me.
Father, for all his interfering nonsense in my career, is an earl, and the grandchildren of a peer will surely be able to marry very, very well.
She need not fear on that account.” He frowned.
“But what else have you against her? Speak. I would know it.”
Darcy put down his drink and stretched his long arms out to the side before replying.
“It was at that very ball. With your mother at my side, and having made the introductions, I had no choice but to ask the young lady to dance. She smiled and batted her lashes, but the moment your esteemed mother stepped away, seeming to be pleased with her success, Miss Ingalls replied, ‘Your appearance and wealth are tolerable, I suppose, but you are not of great enough standing to tempt me.’ Those words are emblazoned upon my brain. And with that, she turned and left, without a word of parting.” He cast a cool gaze towards his cousin.
“No, Richard, you shall not be happy with her.”
This brought a harrumph to the major’s lips. This was surely not his diamond, the glorious Miss Ingalls.
“Tomorrow I shall ask her, and tomorrow we shall have our answer. And now,” he said. failing to stifle the yawn that had been taunting him, “I really must be for bed. Let us talk later about Georgie. I will offer what advice I can but shall bow to your decisions, for she is your sister.”
“Good night, then, cousin, and I wish you every success in your appointment with Miss Ingalls tomorrow.”
The sun was just cresting the horizon when Richard drifted awake.
After the late night before, he expected to leave his bed at noon, but little, it seemed, could overcome the habit of years of military training.
It was his lot to rise with the dawn. It was far too early to call upon Miss Ingalls; she, Richard was certain, would remain abed until the sun was almost at its zenith, and then he chastised himself for thinking of her abed.
Instead, he pulled on his riding clothes, called for his horse, and headed out to the park, there to exercise both himself and his beast. A good gallop before the dandies and debutantes made their appearances was in order.
With few others about to hinder his way, he let his mount run free while he ordered his mind for the eventful day ahead.
Before sunset, he would be engaged to be married!
His heart swelled within him, and he had to force his grin from his face before he swallowed too many insects.
At last, breathing hard and well invigorated by the exertion, he rode back to Darcy’s house, where he bathed and changed into elegant attire, and made himself presentable for his intended.
When at last he appeared upon the doorstep of the Ingalls’ fine house, bouquet of fresh flowers in hand, he was shown to a small and rather pretty drawing room and asked to wait.
This he did with great impatience, counting the seconds as they ticked by on the grandmother’s clock that sat atop a low pedestal in the corner.
Tick… the clock taunted him as his eyes perused the room.
Surely, Miss Ingalls had been informed of his arrival and would be down momentarily, as full of anticipation as was he.
Tock… he noted the very fashionable pale-yellow wallpaper and a landscape in an elaborate frame.
She must be taking her time to select the finest frock she had, the better to commemorate this momentous day.
Tick… The furniture was exquisite, of excellent craftsmanship, and newly upholstered.
Had she called upon her abigail to work some special wonders with her golden locks?
Tock… How far had the sun moved since he arrived?
Surely that plant was not in shadow when he had entered the room.
By the reckoning of his pocket watch, a full three quarters of an hour had elapsed by the time Miss Ingalls deigned to join him.
Indeed, she must have been attending especially to her appearance, for there could be little doubt as to the reason for his call today.
And she did look lovely! A pale blue dress emphasised the deep sparkle of her eyes, and her hair, whilst dressed simply as befitting the morning hour, was nevertheless artfully arranged so as to allow ringlets to bounce here and there upon her face, the better to draw attention to its most particular areas of beauty.
“Major Fitzwilliam,” she bobbed a brief dip as she entered the room. Her face was cool, her sparkling eyes blue ice rather than fire.