Chapter 35 #2
“Oh, my dearest, how silly you are!” she said to her husband with a maniacal titter.
“Of course we knew. Why, dear Mrs Darcy is among my most intimate circle! I was distressed by the difficulties she had and so very, very worried for her sweet little boy…Bennet! Such a fine, strong-sounding name, Bennet! I saw him just the other day, and he is certainly the image of his father.”
The tide of the conversation turned from there. No one would be fool enough to admit that they were on the outs of Mrs Darcy’s circle, a circle that had been circumscribed by Lady Matlock. All wished to appear that they had been fully aware of Darcy’s heir almost from the moment he quickened.
“I shall never understand you,” Saye announced, arriving at the side of Miss Lillian Goddard. “You are violently in love with me, yet when I see you at parties, you pay me no heed.”
Despite herself, Miss Goddard blushed. She could not say exactly what it was about the viscount that endeared him to her. Yes, he was handsome, and yes, he was wealthy and titled. But that he was obviously aware of those facts far outweighed any attraction engendered by them.
“Violently in love? Sir, you have mistaken me for Lady Charlotte—she is across the room. Both of us so blonde, I can understand how it confuses you.”
“Minx,” he drawled comfortably. “Come, let us go into the courtyard and make your chaperon earn her keep.”
She laughed. “Never.”
“What do you fear more?” he asked. “What you might find? Or how much you might like it?”
She reached out with her fan, using the tip to give him a little shove in the chest. “Insufferable man.”
“Insufferable perhaps, yet you suffer me gladly,” he retorted. “Come now, Lilly, one kiss. Would it truly pain you?”
“I am not going to sneak off into the garden and kiss a rake!” she said, half-scandalised and more than a little captivated. The boldness of this man to simply request such liberties!
“A rake is only as rakish as his last rakism,” Saye proclaimed.
“Rakism?”
“The act of being a rake,” Saye replied blithely. “That is in the Bible you know.” He took her arm and began leading her towards the back of the room.
“What Bible are you reading?”
“Oh, the one about forgiveness and so forth. My point is that I am keen to change myself for you, while at the same time, I am willing to permit this odd occupation of drawing fashion illustrations to continue. And still, you reject me! Why, I begin to think I must be mad to pursue you as I do.”
Lilly was so astonished that she kept going along with him, somehow finding herself in the back of the house and then slipping out a side entrance into the courtyard. “Yes, you must be, for I have certainly given you no encouragement.”
“That is just it, after all,” he said, drawing her into a darkened area away from the line of sight of the door. “You are certainly quite spoilt and have given me very little consideration. Half of the time I call on you, I wonder whether you wish yourself elsewhere.”
“I am not spoilt.”
“You are. But not half as much as I should like to spoil you.”
Looking up into his face, Lilly felt a strange pounding of her heart.
She cursed it. She did not wish to have feelings for Saye.
Every rational part of her protested against it.
Yet he looked rather dear standing there looking down at her.
Arrogant as ever, of course, but in his eyes shone a strangely vulnerable light.
“I like when you call on me,” she whispered. “There have even been a few times when you did not, and I…I wished you had.”
“Ha!” he crowed. “I knew it! You are obsessed with me.”
That made her laugh, and she covered her mouth, hoping she had not been heard by the person—blast them!—who had just opened the door from the inside. It seemed they had been found. Lilly heard her aunt calling into the courtyard. “Lillian, is that you out there? Come back to the ballroom at once!”
“Last chance,” Saye whispered. “If you want to kiss me, do it. A simple peck on the cheek will do; however, should you like to marry me…well, then only un baiser amoureux will do.”
“Lillian?” It sounded like her aunt was advancing into the courtyard.
Auntie be hanged. Obeying an impulse she did not fully understand, Lilly leant in and kissed Saye directly on the mouth.
Elizabeth’s ball went on well into the wee hours of the morning. Relieved of the usual duties that would have fallen to her as the host, she was free to dance the night away, which she did with relish.
Her husband claimed three dances, with a look on his face that dared anyone to object to such a social faux pas. “Whoever does not like it may leave,” he informed his wife. “I make the rules here.”
When the last guest had gone, it was very nearly dawn.
By the time Elizabeth and Darcy at last fell into bed, it was past six in the morning.
Elizabeth was asleep almost as soon as her head hit her pillow, her slumber filled with pleasant dreams. Indeed, when her husband began to trail kisses over her neck and bosom, she believed herself still in one of those dreams.
She groaned into her pillow. “I feel as though we only just lay down.”
“Sleep as long as you like.”
She opened her eyes and snuggled into him, noting that the clock on the mantel declared it was nearly eleven in the morning.
“I had such a wonderful time last night. Thank you again.” She laughed a moment, then teased him, “I still cannot believe you kept it so secret from me. As my sister Lydia would say, what a fine joke!”