Chapter 2
Chapter Two
The couple had been wandering along the path as they spoke, and they both looked up when they heard a voice call out.
“Darcy!” Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam cried.
“Where have you been?” He stopped abruptly when he saw the pair together.
“Miss Bennet! What a surprise to find you here with my cousin.” Fitzwilliam glanced at his cousin with a wry grin.
“Good morning, Colonel,” Elizabeth said.
“Richard,” Darcy nodded.
“I was on my way to call at the parsonage, Miss Bennet,” the colonel said. “Might I escort you back? Darcy, Aunt Catherine is looking for you and insists you attend to her immediately.”
“I will attend my aunt after I see Miss Bennet back to the parsonage,” Darcy insisted, offering her his arm again. She grinned up at him as she took it, and his heart lightened a little. He smiled in return, showing his dimples, both momentarily ignoring the colonel’s presence.
The colonel grinned as he fell into step with the couple, unconcerned at being forgotten. “It seems I am de trop, but I will accompany you, nonetheless. Have you both enjoyed your walks this morning?”
“The grove is lovely,” Elizabeth replied. “I so enjoy spring and seeing the flowers bloom. The gardens at Rosings are lovely, but I confess to preferring less formal gardens. There is so much… order here and not enough nature.”
“Pemberley’s gardens are much wilder,” Darcy informed her.
“My grandmother and my mother also preferred less formal gardens. While the gardens are not fully wild, they are much more natural than the gardens here. There are many beautiful walks, and the park is a full ten miles around.” She heard the pride in his voice as he spoke of his home, but she recognised it was not a haughty pride but a pride of accomplishment and in his heritage.
“My aunt and uncle are taking a tour of the Lakes this summer, and I hope to join them. My aunt also intends to visit her former home in Derbyshire while we are there,” Elizabeth told them.
“I have heard much of the ‘wildness’ of that county and look forward to seeing many of the Peaks while I am travelling through the area.”
“Where in Derbyshire did your aunt reside, do you know?” Darcy asked, considering how he might be able to invite this unknown aunt and uncle to his home while they travelled.
“My aunt grew up in Lambton, sir,” she replied.
“That is only five miles from Pemberley!” Richard exclaimed. “Will you pass through Matlock as well, do you think? Matlock is the seat of my own family.”
“I do not know yet; it will depend on my uncle and the length of our visit,” she answered. “My aunt and uncle will set the itinerary, and I will just accompany them.” She smiled brightly at both of them as she spoke.
“When I bring Georgiana to visit, I will speak to your uncle and invite them to Pemberley when they pass through Lambton,” Darcy told her, glancing down at her.
He started at the sudden realisation he had said more than he ought; he would have to explain matters to Richard since the couple had just agreed to keep their courtship a secret.
Richard’s eyebrows flew to his hairline at the invitation. He said nothing but gave Darcy a meaningful look, which Darcy returned with one of his own. A moment later, they all arrived at the parsonage.
The gentlemen bowed to Elizabeth before taking their leave.
Holding her hand a moment longer than strictly usual, Darcy murmured to Elizabeth, “It was remiss of me not to tell you how much I appreciate your agreement. I look forward to meeting you again in the morning, if not sooner,” he said, wishing he had taken the opportunity to kiss her hand while they were alone.
Elizabeth watched the gentlemen depart before entering the parsonage.
Her return went unobserved, so she slipped upstairs to consider everything that had just happened, particularly her acceptance of a courtship with Mr Darcy.
“I am courting Mr Darcy,” Elizabeth thought as she reached her room.
“He admires me, thinks me beautiful even, and wants to court me.” Laughing to herself, she sat down to compose several letters that she would need to hide and pass to Mr Darcy on the morrow.
Neither gentleman spoke for several minutes as they made their way towards Rosings. Finally, Richard broke the silence when they were out of earshot and sight of both the parsonage and Rosings. “So, Cousin, do you have any news for me?” he asked teasingly.
Darcy glared at him. “No, I do not,” he said before pausing and considering things momentarily.
“Actually, I do need to tell you something. Wickham is up to his old tricks, this time in Hertfordshire. Before I left in November, he was a member of the militia quartered there. He is, of course, still telling stories about the denied living to all and sundry and running up debts he cannot pay.”
“I did not know that,” Richard said, perking up. “When we return to London, I will pay a visit to his commander. Do you happen to know his name?”
“Colonel Forster,” Darcy replied. “Miss Bennet asked me about Wickham this morning as she realised his stories may not have been true after observing him for some time.”
Richard arched a brow at him. “How did she come to realise that?”
“She saw through his lies, or, at least, saw enough to wonder at his veracity. I obliquely warned her in November when I was at Netherfield, so she asked me about him this morning. I departed Hertfordshire before I could do anything else,” Darcy paused momentarily before continuing more seriously. “I told her about Georgiana, Richard.”
At that, his cousin stopped walking and looked at him aghast. “How could you do that? We swore not to share that story any further.”
“She will not spread the story,” Darcy assured him.
Richard eyed his cousin cautiously. “You are in love with her.” It was a statement, not a question; he already knew the answer.
“Yes,” Darcy said simply, unwilling to elaborate further.
They began walking again silently. After several minutes, Richard again broke the silence. “What do you intend to do about it?”
Richard was surprised as a wide grin spread across his typically dour cousin’s face.
“She has agreed to allow me to court her; however, we will not tell my aunt or her mother at present for similar reasons. I will write her father to ask his permission for the courtship to proceed, and she will write him to ask to stay longer in town with her uncle and request he not tell her mother until things are more definitely settled. I intend to introduce her to Georgiana once we are both in London.”
Richard nodded. “Congratulations, cousin. I think she will make you a fine wife, especially given the rather large grin on your face. I have not seen you smile like that since before your father died.”
“She is a rather special woman, Richard,” Darcy agreed softly before closing his eyes briefly to picture her—and to imagine kissing her.
“Aunt Catherine is to know nothing of this, as she will respond badly. Regardless of how often I tell her I will not marry Anne, she insists that I will do so. Anne wants to marry me as much as I want to marry her, but our aunt will not see sense in this matter.”
They spent the next few moments speaking of what Lady Catherine might do should she learn of the courtship and how to protect Miss Elizabeth should that come to be.
When they reached the house, they headed towards Lady Catherine’s drawing room, nicknamed the throne room by her nephews, where they knew they would find the lady.
Although only Darcy’s presence had been requested, the colonel knew without being asked that he would be needed to support his cousin.
“Darcy! Finally, you have come. I sent for you ages ago,” the grand lady thundered from her grand chair on a dais at the end of the room. “Fitzwilliam, you are not needed here. You may go.”
“I prefer to stay, Aunt” he drawled, lazily settling into a chair.
She glared at him, but the colonel refused to budge. Darcy sat near him, much more stiffly than his cousin, and waited for the complaint that was sure to come.
It came quickly. “Darcy, I insist you announce your engagement immediately,” she demanded.
“I am not engaged to anyone at present, Aunt,” he replied evenly. “There is nothing to announce.”
“You are engaged to Anne. You have been since you were in your cradles. It was your mother’s dearest wish,” she insisted.
“No contracts were written, nor has a settlement ever been signed. As far as I know, my mother never mentioned it, at least not to me. And as I have not asked anyone to marry me, nor would I have been accepted had I asked my cousin, how is it that I am engaged, madam?” he asked, his voice calm and even.
“You are honour bound to marry my daughter. No one else will have her because it is widely known that you are engaged to her,” she tried again.
“You have spread the false story of the engagement, and I have refuted it every time I have heard that rumour. My father told you before he died that I was not obligated to Anne, and I have told you that I will not marry her. I will not be induced into marriage by a fictional account of my mother engaging me to her sister’s daughter more than two decades ago,” Darcy stated.
“She will be ruined,” Lady Catherine said again, spluttering in her rage.
“If she is, it is by your hand,” Darcy told her indifferently.
“She is the heiress of Rosings, yet you have never taken her to town or allowed her to be presented at court. You have not let her have a season or do anything a young woman of her station should do. If she is not married, it is not my fault but yours.”
“Do you intend to marry Miss Bennet?” Lady Catherine questioned angrily, having seen the attention her nephew paid to her parson’s guest.