Chapter Fifteen #2
She was staring back at him with a look of triumphant amusement.
“I am obliged to confide a great secret in you, sir – but I may be assured of your secrecy, since I already know you to be hiding from Mr. Bingley, and without even asking why, I shall give you my word that I shall never tell him of my discovering you thus.”
He chuckled again. “You are generosity itself, Miss Fairfax. But you may be assured of my discretion.”
Her blue eyes shone. “Ah – generous I am, but Miss Fairfax I am not .”
Darcy was so distracted, drinking in the sight of her, that it was a moment before he comprehended her revelation.
He let out a breathy laugh. “I knew it – I knew there was something. But your neighbors and all your relations… are they privy to this deceit? Surely not! And – I beg your pardon – who are you?” He gave another rueful laugh, recalling how he had asked her this very question that day in the grove.
She grasped at her skirts and dipped her head, mimicking a curtsey without standing up. “My name is Elizabeth Bennet.”
Bennet. The name sounded vaguely familiar to him, though he could not be certain why. “But the entire village believes you to be Jane Fairfax – how can that be? Is there any such person?”
There was a rustling behind them, little more than the slight breeze that cooled them. She whipped her head around and then instantly lifted her bare feet from the water and sprang up. “Jane!”
Miss Bennet took off running across the dock, and Darcy swiftly scrambled to his feet, mortified to be observed by anybody but her in such an informal attitude. But as he turned around, Darcy was stunned to see her running toward… another Jane Fairfax?
His footing was not sure as he turned and met with such an astonishing sight; he stumbled over his coat and hat, and lost his balance entirely.
His body careened to one side and then the other, and then he toppled into the cool water.
Darcy flailed at the shock of it, but soon broke the surface of the water, kicking to stay afloat.
Miss Bennet and her identical copy stood hand in hand, gawking at his absurd display.
And then Miss Bennet was running back to him, the damp hem of her gown clinging to her bare ankles.
“Good Heavens, Mr. Darcy! Whatever happened? You might have waited for me to abandon you for better company before taking a swim, sir!”
She sank to her knees at the end of the dock and extended her hand out to him. Darcy was not far; he swam but a few strokes toward her before taking her hand and then grasping at the dock. “I can pull myself up – I have no wish to pull you in after me.”
“Of course – how gallant.” She took a step backward, barely suppressing a grin.
“Likewise,” he drawled as he hauled himself up out of the water, certain he looked an indecorous shambles.
Wet hair hung in his eyes and he wiped at his face, internally groaning at his complete want of dignity at such a moment; he stood before the most beautiful woman he had ever beheld, and, most irrationally, another of the same.
“I hate to seem impertinent when I am already ridiculous, Miss Bennet, but what on earth is happening?”
She beamed at him, seeming to revel in his dishevelment as much as her own mischief. “Mr. Darcy, allow me to present my twin sister, Miss Jane Fairfax.”
“The sister you met in Weymouth?”
“The very same, sir,” Miss Fairfax replied, bobbing into a curtsey. “I am pleased to meet you, Mr. Darcy. Lizzy, I believe there is much to be talked of.”
Lizzy . Miss Fairfax was more soft-spoken than her counterpart, and her musical voice made the name sound divine. Lizzy . It even suited her better, this wild and devious creature who had caught him in her snare. “Might I have that explanation you promised, Miss Bennet?”
She looked at her sister, and the pair appeared to have a silent exchange, their blue eyes and expressive brows doing all the speaking. Finally, the real Miss Fairfax gave a nod.
Miss Bennet squared her shoulders and looked smugly at Mr. Darcy. “After nearly shocking you into drowning, I daresay I owe you what may prove a vastly fascinating account of my purpose in Highbury. I hope it will be no great disappointment that it is nothing as nefarious as you may have imagined.”
Miss Fairfax gasped and gave a breathy laugh, shaking her head with playful affection. “It is rather wonderful, in fact.”
Miss Bennet sat back down on the edge of the dock and began to refasten her boots, and Darcy could not allow Miss Fairfax to catch him peeking this time.
Instead he busied himself in the same way, sitting to unfold his soaked trousers and attempt to put his boots back on.
Miss Fairfax looked anxious for a moment and then sat down as well.
As she tightened the laces of her boots, Miss Bennet began her explanation.
“All my life I believed that my parents died shortly after I was born and that Mr. Bennet, being a close friend of my father, felt it right that he should raise me as his own. He has been an excellent guardian, and has even made me the heiress to the larger of the two estates he owns in Hertfordshire. He has educated me academically as well as in the management of Netherfield, but he has never spoken of my parents. He is a dear man, but a creature of odd humors – sentimentality is not his way, and I have always supposed that it was too painful for him to speak of them.”
Miss Bennet finished securing her boots and covered her legs with her skirts as she tucked them behind her, sitting in a contemplative pose.
“My stepmother was not terribly cruel, but neither was she kind to me, or interested in me much at all. She died when I was ten years old, and since then the only mother figure I have known is our housekeeper Bessie; she is the widow of another of my father’s former friends from his time in the militia.
I also came to enjoy the friendship of Lady Gresham, whom I met seemingly by chance several years ago.
It was she who invited me to Weymouth, as much by design as our very first encounter. ”
“She is my aunt – our aunt,” Miss Fairfax said. “She sought to reunite us, for she promised our late uncle that she would do so.”
“You may imagine our surprise, when we first laid eyes on another woman with our very own face,” Miss Bennet laughed.
Her story was a long and amusing one, and Darcy listened with rapt attention as she told him of the discovery the sisters had made while confined together in the dower house, and the scheme they subsequently contrived together.
Darcy was alarmed as it was made clear that the sisters had been born to unmarried parents, though in the eyes of all the world they were the daughters of a respectable man and wife twenty years dead.
And Miss Bennet was even an heiress, raised as a gentleman’s daughter – her situation was for all appearances rather better than when she had been Jane Fairfax.
This realization stirred something in Darcy.
“Perhaps you will think us foolish, sir, but we have not only exchanged places for the sake of each meeting our other parent,” Miss Bennet said with a twinkle in her eye. “We wish to reunite them, once and for all.”
“I see,” Darcy said. And then another realization struck him. “Bennet – Miss Bingley’s betrothed.”
“Unfortunately,” Miss Fairfax said primly. Darcy was already inclined to approve of her.
“Yes, we had not expected that ,” Miss Bennet grumbled. She leveled an assessing gaze at Darcy before speaking again. “I understand she is the sister of your friend….”
“I am not dismayed that you should wish to imperil her engagement,” Darcy said cautiously. He mirrored Miss Bennet’s expression, a silent affirmation that they spoke in confidence.
“I do not think them well suited,” Miss Fairfax sighed.
“Not to mention she has treated you with pure malice,” Miss Bennet hissed. She patted her sister’s hand, then turned back to Darcy. “I do not know how we shall accomplish it, not yet, but I am stubborn and not without a devilish turn of mind.”
“I have no doubt,” Darcy agreed. He began to feel a bit silly in their present indecorous informality – if anyone were to discover them, it would certainly appear odd. Having finally gotten his boots on, he stood and helped the two ladies to their feet.
“Well, I suppose you have much to discuss between yourselves – I presume you must have planned this rendezvous to do so.”
“Yes, there is much we must talk of before we switch back,” Miss Bennet agreed.
“Switch back?”
“I have little talent for being Lizzy,” Miss Fairfax said with a self-deprecating laugh. “Better my sister bite back at Miss Bingley’s barbs; I shall seek refuge in the cottage.”
Darcy stared at Miss Bennet with wide eyes. “And so you shall be with Miss Bingley and Mr. Bennet – at Milton Hall?”
“Working every manner of wickedness,” Miss Bennet quipped. “I suppose when you have donned dry clothes back at the manor, we shall soon be introduced. You must remember your promise not to betray me, now that you know I am no adventuress .”
Miss Bennet, the woman who had beguiled him at every turn and bedeviled his every waking thought for the last week, flashed him an irresistible grin.
Darcy took leave of his senses for far longer than it was reasonable to be silent and stupefied.
Finally, he managed to nod his agreement.
“Your secret is safe with me, and I wish you well in your scheme. I suppose I shall see you at supper, Miss Bennet. And Miss Fairfax, until we meet again.”
Darcy bowed to Miss Fairfax and then to Miss Bennet, whose hand he raised in his own.
He began to bring to his lips but hesitated, suddenly far too conscious of his own preposterous, sodden appearance.
He bowed his head and then released her hand, and she gave him a lingering, inquisitive look before turning away and linking arms with her sister.
He watched them go, whispering eagerly together as they retreated back toward the grove.
Elizabeth Bennet – her true name reverberated in his chest, and he felt a strange sense of exhilaration at how freely she had confided in him.
Something even more powerful surged through him as he realized that she was to be staying in the same house as him for the foreseeable future.