Chapter 10
A FAIR CHANCE OF HAPPINESS
Unable to think what else to do, where else to go, Elizabeth turned towards Longbourn.
She heard footsteps behind her. Mr Darcy, plainly, had no intention of leaving her unaccompanied.
Perhaps he was worried that she still meant to buy a ticket to Cheapside.
Well, he need not; she had given Mr Wickham every bit of money she possessed.
For several minutes, they walked in silence.
“I apologise,” he said at last, when the sounds of the town were no longer audible. “I ought to have given you more information before offering such a wager. It was unfair, and I will not hold you to it. If you do not wish to marry me, I will call it off.”
Astonished, she whirled to face him. “Were you to renege, you would be pilloried for it! My father might even bring a suit against you, he would be so enraged!” She need not warn him of the publicity that would bring down upon his head.
She was unknown in society; she could live it down eventually, especially considering that her prospects for marriage were not any too great in the first place.
But Mr Darcy, nephew of an earl and one of society’s elite, was a bird of a different feather.
“I would not have you blamed,” he said, his voice low and grave.
For the first time since she had woken up in bed with him, her fear and fury and the hated shell of impotence cracked. She felt the tears, foolish, stupid tears, sliding down her cheeks.
“Do not cry,” he whispered. “I am so sorry. I would do anything to fix this.”
“I agreed to marry you. I shall keep my word.”
“Not if it breaks your heart.”
“Yes,” she insisted. “Even then.” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “But, since you do care if it breaks, I think you will be more careful with me than that. I believe I can cross ‘heartbreak’ off my list of worries. You are a good man, Mr Darcy. I do believe that much.”
He found his handkerchief, handing it to her, watching as she dried her tears. To her very great surprise, he went down on one knee before her. “Miss Elizabeth,” he said solemnly. “Will you do me the very great honour of becoming my wife?”
It was a kindness, humbling himself before her as if she were the wife of his dreams instead of a mistake he was determined to repair. Even more unexpectedly, it helped; she felt less coerced, more as if she had a part in this decision. It made it a little easier to speak the words.
“Yes, Mr Darcy. I will marry you.”
“Thank you,” he said, looking…relieved? He stood, and from his pocket, withdrew a slim case, which he opened. Resting upon a bed of velvet was a gold necklace of three elegant midnight blue sapphires with diamond surrounds. “This was my mother’s. I would like you to have it.”
She gasped. “Why…why it is beautiful!” She had never owned such a piece in her life, and as he fastened it around her neck, she felt its beauty soften another bit of the helplessness she had been feeling. There was power in jewellery such as this, and she was not immune. “Thank you.”
“It is barely worthy of you. May I escort you home?” He held out his arm.
“Yes,” she said softly, taking it.
As they walked along together, she reflected on all she did not know about him.
Her first impressions had been ones of arrogance; she had thought him unpleasant, callous even.
Yet today, he had been sympathetic and generous.
She was the one who had been harsh, lashing out with every assumption that her wishes mattered not at all.
His subsequent kindness had contradicted her former opinions. Which man was the real Mr Darcy?
Well, there was only one way to find out; she must talk to him, come to know him.
He would not always be this tall stranger, seizing her world with alien unknowns.
“Perhaps you would tell me about Pemberley?” she asked.
“I have heard only of its library, which sounds splendid. Is the rest of it so grand? Oh, and have you informed your sister of our wedding? What will she think of me, I wonder?”
Darcy walked beside Elizabeth with all the feeling of a man suspended upon a precipice, facing certain doom, who had suddenly, miraculously, been rescued.
He had not known how ill her opinion of him had been; he had foolishly assumed she would be pleased to have, even accidentally, secured a proposal from him. Years of being pursued by marriageable misses and their mammonish mamas had inured him to his own foibles.
Now, after all, it was plain that she was trying her best to come to know him better.
To that end, he told her everything he could think of regarding the beauties of Pemberley, the home that so soon she would share with him.
The notion made the surrounding grey skies and gloomy weather appear bright, renewed.
It was an easy matter, too, to speak of his sister, who loved their Derbyshire home beyond anything and who he was certain would be happy to know Elizabeth.
“She has been saddened of late. I believe she will love to acquire a sister beyond anything else I could do for her, and of all people, to be gaining a woman like you is an advantage to her beyond compare.”
Her cheeks pinkened, and he dared to squeeze her arm slightly against his body.
“Why has she been sad?” she asked quietly. He sighed, and she immediately added, “Of course, you must not say if it is breaking a confidence to tell me.”
“Nothing except my desperate desire for your understanding would impel me to mention a circumstance which I would much rather forget. However, it is imperative, I think, for you to know what has happened to her, as it influences much of my decisions regarding her present and, I suppose, her future.”
“I hope you know that her secrets, and yours, are safe with me.”
He found a smile. “I do know that about you, yes.” But it took him a few minutes before he could bear to put his sister’s experience into words. She remained silent, as if she somehow understood his strong emotions, when she could not possibly.
“Georgiana is very shy, very timid and…meek, I suppose you might say. She looks much older than she acts, in my opinion, but then, I am her elder brother. It is natural for me to think of her as a child.”
“How old is she?”
“She has only just turned sixteen.” He took a deep breath.
“Last summer, at her home in Ramsgate, her companion allowed a much older man to pay court to her, to convince her to elope. He very nearly succeeded. He coveted, of course, her fortune of thirty thousand, but that was not his sole interest. Revenge upon me topped his list.”
She halted. “No. It was not…it could not have been Mr Wickham, could it?” she asked, her tone appalled.
“One and the same,” he agreed.
“I am so sorry,” she said. “Sorry I ever spoke with him, brought him again to your notice. What a repulsive excuse for a man he is!”
“I am not sorry,” he said. “I know he is here now. I will not have him anywhere near your family—which is my family, or will be on Wednesday. I will speak to his commanding officer, and ensure the scoundrel is made…unwelcome.”
“Thank you!” she said, and pressed his arm tightly, causing a jolt of feeling he treasured. “Thank you so much. I do not know how he expects to remain in this community, regardless, after the way he treated me. My family is not unpopular, and our opinions will matter to everyone.”
“Ah, but he misjudged. You told him that you wished to do something against your father’s will; therefore, he presumed, you would be unable to inform on him without condemning yourself.
Besides, what does it matter if one pretty girl hates him?
Although my guess is, he expected to furnish apologies with dishonest reasons you would believe, and charm his way out of your disfavour. ”
Slowly, she nodded. “I purposely acted silly and romantic so that he would believe my ruse of reuniting my maid with her beau.”
“He has a long history of deceitful, even dangerous behaviour towards romantic, silly girls. God be thanked you did lie to him, and did it so well that he believed you. You have fooled an expert trickster.” He grinned. “Should I be worried?”
For the first time in what seemed ever so long, he watched as she found her smile. “I promise to always be as truthful as I was to you today. You might wish, at times, for more peaceful pretence.”
“Never,” he assured. “You need never disguise your feelings, not from me.” As they topped the rise, Longbourn came into view. “We are here already? That must be the shortest mile I have ever walked.”
Again, she gifted him with a smile. “I believe you were invited for dinner. It is a bit early, but will you come in?”
“I will…if you will grant me the time to go back to Meryton for my horse. The poor beast probably feels abandoned.”
She covered her mouth with one hand. “Oh! I am so sorry! I did not think how you arrived in town!”
“Do not apologise,” he said. “You are worth every step.”
Again, she blushed, and he wanted to kiss her more than words could say.
In spite of these near overwhelming feelings, he restrained himself.
She had been generous, but he knew he had much to do, still, to earn her regard.
Also, he must stop in at Netherfield to speak to his man.
Nevertheless, he hardly noticed the walk back to town, and wondered if he had floated most of the way.