14 #3
Jane was on her knees, groping for an errant bead that had rolled under a marble table. She gasped as Archer’s hand fastened on her arm and he drew her to her feet. To her surprise she found he was smiling, his eyes full of humour.
“Jane, Jane, Jane. It must be your influence. No one else I know can cause such chaos in my life so easily!”
She felt her lips twitch in a smile against her will. “I assure you, Sir, it is not intentional.”
She realised his fingers were still grasping her bare skin—she felt they were burning, that she would bear the mark for ever.
But she couldn’t pull away. He was standing so close, the humour was dying from his gaze and she felt her head swim at the passion and love she read in his eyes.
She longed to return it, but knew she had to hide how she felt. He must never know. Never!
“Jane—listen—I want to explain—you must realise that—I must know if you—”
The front door was flung open and Andrew strode in, bringing a gust of chill air and a scutter of dried autumn leaves.
“Archer! Miss Jane! I am damnably late. My most abject apologies. Is everyone in the drawing room? Celeste, too, I hope.” He flung his riding cape at a footman who had appeared from the back of the house. “Come, I must make my apologies to Lady Goddard and all the Darcy ladies.”
He led the way into the drawing room, just as Lady Goddard was ringing the bell for tea to be brought in. She accepted Andrew’s apologies for his late arrival, nodded briefly in acknowledgement of Jane’s curtsey, and gave Archer a long, considering stare.
“Andrew, I am sure Signorina Celeste would be delighted to see my collection of little miniatures in the cabinet. Pray show them to her. Archer, come and sit next to Miss Darcy. She wishes to hear all about what is planned for the rebuilding of the Houses of Parliament. A competition, it is rumoured. Seems like a waste of time, but then it will be a mammoth undertaking. Such carelessness in allowing such destruction. I do hope someone will be severely punished.”
Anne held out her hand, smiling as Archer took the chair next to hers on the far side of the room. Jane was only too aware of Lady Goddard’s keen appraisal of her face as she found room on the sofa next to Bennetta. She had seen her expression harden as she and Archer had come into the room.
“You look quite flushed, Miss Jane,” the old lady said. “I hope you do not have a cold coming. Is this daughter of a delicate disposition, Mrs Darcy?”
Elizabeth took a cup a footman offered her and waved aside the plate of little cakes.
She frowned slightly: it was extremely impolite for a lady—even one with great age on her side—to ask such a personal question of a guest, especially with the object of her question sitting within hearing distance.
“She was perhaps not quite as robust as her sisters, Ma’am, when young, but she suffers no more from ill health than any other young lady of my acquaintance.”
“Mama! How can you say such a thing. Jane is always the first to take cold and she suffers from bad headaches very often. I feel for her, indeed I do.” Anne sounded as sincere as any sister should be.
“It is good of you, Lady Goddard, to be concerned for my health. I assure you, I am quite well. I was, perhaps, prone to childhood complaints more than my brothers and sisters,” Jane broke in quietly, “but coming up to my twentieth birthday, I am no longer a child.”
Archer gripped the handle of his teacup so hard he feared it would snap.
He quite well understood the undercurrent of his grandmother’s question to Mrs Darcy.
She was determined to point out that he needed a wife who was strong and Anne with her high colour and brilliant gold hair looked every inch the sort of woman who would shine at his side.
He glanced across the room to where Jane sat. Their eyes met and he felt the room tilt. She loved him! He could not be wrong. Every time she looked at him, he knew in his heart that his feelings were reciprocated.
He found himself smiling. Strength came in various ways—the girl on the cliff top, admonishing the ruffians at the Green Man, travelling alone across London to help a pregnant maid—this was a quiet strength that Anne did not have.
“And do you have many beau, Miss Jane?”
“No, Ma’am, I do not.”
Anne caught the question, turned from Archer and laughed. “Why Jane, there is no need to be so shy. We are all friends here. My sister has indeed a very faithful follower, Lady Goddard. A handsome gentleman from Cheshire. His name is Digby Frobisher.”
Lady Goddard’s stern features relaxed slightly. “And do you, Mrs Darcy, approve of this liaison? In my day, a young girl would never strike up a relationship without her mother’s approval.”
Elizabeth put down her tea cup. “I hope to approve of all my children’s future wives and husbands, but it is their feelings that are important, not mine.”
“What a very odd way of looking at the world. But I suppose, when you married Fitzwilliam Darcy, your own mother must have been delighted. She could never have expected such an advantageous match. My good friend, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, related the story of your pursuit of her nephew. I truly believe the horror of the match hastened her sad demise.”
Jane never knew what her mother would have replied because Bennetta took a fit of coughing at that precise moment, gasping that she had drunk her tea too quickly.
By the time she had been exclaimed over and made comfortable once more, the subject had luckily passed.
But sitting next to her on the sofa, Jane knew quite well that her little sister had finished her tea many minutes before and that her cup had been quite empty.
Archer, who had come swiftly to Bennetta’s aid, helping her to her feet and bringing her to cooler side of the room, returned now to sit down beside Anne again. In a low voice that could not be heard by the rest of the party he said, “You seem very sure of your sister’s attachment to Mr Frobisher?”
Anne smiled. “Why yes, I am. I know my sister, Sir. We are not alike, except in looks in some degree, but as her twin I know when she is happy or sad. She and Digby had a silly falling out a few months ago, which I must admit, to my sorrow, was partly my fault.
“I was desperate that she wouldn’t be hurt and so tested his feelings for her in a clumsy fashion.
She was broken-hearted when they quarrelled.
Her health suffered—why you must have seen that when you met her in Dorset.
But since he has returned to London, she is happiness itself.
I am quite sure we will be hearing of a proposal very soon.
A quiet home in the beauty of the Cheshire countryside is just the style of life that Jane will enjoy.
She is not a girl for cities and towns.”
“She has seen him since his return?” Archer tried to sound as if he was just making polite conversation. Was this why Jane seemed to glow? He had thought … hoped … it was her feelings for him that caused her eyes to shine so brightly, but perhaps he had been deluding himself.
Anne hesitated. She thought Digby a stupid young man, whose only aim in life was to marry a young lady with her own fortune: the very fact that he had proposed to her instead of Jane proved that he was not constant in his affections, but if he was what Jane wanted, then she would do all she could to help the relationship prosper.
Once she was married to Archer and they had a suitable London establishment, it would make no difference to her if her sister was living up north in faraway Cheshire.
“Not to my knowledge, but then Jane can be very secretive. I am sure they have been corresponding.” She smiled and touched him lightly on the arm.
“I myself have no time for the games that some lovers play, but I fear Jane is of a different disposition. She reads a great many romances—why she is hardly ever out of our library at Pemberley! She may well have mentioned to Mr Frobisher that she had met you and Dr Moore in Dorset, believing that a little jealousy can galvanize a gentleman into action.”
“I see.” Archer was silent for a minute or two, then with a bow, left the room, desperate for fresh air, trying to force his thoughts into order.
Anne could surely not be wrong about her twin: she must know her better than anyone.
Was he preparing to jeopardize his whole future for a girl who was not whom she appeared to be?