Chapter Nine #4
When they reached the manor, the front doors were thrown open for them.
The Parkers and all their guests had come into the spacious vestibule, aflutter with excitement.
Richard and Georgiana already had blankets wrapped about their shoulders, and Sir Thomas Parker had two more for Darcy and Miss Bennet.
Anne lingered at the periphery of the noisy crowd, clutching Miss Lovelace’s arm as she scoffed at the muddy state of the latest arrivals.
Sir Sidney stood at her side, looking amused.
“What jolly good fun! Playing in the mud was vastly amusing when I was a child—I reckon it must be just the same even now, mucking about as wild as you like! What do you think, Anne?”
Anne sniffed, then trilled with haughty laughter. “I have always said you have a filthy mind!”
Lady Parker rushed forward, taking the extra blankets from her husband. “Oh dear, you look like you have been through quite the ordeal.”
“They look far too cozy, if you ask me.” Sir Anthony Denham swaggered forward with a covetous gaze, raking his eyes over Miss Bennet’s wet form, still in Darcy’s arms.
Lady Parker shoved him aside. “We did not ask you.”
Sir Anthony grimaced at his hostess and persisted in haranguing Darcy. “Where is her uncle? I daresay he would call you out for taking such liberties!”
“Perhaps you should go and fetch him, then,” Miss Bennet quipped.
“Her ankle is injured, and perhaps her leg,” Darcy said to Lady Parker.
“The colonel told us. The servants are drawing hot baths for both of you upstairs, and Sir Thomas and I shall loan you some fresh clothing.”
Sir Anthony had not ceased his blustering. “Go and fetch Sir Edward in this beastly weather? I could not possibly! But what you really require in a physician—this brute may have even worsened your injuries, fair Miss Bennet.”
“What a pity you are far too finely dressed to trouble yourself in fetching the doctor,” Miss Bennet drawled.
Lady Parker began to drape the blankets over Darcy and Miss Bennet, both of whom had begun to shiver a little. Sir Anthony gasped. “Lady Parker, that is hardly decent! Have you no regard for your friend’s reputation? For her modesty?”
“Yes, and thus I cannot allow anybody to gape at her in a wet gown,” Lady Parker hissed at the dandy.
“I am not the one making such an indecent display!”
“Come now, the crisis will pass more quickly if we leave them be.” Sir Thomas came forward and clapped Sir Anthony on the shoulder in an attempt to steer him away from Miss Bennet.
And then Richard entered the fray, giving Darcy a feral grin before he announced in a booming voice, “There is no impropriety here. Mr. Darcy is courting Miss Bennet, and doing a rather fine job of it by coming to her rescue so valiantly! Perhaps the excellent Mrs. Bevan ought to take notes—is it not exceedingly romantic, Madam?”
Mrs. Bevan’s fervent agreement was almost lost in the chaos that erupted.
Sir Thomas fairly shoved Sir Anthony out of the room amidst grumbling of “call him out” and “speak to her uncle.” Anne gaped at Darcy from across the room, insensible to whatever drivel Sir Sidney was babbling into her ear.
Richard and Georgiana stood side by side, looking very well pleased with themselves as they followed the other guests back into the parlor.
But all this Darcy ignored when he realized that Miss Bennet had fainted in his arms. Lady Parker gave her friend a gentle slap on the cheek, and when Miss Bennet stirred, Lady Parker leaned down to whisper in her ear. “Shall I fetch the smelling salts?”
Miss Bennet laughed a little dazedly and then looked up at Darcy. “I ought to ask you to put me down, but I must admit I do not think it practical or advisable. You shall have to carry me upstairs, Mr. Darcy.”
She draped her arms about his neck, and Darcy felt his blood quicken. He thought he might be the next to faint, but rallied himself to follow Lady Parker up the stairs.
She opened the door to the first guest chamber and said, “You may set her down on the chair just there. I can manage to get her into the bath, and there is one waiting for you in the room across the hall, along with some garments Tom laid out—you and he seem to be a near size.”
“And the physician?”
“My husband will see to it once he has subdued Sir Anthony and calmed the other guests.”
Darcy did as he was bid. He intended to remain in the bath only long enough to thoroughly wash away the mud, but as the warm, aromatic water eased the ache in his muscles, he allowed his mind to drift.
He felt he ought to be angrier at Richard’s trick and the likely complicity of his sister; it was against his principles to be relieved the decision had been taken out of his hands, and yet a smile curled up from the corners of his lips as he closed his eyes and savored the warm bath.
The look on Anne’s face had been gratifying indeed, but Darcy struggled to conjure the image in his mind. The brief hope of what her reaction might portend was slipping away like dissipating smoke, vanishing before he could catch hold of it. But he had certainly held Miss Bennet….