Elizabeth smiled humorlessly.“I must also ask you to withhold any promise until you have heard what I have done.”She tottered forward, limping terribly on one foot that looked swelled in her stockings to twice its size.He caught her arm to steady her as she tripped on the flat surface and nearly fell.Her closeness brought with it a strong scent of sweat that was somehow pleasant.
She flinched, but then smiled up at him.“Thank you.”
Darcy looked down at his hand on her soft yet strong arm.Beneath his fingers was a mottled blue and black handprint.
He let her go with a hard breath.Despite the rage that flooded him, Darcy kept his voice quiet and soft.“Who did this to you?I swear I shall call him out and kill him.”
“That shall be impossible.”
“I care not who the man is.The king himself, I would call out — do you wish to protect this man?I care not who he is.”
Elizabeth smiled in her humorless manner again.“The trouble is, that I believe I have already placed this gentleman on my credit, and so he cannot go onto yours.”
“What do you mean?”Darcy stepped closer to her.Her cheeks were flushed, her hand felt hot.“What happened?Tell me everything, and above all, tell me how I might help you.”
“May I sit?”Without waiting for his reply, Elizabeth hobbled back with his arm supporting her to the chair by the crackling fire piled high at Mrs.North’s command, and she collapsed into it.“I believe — had no chance for me to confirm — I believe I killed the Earl of Lachglass when he tried to… to…“
“You need not say it.”
“He did not succeed.”Her wide eyes looked at him beseechingly.
Lord Lechery — that was how Lachglass was known amongst the men of theton.And Elizabeth had killed him.Lachglass was almost a relation, as he was the cousin of his Fitzwilliam cousins, on their mother’s side.
“It would not have made a whit of difference to me, not in the slightest, if he had succeeded in his vile design against you.”
Elizabeth smiled at him, with something of the generous sparkle he remembered better and better from the time of their acquaintance those many years before.“I am glad to hear that you are so minded.For my part, I am glad that since I did kill him, I did sobeforehe achieved his aim.Better to be hung a maiden.”
“I shall not let them hang you.I swear to that.”Of course Elizabeth, brave and strong Elizabeth, had defended herself.“Is there any chance they do not know it was you?”
“None at all.I met his man of business, and smashed his cheek in as I fled the house.”
“You did!”Darcy looked at her admiringly.“Shall I need to fear for myself in your presence?”
Elizabeth smiled back at him almost mischievously, though it did not reach her eyes.He could see that she wished to maintain as light a mood in her distress as she could.“You perhaps ought.”
“Mr.Blight.”Darcy blinked at this detail.He’d met Lechery’s servant several times, and thought he was as thoroughly distasteful as his master.“Tell me all details — is there any chance they know you are come here?”
“I doubt there is.We seem to be entirely unconnected.In a way we are entirely unconnected—”
“Nay, say it not.Madam, we always have been connected, even when we did not feel the binding.”
Elizabeth replied with a weak watery smile.She forced that smile.“I am glad… glad you do not despise my face.I always, always hated to think that you thought ill of me, even though I deserved for you to think terribly of me.”
“Never — there was nothing you said to me then that I did not deserve, and the memory of the reproof you gave me has been most valuable to me over the years, in reminding me to show less of arrogance and more of kindness to those around me.”
“Iamglad to see you once more,” Elizabeth replied with a pale smile, “and I am also glad you do not despise me for breaking all notions of propriety to renew the acquaintance in such a manner as I have, I am—” Elizabeth paused, and she seemed to pant.She shivered, though it was almost too warm in the room, and sweat stood upon her forehead.
She added, her hand trembling slightly, “It would have been greatly to my preference to not have obliged a peer of the realm to take up permanent residence in a much smaller plot of land than he is used to.On account of the fear thattheyshall oblige me likewise to take up a similar residence.”
“I tell you, I shall not let you be hung.”
“If I must, I’ll walk the gallows walk, and I’ll walk that walk brave as any man.He was such a man, such a man as deserved such a fate.”
“How did you end up in a position of vulnerability to Lechery?I mean Lachglass.”
“Lechery?”Elizabeth laughed with real humor.“Had I known his true title, I may have exercised more caution in accepting the post of governess in his house.But I had never even met the gentleman till I was one week into dealing with his unenthusiastic daughter.”
“I understand,” Darcy replied, not greatly surprised.He had known that the resources of her family were slender, and a fall from gentility of this sort was hardly unexpected or unusual.“I am sorry for your loss.”
