“Oh, yes,” Elizabeth said. “I can well imagine. And you’d had such fun until then. But I am pleased that you were ready to defend my honor. And what she saiddoesrequire an apology. That is a matter of honor. Do not do that again, I beg you. I did not mean for you act so. I did not imagine that it would be so…” She looked at him in a way that made him feel powerful. “But, I should ask you to only protect me from your relations henceforth, after I have determined thatIcannot manage them on my own.”
“No, it was a promise. It is my solemn duty.”
“Men and their duty.” She smiled at him. There was still that fierce look in Elizabeth’s eyes when she looked at him. Like she wanted to kiss him.
He wanted to kiss her.
It was good that Georgiana and the children were present, because he did not think he would have been able to remember that he never wanted to press her to allow him more physical intimacy than she wished to if they were not there. Not while she looked at him in that manner.
But he also hurt, and he was terribly tired suddenly.
“Well, that is Lady Catherine,” Darcy said at last. “You have now met two members of the extended family.”
Elizabeth laughed. “Wewillkeep up the connection if she apologizes—and it need not be agoodapology. I truly do not wish to damage your connections for the sake of defending my honor.”
She looked at him again, with intensity and with a smile.
Georgiana shook herself and sat down. She took a glass of wine herself, and Darcy decided to let her do so without comment, though in general he did not let her drink much.
“And the rest of your family, might I expect them to be more like Lady Catherine, or more like Colonel Fitzwilliam?” Elizabeth asked.
“Oh, definitely like Richard,” Georgiana answered for Elizabeth. “I do not think I shall ever be quite so frightened of Lady Catherine again. Neither of you were intimidated at all! Just offended.”
“She is after all,” Elizabeth said, “just the daughter of an earl, the widow of a baronet, and very wealthy, as I understand. What is there to be frightened of?”
Likely it was the wine. Darcy giggled after Elizabeth said that. He then drank the rest of his wine.
Smiling, Elizabeth shook her head. “At least I do not have any relations who will appear suddenly with a determination to make us break off the marriage.”
The next day proved Elizabeth wrong.
Chapter Sixteen
After the adventure the previous day with Lady Catherine, Elizabeth was in such a mood that she went to the drawing room window herself when they heard the clatter of a carriage in front of the townhouse. “I do hope it is not your uncle, the Earl, come in state to also refuse his consent,” Elizabeth said as she tilted aside the chintz curtain.
It took her an astonishingly long time of staring onto the street to understand what she was seeing.
It had been a cold enough evening, due to the sea breezes, that they had kept everything closed.
George hurried up to the window, and he pressed his lips and nose against the glass.
Georgiana joined her at the window as Elizabeth did not say anything, and she said, “That’s quite an old carriage. Certainly, it is not my uncle’s. I do not know that gentleman, but he has a good air and walk for his age, despite having lost half his hair, and—”
“Good God!” Elizabeth exclaimed as her father looked towards the window, and his eyes met hers through the glass.
She flinched back away from the window.
Her heart raced.
A sharp rap on the front door.
“Who is it, Lizzy?” Georgiana asked.
“It is my father.” She walked to where Emily still played a game involving a great many finely painted toy soldiers that Darcy had bought for George. She picked up Emily and hugged her tightly as the girl squealed to be let down.
“Your papa?” George asked.
“Yes, your grandpapa.” Elizabeth paced back and forth without letting Emily down, her dress swirling around her ankles. “What can he mean? What can he be doing here?”
