“Sp…” I swallowed. “S-speak for yourself. I do not know how I will show my face in public again!”
“Nothing to it. You simply walk, do you see? Head high, shoulders erect, that’s the idea. Your face will naturally accompany you.”
“You are perfectly contemptible, sir! Do you not understand the trouble you have caused?”
“Trouble? How can there be any trouble if I stole nothing? Come, Miss Bennet, perhaps you ought to sit down for a moment before you go. You are looking fearfully pale.”
“Perhaps it is because I have been frightened out of my wits, then manipulated into sewing up a stranger’s head!”
“But I am not a stranger. I told you, you may call me William, and you are Miss Elizabeth Bennet. Tell me, should I call you Miss Bennet, or Miss Elizabeth? Are you the eldest sister out of the bunch?”
I narrowed my eyes. “What makes you think I have more than one sister?”
He turned away to hang the bucket, but for an instant, I thought his face registered surprise. “Oh! Merely an assumption. ‘Twould be monstrous unfair of your mother to only pass on such beauty once or twice.”
“You pay your compliments far too smoothly for my liking, sir.”
“Do I?” He turned back and made a neat little bow. “You may be the first lady ever to say that to me. I am usually rather tongue-tied among the fairer sex.”
“I doubt that! No, sir, you are a bounder. A rogue and a rascal and a liar, as well.”
He pursed his lips and wandered closer to me, his eyes scanning me from head to foot. “You may be surprised to discover that I despise dishonesty.”
“Yes,” I retorted sarcastically. “That would surprise me very much.”
“Very well. I see you do not believe me. I suppose there is nothing for it but to prove to you the honesty of my intentions. Shall I see you home, Miss Elizabeth?”
“Absolutely not!”
“But surely, it is not safe. I heard you say there is a housebreaker at large, and you know, you may encounter anyone on the road.”
I stared. “You really are unbelievable.”
“I cannot help what you believe, but I would not like any harm to befall you after you have been with me. I have my reputation to think of, you know.”
I snorted and moved off. “I will take my chances. You, sir, ought to be grateful that I did not summon my uncle when you were a bleeding, sopping mess.”
He caught up to me, a grin tugging at one side of his mouth, and he touched my arm. “I am sure I must be indebted to you for your kindness, then. One last thing.”
“I want no more of your pithy remarks, sir. I—”
And that was all I got out, for in the next instant, I found myself gathered in his arms. He was gentle but firm, and I could not have resisted even if the thought had come to me. Which, lamentably, it did not.
Not even when he cupped my chin, stroked my cheek with his thumb, and kissed me until my knees turned to water, and I could not remember what day of the week it was.
Darcy
“Bythunder,Ithoughtyou had got lost!” Bingley cried when I popped round the corner of the hedge. He was sitting in the most relaxed manner possible, slouching in the saddle, with his boots dangling beside the irons. He was still dabbing at his nose with what remained of the knot of handkerchiefs—a spoiled, bloody mess by this time. “Did you have any trouble?”
I caught the reins of my horse and leaped aboard without touching the irons. My body was positively humming, and I would need a good stiff gallop to get the tingle out of my limbs. Elizabeth Bennet… it was a name I would not soon forget.
“No trouble,” I replied lightly. My first lie.
“You did not see anyone, did you? I thought I saw a carriage turning round the bend of the driveway, but it might have only been a drayage cart. Some farmer or worker, no doubt.”
“No doubt,” I echoed as I pulled on the rein. “Come, let us away before that can no longer be said.”
Bingley scrambled to find the irons with his feet and move his horse off. “But the vases! Did you find them?”
