“Because it is. How did you meet her?”
I shook my head and got up to pace the room. “Who says there was a lady?”
“Your face says it. Come, Darcy, you never could get through a conversation with a lady without looking nearly faint afterward.”
“Yes, well, it seems I managed it this time. I daren’t encounter her again, or heaven help me.”
“Heaven just might be helping you now, though you won’t confess it.”
I stopped at the window and stared out, trying to regulate my breath. Richard was right about one thing. I had not been easy since my first encounter with Elizabeth Bennet.
When I was with her, I could not help myself. She was like striking a flint to kindling, and before I knew what was happening, I was engulfed, with absolutely no desire to save myself.
But that was not what terrified me the most. The reason I was nearly shivering and my pulse was skittering was that when I was apart from her, I could not forget her. Those fine, laughing eyes, the breezy boldness with which she tossed all my false bravado back in my face. I could not close my eyes, but she filled my imagination.
How was that even possible? I had only encountered her a few times, and each time, she had the upper hand. Why, she ought to have every reason to think me an infamous criminal, a blackguard, and a scoundrel! Yet she had toyed with me. With no fear, she had baited me, teased me, and even consented to help me. Well… after she was the one who injured me in the first place. But she had not done it from spite.
I had been in jest when I’d asked her to sew me up after she struck me at Netherfield. Mostly. When didIever tease a lady? Never! But at a time when I ought rightly to have been preoccupied with the royal business Lord Matlock had enlisted me for, all I could think of was what I would say if I saw her again.
Which was precisely why I should avoid her. Or marry her. I had not made my mind up which.
“Did the earl say when he meant to go to Hertfordshire?” I asked, my gaze still fixed out the window.
Richard tsked, and I heard him getting out of his chair. “You are simply determined not to tell me what has you all a-dither. Very well, I shall not ask again. To answer your question, he was not going to Hertfordshire himself.”
I turned. “What?”
Richard swallowed the last of his tea and set the cup aside. “He said your word was good enough for him, and if you found the sculpture to be one of Elgin’s smaller artifacts, His Royal Highness is prepared to send for it immediately. I think the prince’s men left for Hertfordshire this afternoon.”
An icy chill shot down my spine. “I thought the earl meant to inspect it personally! I told him he should. He only sent me in haste because he got word that Lady Catherine was trying to cut him out of it. I spoke with Mr. Bennet, he agreed to wait on Matlock to complete the transaction, and that was the end of it.”
“What, you never saw it yourself?”
I swallowed and put a hand to my mouth. “Good heavens. No, it was not possible at the moment. But Lady Catherine’s emissary saw it, and he was trying with all his might to secure it for her. Surely—”
“Collins would buy a painted rock if he thought Lady Catherine wanted it. The man is an idiot.”
“Blast!” Blood was pounding in my ears, and all my vision blurred, save for one point. I stared at the letter I had been trying to compose, still sitting unfinished on my desk, as an icy dread seized my heart. “The earl will not even have it brought to him in London first?”
“Why should he? According to you, it was everything Bennet claimed it was, and Prinny was impatient to see it.”
I ground my teeth, and my fist still cupped over my chin as I growled an epithet. Or three. “Devil take me. I have to put a stop to the purchase!”
“I’m afraid it is too late for that, old boy. Egad, but you have turned from red in the face to positively green! What is the trouble?”
I rounded on him. “The prince could be buying a fake! If it is, and he finds it to be so, we are all ruined!”
Richard paled. “Darcy, tell me you are mistaken.”
“I wish I were. That vase over there came from Mr. Bennet’s ‘collection.’ I thought something seemed off, and that only confirmed my suspicions.”
My cousin swallowed. “You have to fix this. I don’t know how you’re going to do it, but do something!”
I nodded and raced to the door. “Dobbs! Have my carriage brought round. I must leave for Hertfordshire within a quarter hour!”
Thirteen
Elizabeth
