“And my father is still ruined, and the rest of us along with him!”
I gazed at her—the urgency in her posture, the pleading in her eyes… and I buckled. She wasn’t coming to Fitzwilliam Darcy of Pemberley for help. She was asking William, the man she’d kissed in the woods. And I liked being William for her.
“So, what do you want to do instead?”
Fourteen
Elizabeth
“Stealit!”William—ifthatreally was his name—lurched backward and toppled over into a loose pile of hay.
“Hush, or we will be overheard!” I leaned forward and scraped a lump of hay out of his face, and he sat up, spitting and sputtering and trying to dust his jacket off.
“To the devil with being overheard. We will be horsewhipped! And then hanged! Do you honestly—”
I clapped a hand over his mouth, pressing him back. “Shh!”
He blinked, his eyes sliding back and forth, and then he squinted. “Whuff?” he asked against my hand.
“Don’t you hear them?” I looked over my shoulder. “My sisters are outside, somewhere nearby. If I take my hand off your mouth, you have to promise to be quiet.” Carefully, I released him, holding his stare all the while to be certain he did nothing stupid.
“This is preposterous. Do you really think—”
I silenced him again, grabbing the back of his head with my other hand this time. I enjoyed it when he winced. “You really don’t know when to be quiet, do you? The last thing we need is for my sister Lydia to find us up here! Can youpleasegrow some common sense?”
He narrowed his eyes. Then he did something that made me blush to the roots of my hair. I felt his lips smiling under my palm… and then he kissed it. Open-mouthed and everything.
I reeled back, wiping my hand on my skirts. “Disgusting! For pity’s sake, are you five years old?”
“I’m not the one who suggested stealing from someone so powerful you refused to name them!” he hissed. “What can you possibly be thinking?”
I scowled at him and put my finger up to go to the window. To my relief, Lydia and Kitty were cavorting across the yard in the other direction. “I am thinking it would be better for a thief to slip away with his prize and never be caught than for a respectable family with five poorly dowered daughters to live forever in disgrace! For myself, I could survive, but Jane is too good. I cannot bear to think of what would become of them all when my father can no longer support us.”
“Yes, well, suppose this thiefiscaught? What then?”
I smiled. “You haven’t been caught yet. Any luck selling those spoons?”
He growled and rolled his eyes. “I believe you must be operating under some grave misconceptions.”
“And I’m really not interested in hearing all the mitigating circumstances you probably want to claim. What I want to know is, will you do it?”
He crossed his arms, which was probably meant to look forbidding. But he had hay sticking at odd angles out of his hair, and the buttons of his jacket had popped open to reveal a… rather muscular chest. He looked not in the least menacing. Rather, he was somewhere between absurd and mouth-watering. “No.”
“But think of it! You already asked about this sculpture, so you must know something about it. You could demand a fine price for it!”
He cocked his head, staring in disbelief. “You have some peculiar notions of my character, Miss Bennet.”
“And they are not unfounded. I have never yet seen you do anything ‘normal.’ Pinching vases or sneaking up behind people in the woods? You are no gentleman, sir, however much you may protest. And it seems that not being a gentleman has paid rather well for you, as I see you have yet another custom-tailored jacket. You may have stolen Mr. Purvis’s great-coat, but this one has been made to fit you by a master.”
He squared his shoulders and glanced self-consciously down at that jacket. “I suppose it would do me little good to set right certain facts.”
“I do have several questions. Who are you, really?”
He sighed, and his jaw shifted as he gazed at me narrowly. “That is not the real question.”
“Excuse me, but I think I know very well what my real question is. What is your name?”
The side of his mouth tugged upward. “I told you. William.”
