“Yes, capital,” Mr. Bingley agreed. “And once we have amused ourselves, shall we return to my townhouse for tea? Louisa and Caroline—my sisters, Miss Bennet—ought to be returned from their shopping excursion by then. I would be pleased to introduce you.”
“Then we are agreed. I am afraid Miss Elizabeth and I will need to step away to attend a bit of business for a few moments. You won’t mind, will you, Bingley?”
“Mind? Oh, no! Does that trouble you at all, Miss Bennet?”
Jane was lost in Mr. Bingley’s eyes, and she just shook her head.
I leaned over and whispered. “Where are we going? I trust we are not going to The Strand just to admire some lions and tigers.”
“Patience, Miss Elizabeth. All will reveal itself in due time.”
I scowled at him. “I really wonder why I trust you. I cannot think of one straight answer you have ever given me.”
“A sad truth that I hope to amend rather soon,” he murmured in my ear. The timbre of his voice and the tickle of his breath were enough to send shivers and prickles racing down my neck and over my scalp. “But let us not burden our companions with such concerns, eh?”
I drew a shaky breath and arranged my skirts over my thighs. It was so much better when I wasn’t looking at him, the rascal. He really was too handsome for my own good. “I hope you know what you are about, sir.”
“Trust me, Miss Elizabeth. I have as much at stake in this as you do.”
“Somehow, I doubt that.”
“Isthatnotcharming?Look, Lizzy. Mr. Bingley showed me this and said he thought it would flatter my face. What do you think?” Jane tilted her head before a mirror, studying the lines of the bonnet Mr. Bingley had offered to buy her.
“It looks beautiful on you, but I think Mr. Bingley would say anything flattered your face, and he would be right.”
“Oh, Lizzy, you do go on. What do you think of him? Oh, I amsoglad he is to be our neighbor! I look forward to knowing him better.”
“From what I can see,” I said, eyeing that gentleman with a smug grin, “no one else in Hertfordshire will get a chance to know Mr. Bingley at all by the time he settles. He is boots over top hat for you already.”
Jane giggled behind her hand. “Your associate there is rather clever to have brought him with us. What is his plan?”
I glanced at my “gentleman,” who had just returned from another building up the street. He entered the millinery shop where the rest of us had been, and his eyes met mine. And he gave me a single, curt nod.
“I think I’m about to find out. Don’t worry about me if I slip out, will you?”
Jane swallowed. “Be careful, Lizzy. I know you want to save Papa and our family’s reputation, but your safety is more important. Are you certain you can trust this man?”
My gaze had never left him. Tall, proud, quiet. An enigma I had yet to unravel. But I felt certain of one thing. “Yes, Jane. I will be quite safe with him. I cannot say how I know, but of that, I am sure.”
“Then godspeed, Lizzy.”
Darcy
“Ihavemadearrangementsfor us to speak with a Mr. Chantrey at the Royal Academy. Now, do stop crossing your eyes at me, Miss Bennet. You will have to look the part of the confident young lady, and the more you look askance at me, the less credible you are.”
Elizabeth’s feet were still dragging, and she glanced back at the milliner’s shop where we had left her sister and Bingley. “But you still have not said a thing aboutwhy. What are we doing at the Royal Academy? Is that where the sculpture is? Who is this Mr. Chantrey, and what are we to say to him when we meet him?”
“I should say that is a question best left unanswered while we are walking on a public street, Miss Bennet. As for who is Mr. Chantrey, he is one of the brightest young sculptors to have his work chosen for display at the Academy. Why, this year alone, he displayed six busts of prominent figures during the Exhibition, and he has garnered a tremendous reputation already.”
“But what has that to do with us?” Her toes were still scuffing along the pavement.
I captured her arm and tucked it more snugly beneath mine. “Why, you see, he will be one of the gentlemen whose opinion is asked for when this ‘powerful personage’ wishes to have your marble examined.”
“Oh, then we ought to be avoiding him, not seeking him out!”
“Not so. As it happens, he employs several assistants in his art and… ah, here we are. Somerset House. What do you think of the archways over the entrance? Very Classical, are they not? And the facade, with the columns—quite tasteful, I think.”
She barely glanced up, then fixed her eyes back on me. “Go on. You say this Mr. Chantrey employs assistants? So we must bribe one of them!”
