He spared me a sidelong glance as we began to wander some paces away from our party. “It was no more than I ought to have done. As you see, Bingley has forgiven my oversight.”
“An ‘oversight,’ you say?”
“Indeed.” He paused. “Do you think I deliberately kept information from him? That my intentions were harmful and I sought to wound your sister?”
“It seems the most plausible explanation.”
He frowned, his mouth puckering from one side to the other in thought. “Very well, I confess. I did, indeed, ‘fail’ to mention that I had spoken with you and that I knew you and your sister to be in Town. The reason—which, I suppose, is immaterial—was that I believed he meant to call on a lady he favored last spring, Miss Mountford, once he returned to London. It was not my place to complicate his sentiments by reminding him of a lady he had left behind, regardless of how much he appeared to admire her.”
I swallowed. “Are you saying Mr. Bingley was toying with my sister’s affections?”
“No. I am saying I misunderstood his intentions. I still cannot say with any confidence what his intentionsare, but he has not called on Miss Mountford, and has declared that he does not mean to.”
I turned from glaring at him, my breath puffing in and out of my lungs with increasing irregularity. “Either way, it was not your business to manipulate the truth.”
“Perhaps not,” he replied matter-of-factly.
“How easily you brush it all off!”
“Come, Miss Elizabeth. There was no harm done. The truth is bared, my apology tendered. I am scarcely ever wrong, but when I am, I confess it openly.”
“My sister’s tears mean nothing to you, then?” I challenged.
He narrowed his eyes. “The lady’s heart was broken?”
“Oh, yes, quite. Particularly after we heard that Mr. Bingley’s interests lay in another quarter entirely.”
“And that was?”
I studied him as I said the name. “Miss Darcy.”
Mr. Darcy’s brow furrowed, his eyes glittered, and he scoffed. “I believe I can name the source of that rumor. There is nothing in it. I will not permit Georgiana to be courted for two or three years yet. Any such talk ought to be dismissed for the baseless tittle-tattle it is. I am surprised at you, Miss Elizabeth, listening to spiteful rumors spread by other jealous ladies.”
My cheek flinched, and I wrapped my arms around myself as I walked. There was a backhanded compliment if I ever heard one. “When a most beloved sister’s sentiments are the target of malicious intentions, sir, I assure you that even your powers of discernment would be tested.”
He fell silent for several steps. “It may surprise you when I say that I understand you completely—more so than I ought to confess.”
I stopped and stared at him. His look was grave, but after a few seconds, the corner of his mouth turned, just a little. “Come, Miss Elizabeth. Do you mean to help me find a gift for Georgiana before my rather…” he glanced over his shoulder… “distractable friends attempt to drag me off?”
I drank in a sigh. Well, what was the use? I could bicker with Mr. Darcy until sundown and not reach any sort of satisfactory conclusion. And Miss Darcy did seem an amiable sort of girl. Hardly the she-serpent I had envisioned from Mr. Wickham’s descriptions of her. “Very well,” I agreed. “What does she like?”
“That was what I was hoping you could tell me.”
I laughed. “Now, there is a pretty thing, Mr. Darcy! You are hardly unobservant.”
“No, I am not. I can tell you with precision how she likes her tea, how many pages she reads per night, what move she will make next in Chess, and which mistakes she is working to correct in her music practice. But I wished to purchase her something that is beyond her usual scope—something she herself would not know she desired until she saw it.”
“Ah. Well, then, let me see.” We spent a moment perusing the stall, and soon enough, a pendant caught my eye. “This one,” I suggested, pointing to a delicate bluebell flower of silver, tipped with pearls. “Is not Derbyshire decked with bluebells in the spring? I cannot speak for Miss Darcy’s taste, butIwould find this a thoughtful gift.”
His eyes followed my gesture. “Not at all what I was expecting, but it is exquisite. Thank you, Miss Bennet. I believe she will like this very much.”
I smiled and folded my hands. “Not at all, Mr. Darcy. If that is all, I will return to my aunt now. Good afternoon to you.”
He tipped his hat. “And a pleasant afternoon to you as well, Miss Elizabeth.”
9
12 December
