“I thought it was Holburn Street. Almost to Bloomsbury Square, I believe.”
“We simply must go back! Their display was so delicious, I have scarce thought of anything else. Let us ask for Uncle’s carriage and go?”
“I wish to walk, Kitty. That was the entire purpose of our outing, but it would not take more than half an hour to walk there if you insist.”
“Laws, you are peculiar, Lizzy! Mama would be horrified to hear of us walking all about Town.”
“She is not here, and it is not as though we have anyone to impress or even any who would know us.”
“Oh, very well. I will agree to your abominably long walk if we go to the milliner’s rather than the park.”
“I doubt they are even open for business at this hour.”
“Surely they will be by the time we arrive. I intend to buy a new bonnet, and you should buy one too, Lizzy. That way, you shall have some remembrance of our little holiday with Aunt and Uncle.”
Elizabeth reluctantly agreed—not because she wished for a bonnet, but because she desired a few moments of peace and todistract her sister from teasing about that ridiculous footman. Heaven help her if Mama ever found out!
Colonel Fitzwilliam’s sides hurt. His cheeks hurt, his eyes were streaming tears, and he could scarcely breathe. Fitzwilliam Darcy, one of the enigmas of thetonand among the wealthiest men in Britain, stood in the midst of Fitzwilliam’s rooms at just past nine in the morning, unshod and clad as one of his own footman. Had not Lady Catherine already shocked him into sobriety once this morning, he would have suspected himself of too much to drink.
But really… barefoot? Fitzwilliam Darcy! So diverted was the colonel, in fact, that he could no longer stand. Rather than exhibit the worst sort of rudeness—after all, laughing at a man was one thing, but sitting before one’s guest was seated was quite another—he offered Darcy a chair and fell into an opposite one himself.
“Do repeat that. You said that you had been drugged? Who poured that down your gullet?”
Darcy appeared to clench his teeth. “Our aunt has acted out of desperation. She intended to force a compromise by secreting something in my drink, but I have forestalled that.”
“How? Have you found a way to divert our aunt from her plans to wed Anne to you?”
“I was simply not there when the compromise was intended to take place.” Darcy turned to glance at the sleeve of his jacket and flick off what appeared to be a small bit of bark.
“Really? Where did you go?”
“Here.” Darcy frowned at something, and if Fitzwilliam was not mistaken, the man’s knee was twitching as he sat in the chair.
“Here? Have you been a ghost that I did not see you?”
“I had set out for this destination last night, but I did not arrive as intended,” Darcy gritted between his teeth. “However, I am herenow. Should our aunt send her emissary to verify my whereabouts, they will see that I am presently a guest in your house.”
“I’m afraid it’s a bit too late for that, old chap. Aunt was here herself, not quarter of an hour ago.”
“What?” Darcy shot to his feet, then winced.
“Something the matter with your foot, old man?”
“Never mind that. You said that Lady Catherine had come here? Herself?”
“Yes, came all in state to search you out. I told her I’d not seen you. She seemed content with that and went on her way.”
Darcy sank back into the seat. “You told her you had not seen me?”
“It was only the truth. A soldier in His Majesty’s Army does not lie, you know.”
“Nor would I ask it of you, but if she knows I was not here, then she knows you cannot vouch that I was not in my own bed.”
Fitzwilliam frowned. “That may prove awkward. Where were you, precisely?”
“It does not matter.”
“I should say that it does, unless you were somewhere even more embarrassing than in our cousin’s arms. Personally, I would confess to an evening at Covent Gardens and openly set the… uh… lady up with her own establishment, so everyone knows about it all. Unless she was married, of course.”
