Darcy took his leave but a few moments later, now nearly shaking with unsatisfied indignation. Richard followed closely at his heels,apparently too diverted by his cousin’s woes to wait upon his mother. He would not miss a moment of his entertainment.
Darcy turned back in annoyance. “Have you not something more useful to be about?”
“Not at present.”
Darcy stepped into his carriage and found, to his great irritation, that Richard had not awaited an invitation to join him. He took the opposite seat, casting his arm over the cushion in satisfaction.
“So, where to? Back to the house, where you will naturally ignore my father’s edict and toss our aunt from your property, creating a scene to embellish every drawing room from here to Derbyshire for the next nine months? Or do we go in search of this proof of yours, which no doubt rests in the charming hands of a lady of uncertain age, who—”
“I did not ask for your company,” Darcy interrupted sourly. “Nor are your suggestions helpful.”
“Come now, Darcy, I would never abandon a wounded comrade. I always stay to drag him off the field, or at the very least, keep the surgeons away from him until they can inflict no more harm.”
Darcy turned away, scowling through the window.
“What of Anne?” Richard suggested. “She knows the truth of what happened last night. Cannot you simply speak with her and sort this nonsense out?”
“Anne has made no objections to her mother’s ambitions these four and twenty years. I presume she must have been complicit in the affair, as it was predicated on her willingness to be found in my bed in a shocking state of undress.”
“Yes, but is any of that true?”
“It does not matter if it is or not. She submitted to the plan and consented to have the report made that there had been a liaison. That is sufficient evidence of her intentions. There is no benefit in speaking to her, and potentially even greater harm if we are seen speaking privately.”
“You are assuming our aunt had given her a choice in the matter.”
“You were present at each of my last visits to Rosings. Indeed, she was the very reason I insisted upon your company! Has she ever shown any reluctance toward marriage to me?”
“No, but neither has she hopped between your sheets. Quite seriously, if I did not know you so well as I do, I would account you mad. Why would they wait to stage a compromise in London when it would have been so much easier last spring in Kent, at their own house? Or again this coming April? I hear Aunt even has a new rector eating out of her hand, so a wedding could have been got up in short order. Surely Rosings would have been her choice.”
“Unless Anne has suddenly grown desperate for some reason.”
“Yes, but even at that, we should have seen them at Christmas. Unless of course…. Oh, by thunder,thatis what you suspect, is it not?”
Darcy merely arched a brow and said nothing.
Richard nodded and steepled his white fingers, biting his lips. “Tell me you have proof of where you were last night, Darcy.”
“As you say, the truth can be equally troublesome.”
“You do not mean you were with some other young lady? I was only teasing, you know, but did you…?”
“Not intentionally, but yes. I was found in Mayfair and apparently not in possession of my faculties. The party who looked to my well-being was a tradesman’s niece from Cheapside.”
“Was she amiable?
“I did not stay to find out.”
“Pretty?”
“That is hardly the point. Even if she were—which she is not—I will not suffer her tender mercies. What does it profit me to escape one forced marriage to a lady who is at least from the proper circles only to be ensnared by an ill-mannered, impertinent, unsophisticated and completely unsuitable tradesman’s niece?”
“Unsuitable or not, you must have spent a deal of time in her company, to have learnt so well how much you dislike her.”
“I was forced back into her company in hopes that she might be trusted with the truth. I was disappointed.”
“Well, I know that if my choices were between an impertinent tradesman’s niece—who seems to have touched a larger nerve than I have known you to possess—and our sickly and possibly gravid cousin, I would choose… oh, dash it all, Darcy, but is there not a harlot or some lascivious widow you can pay off to vouch for you?”
“I would prefer if you did not try to advise me.”
