“Come, can it really be so bad to go back to that… what was it? Unmannerly, ill-favoured—”
“I never said she was ill-favoured.”
“In fact, you did. You cannot even keep that bit of the tale straight!”
“I said she was not amiable and that she lacked culture.”
“You said you did not stay to find out if she was amiable.”
“It does not signify! She is wholly unsuitable, whatever your intimations, and hardly a gentlewoman.”
“But she took you in off the streets, and even dressed as a footman, rather than a gentleman.”
“What does that matter?”
“Naturally she did not make you sleep in the stable, nor force you out on your own while still incapacitated. I would wager she even saw to it that you were fed before you naturally insulted her on your way out the door. Indeed, she must be an utter heathen.”
“Many a woman can play at the Good Samaritan. That is hardly a proper qualification for a wife.”
“It is not a bad place to start. So, which is it to be? Anne or this… what was her name?”
“Miss Elizabeth… something. Her uncle’s name was Gardiner.”
“You were not even properly introduced?”
“She thinks I am a footman!”
Richard stared for a moment, then his face broke into a wide grin. In another moment, he was holding his belly and wiping tears of laughter from his cheeks. “Oh! Forgive me, Darcy, but this reallyis the most entertaining story I have heard in months. Did she set you up in the servants’ quarters and all?”
Darcy folded his arms and looked away.
Richard was still hooting in merriment when the carriage rolled past Darcy House and onward toward his own dwelling. When he recognised their surroundings, he looked to his cousin in confusion. “You are not going to your own house?”
“No. And neither are you.”
“Ah,” Richard nodded in understanding. “Off in search of your impertinent daughter of trade?”
“My solicitor, if you must know.”
“You intend to post a retraction? You cannot do that without some valid cause, you know. Rumour is only rumour in the papers, but an official statement….”
“And when the more salacious bits reach the gentlemen’s clubs? Almack’s? Far more than rumours of an engagement will be spread. Anne’s reputation will be irredeemable, and my own, in tatters. If I act immediately to prove there is nothing to the reports of an engagement, perhaps my innocence will also be believed.”
“I think you are being a little too optimistic. Everyone prefers a juicy bit of tittle-tattle to the truth, even if it is disproved later.”
“Then I shall simply have to disprove it sooner than that.”
“May I wish you the very best of luck with your ‘proof,’ then. Of course, if your Miss Elizabeth did not know who you were and is of any sort of a generous nature, she and her family might well vouch for you without making any demands of your honour. She may never even need to know your name! A letter from a good house should suffice. Had you thought of that?”
“If she gives such assurance, the result may be a very public ‘broken engagement.’ With another lady in disgrace over the affair, can you believe that her name would also remain anonymous? Thetonwould search her out mercilessly, and she would be presumed to be my mistress. Tradesman or no, what uncle would not thendemand satisfaction of me? After one embarrassment, I could do nothing to avoid a second.”
Richard pursed his lips and sat in contemplation for a moment. “Right, then. May I stand up at your wedding?”
Chapter nine
“Ithink the colonel’s advice to be sound, Mr Darcy.” The bespectacled little man of business gave the paper back into Darcy’s hands with a melancholy shake of his head. “I will, of course, issue any statement you please, but in my experience with these matters, I often find that the innocent party is harmed more greatly than his accuser. It is supposed that he speaks untruths in a vain attempt to ward off public scorn. Have you any proof at all, sir?”
Darcy emitted a long, silent growl, and shot his cousin a look which clearly sworedamn you for being right. “The evidence you speak of does exist, but it may be difficult to procure. I intend rather to coerce a confession from my aunt, thereby clearing my character.”
