“As I have just told you, Georgie, we must not expect to understand all his actions.”
“But he barely knows her!” Georgiana’s voice raised. “What comfort can she offer that I could not? I should be the one to welcome him home!”
“Georgie, surely you have seen it by now. Heavens, I am but an ignorant soldier, and I saw it months ago! You have been in the same house with Miss Bennet for some while, and you saw them together last summer. Did you not know that they were in love with one another?”
She was huffing wordless protests. “I—I—I suppose I suspected it, but Elizabeth denied it.”
“What lady would confess to something so impossible? Perhaps I do not know the depth ofheraffections, but ofhisI am assured. He needs her, Georgie, and I think he is not wrong in seeking her out. She is strong and cheerful, and clever besides. Has she not been a great comfort to you in your grief?”
“Well…” she frowned, “yes, she has. I do not know how I could have done without her, but he ismybrother, is he not? She cannot take him from me!”
“If you would have him back, you must first give him to Miss Bennet,” Richard stated firmly. “I can assure you that he has spent these many months wishing to be home again, and many days now planning his reunion with all he holds dear. It speaks volumes to me that he sought her first, and we must honour that. You will only make things harder for him if you insist on everything returning to what it was before he was taken. Let him heal as he must, and do not burden him unjustly.”
“But hewillcome to us, Richard! He must, he would have wished to see us!”
“I have no doubt, Georgie,” he assured her. He took her hand to squeeze it comfortingly and gave her his handkerchief. An urgent knock sounded on the door, and he gave her one last smile of encouragement before he rose. “Enter,” he summoned.
Mr Hodges himself opened the door. “Colonel Fitzwilliam,” he bowed precisely, his professional voice only hinting at anxiety. “There is some disturbance in the gold drawing room. Mr Darcy has returned, and he seems to be in distress. I believe he was met upon his arrival by Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and he sounds rather displeased. Would it be possible for you to come, sir?”
“Lady Catherine!” he looked to Georgiana. “You did not tell me our aunt had come!”
Georgiana shrank unhappily. “I was to go back to London with her tomorrow,” she answered in a small voice. “Oh, Richard, she cannot take me away now!”
“No, she shall not. Georgie, why do you not wait here. I know you want to see Darcy, but allow me to divert our aunt’s attention if I may. I shall send him to you as soon as I possibly can, and you will have him all to yourself.”
Richard hurried to the drawing room, his feelings a swirl of joy and trepidation. How good it would be to see Darcy again! His aunt he was less delighted to greet, for he felt he must watch carefully all her actions and motives.
Lady Catherine’s voice was strident as ever and carried down the hall to him. However… he could not contain his smile when Darcy’s well-remembered tones echoed back. Never had he heard his cousin so furious, but Darcy could have been singing an opera solo for all Richard cared. He was running by now, his long strides faltering only slightly when something heavy crashed against a wall. Even at that, Richard could have laughed. What mattered a priceless vase when Lady Catherine was finally getting her comeuppance, and Darcy was alive!
He charged through the door in his eagerness, and there, in the flesh, stood his best friend, the cousin who was a brother, the man he had buried and then unearthed—alive and well, and looking to him with reddened eyes and a thick beard.
“Darcy!” he exclaimed. “By heaven, it is good to see you! Bugger me, but you are a sight!”
Darcy took one long step toward him, his eyes glittering strangely.“Richard!”he growled.
Before he could draw another breath, Richard found himself laid out helpless upon the floor, both ears ringing and his jaw aching from multiple fierce blows.What the bloody… A door slammed from somewhere, but he could not verify the direction through the swelling of his eyelid or the stars dancing in his vision.
Richard lay dazed a moment. Couldthathave been Fitzwilliam Darcy, truly? Surely, the man was not in his right mind! He sat up slowly, putting a hand to his head and carefully opening his sound eye. A cautious glance around the room revealed his aunt, Lady Catherine, but as he had never seen her. She appeared gaunt and wan, standing alone near the door.
“Get up, Fitzwilliam!” she chided, but with only half her usual grandeur. “Go, and speak some sense into your cousin!”
“My cousin! Was that not my cousin who just flattened me? What the bloody devil is wrong with the man?”
She held up a rumpled bit of paper between two fingers, her nose wrinkled in disdain. “This! Darcy found it in the Society pages. Richard Fitzwilliam, I am ashamed of you! Were I a man, I would have done the same as Darcy.”
“Aunt Catherine,” he cradled his head as he stood to his feet. “I have no idea what you can mean.”
She waved the paper before his open eye. He read, and then he slumped back to the floor.
Chapter forty-one
Richardstaggeredfromthedrawing room, still squinting from his injured eye. Lady Catherine had lambasted him with some choice words, choosing to exhaust her outrage for several minutes while he recovered his faculties. Apparently, he was at fault for introducing the Bennet ladies, for his management of Georgiana, for mistakenly burying the wrong Darcy, and for failing to relinquish his commission, and, of course, for breaking his engagement to Anne to wed Georgiana. He had heard scarcely a word of her tirade, but he had—perhaps wisely—sought out the decanter of brandy for a little liquid consolation while he thought of what to do next.
He was holding the cool, empty glass to his cheek now. Darcy was nowhere to be seen, but two maids, one footman, and Hodges were all watching him emerge with blanched expressions. “Hodges, where is Mr Darcy?” he barked.
The old butler’s lips trembled as he spoke. “Mr Darcy has retired, Colonel. He…” Hodges swallowed, looked down, and then resumed. “Mr Darcy has requested that you remove yourself from the premises, Colonel.”
“He what? Speak clearly, Hodges, my ears are still ringing from the boxing he gave them.”
