She jerked to her feet, her eyes glittering with angry tears. “He loves you, William! Would he do the same to you, if he had been the captive and you were the one who searched for him? I have seen him about the estate. He is lost, and has no interest in being the master of it! Why, he refused even to set foot into your study, and was terrified of looking over the household books, but William, he may know something of those men who took you that he himself does not realise until you speak to him. If you send him away, you lose your strongest ally!”
He stepped back, staring at the floor and twitching his fingers in thought. “Perhaps I might speak again with him, as you are so determined to see me do it.”
She stepped near him again and took his hands. “Thank you, William. You will not regret it.”
“You are so convinced of his innocence?”
“I am.” She paused a moment, then her expression brightened. “If you require greater surety, perhaps you might confer with another you trust—another who holds the colonel highly in his regard, and has offered his assistance in your absence.”
He lifted a brow. “To whom do you refer?”
“My uncle Gardiner, of course! The colonel referred some of the estate’s commercial business to my uncle while he was to be away—”
Darcy snatched his hands back from hers and whirled to pace angrily away. “Your uncle, is it! Are you aware, Elizabeth, that he has somehow come into a lucrative contract on the Continent? Do you not find that a remarkable coincidence?”
She tilted he head. “Why, yes, I knew of something. My aunt counted it a very great blessing for the future of their business, but I have not been privy to the details. I believe a party approached my uncle last autumn, after another warehouse failed.”
“Last autumn! Elizabeth, listen to yourself! Does not the timing seem suspicious to you?”
Her features hardened. “Fitzwilliam Darcy, you are the most impossible man! My uncle’s business affairs have absolutely nothing to do with anything! Why, I do not believe he is even trading in Portugal. You are so determined to find traitors among your friends that you will not see the true dangers when they arise!”
“Enough of this! We shall not discuss it again!” He was shaking by this time. How was it that the most intelligent woman of his acquaintance could be so contrary and blind? It was for him to keep everyone safe, but he had neither shield nor armour of his own, save for her. Why could she not see? He placed a trembling hand over his face, then slowly turned back to her.
She was seething with fury, her small hands clenched and her cheeks flushed as brilliantly as they had been that horrible day at Rosings. “Forgive me, Elizabeth,” he faltered, feeling weak with regret. “I did not mean to raise my voice to you.”
“William,” she spoke through clenched teeth, “if you are determined to accuse my uncle and your cousin, if you persist in doubting my word, and if you lash out in anger whenever someone tries to speak reason to you, you are going to lose everyone.”
“Elizabeth! I—”
“I will not tolerate it, William!” she interrupted hotly. “I will not be intimidated into silence. If you cannot bear to hear me speak, then I ought not to be here.” She turned on her heel and stormed out of the room, brushing past the footman who leapt smartly out of her path.
The room was spinning. He reached numbly for a seat, but his hand missed, and he was too dazed to attempt it again. His knees faltered and he tumbled to the floor before the fire and gazed blindly into it.Elizabeth!He stared, his mouth slack, and the heat from the fire turning the moisture from his eyes into rough crystals that trailed down his face.
Chapter forty-seven
Elizabethhadsweptfuriouslyfrom the study, blinded by tears and caring not who could have seen her. A few moments later found her on Lydia’s bed, shaking the frame and wetting the counterpane with her frustration. Lydia, for her part, seemed to take great pride in comforting her sister for a change, rather than the reverse, and played her role with greater seriousness than Elizabeth might have thought her to possess.
After exhausting herself for nearly an hour, and spoiling at least three of Lydia’s best handkerchiefs, she rolled wearily to a seated posture. Lydia shifted to sit beside her and pillowed her head on Elizabeth’s shoulder. “Right, then, so we are to go to Cheapside?” she asked with little enthusiasm.
Elizabeth stretched her neck and gave a half-laughing, half-sobbing little groan. “I do not know. I cannot leave him, Lydia. He has suffered so much, and it terrifies me to think of it. If I were to go now, I cannot imagine how it would wound him.”
“What, do you think you will be content merely to play the piano for him and straighten his cravats when he takes a mood? You will be miserable, Lizzy, for you could not hold your tongue if you bolted a handle on it. Pemberley is rather nice, but I could do without its master.”
Elizabeth shook her head. “You do not understand, Lydia. He is a good man; he is simply not acting himself.”
“By ‘not himself’, do you mean the Mr Darcy who said you were ‘tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt’ him? Or the Mr Darcy who sits in drawing rooms staring at the floor and out the window? He seems the same to me.”
“He is not comfortable in company, Lydia,” Elizabeth sniffed and wiped her eyes again. “I thought you knew that.”
“I know how abominably rude he was at the Netherfield ball. Why, he looked right at me and never mademean offer to dance. For my part, the man is too proud to be worth my notice. I say you would be well rid of him, Lizzy. Come, let us go back to Uncle’s house on the morrow. Colonel Fitzwilliam told me earlier that if you failed to talk sense into Mr Darcy, we would only go as far as Lambton this evening and make an early start in the morning. We can be in Cheapside for spring. What say you, Lizzy? Best to go now before you are irrevocably committed.”
“Am I not already?”
“Not a bit of it! Oh, naturally we must continue to write to Georgiana—I think she will not burn your letters if you go away and her brother has none other to comfort him. It will be just like the old days for her, so that cannot displease her. And then there is the bother of Mama finding out that Mr Darcy never died, and working herself up that you let an eligible bachelor slip away. I suppose that bit about you being out all night with him and Colonel Fitzwilliam might be kept quiet. Maria wrote me just the other day that her brother John was courting Sarah Purvis, but you know, I think he is only doing so because her hair is the same colour as yours. I think it might not be too late to win him back. Yes, now that I think of it, Lizzy, you would be much better off to go.”
“And leave him! Lydia, he trusts none of the people in whom he should trust. He is not a fool, but he is not thinking clearly just now. What if he cannot see a deceiver before it is too late?”
Lydia gave a dismissive little wave. “What does that matter to you? He is his own problem, I daresay.”
