He nodded, trying to conceal his impatience. “Indeed, Miss Bingley, I shall convey the message.” He looked up to signal the footman to open the door, but the man posted outside was already opening it for someone mounting the front steps. Richard caught a sharp breath. That could only mean….
“Well, now, it has beensucha pleasure, Colonel. I always said, did I not Mrs Temple, that you are the kindest gentleman of my acquaintance.”
Richard bowed one more time, but his eyes were not on the lady. The door was open fully now, and a tall, dark figure was silhouetted in its frame. It was as if he were watching a shipwreck unfold, seeing each moment pass before his eyes at the speed of eternity. Miss Bingley turned, and her hand flew to her mouth. Her knees buckled, and Richard caught sight of her wild, white eyes as her head and arms snapped back in the most impressive fainting fit to which he had ever borne witness. Half-heartedly, he took a step nearer to lessen her fall, but he was too slow, and her aim too precise, as she tumbled helplessly into the arms of the newcomer.
“Well, Richard,” Darcy frowned, shifting his weight to place the lady’s inert form into the footman’s arms. “I did not know you were in the habit of distressing the guests into unconsciousness.”
Richard merely turned and beat his forehead with the heel of his hand.
Cheapside, London
“Oh,IdohopeMiss Bingley is not injured,” Elizabeth took Darcy’s arm as she stepped from the carriage. “That was a rather dreadful fall she took.”
He looked down at the mirth dancing in her eyes. “I think she might have recovered well enough from her fall, had not she fainted again when she roused to seeyoutending her.”
“Alas, I am not a skilled nurse. Poor Miss Bingley! I am certain that Lydia will see to her every want with prodigious care, until she is well enough to travel to her home. Are you certain,” she paused and looked up to him again, “that you would not prefer to remain here as a guest of my aunt and uncle as well?”
“You ought not to tempt me, Elizabeth.” He clasped her hand firmly as it rested upon his arm, and took the remaining steps with resolve.
“William,” she stopped him again when they had gained the top, “why did the colonel not join us to pay this call? I thought you said that this young lady staying with my aunt and uncle was a friend of his.”
Darcy narrowed his eyes as he stared at the door. “She is a friend of mine, and I owe her my life. She may, perhaps, have been something even more to Richard.” He looked down to her again. “Perhaps it is best that we do not ask. The lady was unfortunate in her marriage, and some wondrous coincidence has brought her under your uncle’s wing. More, I do not know, save that my cousin was unusually terse on the subject.”
“I see.” Elizabeth faced the door just as it opened, and waited to be shown in to her aunt.
Amáliawasbeginningtolike Mrs Gardiner very much. The woman’s open cheer had unsettled her somewhat at first, being so far removed from the formality of her own upbringing. After a full day in her company, Amália had come to think that she might also have liked some degree of liberty about her home. The Gardiners were in trade, she had learned, and not even heirs to a family interest, as her own father had been. Thus, they had never been of what her father might have deemed as “good” family. They were, instead, simply good people.
Luncheon was a moderate affair in the Gardiner’s household, with Mr Gardiner returning home from his nearby warehouses to join them. She surveyed the simple, hearty fare, and was trying to determine which offering was to be taken first. She glanced at her hostess and observed the lady smilingly spreading the napkin over her lap. Amália hastily did the same with her own, which she had placed to her left out of habit. Mrs Gardiner caught her eye with a gentle twinkle, then proceeded to discreetly demonstrate all the customs that were foreign to her.
She had the distinct sense that Mrs Gardiner was arranging her life rather more than she would confess to accommodate her. The early afternoon was spent in a leisurely perusal of fabrics, brought from Mr Gardiner’s warehouses and displayed, so she was told, so that Mrs Gardiner could approve the quality of her husband’s new supplier. It was some time before she happened upon the realisation that Mrs Gardiner intended to have dresses made up for her from her favourite choices, and Amália suffered some in mortification for the delight she had shown. Oh, this was simply too much! But the lady would not hear of her protests, and simply marked the selections with a knowing smile.
Two hours later, they walked together into the drawing room in search of employment. “Have you ever played the instrument much, my dear?” the lady asked.
“No, Mrs Gardiner, but I sing.”
“You do! We will simply have to find some music that you like. Here, are you familiar with any of mine? Oh, no, this piece will never do, I believe Mary may have left it. Ah, here we are! I believe Lizzy favoured this piece. Do you know it?”
Amália read slowly over the music, but shook her head. “No, I am sorry, Mrs Gardiner, but I could learn it. It reads beautifully.”
“We may come back to it, then. I would much rather begin with something you know.” She leafed through a few more selections, pausing here and there when one of interest caught her eye, but not finding one that satisfied her.
“Mrs Gardiner? You have mentioned your niece… Elizabeth?”
“Yes, my dear. She is about your age, I think. She and her sister Lydia are staying with friends just now in Derbyshire.”
Amália’s brow furrowed and her fingers caught one another. “If you please, Mrs Gardiner, I know this may sound strange, but… is your Elizabeth known to…” she hesitated and bit her lip. What, precisely, did Mrs Gardiner know about what had transpired in Portugal?
“Known… to Colonel Fitzwilliam, is that what you were about to ask? Why, yes, I believe they were introduced by Mr Darcy. My husband tells me you met Mr Darcy as well, is that true?”
Amália felt her cheeks flush. So, the name she had heard from that poor man belonged to a real woman—one who was intimate in this very house! And if she was real, then the whole nightmare had really happened. She put a hand to her forehead. After all that had taken place, everything she had fled in her home country, the entire episode with the man imprisoned seemed a distant horror. “He is come back to England, Mrs Gardiner?” she asked hesitantly.
“You did not know, my dear? Yes, I understand he is. I just received Elizabeth’s letter yesterday. It must be nearly a fortnight now that he has been back on English soil, for it took him some days to reach Pemberley. Poor Mr Darcy, we all thought him dead! Such a wonderful thing it was to hear. I thought at first that Lizzy had taken leave of her senses when she wrote that he had returned—she was staying at his home, with his sister, do you understand. I would expect we shall see them sometime soon, but she did not give any details of their plans. I believe they will intend to marry, and so we should be hearing more almost immediately.”
Amália accepted another piece of sheet music from Mrs Gardiner. “They are not married? Forgive me, I thought they must have been.” Her brow pinched. Had not that poor man cried out his heart’s agony from his cell, clinging to that same name over and over again as if it were his last grip on life? And all for a woman not married to him?
“No,” Mrs Gardiner was chuckling. “I have yet to know all, but I suspect if I were ever to force Lizzy to share with me her entire history with Mr Darcy, I would be both shocked and amused.” She sighed, then smiled at Amália. “I cannot express the joy I felt when I heard he had been found, and was home alive. Poor Lizzy, we all thought she would die of despair last winter, but they were never engaged, you see, so she would not confess the source of her heartbreak. I can hardly wait to see her with him! I feel it might answer for a great many wrongs.”
Amália looked down to her hands, but welling within her heart was a sense of… satisfaction. Yes, that was it. Her defiance of her husband, her flight from her home, the rollicking voyage when she had set off to chart her own course—all of it had been for a purpose. She and the gentleman were no longer in Miguel’s power, and this Elizabeth might hold the one she loved.
