Her eyes cleared for an instant, and she studied him—her lips parting faintly… until she laughed. “Mr. Darcy, you are grown too accustomed to being ‘right’ all the time, and now you fancy yourself insightful in this matter, too.”
He raised a brow and waited for her smile to fade, as though that confirmed something. “Bit too close for comfort? It is not vanity, then. It is armor.”
“I do not need armor.”
He frowned. “No. Only a pocket-sized arsenal?”
Her lips twitched. “You are being dramatic.”
“I believe that isyourjob.”
They stood in silence a beat longer, the sounds of music and conversation lilting back from the drawing room.
Then she said, very softly, “There are five of us. Girls. My mother cannot keep secrets, and my father does not care to. Do you know what that feels like?”
Darcy did not answer. She did not wait for him to.
“I learned early that the only privacy I could count on was the kind I could write down and hide under a floorboard.”
“And has it ever betrayed you?”
“Only when I let someone read it.”
“Then perhaps,” he said, almost gently, “you ought to stop leaving it on velvet settees.”
Her smile was faint. Wary. “Perhaps I was hoping someone would steal it.”
“I thought you liked your secrets.”
“I do,” she said. “But sometimes I wish someone would dare to read between them.”
Darcy permitted a smile. “Someone did. And you called him furniture.”
She lifted her chin. “I presume you disagree with my assessment.”
“Not at all,” he said. “Only that the author ought to take care. Public ruin begins with private scribbles.”
She blinked. “That sounds like a threat.”
“A warning.”
She smiled—tight and bright. “Well, then. I shall try to be more careful when comparing you to furniture. Perhaps something less antique.”
He laughed, but there was no mirth in it. “I suppose I should be flattered. At least furniture is useful.”
“To some,” she said, sweetly.
He bowed. “Enjoy the rest of the evening, Miss Bennet.”
“I intend to.”
He left without looking back.
And did not realize until much later that he had memorized the line.
Chapter Six
June, 1810
