I set aside my book and started to rise. He waved me back to my seat, though, and proceeded to pace a hole in the carpet. After much sighing and fretting, covering his mouth and hyperventilating, at last, he turned to face me. “You can be in no doubts about what I have come to say.”
I shot my gaze to the side and frowned. “Indeed, I have no idea.”
He pulled back his lips from his perfect teeth—everything about Fitzwilliam’s looks is perfect, to my chagrin—and stalked closer. “Georgiana is weeping disconsolately and begging me to take her home.”
I remember the dismay with which I heard this statement. Weeping? For what possible reason?
“I... do not understand,” I wheezed at last.
He paced again, and this was my first introduction to his mannerisms when truly vexed. He ploughed his fingers through that... ahem... gorgeous, dark, thick, curly hair of his... and hissed as he breathed. “I brought her here,” he bit out, “because I believed you might be a friend to her.”
I laid my hands in my lap and was helpless to keep my fingers from twisting together. Never mind that he had brought her uninvited. He adores her, we had all welcomed her and desired her happiness, so that was the end of it. Even if he was presently acting as if he were the host andIwas the rude guest.
“I am perfectly willing to befriend her, but she will hardly speak to me. It is not for lack of effort on my part.”
“Come, Elizabeth, you are too intelligent to miss the fear in her eyes. I thoughtyou, of all people, could find some sympathy for a girl desperately in need of feminine companionship.”
“I am not without sympathy,” I retorted, “but I do not understand the need or the means. What is Miss Darcy’s impediment that she finds it impossible to return any overtures of friendship?”
“Impediment! She has no such thing.”
I lifted my brow, a gesture that, since the early days of our acquaintance, has seldom failed to bring him round.
“Oh, very well,” he sighed. “Forgive me for losing my temper. It is not your fault. Georgiana had always been painfully shy, and in addition to that, she has recently suffered a... a dreadful scare. She misjudged someone and now lives in terror of trusting anyone else.”
“If this be the case, perhaps you ought to have said as much sooner.”
“How should I, without humiliating her further?”
I thinned my lips. “A private word would have gone far. I thought we understood each other well enough that even a discreet indication that some extra care was wanted could be sufficient.”
He circled the room again, avoiding my gaze. “I thought there was no need.”
“Fitzwilliam.” I rose and approached, drawing him sharply around.
His chest rose and fell, and his eyes lit peculiarly. “That is the first time you have called me by my name.”
“Because I meant to get your attention. Do I have it?”
He nodded, his mouth softening into an almost foolish smile.
“Good. I am honored, truly honored, that you could have such high expectations of me. And I am similarly flattered that you thoughtI, whom you have known but a little while, ought to be the friend you sought for your sister. I will make an extra effort where Georgiana is concerned. She is a sweet girl, and I do hope to know her better. Still, it was probably ill-advised of you to bring herhere, where Caroline is free to make her uncomfortable.”
He grinned sheepishly at this. “I was depending on your cleverness to shield her somewhat.”
“Well, that was bold of you! I shall do my best to befriend and encourage her, though. I can certainly appreciate what you were trying to do.”
“Well...” He cleared his throat. “Notallthat I was trying to do.”
“What else was there?”
The side of his mouth twisted up. “I was also trying to get a particular lady to talk to me again and thought surely, if I brought my sister all the way from London, she would not be so rude as to send us both packing without hearing me out.”
My jaw dropped. “Why, Fitzwilliam Darcy, you are a manipulative sneak!”
“It worked, did it not? Would you have accompanied me to the garden if my sister had not required a rest and some refreshment after stepping down from the carriage?”
“Do not claim the credit of that. Idecidedto talk to you.”
