His lips moved against hers, and then his tongue grazed the corner of her mouth in the most blissful moment of her life, though it was over far too soon. He held her against him as he drew in a deep breath. “I had imagined something like that,” he whispered in a dazed voice, before brushing his lips against hers once more, a gentle and fleeting motion.
Marianne hummed in contentment before she slowly took a step back, again clinging to some shred of good sense. “I should go to bed,” she murmured.
Mr. Bingley pressed her hand in his own before releasing it, and she hastened toward the door. She stopped and leaned against the doorjamb for a moment, staring back at his silhouette in the moonlit ballroom. He extended a hand to her once more, then turned and retreated into the darkness.
Chapter Twenty
London
“Oh, Lizzy, it cannot really be your last day in London,” Georgiana sighed. “I thought we would surely persuade you all to stay longer.”
Elizabeth gave her friend’s hand an affectionate squeeze. “I should like to very much, but Mrs. Jennings wishes to return to Devonshire; her daughter Lady Middleton has made a match for their cousin, Miss Anne Steele, and I know Mrs. Jennings is eager to be useful in planning the wedding. Besides, Aunt Madeline misses her daughter.”
“Planning a wedding does sound like jolly good fun,” Georgiana said, giving her brother and cousin a sly look. “William, Phillip, what if we went to visit Netherfield? I had a letter from Rebecca this morning, and she has practically invited all of us.”
“By which you mean that she has informed you they are hosting a large party,” the viscount drawled. He waggled his brows as he reached for his cup of tea.
“Quite the same thing,” Mrs. Gardiner cried, giving Georgiana an indulgent look.
Mr. Darcy’s gaze seemed to search Elizabeth’s for a moment, and she silently willed him to understand how dearly she wished not to part with him. Not yet, when she had only just begun to suspect he felt more for her than friendship – and when she had only just been surprised to discover her own sentiments were quite the same.
He broke into a slow smile that lit his eyes with mirth as it spread across his face. “Would it be too mischievous, Miss Elizabeth, for our arrival at Netherfield to be a surprise for our friend?”
“I should rather think it a delightful gift,” Elizabeth replied merrily. “Who does not like surprises? And I recall Mr. Bingley once saying that if he were to decide to travel, he should go at once, in all haste – so he will be pleased to find you of the same philosophy.”
“It shall be a vexation for Rebecca, to make so many extra rooms ready,” the viscount mused. “I sayyes.Besides, I shall take no pleasure in London with you ladies gone away.”
Mr. Willoughby crossed the vast room filled with stacks of old books and teased them for their idleness. The ladies from Berkeley Street and their friends from Matlock House had gathered at Hatchard’s, where Mrs. Hatchard had invited them for tea and the parting gift of choosing from amongst a large collection of rare books they had recently acquired.
Mr. Willoughby was an object of no little hilarity, his shirtsleeves rolled up, his hair in disarray, and a small pair of spectacles on his nose, a gold chain connecting them around the back of his neck. He had borne their teasing in good cheer as he went about with his ledger and pencil, making an inventory of his new acquisitions. “You have been wondrously helpful, and Idaresay you have earned your refreshments, but Miss Elizabeth, you have not yet selected a book to take home to Longbourn! Jane – Miss Bennet – has already claimed the first edition ofGulliver’s Travels, and it appears even now she is raiding the crate of poetry.”
Nearby, Jane looked up from doing just that, and she smiled brightly at them before whispering something to Sophie Hatchard that elicited a laugh. Then Jane reached into the crate and displayed a large red volume embossed with silver filigree before adding it to the two other books she held in the crook of her elbow.
“Mamma will be quite scandalized to find Jane returned from London a bluestocking,” Elizabeth chortled.
“She cannot be surprised to find you such a one,” Mr. Darcy said with a wry smile. “But there are a few volumes I had thought might amuse you, if you require any assistance in making your selections.”
He offered her his hand as she rose from the small sofa at the back of the spacious storeroom at the back of the shop, where they held their unconventional gathering. “Oh yes, do advise me, sir,” Elizabeth said, and she smirked as she privately imagined beseeching Mr. Darcy for advice on reading material as she had seen Caroline Bingley do at Netherfield.
She took his arm as they ambled over to a crate of books in the far corner, and then they began to examine the titles. She knew the collection had come from Edward Ferrars, but Elizabeth was determined not to allow that to lessen her enjoyment of the Hatchards’ generosity.
“Take three or four – something for your sisters, perhaps,” Mrs. Hatchard told her with an affectionate pat on the cheek before she hastened to show Mrs. Gardiner a book of fairy stories Julia might like.
Elizabeth grinned at Mr. Darcy. “Something for my sisters! I wonder, did the late Ferrars possess many volumes of fashion plates? The history of haberdashery, perhaps.”
Mr. Darcy leaned a little closer and whispered, “Since I am under your command to be impudent, I shall advise you to think only of yourself.”
“Then I shall do likewise, and follow your sage counsel,” Elizabeth quipped.
They began examining the crate of books, and Mr. Darcy showed her a few volumes that caught her fancy. After she made her selections, he asked, “Will it please you if I return to Netherfield?”
“If you do not spend the visit brooding out of windows and refusing to dance,” she chided. “But I think it would be wonderful if you all came to Hertfordshire.”
Again he gave her a penetrating look, and Elizabeth blushed at her own hesitation to tell him just how dearly she would like to continue spending time with him above everybody. How her Mamma would faint and her father would laugh at her! But something else worried her thoughts.
“I understand you and your cousin have been much occupied in a matter of important business with Colonel Fitzwilliam. Will you be able to leave London without settling it?”
“Richard intends to return to Netherfield; he can hardly object if I do the same. One of the matters was settled this morning to his satisfaction; the other, he has men attending to, though I would rather not speak of it. I have no wish to shade our last day together in London.”
