They invited Mr. Darcy to join them, and he looked nervously at Elizabeth before saying, “I shall meet you there anon.” As his friends took their leave with more exaggerated charm, Mr. Darcy let out a deep sigh of relief.
“Your friends are pleasant and gregarious,” Elizabeth said, hoping this was a fair beginning.
“They talk entirely too much,” Mr. Darcy said with a rueful chuckle.
“Why the false names? It is curious – it seemed almost as if they wished to mock you.”
He glanced away, staring out across the sparkling Serpentine. “An old jest from our days at Cambridge.”
Elizabeth pressed on, determined to make him speak with her as he had been inclined to do when first she arrived in London. She managed to get him talking rather expansively on his time at university, and then he went on to describe his life at Wildewood following the completion of his studies. She relaxed, glad to feel the ease between them returning, and for a quarter of an hour they happily compared their impressions and experiences of life in the country.
She tightened her grasp on his arm. “I have missed our conversations, sir.”
Mr. Darcy frowned. “Oh? I was not aware. This last week, it has seemed to me that you have been just as content to acquaint yourself with the many new gentlemen your mother would introduce you to.”
There was something rigid and bitter in his tone, and his demeanor shifted as he spoke; Elizabeth instantly released his arm and recoiled in surprise. “Had you made any endeavor to seek me out, you might have heardexactlywhat I think of the many preening peacocks my mother has paraded before me! Indeed, I am sure I spoke to them all with my foremost thought being how I might describe them to you for our mutual amusement.”
“I see. And I am similarly fodder for your banter? I shudder to think what you must say of me to your many beaux, if your first pleasure is only a joke.”
Elizabeth let out a squeaky scoff of indignation. “What? No indeed! You quite mistake me, sir!”
She would have said more, but Mr. Darcy checked his pocket watch and then said, “I must be going. I have promised to join my friends in fencing with Finneas Culpepper. I shall convey your compliments, I daresay. Good day, Miss Elizabeth.” He gave a perfunctory bow, and stalked away.
Elizabeth stood, stunned and alone, for a moment as she grappled to comprehend what had gone so terribly wrong. When she finally drifted back to her companions, she saw that Lady Anne and Georgiana had joined their party, and she hurried to seek her favorite aunt’s soothing company. Tears pricked at her eyes, which only made her rather angry, for she was in no humor to lament over a man who had been so unaccountably rude.
Lady Anne took her hands and kissed her cheeks. “How lovely you look today, my darling! But is that your Mr. Darcy stalking off? What a shame that I have just missed him, for Idearly wish to meet this man you mention at every turn.” She finally comprehended Elizabeth’s distress, and her enthusiasm ebbed as she led Elizabeth away from the merry cluster of their relations. “Lizzy, are you in some distress?”
“It is only that Mr. Darcy was strangely uncivil to me, and I cannot think why!” Elizabeth recounted the substance of their conversation as her aunt listened attentively.
“Oh dear! You have never in your life been displeased with anybody by the name of Darcy – this must be quite a blow to you.”
“Do not tease me,” Elizabeth groaned, blinking back tears.
“Of course not – it was very wrong of me. I am terribly sorry, but surely it must all be some sort of misunderstanding! What of this Sir Rolland fellow? Could it be that your Mr. Darcy is jealous of his friend’s flirtatious behavior toward you?”
“That is impossible, for I know Sir Rolland to be promised to his cousin already – Mr. Darcy told me so himself. Besides, I have made it clear to him that I prefer his company over that of any other – I have mocked nearly every other gentleman I have met with Mr. Darcy. He would be a fool not to perceive that he is my favorite.”
“We are all fools in love, Lizzy. It took my dear Sir Geoffrey five years to come to the point and propose.”
Elizabeth pulled a face. “Oh my! I had always thought it so romantic that he pursued you for so long, but now that I think of it, I am sure I could not wait five years! Mr. Darcy had better sort himself out, for we are only to be in London for another month.”
“You might invite him to the dinner party at Lady Findlay’s house on Thursday,” Lady Anne said. “I mean to invite everybody from Matlock House, even if it rankles my sister to include the gentlemen she does not approve of.”
Elizabeth beamed at her aunt. She dearly wished for Lady Anne and Mr. Darcy to meet, and she was inexplicably confident that this would be just the thing to put everything right between them. However, when the opportunity arose for her to pass along the invitation that evening after supper, Mr. Darcy was obliged to decline, citing a prior engagement with the friends she had met at the park.
Her discontent must have shown, for the frosty facade he had maintained all evening warmed into something more affectionate. “I am truly sorry, Miss Elizabeth. I have lately resumed the connections of my youth, the lively bunch you were introduced to this afternoon. However, I have every hope of meeting your aunt; I trust she will attend Lady Matlock’s party on Friday?"
“Yes, of course, though it is sure to be a crush! Lady Rebecca says the dowager countess means to fill the dining room, which can easily fit at least triple our nightly party. I can guess what sort of guests Mamma has demanded she invite.” Elizabeth’s grin flickered as Mr. Darcy’s countenance shaded with displeasure.
He gave a bow of his head. “I am sure you are looking forward to it, as fond of certain society as you are.” And then, he stalked away to speak with Mr. Bingley.
Elizabeth fumed all evening, and unleashed her ire with Lady Rebecca that evening in the privacy of her cousin’s bedchamber. “Can he really be such a coxcomb, to be jealous of the vast array of various ninnies and nincompoops that Mamma favors for their titles?”
Lady Rebecca stared at her with a sardonic scowl and flatly said, “Certainly he can; men will always be as stupid as a lady allows.”
“Well, I should prefer a clever man, or at least one with the good sense to know himself to be favored above the other bores and blatherers!”
“Best of luck withthat!” Rebecca reclined against the pillows on her bed with a peal of laughter.
