Kitty stalked off, calling out to Mr. Darcy, and Elizabeth gasped as she beheld Charles Bingley stalking toward them. Baffled, she trailed after her half-sister. Kitty embraced Mr. Bingley, then sharply withdrew. “Mr. Darcy, before I inquirehow your conversation with William went, I must know something. Are you engaged to Elizabeth Bennet?”
Mr. Bingley gave Elizabeth a sheepish grin before turning back to Kitty. “I am not. It is a funny story, in fact….”
Elizabeth strode toward them with triumphant confusion. “I cannot possibly account for your error, Kitty, but this gentleman isnotMr. Darcy. It is his intimate friend, Mr. Charles Bingley.”
Kitty’s countenance fell into an expression of dismay. “Bingley? Bingley!” He reached for her, but Kitty shoved him away.
Movement caught her eye; Elizabeth turned and smiled at the sight of her beloved, who was nearly running toward them, a queer look on his face. “Here is Mr. Darcy!”
As he approached, Elizabeth rushed to him, her arms outstretched for an embrace, and she let out a peal of laughter as he picked her up and gave her a spin. “Elizabeth, you are really here,” he breathed. His loving gaze turned to their companions, and he scowled.
Kitty snorted with laughter. “I was certain you were in some great state of misconception, Lizzy. That is my guardian, Mr. William Worthing.”
Elizabeth recoiled from her lover’s embrace. “Worthing? No!”
Kitty turned querulously to Mr. Bingley. “Is that why you made such a fuss about your name, when we were kissing in the treehouse? You are not my cousin Darcy at all – you are really called Mr. Bingley?”
Making a strangled sound, Elizabeth’s betrothed grimaced at Mr. Bingley. Elizabeth clenched her fists at her side, raging at the thought that she had thrown caution to the wind to elope with a man who had deceived her. “Are you really calledWorthing?Good God, youdidmake a strange fuss about my admiration of the name Darcy.”
“Isisa most lovely name,” Kitty murmured.
“It is,” Mr. Bingley agreed, stalking toward the table where the ladies had taken refreshments. “But I must admit, it is purely a fabrication. I am called Bingley, my darling. Charles Bingley. I had meant to tell you the truth, but….”
Kitty scoffed. “But instead you lied to me for three days.”
Elizabeth took a step toward her beloved, begging him to refute the accusations. “Surely you did not deceive me forsix weeks, sir.”
“I wanted to tell you,” he said, his hand reached for hers. She stepped back.
“William Worthing,” she repeated.
“Yes. That is my name. It has been for years. I have always pretended to be called Will Darcy in London, but here at home I am William Worthing; it is the name my guardian gave me. I meant to tell you, but it was… complicated….”
Kitty let out a cry of indignation, and took Elizabeth by the hand. “My poor, wronged sister! What a horrid trick my guardian has played on you!”
Elizabeth patted Kitty’s cheek. “My darling sister! I am terribly sorry for misjudging you – we have both been most egregiously deceived.”
They glared over at the gentlemen. Mr. Bingley had taken a seat at the table and was inspecting the tray of muffins, while Mr. Worthing, as he was apparently called, looked between his friend and the ladies with considerable panic.
Mr. Bingley laughed. “Well, you did say they would be calling each othersisterwithin an hour.”
Elizabeth’s rage finally boiled over, and she flew at Mr. Worthing, pounding her fists into his chest. “You knew? Youknew she was my sister, and never mentioned her to me? You are a liar, and my mother was right to take me away from you!”
“What?”
Elizabeth stilled and looked up at him with tears in her eyes. “How could you?”
“I do not understand. What did I know? I know nothing!”
“Clearly,” Mr. Bingley said through a mouthful of muffin.
Elizabeth hissed at him and turned back to Mr. Worthing, her anger giving way to hope, and more confusion. “She is my sister.”
He blinked stupidly at her. “My ward? I told Bingley and Richard that I was certain you would approve of her, that you would be calling one another sister, as young ladies often do….”
Elizabeth stared up at him, not certain if he could truly be ignorant of their connection, or if he was again deceiving her. Kitty tugged at her hand. “Come away, Lizzy. They shall only spin more lies, no doubt. Men are such cowards!”
Kitty snatched her diary off the table with a look of pure loathing for Mr. Bingley. Elizabeth retrieved her own small diary, shaking her head sadly at the man she loved, but apparently did not know at all. Feeling herself the greatest fool in all the world, she clung to Kitty’s hand, and she managed not to let her tears spill until they were safely ensconced in the cozy parlor.
