MrDarcy shook his head. “Some soreness and numbness from having my arms bound for so long. The bruises are my own fault.”
“Surely they are the fault of whoever struck you.”
He looked away. “When you were knocked unconscious, reason was the last thing on my mind, and they were forced to go to greater lengths to subdue me.”
She found it oddly charming. Not that Elizabeth had any great like of brutish men who saw violence as an answer, but the thought of someone so regulated losing control because of her.... Well, there was a reason that Gothic novels were so popular, despite the widespread public disapproval from dour matrons. Given the circumstances and the dire straits of her questionable future, Elizabeth would take what amusement and whimsy she could get.
She smiled at him. “Then I must thank you for your protection. We were rudely interrupted, but as this is likely to be the most privacy we will have for some time, why did you come to the parsonage?”
He hesitated. “Perhaps it will comfort you to know that I came to ask you to marry me. I will not repeat the speech I had planned, not here, but I want you to know that my hand is yours.”
Elizabeth was speechless, and her silence stretched so long that MrDarcy frowned.
“My love comes as a surprise to you?”
Love? How could it be anything but a surprise to me?But she could not risk alienating her ally and protector. The Smiths might very well deliver MrDarcy to London without her. Elizabeth did not voice her demurrals but choked them down in favour of something more politic. “I confess that it does.You may have conversed more with me than anyone outside MrBingley’s party. Still, it does not follow that I expected marriage when every interaction seemed designed to show how far above my humble society you are.”
Really, she had no idea what he could have been thinking, since he had already boasted to his cousin about separating MrBingley from Jane. But…if Elizabeth were MrsDarcy, perhaps that was one connection that no one could object to. The Bennets had certainly not shown themselves off to their benefit at the Netherfield ball, and men were quick to credit each other with a greater role than they had played in reality, especially if Colonel Fitzwilliam had been trying to convince Elizabeth of his cousin’s noble character.
Elizabeth tried to wriggle her hands past her hips. Once that was accomplished, she considered the next step in freeing herself and sighed. “Forgive me, MrDarcy, if you see anything improper.”
He looked away, then looked back. “I hope you will forgive my watching all the same, in the hopes of replicating the feat.”
Elizabeth blushed as she lifted her legs in the air, gravity exposing stockinged ankles and calves, then folded them as tightly as possible, to bring her arms around to her front. MrDarcy attempted to manage the same, but his greater height made it impossible. Elizabeth couldn’t help softening towards him. “If I manage to untie my own hands, I shall see about yours.”
“Colonel Fitzwilliam credited you with being the means of separating MrBingley from a most unsuitable match. May I ask why, since you apparently do not see me as unsuitable?”
MrDarcy frowned lightly. “My friend falls in love quickly, but frequently. His sisters may claim that he falls out of love just as quickly, but they do not see what he is like with a broken heart. From what I observed, Miss Bennet did not return his feelings. Idid not wish to see him in a marriage of unequal affection, and his honour would soon be engaged, with the way your mother was declaring them all but betrothed. I hoped that the sooner they parted, the sooner he would recover.”
From a man’s perspective, Elizabeth supposed that it made sense, however little she liked it. The knot she was working on came loose, and her hope bloomed. “Jane is wary of showing too much encouragement until she knows a gentleman’s character beyond a doubt.”
Charlotte, who had received an offer of marriage from a farmer before Sir William was knighted and none after, professed that a lady should show more affection than she felt to encourage a suitor. Jane, whose beauty attracted unworthy men as well as worthy ones, was more cautious. Elizabeth could not attribute blame to either view.
MrDarcy nodded. “If I was mistaken in believing that you expected my address, I can be equally mistaken in my interpretation of your sister’s feelings. If it comforts you, Bingley has not recovered, and I have spent far too many afternoons at our club listening to him try to convince himself that it would be wrong to return, if it would place pressure on her to accept him.”
That spoke well of MrBingley. “I shall be sure to tell Jane when I see her. We know but trifles of him, after all.”
The last knot came undone, and the ropes fell away. “If you are able to roll over without injuring yourself, sir, I shall see about your bonds.”
He did so, his voice muffled as Elizabeth worked. “MrBingley is the sort of man I would not mind Georgiana marrying, were she not barely fifteen, and had she expressed any interest. He can stand his ground when he chooses, but he does not go looking for fights, as some do.”
Well, perhaps Jane and MrBingley would gain their second chance if she were to marry MrDarcy. It was a small consolation,weighed against a lifetime with a near-stranger, but in such interesting times, one needed to take comfort in the small joys. For others, if not for themselves, a pessimistic disposition would not improve her situation.If he had begun arrogantly at the parsonage, she might have refused him even after all they had been through—but the man who fought for her and bargained for her safety did not resemble the tyrant she had imagined.
Their captors had taken rather more care with MrDarcy’s bonds, but Elizabeth was used to untangling far more complicated embroidery snarls. Like Jane, Elizabeth did not believe in accepting the first offer that came her way if the man was unsuitable, but MrDarcy had proved himself in the last hour. If she did not yet love him, Elizabeth believed that affection could grow from respect.
“I accept your offer. Unless you change your mind after several hours confined to a small space with me, in which case, I will not hold you to your promise.”
He laughed, a surprisingly pleasing sound, despite his face being pressed to the deck. “Perhaps neither of us knows the other as well as we thought, but if we make it seem planned, an engaged couple has greater freedom than a courting one, in terms of their ability to come to know each other.”
They would have to marry, but the prospect was not nearly as regrettable as it might have been, had MrDarcy succeeded in proposing whilst Elizabeth was still mistaken in her understanding of his character.
The door opened just as Elizabeth succeeded in untying the first knot, revealing the young woman from earlier, with arms and hands that spoke of a life of labour. Thankfully, she did not raise the alarm. “That’s the problem with my brothers, always underestimating others.”
Elizabeth said, “Thank you for not summoning someone to bind us again.”
Miss Smith shrugged. “I am sensible of the favour I owe you, especially if it keeps my brothers out of prison. Besides, the harbour has enough small sharks to discourage jumping overboard, neither can you overpower an entire crew.”
MrDarcy sat up, rubbing at his wrists.
