Page 6 of The Widower of Pemberley

“You mean to say that the gentlemen have been so kind as to leave me the leisure to do so,” Miss Elizabeth said laughingly.

She looked frankly at Darcy and smiled at him, then stood to make her curtsey. “It is my pleasure to meet you.”

The way the girl spoke with her hands and the challenging way she looked at him with a hint of mischief in her eyes made Darcy’s stomach jump a little.

Her manner reminded him of Mary. There was also some unfortunate similarity in their colouring, and she was as short as his late wife had been.

Darcy frowned, inclined his head, and muttered something that might have been ‘pleased’. “Miss Lucas, might I ask you for a second dance this night?”

The woman had an unmistakable look of surprise at receiving this compliment, but she accepted his hand and walked with him out to the set.

“Your sister is delightful,” Miss Lucas ventured with what seemed to him a forced sort of cheerfulness. “Quite shy, but Eliza drew her out when I could not.”

Darcy grunted. He had no understanding of how to please a woman, and he would not make any effort to do so.

He despised women who were easily pleased.

“You are of a taciturn disposition,” she noted when he did not reply.

To Darcy’s own surprise he asked, “What is Miss Elizabeth like?”

“Ah, Miss Elizabeth.” Miss Lucas raised an eyebrow, smiled, and seemed more at her ease suddenly. “You found her enchanting at first glance?”

“I merely wish to know about someone seeking to make a friend of my sister.”

“A dutiful brother. The world entire admires.” The woman’s tone implied that she meant something different from what she said. “You need not be concerned about my dearest Eliza. She will corrupt no one. Quite the opposite. She is as delightful as she is sweet. She devotes herself to the care of her sister, who is blind, and she loves both to read and laugh.” Miss Lucas smiled and then sighed a little. “I do love her dearly.”

“Hmph.” Darcy frowned. He didnotwish to think about the prettiest girl in the room.

Heshouldinterrogate Miss Lucas to learn abouthersuitability as the mother of his future heir and a potential mother for Emily. Her lack of beauty, and his own total disinterest in her, was promising but not sufficient.

“What are your thoughts on marriage,” Darcy asked Miss Lucas.

“I cannot imagine what you intend to hear in reply to such a question.” Her eyebrows rose. “I hardly understand you.”

When Darcy did not clarify, she said in the tone of a dull governess, “Marriage, marriage. It is an institution of great importance to the preservation of our British morals. It is an estate instituted by God and church.Webelieve in marriage, unlike the French.”

Darcy did not laugh, though he did smile. A little.

“Eliza would hateyou,” Miss Lucas now said with a laugh. “Marriage creates unhappiness in those who enter it as often as it creates happiness. But I mean to marry if I ever have the opportunity.”

“Why, if it causes unhappiness?”

“It is the best and only way for a woman of slender means to find a situation that is both honourable and comfortable.” She paused and added, “Also, I would like to have my own children. To a reasonable extent.”

Darcy grunted.

Miss Lucas’s raised eyebrow showed more amusement than frustration at his bear-like behaviour. He was acting in a manner true to himself, and if she meant to marry him (as Darcy firmly believed every unattached woman did), she must become used to him.

“And you, Mr. Darcy, what do you think of marriage?”

Thatquestion left him unable to speak because of the guilt at how he had failed Mary, mixed with fury at how she had cuckolded him, mixed with shame at the sense of how the society would see him and despise him if they knew—they must suspect—mixed with a loathing of those famous words in the marriage service and awareness that there was nothing in the world he wished to avoid more than a second marriage.

“I contemplate the nature of the married state with some frequency,” Darcy growled at last.

After that, Miss Lucas respected his mood well enough that she did not press him to continue the conversation, and they danced in silence for another twenty minutes before making small formal bows when they parted at the end of the set.

He ought to apologise for his poor manners, but this time Darcy did not do his duty.