Page 114 of The Matchmaker’s Mistake

Elizabeth took a slow breath. “Yes,” she said. She was not going to faint, not here, not in front of him.

He did not reply, only wound her arm through his, then turned his shoulder into the crowd. As tall and imposing as he was, the crowd, which was otherwise packed so tightly, parted around him as a river might be divided by a stone.

“There is a smaller room behind the library,” he said in her ear. “It has a window and no one is in it. We shall leave the door open. Is that agreeable?”

“Yes,” said Elizabeth.

The smaller room, when they reached it, held a sofa, an unlit lamp, and a fireplace that remained unused. The air was still close, so Mr. Darcy pulled a chair over to the window and eased her into it before lifting the sash so the air could cool her.

Once Elizabeth was seated and leaning towards the draft of fresh air, he took a candle from the sconce in the hall and used it to light the lamp, then went in search of refreshment and returned with a glass of wine.

“I searched for your sister and your aunt,” he said as he gave it to her, “but I could find neither of them.”

“With this many people, Mr. Darcy, I am surprised you managed to find your own feet.”

He chuckled a little. “Drink,” he said.

Elizabeth watched him avoid her gaze. Once, she would have thought this meant he was cold- hearted. Now she knew better. She took a sip of the wine, letting the quiet and the fresh air do their work. Her breathing steadied. The room no longer seemed to tilt, and the noise from the hall faded to something she could bear.

Mr. Darcy glanced at her then, and she realised he was determining whether she had recovered without wishing to be caught doing so. He saw that she was aware, and he smiled ruefully. ”Are you feeling better?”

“Much.”

“Shall I try again to find your aunt or sister?”

“Not yet, if you please.” The meeting had been an accident, but she would take advantage of it. “There is something I have been wishing to tell you.”

He looked directly at her then, his dark eyes guarded.

“When you left my uncle’s house, I had not finished.” She shook her head. “I do not mean that you should have stayed. You had every reason to go. But I was jealous at first, angry, embarrassed, hurt, and I could not sort one from the other quickly enough to speak plainly.” A little huff of air escaped her that sounded almost like a laugh. “I know it will surprise you to learn that I do not have a ready answer for every occasion.”

He did not interrupt.

“I have regretted that,” she said. “Not my honesty, but the manner of it. You explained yourself as well as you could, and then I gave you no reason to stay.”

The guardedness eased a little.

“So I should like to try again,” she told him. “I do not expect a repeat of your offer, but this time, my head is clearer, and if you wish to speak, I promise that I will listen.”

He glanced at the door, and for a second she feared he was wishing to leave. But then he took her hand and the firm, steady pressure of his grasp sent a tremor up her arm.

“Miss Elizabeth,” he said, “there is a misunderstanding between us. I swore not to trouble you again, and after tonight I will not, if that is what you wish. If you are willing, yes, I should like to explain. If you are not, if you are offering only out of pity, tell me at once, and I will say no more.”

She would not refuse him again. “Please,” she said. “I would like very much to hear what you have to say.”

His shoulders lowered. The tightness around his mouth eased, and he drew a slow breath before looking down at her hand in his. He did not relinquish it.

“The evening you came to hear my sister play, you overheard my mother speaking to my uncle about Miss Finch. I do not know all that you heard, but my mother has confirmed that they were speaking of a property in the Peaks that belongs to my uncle, and he has settled it, with a fortune, on my cousin the colonel. The young woman with thirty thousand pounds was being considered for him, not for me.”

“The colonel?”

Elizabeth set her glass down. She had known, of course, that Mr. Darcy would never have made her an offer were he irrevocably tied to another. Sadly, it had taken her a week to think everything through, and by then she had no way to contact him. She was not normally so slow, but she had never felt so many competing sentiments at once. It had simply been too much for her to bear.

“You believe I offered for you because another man frightened me into it. You said as much, and you were right to say it. The rumour did bring me to you that day, but it did not make me suddenly realise that I love you. I did not know it until I thought it through, but I believe I began to fall in love with you at the Meryton assembly.”

Elizabeth stared at him. “You insulted me at the Meryton assembly.”

“Yes.” His mouth moved into a private little smile that Elizabeth found unreasonably attractive. “But then you laughed.”