Page 4 of Shadows Of Rosings Park: Part 2

"See that you do." His grip loosened. His thumb traced the bones of her wrist, a calculated shift from pressure to tenderness that unsettled her more than the grip had. The man could pivot from command to caress in a single breath, and the whiplash of it left her unable to build a stable defence against either. "And you will address me as Fitzwilliam when we are alone."

Fitzwilliam. His Christian name, the same as his cousin the Colonel's surname, which would have been amusing if anything about their situation were amusing.

She swallowed the refusal. A small intimacy, compared to what he had already taken. "As you wish. Fitzwilliam."

His name felt strange in her mouth. His expression softened before he mastered it, a betrayal she recognised from Rosings. A crack in the armour. The one response he could not entirely control.

"Better," he said. "Now — your father. He harbours reservations."

"He finds it inexplicable that the man who once could scarcely tolerate my presence should now pursue me with such ardour. He is not easily deceived."

"Then you must convince him otherwise."

She looked away, toward the garden wall where espaliered fruit trees held their branches flat against the stone. Obedient shapes. Trained to grow where they were told.

"My mother is in raptures. My younger sisters find you intimidating but impressive. Jane—" She hesitated.

"Miss Bennet suspects?"

"She knows nothing specific. But she sees that I'm altered."

"Bingley has accepted my invitation to Netherfield. He arrives tomorrow. His presence will provide distraction." He said this as a general might order a battalion into position, concerned with the effect rather than the soldiers' wishes. "Your sister's partiality for him will create regular occasions on which you may demonstrate the appropriate affection toward me."

Elizabeth absorbed this. Even Bingley, good, kind, transparently honest Bingley, was a piece on Darcy's board, moved into position to serve the fiction. The cold order of it appalled her. Its likely success was worse.

They had reached the far end of the garden, a bench half-hidden by lilacs. Darcy guided her to it with a hand at the small of her back, a touch so familiar it shocked her, his body having already memorised the route to hers.

"Sit," he said.

She sat. He remained standing. The position, he above, she below, his shadow falling across her lap, was not accidental. Nothing about Darcy was accidental.

"Have you called upon Mrs. Collins since your return?"

"Not yet. Jane and I mean to go before the week's end."

His jaw tightened, though his voice remained level.

"Do so. Fitzwilliam is expected at Netherfield within the week. His intentions toward Mrs. Collins remain unchanged."

Elizabeth looked past him towards the house. "And Charlotte must accept this as well?"

"Charlotte delivered the fatal blow. In an ordinary prosecution, husband and wife are not admitted to give evidence against one another. Marriage binds our interests as well as our silence."

She remembered the Colonel's hand at Charlotte's elbow. More than that, she remembered Charlotte on the Rosings window seat, explaining that Fitzwilliam meant to offer when mourning permitted and that refusal would be disadvantageous. Charlotte had called his protection relief. Elizabeth had heard the cage close all the same.

"And prevents a magistrate from questioning Charlotte about her own husband's death?"

"It gives her my cousin to answer him."

An evasion. Marriage would not make Charlotte innocent, or keep another witness from speaking. Darcy offered influence and called it law. Elizabeth pressed her palms against the bench until the wood hurt.

"Charlotte told me," she said. "She believes she can survive the bargain. That's not the same as choosing it."

"A courtship, when propriety permits, will secure her position. A widow with no children and limited means cannot disregard what is offered."

The parallel was unmistakable. "So Charlotte and I are to be parcelled out to the Darcy cousins. How orderly."

"You are to be protected."