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Now I had done it. Darcy usually only had two modes of speech. One was so taciturn it took a snifter of brandy for each dozen words, and the other was interminable lectures.
“Do you really expect me to agree to the lecture you are working your way up to?”
He grinned at that, so I thought maybe Elizabeth was a more powerful tonic than you might have thought, because the expression was unexpected.
“You chose to be a landowner, so you are out of options. If you are unhappy with the responsibility, you can go back to letting your own men shoot you, or perhaps even give the French a crack at it. But if you intend to be a landowner, on an estate provided by me, you will learn to do it properly.”
I did not even dignify that with an answer. I had been resisting learning to manage the estates I would never have all my life, and had to admit to myself—though certainly not to Darcy—that what he said made sense.
I grunted in acquiescence and replied somewhat charitably. “I will give you that. So, what is this mysterious second reason?”
His face resumed an expression that was either pensive, or taciturn, or more likely just shivering cold, as bloo… well, I already canvassed that.
“I will give you one valuable lesson in life for free, so pay close attention. There is nothing in the world worse than seeing someone you love beyond life itself suffer at your own hand, whether through ignorance, pride, careless actions, or simple neglect. Nothing else even comes close. If you had continued hovering around Miss Lucas like a vulture waiting for something to die, you might have lost her forever by now. Take my word for it. I have done it myself, and it is not at all certain I will ever truly recover even when Elizabeth wakes up.”
My head snapped up at that, and I very nearly lost my temper. Of course, very nearly losing my temper involved my whole body tensing up, and that made my leg hurt abominably, so I had to take a moment to relax before answering.
“I fully understand the depth of the hole you dug for yourself, but do not pretend that, if Elizabeth were awake, you would not be wooing her right now, regardless of her marital state or what is happening at Pemberley.”
That put a look I could not quite follow on his face. “Elizabeth and I had quite the discussion about duty the night before that dinner. If I were wooing her instead of taking care of my duty to my estate and the people who depend on me, she would be chasing me out of Rosings with an axe. Do not mistake my desire to spend every waking moment with her for what I would actually be doing. By wooing her, I would lose her. We both need to understand the difference between what we wish to do and what we need to do.”
Not one to take an argument lying down, I shot back somewhat angrily. “You have the right words there, Darcy: your estate. I have no estate at the moment, so the same does not apply to me; and you have had a year to pursue Elizabeth. It is not my fault you wasted most of it, and you would be wooing her by doing your duty, I am certain of it.”
“You have no hope of securing the affections of anyone worthy if you fail to do what is right. All she sees is a uniform on a Derbyshire man. Show her something else.”
I was losing the plot and most of my patience. “You can say that because you are in the arena with a good idea of the battle you fight. I have had less than an hour with the target of my affections. Exactly how do you propose I woo her from two hundred miles, when she can barely stand my presence?”
He chuckled. “It is no wonder they call us lunkheads.”
I would like to claim that our sisters calling us both lunkheads was new information, but since each of them had at one time or another warned me that the rest of them called us such, it was not news worthy of being published, but I still had no idea what he was trying to say. How could you win if you did not even fight?
Trying to rein in my growing temper, I asked, “You need to be more specific. Something beyond general lunkheadedness.”
He laughed hard enough to truly annoy me.
“You and I make a hash of things without a firm hand. That is just the way things are. It is time for us both to trust in our sisters to see to our best interests. They can stare at Elizabeth and wish she could wake up as well as we can. They can care for her body and read to her to try to care for her mind and soul as well as we can. Nothing but our pride insists we are better suited to the task. They also have a much better chance of improving your angel’s impression of you than you or I do. Let us do our duty, and when we return, things will be better. Trust in the people that are trustworthy. That is the very essence of family, and if you wish to have one, you must learn it.”
That sounded like some kind of magical thinking, but I could find no fault with it.
Still not ready to concede the field, I asked, “For someone who has made such a hash of it, you seem rather certain.”
“That is how I came to that wisdom. Who do you want to believe about how badly a stove might burn you, a scholar who can explain all the science of fire, or a boy who just touched one?”
I had to at least laugh. I could never remember a self-deprecating Darcy, so perhaps there was some wisdom in it.
He continued relentlessly. “Trust the women. They earned it and will not let us down.”
Darcy had a habit from time to time of saying something that he did not really mean, as if he had been carrying forth and decided to stop talking and start thinking but forgot to disengage his mouth. “And in the best case—”
Curious! “Best case?”
He shook himself as if just realising he had spoken aloud but seemed amenable to finishing the thought.
“In the best case, Elizabeth will wake up and she will make things better… somehow. She always does.”
What a besotted couple of fools we were, but I had to admit that leaving my fate in the ladies’ hands seemed more sensible than leaving it in ours. There were no new suitors swooping into Rosings, so she would be there when I got back and I would… well, to tell the truth, I had no idea what I would do. Most likely just follow instructions. At least Darcy had that right.
About an hour later, we crested the rise where we customarily paused to get a look at Pemberley. I had once heard a lady say something about never seeing a place where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste. The Darcys had been doing that for generations, and it showed.
