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“I have not heard anything. In fact, this evening was going to be the first time I had seen him since Easter. What did he do?”

“Rudely accosted Lady Napier in the street.”

Richard’s eyebrows rose in surprise. This was utterly un-Darcy-like behaviour.

“Did he give a reason why?”

“He thought she was someone else, someone he met three years ago.”

“And he thought to have this conversation where?”

“In the street, right outside Arbuthnot’s. It is the talk of the town. Lady Napier stopped at the office of the Magistrate and made a formal complaint. I have heard from someone who witnessed the whole thing that both her coachman and one of her guards had their hands of pistols.”

There was no doubt, this was going to be the scandal of the summer.

“Where is he?”

“Hiding in his room. We cannot talk about it at dinner because of the presence of Georgiana. But we can have fun at his expense when the ladies withdraw.”

--

“What were you thinking? This was unlike you?”

With the women having withdrawn, Stonehaven had immediately made sport of Darcy but Richard had not joined in. Eventually his brother’s juvenile antics were finished and he could ask some questions and see if he got a rational response. The loud sigh told its own tale.

“Surprise. Lady Napier is identical to a young woman I knew three years ago. My mouth was working before my brain could keep me under good regulation. There is no excuse.”

“Why accost her, or rather keep accosting her. You accused her of not being a fraud. I hope that letter of apology was a good one. She might have a suit against you.”

Darcy’s head slumped.

“It was a moment of madness. And yes, you could tell I was grovelling in the letter. It came across in every word.”

--

“Your thoughts now we are back at the Hall?”

“Glad that we have finally met, that the moment, long anticipated has come to pass. I must have been a serious shock to his system, he was loud and rude in front of many witnesses.”

“What are you going to do?”

“You mean having reported the matter to Sir Edward?”

Harriet was stopped from answering by the arrival of Thompson with Darcy’s letter of apology. It was attached to a note from the Countess. Single men could not write to single women. After reading it Elizabeth passed it over to Harriet.

“He is the Colonel’s cousin, the nephew of the Countess, I will inform Sir Edward that I received an apology and the matter is settled.”

“You are letting him away with it?”

“There is nothing that I can do, that his aunt and uncle, and both cousins, cannot do better. I have not seen him in 33 months, not since early November in the year ’11. They will be around him all the time and can continue to remind him of his lapse.”

They both smiled and let the matter drop. Elizabeth was done with the last of the people from that night at Netherfield Park.

Or so she thought.

Chapter 29

“I was not sure that I would still be welcome.”