AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I was turning to go back to the house when I heard a musical laugh filter through the garden. There was a muffled conversation, then another laugh joined the first one. I moved to the end of the walkway and peered around the hedge towards the stables. The old gardener was standing with his back to me, speaking to someone in a green cloak. I could not see the lady’s face, but I would know that voice anywhere. Elizabeth had come.
I made my way to her without thinking about my movements. Just before I reached her, I saw her lean forward and kiss the cheek of the old gardener. I stopped, shocked at what I had witnessed. A lady? Kissing a gardener? If he were younger, it would have been scandalous.
“Mr. Darcy, good day to you.”
I focused my attention on Miss Elizabeth’s face. She was smiling and speaking to me as if nothing had happened. She was holding the old gardener’s hand between her own, looking at me as if this was perfectly acceptable behavior.
“Miss Elizabeth. I suppose you have come to see your sister?”
“Yes, I have. I left my mare in the stable with Johnny. Do you know Mr. Jarvis?” She gestured to the gardener in front of me.
“We were just speaking, but we have not been properly introduced,” I said, not understanding what she was doing.
“Mr. Darcy, may I present Mr. Jarvis of Blackberry Farm? He also assists with the gardens here at Netherfield, as you see.” She beamed at the older man and I felt myself sinking further into confusion.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Jarvis.” I am certain I spoke out of nothing but ingrained manners, for I was certainly not in the habit of exchanging introductions with the gardeners on my friends’ estates.
He tipped his cap at me and nodded, his smile revealing a large gap where I assume he had lost a tooth. “Pleased to meet yer.”
“Mr. Jarvis was the first hero of my childhood,” said Miss Elizabeth. Her voice was cheerful and light, and I could pay attention to nothing else. “I was climbing a tree on the edge of my father’s estate, and I lost my footing and fell. I was caught on a branch, dangling like a monkey, and would have been trapped there until my father came looking for me or I fell to the ground, but Mr. Jarvis happened along. He climbed up and put me on his back and carried me to safety.” She smiled brilliantly at the old man again and I felt my neck growing hot. “I owe him a debt of gratitude.”
The old man grinned back at her, his chest puffed up and his head high. “It were nothin’, Miss Lizzy. I told you as much.”
“You may say what you like, but I shall choose to remember you in the most heroic light,” she said, her voice like honey.
I could take no more. “Shall I escort you into the house?” I asked, my voice too loud for the short distance between us.
She looked at me in amusement, as if she knew exactly what I was about, and finally released Mr. Jarvis’s hand.
“Very well, Mr. Darcy. Lead the way.”
I was every bit as foolish as Bingley and it was stupid of me to have thought differently. I had thought I was not in danger with Miss Elizabeth because she was beneath me, not realizing that was precisely what made her dangerous. If she were an appropriate match, I would make my offer and be done with it. But she was not, and therein lay the problem.
She was upstairs even now, tending to her ill sister, and I sat in the library, not reading my book, wondering when I could reasonably expect her to come down. I gave up on the book after another ten minutes and reread my cousin’s letter.
Richard was the closest thing I had to a brother. He was a colonel in the army and had spent the majority of the last few years on the Peninsula, fighting Napoleon. He was coming home by way of a naval ship docking at Portsmouth and was due any day now. His elder brother Alistair was meeting him at the dock. He had promised he would write as soon as Richard disembarked.
Richard was only eighteen months my elder, so we had often played together as children. Alistair was a good man and would make a wonderful earl when the time came, but he was eight years older than Richard and nearly ten older than me. He was now married with three children—we had little in common as far as personal tastes went, and the differences in our familial statuses only highlighted that fact.
But he was very fond of Richard and the two had a good relationship, hence his meeting his brother’s ship. I was anxious to know how Richard fared. He had been mildly wounded over the summer, or so he said, but he had not returned home. He had written and told us all it was nothing and that we should not worry, but I could not help it. Worry was in my nature, and I would not rest easy until I saw him with my own eyes.
“Forgive me, I did not mean to intrude.”
I looked up to see Miss Elizabeth standing near the doorway.
“You are not intruding. Did you wish for a book or are you looking for Bingley?”
“I thought to find a book. Jane is resting peacefully, and I do not like to be idle.”
“Of course. There is not much selection, but what is worth reading is here.” I walked to the case on the far side of the room and pointed to the shelves I was referring to. “I have also brought some books with me if you do not find anything to your liking here.”
“That is very kind of you. I think this one will do very well.”
She pulled out a book of poetry and turned to go.
“How is your sister?” I blurted.
“She is recovering. Her fever has broken, and I suspect she will be well enough to go home tomorrow.”
