When at last Elizabeth left Bingley House to return home, it was in the Fitzwilliam carriage. She sat on the side with the ladies and glanced across at Mr. Darcy and his male relations as the carriage rolled through the darkened London streets.
There was a similarity to the men’s features so that Elizabeth would have known they were related even if she had met the Fitzwilliam men without Mr. Darcy present.
Mr. Darcy was far handsomer than the colonel, but Richard Fitzwilliam had a dashing air to him that his father also possessed.
The colonel was very much like Bingley though far more intelligent. His father, Reginald Fitzwilliam, had been charming at dinner and reminded her a great deal of her grandfather, the earl.
Margaret Fitzwilliam was a beautiful lady with the bearing of a titled woman. Elizabeth had admired her conversation, her dress, and her manner with Miss Darcy. It was clear she dearly loved the girl. The woman reminded her of her Madeline Gardiner, Lady Stafford, the wife of her uncle on her mother’s side of the family.
Her uncle, Edward Gardiner was Viscount Stafford as her grandfather, the Earl of Matlock, was still living. Elizabeth rarely saw the Gardiners now as much as she had in her childhood.
They remained at their estate in the north of Derbyshire and had a large, happy family. They rarely came to London for her aunt did not care for Town and wished for her children to roam the countryside instead of the ballrooms and homes of the Ton.
Prompted by thoughts of her own family, Elizabeth colored as she recalled she had not asked about Mr. Darcy’s relations in Hertfordshire all this time. “I had forgotten to ask after your aunt and cousin at Longbourn. My mother would be horrified by my lack of manners. How are they?”
“Aunt Catherine is well, I must say. Anne was not when Georgiana and I left, but that is often the case. We will not tarry in Town. In fact, our business here will be completed by the end of the week and we will return home,” Mr. Darcy said and seemed pleased that she had asked.
Elizabeth was surprised by the sadness that gripped her heart. “I am so sorry to know that Miss de Bourgh is unwell. We have a physician here in Town who might visit her and see what may be done. I do hate to know a young lady as lovely as your cousin suffers.”
She did not know why she made the offer, but Elizabeth was moved by the poor girl’s plight.
Mr. Darcy’s face was hidden in shadow as he leaned back, but his voice showed he was not pleased. His words were delivered in clipped speech. “Anne is afforded the best of care, Miss Bennet.”
Colonel Fitzwilliam sought to soften his cousin’s reply. “We are most grateful for the offer, Miss Bennet. Darcy does all he might to care for our cousin.”
The carriage grew uncomfortably silent. Elizabeth had not meant to offend the Darcys nor the Fitzwilliams.
“Oh, yes, it was plain that Miss de Bourgh and her mother were cared for when I met them in Hertfordshire. I did not intend offense with the offer. Only my heart was moved by her plight. She is a sweet and kind young lady.” Elizabeth said to the colonel and then glanced to his parents. They only smiled kindly at her.
Miss Darcy placed a hand on Elizabeth’s arm. “Thank you, Miss Bennet. Anne is like a sister to me and I do worry constantly for her health.”
Mr. Darcy cleared his throat. “Georgiana, if it would ease your fears, I will accept Miss Bennet’s offer. I believe our Anne will recover and be well soon.”
Elizabeth was surprised by his change of heart. She saw Miss Darcy’s face light up with joy. He was a good brother who cared for the worries of his sister.
“Oh William!” exclaimed Miss Darcy leaning forward to take Mr. Darcy’s hand, “you have done all you might for our cousin. She would never think you had not. You are a good provider for our family.”
Swallowing the lump in her throat, Elizabeth smiled and looked at Mr. Darcy. “I will send a note to our physician on the morrow. He will go without delay to Longbourn and see to Miss de Bourgh. Perhaps when she is well, she will come to London for a visit.”
Miss Darcy hugged Elizabeth tightly, her emotions getting the better of her. “Oh thank you, thank you Miss Bennet! You are so kind to think of her and send a doctor all that way. I am certain Anne will wish to come and visit you to show her gratitude when she is well. I will write to Aunt Catherine as soon as we arrive home.”
Elizabeth was startled by the young lady’s enthusiasm and wondered where the Fitzwilliams lived. Miss Darcy was a good match for Bingley after all and Elizabeth’s heart was pained to think she had been set against the girl for her friend. “You are most welcome, Miss Darcy.”
Miss Darcy looked to her brother and he nodded his approval. Elizabeth smiled at him and gave Miss Darcy’s hand a squeeze as the carriage stopped before Bennet House.
Mr. Darcy stepped down and gave his hand to Elizabeth to help her from the carriage. Standing before him at last on the street, she looked up and wondered at the tenderness in his eyes.
“Thank you, Mr. Darcy,” she said and turned to go up the steps.
He reached out and caught her elbow. Elizabeth glanced down where his hand lay upon her sleeve. It was a bold move for a man to make towards a lady. The street was dark except for the lamp posts that flickered above them and she was certain none of her neighbors might see.
“Miss Bennet, it was my pleasure to see you safely home. Please accept my apology for the abrupt reply I gave when you offered to help my cousin. I am not accustomed to such assistance.” Mr. Darcy seemed sincere.
Elizabeth had become lost in the movement of his lips as he spoke and looked up in a daze when he called her name and dropped his hand from her arm.
“It is nothing, I assure you. Certainly not a thing to cause strife between us,” she said as her eyes traveled his face seeking to commit every line and detail to memory.
Mr. Darcy smiled and again Elizabeth struggled to take her eyes off his lips. They were so perfectly suited for kissing and the heat rose in her cheeks at the thought.
He turned and her heart fell. In all her life, she had never met a man who bewitched her so. Why could he not be a titled man her mother would accept? Your mother has no need to accept him, her heart whispered.
She watched the carriage roll away and an odd feeling of loss enveloped her heart. It seemed she must go after Mr. Darcy, but he would never do as a husband. Their worlds were too different and the expectations of her mother too strong.
Inside Bennet House, Elizabeth had barely removed her pelisse before Lady Francine appeared and took her by the arm, scolding her as she dragged her toward the parlor.
“Lizzy, you missed dinner! I know you were at Bingley House eyeing some other gentlemen, for the message from Miss Bingley said as much. But there is none as wealthy as your cousin she may have at her table!”
Elizabeth was grateful that at least her mother had not seen Mr. Darcy holding her arm outside just now. For if she had, she would have burst forth from Bennet House and caused a terrible scene.
“Mother, I did not wish to come home for dinner and be auctioned off like a piece of estate jewelry before my cousin from Manchester. I do not want to marry him!” Elizabeth pleaded as she tried to pry her arm free.
Lady Francine stopped abruptly before the door to the parlor. “What you want and what you need are very different things, Lizzy. Only wealth and a title will afford you the life you deserve. Besides, it is not as if you are in love or promised to any other gentleman.”
Elizabeth pulled free of her mother’s grasp at last. “I could love another if I was only given the chance to choose for myself.”
“If that were true young lady you would be married by now! You have turned down several young men you did not love and your father turned down others for only wishing to have your dowry. You are only trying to cheat fate and hurt your cousin. He has come to seek your hand and you will accept him. I will not have you ruin your chance to become a duchess. He is waiting for you. Come and listen to what he has to say.” Lady Francine pushed open the parlor door and led Elizabeth inside.
“Your Grace, Elizabeth has come home at last. Please do forgive her absence at dinner. She had a prior engagement and could not break it without appearing rude. You must know she is a lady of her word.” Lady Francine smiled at Elizabeth and quit the parlor with a curtsey to the duke.
Elizabeth moved slowly to a sofa before the fire and sat on the edge as though she might take flight from the room at a moment’s notice.
Her cousin approached and sat beside her. He took her hand and kissed it but his lips were as cold as a fish. Elizabeth flinched. She was disgusted by this act and did not attempt to hide her feelings. “Please, your Grace, I do not care to be so familiar with a man I barely know.”
The duke continued his rakish speech. “Ah, but we shall be well acquainted during our courtship and certainly in our marriage bed. You are so beautiful, Cousin Elizabeth! I could not contain my lust and for that, I offer my most sincere apologies.”
Elizabeth recoiled at his stunning and inappropriate speech. “I beg your pardon! I am unused to such vulgarity. I assure you I would never marry a man who could speak so to a gentlewoman.”
She tried to rise and leave the room but he moved closer trapping her. He pulled her close against him and began planting kisses against her neck. His hand pushed aside the shoulder of her dress revealing far more than ought to be seen in a parlor.
Elizabeth pushed at his much heavier body. “Stop!” she yelled truly panicked by this affront.
“Do you not wish to find whether we are well suited, my dear?” He whispered as he tried to hold onto her, his eyes peering at her décolletage.
Elizabeth screamed and pushed with all her might. Her cousin, the lecherous duke, fell sideways and she managed to free herself while pushing him further off balance. He fell to the floor with a great thud but was on his feet only moments after Elizabeth had made her way to the parlor door. She pulled her dress back into place, her hands shaking.
The door opened of a sudden and Mr. Bennet came in with Lady Francine close behind. She peered over his shoulder and scowled at her daughter. “Lizzy, what has happened you silly girl?”
William Collins, the Duke of Salford, straightened his waistcoat and smiled at her parents. “I only asked if she would do me the honor of becoming my wife and I am afraid my passion frightened her. It is nothing.”
Elizabeth glared at him and stood behind her father, ignoring the fact that her mother had gone to the duke’s side. “He tried to force himself upon me Papa. He is a hideous man and I will not marry him.”
Lady Francine took the odious man’s arm and tsk’d her daughter. “Lizzy, how terrible an accusation to make against your cousin! He was only trying to woo you, dear. Men can be eager and awkward when alone with a young lady they desire to have as their wife. Why your father…”
Mr. Bennet interrupted her by holding up a hand. “Franny, now is not the time. I will not have our daughter misused by any man, not even a duke!”
Elizabeth stayed behind her father and gave a triumphant smile to her mother and her ill-mannered cousin.
Lady Francine pointed at Elizabeth and cried out. “See, she is only acting, Mr. Bennet. Make her marry her cousin and be done with it! Certainly he wishes to court her and show his affection. You did the same to win my hand.”
Mr. Bennet turned and looked at his daughter. “Lizzy, you must tell them what you told me. I do not wish for you to marry him, but remember your promise.”
Elizabeth sighed but stood straight as she moved away from her father. “I will not marry him, Mother. He is a scoundrel and quite vulgar. If I had been as fragile as Mary or as silly as Kitty and Lydia, I would have been unable to fight him off. I am in love with another man.”
She attempted to hide her own surprise at her admission of love for another. Elizabeth had not meant to say she loved Mr. Darcy, but it was out now and she could not take it back.
Lady Francine left the duke and came to stand before her daughter. “Nonsense. If there was another suitor, he would have come to your father. If the duke has compromised you, there must be a wedding. One held right here in this house as soon as a special license has been purchased. I ask daughter, do you declare this man has compromised you?”
Elizabeth bit back the tears that gathered and swallowed the lump in her throat. She had fought off his attack in her own home.
The denial her mother was forcing her to give sat on her tongue like bitter fruit. She spat it out quickly, the lie cutting her to the quick. “He has not compromised me. There will be no wedding.”
Lady Francine smiled serenely. “Oh, but there will be, Lizzy. You will marry your cousin and become a duchess in a double wedding with your sister or I will see that your dowry is divided amongst your younger sisters. No man of our circle will wish to have you then.”
Elizabeth turned to her father but he only shrugged. “I can do nothing to stop her, Lizzy, for your dowry is her money brought to the marriage. If you refuse your cousin, and your mother does disown you, I will see you have money. Who is this man you say you love?”
“He is a gentleman farmer in Hertfordshire, Papa. He is kind and handsome. He cares not only for his younger sister, but for his widowed aunt and cousin. I did not know until tonight my feelings for him, but they are true,” Elizabeth’s confession astonished even herself as she saw a small smile bloom on her father’s face.
Lady Francine howled in anger. “You will never give yourself to a gentleman with no title Lizzy, I will not have it! Leave my sight you wretched girl and do not go again to Bingley House! I shall see them ruined if you dare it.”
Mr. Bennet began to argue with his wife. Lord Collins, the lusty Duke of Salford crossed the room, his arms raised to quell the strife. “I would not have her now! I will not stay under this roof and be insulted further. Good evening!”
Elizabeth quit the parlor and hurried upstairs to her rooms. She paced about thinking of the duke and how his actions forced her to confess to her father that she had fallen in love with Mr. Darcy. It had been a revelation to her as much as it had been to all present.
Lady Francine argued with her husband for hours after the duke had left them. Elizabeth could hear their strife for her room was directly above the parlor. She could not have slept had they ended their quarrel as thoughts of Mr. Darcy plagued her hour upon hour.
When had she fallen in love with the man? In Hertfordshire? She did not think so, but she had admired so many things about him that it seemed foolish she had not guarded her heart better.
His aunt was a matchmaking schemer and his sister had won Bingley’s affections. His cousin, the poor sickly girl, had garnered Elizabeth’s pity and concern.
It seemed to her now, alone in the darkness staring out her window as snow fell lightly over London, that the residents of Longbourn had changed her life in so many ways. Elizabeth wondered if she would come to regret knowing them, but the one thing she certainly did not regret was refusing her rakish cousin’s marriage proposal.