“I understand from Miss Darcy it is your intention to engage in only manly pursuits,” Elizabeth teased. “No lawn bowls or strolls around the lake for you and the colonel. You have come for the shooting and to ride and fish. But, perhaps, we may pass each other in the gallery, or I may see your coattails as you go out one door and I come in another.”
“Miss Elizabeth, I have come for the sport as I have not shot a gun this season, and I rarely ride in town as parading about in parks is not for me. So please do not think I am trying to avoid you.”
Lizzy laughed. “You would not have to avoid me, Mr. Darcy. This is your home. It is I who must give way.”
This statement caused his whole demeanor to change. “Surely, you do not think I would want you to leave Pemberley because I have come.”
“No, I do not think that, but then we do not know each other very well. Can either of us be certain of what the other would do in any given situation?” and Lizzy took a step back, uncomfortable with the direction the conversation had taken.
But Mr. Darcy closed the gap between them, and after taking Lizzy by the forearm, he looked at her with an intensity she had not witnessed before and said, “You know me well enough.”
But Lizzy did not think she did. If she had, then she would know why he was in Derbyshire. “I do know some things about you that I did not know before coming to Pemberley.”
“Such as?” he asked, unsure of what she might say. Her statement that she did not know him had stung.
“That you know how to play the pianoforte and can perform duets with your sister.”
Darcy let out a sigh of relief, and after letting go of Lizzy’s arm, he said, “Georgiana is a wicked girl for telling you such a thing. I play badly and for an audience of one—my sister.”
“But now that we know your secret, you will be hard-pressed to avoid our requests for a tune.”
“Miss Elizabeth, I see that you have been able to indulge in two of your most favorite things while at Pemberley: teasing and walking.”
“But it was your sister’s hope that I would be so comfortable at Pemberley that I would act in exactly the same manner as I would if I were at Longbourn.”
“I agree with Georgiana. I would not want you to change because you have come here,” including wearing your hair down, he thought. He would love to be the one to take her hair out of its braid and to brush it himself, but those things were reserved for a husband. “You may be very sorry you have discovered my closely held secret, Miss Elizabeth, because you will now be forced to listen to my flawed efforts on the pianoforte. Last time I played a tune, David and Goliath ran out of the room.”
With an impatient Mr. Littlejohn within her view, Lizzy said, “I will leave you to arrange for your shoot, Mr. Darcy, and look forward to tonight’s entertainment.”
“Consider yourself warned,” he called after her, and he turned his attention to manly pursuits, so he might not spend the whole day thinking about Elizabeth Bennet.
Chapter 29
As Lizzy approached the manor house, she saw a handsome gentleman walking toward her. Assuming that he was Colonel Fitzwilliam, she stopped and waited while he approached and decided that she would never again leave the house without a bonnet.
“Colonel Fitzwilliam at your service,” the man said and made a deep bow. “Please forgive me for not seeking a proper introduction, but I have heard so much about you, Miss Bennet, that I have circumvented convention.”
“I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Colonel Fitzwilliam, as Miss Darcy speaks of you with the deepest affection.”
“I am fortunate in having two wonderful female relations, Miss Anne de Bourgh of Rosings Park in Kent being the other one, and I see too little of both.” Holding out his arm, he asked if he might walk with her back to the house.
“But weren’t you on your way to the stables to join Mr. Darcy? He is arranging for the shoot with Mr. Littlejohn, and I have no wish to detain you.”
“I will be with Darcy all afternoon, and why should I stand by while my cousin discusses the specifics of the shoot if I can enjoy the pleasure of your company?”
“I am afraid Miss Darcy may have exaggerated my attributes.”
“I do not think so, and Miss Darcy was not my only source.”
So Mr. Darcy had spoken about her to his cousin, which meant what? Lizzy could feel something like resentment building up inside her. She wished that Mr. Darcy had stayed in town, so that she might enjoy the rest of her holiday and not have to think about what had happened in London.
“So you are here for the shooting, Colonel.”
“Yes. Finally. In years past, we would come with a party of five or six gentlemen, but Darcy has been off his game throughout the season. His friends finally tired of waiting for him to make the arrangements and went elsewhere, and I am sure there were those in the village and on the farms who were getting quite nervous that he had not been here because the birds are distributed to the families of the servants, his tenants, and the poor of the parish. Even with that, you will not hear a bad word spoken about him. When something important happens in the village or the neighboring farms, he wants to know of it, and if he can help, he will. His sister is of a similar mind. She just smiles more than her brother.”
Lizzy was glad that Mr. Darcy didn’t smile more often because, when he did, it made her go weak at the knees.
“Mr. Darcy would be very flattered if he heard you praising him so highly.”
“On the contrary,” he said. “Darcy is modest about his achievements and the good works he does. The only time he brags is when he talks about cricket. He was a superior batsman at Cambridge, and he likes to speak of the time that Cambridge beat Oxford in three successive matches. Other than that, he is not one to run on about his accomplishments, but then, still waters run deep.”
Upon reaching the house, Lizzy excused herself as she needed to see to her toilette. From the window of her apartment, she could see Colonel Fitzwilliam walking back to the stables. Lizzy had once heard Mr. Bingley describe Mr. Darcy as a big, tall fellow, but the colonel was taller and broader than his cousin and had blond hair and sky blue eyes. It seemed as if the Fitzwilliam family at large was made up entirely of good-looking people, and it would be no hardship to spend an evening in the company of that gentleman.
“What were you saying to Elizabeth?” Darcy asked Colonel Fitzwilliam.
“I introduced myself. I have heard so much about her that I did not wait for a formal introduction.”
“You introduced yourself? Where are your manners?”
“Oh for God’s sake, Darcy! She was not offended. You are in the country, where things may be less formal. Your rigidity is what got you into this predicament in the first place.”
Darcy had to acknowledge the truth of this. If he had not been such a stickler for protocol, he would never have gone back to Miss Montford after having met Elizabeth.
“Well, what do you think?”
“I think it is a fine day for shooting—not a dark cloud in sight. At what time will Mr. Littlejohn have everything ready?”
“Damn you, Fitzwilliam. You know what I am talking about.”
The colonel pointed to the path leading from the stables. “Let us walk,” and after they had put some distance between themselves and all the grooms hurrying about the yard, he continued. “I think she is lovely and engaging, and I formed that opinion only by walking with her as far as the house. Now that I have met her, I think we must revise our plan and not wait upon Antony. As soon as we return to London, you must visit Miss Montford and tell her that there will be no courtship. I am sure she will be relieved, and you must be strong enough for both of you and stand up to her father.”
“I have already decided to do just that. I must have been temporarily insane to think Antony could be of any use to me, and besides, this is something I must do myself.”