Page 15

A GENEROUS HEART

O nce they were alone in their carriage, Elizabeth was full of curiosity about Lord Cadbury, but seeing Darcy’s continued disgust and suspicion, she settled her mind on soothing him. It was, after all, a delicate situation. “You do not like your uncle’s friend.”

“He may be less a friend than a seducer and charlatan.”

Frowning, Elizabeth turned to him. “Your uncle invited Lord Cadbury, a man he has known since Cambridge, to dine at Himdale House. Distasteful as it may have been to witness, Lady Catherine clearly has long been smitten with him, and he indulged her in it this evening. Whether or not he has intentions, good or bad, is not ours to determine. He is her equal, in name, station, and perhaps fortune.”

“That is what we do not know! You saw my aunt, transforming from an irritating, imperious woman who disdains happiness for anyone into one who bats her eyelashes and simpers.” He shuddered. “Fitzwilliam made a footman examine her wineglass. It does not appear she was drugged.”

“Drugged? She is in love!” Elizabeth turned her head away, looking out of the side-glass at the darkened streets and thinking of her older sister.

“Abhorrent and strange as it may seem to you, recall that everyone displays attraction, infatuation, and love differently. It is not for us to judge or interfere in the love lives of others.”

Darcy appeared to grasp her meaning and reached to pull her into his arms. “No, it is not, my darling Elizabeth. Please forgive me. But after a lifetime observing her rigid adherence to propriety—certain kinds of propriety, in any case, especially those related to love and affection—I am disconcerted by Lady Catherine’s conduct this evening. ”

“And concerned, obviously. She is your aunt, and you do care for her welfare.”

He shrugged and released her, and she thought him grateful that their carriage had pulled up to Darcy House, sparing him from further conversation on the matter.

She understood his tumult of feeling. To see an aunt who had never been anything but stern and officious turn into a schoolgirl when an old acquaintance—bewigged and portly but with twinkling eyes—entered the room?

It made her wonder: Who did Lady Catherine see in that moment?

A handsome young man who, when visiting her elder brother, was kind and took some interest in her, a mere schoolgirl?

Not like Mr Wickham did with Georgiana, of course! Oh, this situation gave her much to reassure her husband about, she realised as they walked into the front entry. Darcy’s expression was grim. Elizabeth tugged his hand and led him up to their chambers.

An hour later, his temper far more tranquil and his arm holding her close, he sleepily murmured his love and asked, “The events that occurred at Himdale House were but a bad dream, were they not?”

“No, dearest. And it seemed to be a very good dream for two of the people present.” She tapped the tip of his nose.

He groaned. “I have never seen my aunt appear happy. She giggled , Elizabeth. Giggled.” His pained expression made her smile.

“Before her arrival at Darcy House a fortnight ago, I had met Lady Catherine only on the eight or nine times the Collinses, Maria, and I dined at Rosings, and the occasion she deigned to visit me at Longbourn.” Elizabeth forestalled Darcy’s grimace by shifting closer on the bed and entangling her fingers with his.

“I could not call her anything but imperious in those instances, and her letters—whose contents you have scarcely hinted at—continued that theme.”

She curled against her husband, stretching her arm across his bare chest and resting her head on his broad shoulder.

He was tense, restrained in a manner she had hardly witnessed since their marriage—and in fact had only seen since Lady Catherine entered their lives with her demands.

“It was unfair of her to insist I undergo her ‘edifying lessons’ and unfair of me to ask you to acquiesce?—”

“Indeed,” Darcy said with a heavy sigh. “Your heart is excessively generous with my aunt. Our marriage, our happiness together, does not require her approval, nor does her opinion of your comportment have any bearing in society. Lady Catherine is a woman of gentle birth who lacks genteel manners and whose behaviour this evening was unspeakable!”

“It was an artful display of charms,” agreed Elizabeth.

“It was wanton and repulsive, and performed without thought to her standing or company. Cad ,” Darcy said, his anger clearly rising.

“Has there ever been a name better suited to a man? Strutting into the room, disregarding the need for proper introductions, and spinning a wooing web so strong over Lady Catherine that even my uncle can scarce pry them apart for dinner. How dare she impugn our behaviour, that of a newly married couple, who exchange no more than longing looks and smiles in company, when she engages in-in that ? In the presence of her daughter and young niece, no less?”

Elizabeth could feel Darcy’s heartbeat quickening with the rapidity and vehemence of his words.

Sitting up, she moved quickly through the tangled sheets to straddle him, sitting astride his hips and cupping his jaw in her hands.

He stared at her, their faces nearly level, appearing startled by her actions.

She leant forwards and kissed him softly.

“I agree with all you say. Had I not been witness to everything you saw, to how much your aunt was altered, I would struggle to believe it true.”

His eyes drifted low, to the abundance of creamy skin above the drooping neck of her nightgown.

“Oh, I see you feel the tug of passion again, my love, but I am already caught in your ‘wooing web’,” she teased him. “Do you recall our furtive dashes into the shrubbery or library to steal an embrace, and how we waited weeks after our engagement to truly be alone together?”

“I do,” Darcy sighed. “It was a full year from our first meeting before I had the chance to kiss you. Once I had, I wanted another, and then so much more.”

He gazed at her dreamily. She wanted to laugh. How quickly a man’s mind could be distracted and passionately engaged elsewhere. She would not allow such an easy and pleasurable escape for them—not yet. The dilemma of Lady Catherine’s infatuation needed to be resolved.

“And yet perhaps the yearning we felt only increased our joy.” Elizabeth slid off her husband and drew her knees to her chest. Disregarding his look of disappointment, she continued, “Whatever the full story of Lady Catherine and Lord Cadbury, it is clear they have something long unresolved between them?—”

“Which they appear to wish to resolve on my uncle’s settee!”

“And which, if your concerns for her reputation and happiness are to be your guide, requires you to ensure Lord Cadbury’s heart is good and his intentions are honest.”

A spark lit his dark eyes, and he sat up straighter against the headboard, folding his arms across his chest. He said nothing, just looked at her, waiting.

Elizabeth bit her lip. “I have been accused of coming to conclusions too quickly and hastily deciding a man’s character based only on first impressions.

And you have been judged as haughty and disapproving.

We, neither of us, are perfect creatures in understanding others—not, at least, when our hearts are unknowingly engaged. ”

Sighing, she added, “Perhaps this is the greatest lesson Lady Catherine could teach me—not to judge her or a gentleman who cares for her, but to learn more before assuming I understand them.”

His expression softened. “Yours is a generous heart, Elizabeth.”

Darcy tried pulling her into his arms, but she was not quite finished. Giving him an arch look, she said, “Do you agree, then? We should not interfere, as Lady Catherine would. And I shall simply observe and chaperon as best I can while you and your cousin do whatever it is you have planned?”

She could feel Darcy’s chest rumble with laughter.

“Yes, as you suspect, we have discussed an investigation. Your discernment and observational skills would be helpful to us, even as a chaperon. Keep an eye on their wandering hands,” he said, shuddering slightly, “and Fitzwilliam and I shall learn what we can of Lord Cadbury. It may require a few additional days here in town…” He paused, looking up to see how such news would be met.

“…For us to gain answers, but tonight I have another, far more pleasurable, enquiry to conduct with my wife.”

His hands slipped underneath her nightgown, and after an appreciative sigh at his clever plan, she joined him in his journey of discovery.