Page 6 of An Offer of Marriage (Engaged to Mr Darcy #7)

AN UNEXPECTED CONSEQUENCE

A s if it was not bad enough to retire with a headache , now I must wake with one.

Elizabeth’s rest had been punctuated throughout the night by times of pained wakefulness; it felt like she had been looking at the clock on the mantelpiece all night long.

She would have sworn she did not sleep a wink, save that she knew that she must have, no matter how much her eyes were grainy and sore.

I am going to have a lazy day , she decided. She would walk out, find Mr Darcy, and make sure he understood that whatever was said the night prior had not resulted in an engagement, and then she would return to the parsonage and be indolent.

Mr Darcy’s proposal, when viewed in retrospect, was no less astonishing than it had been in the moment. He loved her? What sort of nonsense was that? Pure silliness, and she had to conclude that he had been in his cups. Deeply in his cups !

Of course, he had not smelt of spirits but, there was no other conclusion for such a freak. The other sentiments he had expressed were not worth dwelling upon. Let him think what he liked of the Bennets; after this he would never see any of them again.

After she dressed, Elizabeth descended the stair, finding Charlotte at her writing desk. “Good morning, Charlotte.”

Charlotte jumped a little, having evidently not heard her friend enter. She twisted to see her with a smile, at the same time sliding whatever she had been writing into the desk drawer. “Oh Eliza! How is your head? Your colour…well, you still seem pale.”

“I did not sleep as well as I might have liked,” Elizabeth admitted. “And my headache remains. I believe I shall be perfectly lazy all day—assuming you have no need of me, that is.”

“No, of course not, but…what about Mr Darcy?”

Elizabeth scoffed. “What about him?”

“This scheme of yours to accept him as a punishment…?” Charlotte looked very worried.

“As much as I would like to see that man get what he deserves, no, it will not be me who gives it to him,” Elizabeth said and tried to smile. “After all, it would be me who was bound to a man I despise!”

“Do you?”

“Do I despise him?”

Charlotte nodded, her brow furrowed.

“Yes! You of all people know how I loathe him, from the very first moment of our acquaintance last autumn. What woman could help but to hate a man who had so infamously insulted her?” Elizabeth swallowed against the rage that rose within her.

“Add to that the things I learnt of his character from Mr Wickham, the callous manner in which he broke Jane’s heart…

Yes, I certainly do loathe him. I hope that after this morning I will never see him again!

My dearest wish is that he already understands that he was rejected, but in truth it all happened so quickly…

Who can understand the perversions of a man who thinks it right to insult a woman in the course of proposing marriage to her? ”

“You are definitely not going to accept him, then? You will meet him this morning to ascertain his comprehension of your refusal?”

“Yes.” Elizabeth went to the window and peered out to examine the weather. “The man is so eaten up by pride it is absurd, but it is not my responsibility to reform him.”

“Pray tell me you will enlighten him kindly?” Charlotte said sternly.

“When am I not kind?” Elizabeth teased. “But yes, I shall be all sweetness and charm when I tell Mr Darcy that he could not have made me an offer for his hand in any possible way that would have induced me to accept it. Even if I did not have so much against him myself, to marry the man who was the principal means of destroying Jane’s happiness? I could not even consider it.”

“Do it diplomatically,” Charlotte advised. “One never knows how today’s enemy might become tomorrow’s friend.”

Elizabeth had, more than once, chanced to encounter Mr Darcy walking in the morning among the expansive verdure of Rosings Park.

Though she had dismissed those meetings as mischance, when reconsidered in the light of his declaration, she had to wonder.

Perhaps they had been more to his purpose than she had ever known.

In any case, she hoped to meet him quickly this morning, for the business between them needed to be settled. It would not do to have him going about his day, talking to people or whatever else he did in a day, believing he was engaged to her, perhaps even speaking of it to others.

Her hopes were gratified, for it was not long until she saw Mr Darcy, with the colonel in tow, coming down the path towards the parsonage.

Her first thought was dismay; surely she could not speak freely to him with his cousin beside him?

Dismay gave way to puzzlement as she observed how he walked slowly and leant on his walking stick in a way that suggested infirmity.

Then he raised his head enough to catch the light beneath his hat, and she gasped, seeing an aubergine-coloured bruise around one eye, long scratches down his cheek, and something hidden beneath a thick plaster near his temple.

“Good lord,” she breathed as the two men came upon her. “What has happened?”

“I told my cousin about our engagement,” Mr Darcy told her. “It did not end well for me.”

Shocked, Elizabeth looked at the colonel.

“Not this cousin!” Colonel Fitzwilliam cried out jovially, throwing up his hands. “No, as it stands, Darcy was beaten severely by Cousin Anne.”

Confused, Elizabeth asked, “Anne… Miss de Bourgh? But she is?—”

“Sickly?” the colonel asked cheerfully. “Evidently not as much as we all believed. She has a right hook that would do them proud at Gentleman Jackson’s!”

Elizabeth gave an obligatory small chuckle, but her attention was on Mr Darcy who appeared to be in quite a bit of pain. Nevertheless, he gave a small smile when he saw her looking at him.

“My aunt has frequently bandied about this notion of a promise between herself and my mother binding me to my cousin. Whether there is truth to it or not—and I suspect there is not—I have never shown any indication of a wish to marry her. In fact, Anne and I have not spoken of any such attachment?—”

“I do not think I have heard Anne speak much at all in at least five years,” Colonel Fitzwilliam inserted. “I have certainly never heard such language as I did last night.”

Mr Darcy gave his cousin a black look, or perhaps that was just the effect of his injured eye. “I have spoken to her, on various subjects, but never once did the subject of marriage come up between us. We were in no way bound, nor did I have plans to bind myself to her, even before?—”

He gave her a smile that could only be described as bashful, and it so took her aback that she could not speak.

The colonel rocked back on his heels, still beaming with good humour. “Even before falling in love with this charming young lady before us?”

“Precisely,” Mr Darcy agreed, now with such a look of tenderness that Elizabeth hardly knew where to shift her eyes. In any case, it was surely not the time to announce that she despised him and had no intention of marrying him.

I will need to ask him to call on me later , she decided. It means delaying the inevitable for some hours, but so be it.

“Mr Darcy—” she began.

“But that is not what has dragged us forth this morning,” the colonel said, suddenly very serious.

“No, it is not,” Mr Darcy continued. “Elizabeth, I fear that my cousin, in her present state, has quite unreasonably decided that you are to blame for her misfortune.”

“Me?”

Mr Darcy nodded. “For your safety, I think it best that you leave Kent immediately—that we all should leave as soon as may be.”

“She made threats,” the colonel added. “I would like to think they are mere puffery, but then again I could never have imagined a scene such as the one we endured last evening.”

“Looking at me is evidence enough that she is capable of inflicting harm,” Mr Darcy said. “My man fears my ribs may be fractured, though I think not. The truth will come in the quickness of their healing, I suppose.”

“To be fair, he did not defend himself,” the colonel told her.

“Of course not. I have many faults, but using my greater strength against a woman is not one of them, no matter how provoked,” Mr Darcy said.

“Unfortunately, my initial shock was such that it took a moment or two to come to his aid. I was the one to pull her off of him though, and I must say, she is much, much stronger than she looks.”

“She is not well,” Mr Darcy said. “She has behaved like a woman possessed, and when someone is in such a state, one cannot tell what they might do.”

He reached for her hand then and she, so astonished by all she was being told, let him bring it to his lips and kiss the backs of her gloved fingers. “I could not bear to see you come to harm, certainly not when I might prevent it.”

“Does Mrs Collins have a maid who can pack your trunks quickly?” the colonel asked. He had begun to shift on his feet a little, evidently wanting to get their plan into action .

Elizabeth belatedly comprehended that they meant she ought to leave immediately . She had been thinking they meant merely to cut the visit short by a few days. “Oh! Well, I will need to write to my uncle, and perhaps he can send someone in the next?—”

“Forgive me; we have not been clear. We must remove you as soon as may be, within the hour preferably,” Mr Darcy said. “My man and Fitzwilliam’s are already preparing the carriage, and we will escort you to your uncle’s home in London.”

Elizabeth’s mouth fell open. They meant to simply hie her off with no influence of her own in the planning?

But indignation at being arranged and planned for died away as she again beheld Mr Darcy’s injuries.

She could not imagine the pallid Miss de Bourgh inflicting such harm, but if she had done it to Mr Darcy, then she could surely do more to Elizabeth, should she be so inclined.

It made her uneasy as well to consider how this might affect her friend’s tenure here in Kent.

Charlotte’s contentment was predicated by her ability to minimise the time spent with her husband and stay in the good graces of his patroness.

If Lady Catherine decided to turn her favour aside from the Collinses, Charlotte’s life would be considerably less agreeable.

“Very well,” she said slowly. “But I did not…I am meant to return with Maria as well.”

“All the better,” the colonel announced. “After all, the last time I played chaperon to an engaged couple, my niece Adeline?—”

He interrupted himself with a yelp. Mr Darcy had used his walking stick to give his cousin a firm thump on the leg.

“A story for another time, perhaps,” the colonel said with another grin. “In any case, I should be delighted to have another party to share in the responsibility.”

It took her a moment to comprehend the colonel’s meaning.

Mr Darcy and I are not engaged , she wanted to shout, but it seemed impolitic.

The man had clearly taken a rather severe beating on her account, and she needed them now; evidently his presumptions had placed her in danger.

Taken together, it seemed an unwise juncture to clarify the muddle into which she had been thrust.

“I will go see to my things,” she said.