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Darcy was grateful for the regatta, for Charles Bingley’s sake if for nothing else.

Despite the round of country house parties, gallery openings, and garden parties, a distinct pall had fallen over his friend.

Most couldn’t see it. His sister seemed almost oblivious to it, encouraging him to attach himself to one female after another, but Charles wasn’t having it.

Oh, he was pleasant enough in company, but Darcy could see that he was unhappy.

He knew that Charles was enamoured of Jane, but in the few times Darcy had observed them together, he concluded that Jane didn’t feel the same.

Jane was kind to everyone, and Charles misinterpreted that kindness for affection.

Darcy chastised himself, for it was no better for him.

Time after time his thoughts returned to Elizabeth.

She was so outspoken and radiated a kind of strength he usually found appalling in a woman, and yet…

Well, the regatta would distract them both, at least temporarily.

As members of the Beefeaters Club rowing team, they spent many an early summer morning training on the Thames.

At the beginning, Darcy felt it would be no great feat to master rowing as he himself was in good physical condition and swam often.

The training regimen soon knocked him down a few pegs.

He discovered muscles he didn’t even know he possessed, and he ached all over for the first few weeks.

His hands blistered. Still, not one to give up easily, he persisted.

Now he was in fine shape, and so were the rest of the crew.

His hands were as calloused as any dock worker.

Darcy had to admit to himself that he quite enjoyed the change.

They arrived early. Darcy brought along his cousin, Col Fitzwilliam, as he was in town and seemed keen to cheer them along.

By midafternoon their team was assembled.

Even though the river was crowded, they were determined to practice at least once or twice before their race the next day.

Darcy knew that they had no real hope of winning anything, but he was grateful to Bingley for convincing him to compete.

He enjoyed the camaraderie even though he would never seek it out himself.

The boat was long and sleek, and so low to the water that any slight mishap would fill their racing shell with water and send them all into the river. Bingley was the coxswain and steered the boat. He was focused and competent and they would at least make a good showing.

“ Good luck, boys,” Col Fitzwilliam called out as he gave the shell a good push into the water.

They struck out slowly, and Bingley swivelled and swerved them through the crowd of tourist boats filled with ladies all dressed in white and their male companions, many of whom wore striped jackets and jaunty straw hats.

Darcy and his team were dressed as racers, all in white, short-sleeved shirts and short trousers.

As Darcy leaned into his oar, his body surged with power and anticipation.

He longed to get out on the open river and pull for all he was worth.

***

On arrival at Henley, Lizzy was pleasantly surprised.

Her parents had booked enough rooms for all of them at the Cherry Tree Inn.

She and Jane had a room to themselves, and the Lucases were staying there as well.

Opening of the regatta began the next day, so they dressed in their white garb and took a trip down to the river to find their boats.

The Thames brimmed with overloaded small craft filled with spectators.

Their mother, Lady Lucas, Mary, Lydia, and Kitty went aboard a large tourist vessel equipped with a striped sunshade, lemonade, and comestibles.

Lizzy wanted to try her hand at rowing their own boat, so Mr Bennet, Sir William, Charlotte, Jane, and herself struck out in a rowboat.

Charlotte and Jane had no interest in rowing, and her father graciously surrendered his own oar to Lizzy with a wink.

She knew his was a sedentary life, and the only reason he was in the boat with Sir William and herself was that it gave him an hour or two’s respite from her mother and her nerves.

Boats crowded the river, and spectators filled the shoreline and beyond.

They were five or six craft deep themselves, and therefore she attempted to steer their little boat around the others into a small space of empty river.

“ Let us head for open water, shall we?” she asked Sir William. She and he were more often than not at cross purposes, and bumped into a few vessels, much to the chagrin of their seafaring neighbours.

“ Heave, Miss Elizabeth,” Sir William shouted, and together they struck their oars in the water and pushed forward into the centre of the river with a mighty splash—just as Lizzy noticed a shallow racing shell filled with men hurtling towards them.

“ Pull back,” Lizzy shouted, but Sir William, instead of reversing the direction of his oar, pulled in the same direction, propelling them straight into the path of the oncoming racer.

“ Hard to port,” a familiar voice shouted, but it was too late.

A crash of oars came first, then the boats collided. In an instant, the slender racing shell capsized. Lizzy’s boat rocked and splashed them with water, but at least they remained upright. The racers, however, were thrown willy-nilly into the water.

“ Where’s Bingley? He can’t swim.” Mr Darcy… Elizabeth was sure of his voice now.

A few men clung to the overturned racer, while most treaded water, trying to stay afloat in the current. Those not struggling for their own survival craned their necks back and forth, searching the river. One of them shouted, “Can’t see him.” Lizzy shot a glance at Jane. Her face was ashen.

“ What can we do to help?” Lizzy shouted.

“ You’ve done quite enough already,” one of the team clinging to the bottom of the racer threw back.

Darcy swam around the racer, looking frantically for Bingley. “Do you see him?” he shouted, then looked up at their rowboat. He started for a moment when he saw Lizzy.

“ We don’t.” She scanned the river. “What do we do?”

Darcy didn’t answer. None of the other men were attempting a rescue, and his frustration was clear.

“ Can’t one of you help him?” she shouted at them.

“ We can’t swim,” one shouted from close by.

She could swim.

All her sisters could.

“ Right.” Lizzy pulled her hat off and handed it to Jane. “Hold this.” She did, then Lizzy sat down in front of her. “Undo me.”

“ What?”

“ Undo my dress, I’m going to help him.”

Lizzy didn’t dare look at her father or Sir William.

“ Elizabeth Bennet, I forbid it.” Her father gripped her arm.

She shook it off. “Jane, undo these clasps or my dress will drag me down.”

Jane did as she was told, and Lizzy, free of her dress and corset, in her petticoat and drawers, dove into the river. The shock of the cold water took her breath away for a moment, but she spluttered to the surface to come face-to-face with Mr Darcy.

“ I can’t see anything. The river’s too muddy. It’s impossible.” His expression contorted with panic. “You go towards the bow; I’ll take the stern.”

Before Lizzy could reply, he was gone. A cold fear gripped her.

The current could easily have pulled Mr Bingley under and swept him down river.

Swallowing down her dread, she forced herself to think clearly.

There was one other possibility. If he wasn’t there, there was little hope for him.

Taking a deep breath, she dove under the capsized shell.

The water was nearly opaque, but she could make out the shape of the racing shell above her and flapping white shapes hanging from the underside. After surfacing underneath the shell, she discovered a thin pocket of air trapped under the boat.

Clinging to one of the seats near the bow, there was Mr Bingley.

He grasped tightly to the inverted wooden seat and kept trying to bend his head upward to keep it out of the water.

With every movement of the boat from the men clinging to it on the surface, the water splashed over his nose and mouth.

Coughing and spluttering, he let out a meagre cry for help.

Lizzy took a hold of one of the seats behind him to pull herself up as the boat bobbed.

Her efforts splashed the muddy water over Bingley’s face. He let out a cry.

“ It’s all right. We found you.”

Bingley did not turn his head to look at her. “Thank God, thank God.” And then, “Is that you, Miss Bennet?”

“ Yes. I’m going to leave you for a moment—”

“ No.” He croaked out in panic.

“ It’s all right. I am going to get Mr Darcy, and he’ll come and get you. Hang on just a little bit longer.”

Bingley kept his neck bent painfully back so that he could keep both his mouth and nose out of the water. His breath came in short, unnerving spurts like a child’s did when she’d been crying. “Don’t leave me. I’ll drown.”

“ You won’t. We’ll get you out.”

He might have said something further, but Lizzy didn’t wait. She swam out from under the racing shell, towards the other side of the boat, thinking that Darcy would surface there. A moment after she emerged, so did Darcy.

“ The current must have carried him down. I—”

“ No, he’s here. Under the boat. He found a pocket of trapped air and is hanging on… near the bow.”

Darcy didn’t stop to argue with her. He dove straight down towards the bow.

***

It was too good to be true. Bingley was alive. A stupid accident nearly deprived him of the best friend he had in the world. Just as Miss Bennet said, he was near the bow, hanging on to one of the seats, trying to avail himself of an ever-shrinking pocket of air. Darcy popped up in front of him.

“ Listen, Bingley, I’m going to pull you out from under the boat…” Bingley let out a moan. He must have been terrified. “I’m going to come up behind you. Listen, when I tell you, take a deep breath. I’ll wrap my arm around you and take you under and out. Understand?”

“ Yes.” His voice was a squeak.

“ Whatever you do, don’t fight or try to aid me. Just let me help you, all right?”

Darcy had never pulled anyone to safety from the water and wasn’t as confident as he was trying to appear to his friend.

There were still some men hanging on, their legs in the water.

He’d have to avoid them to bring Bingley to safety.

He dove under the boat and under Bingley, bumping his head on the craft as he surfaced. “Breathe.”

Bingley breathed in and so did Darcy. He wrapped his arm across Bingley’s chest, catching him under the arm.

Kicking furiously and bending back, he managed to clear the gunnels of the boat and surface quickly.

Bingley gulped and sputtered. A great cheer went up from his teammates.

A short distance away, a rescue boat plied its way through the water.