Page 10 of Requirements for Love (Love in London with Mr Darcy #3)
Darcy stayed out later than he intended.
He spoke to a selection of his friends and secured a few whom he thought would be willing to be known to Elizabeth and with whom she might be at ease.
There was no difficulty in finding three eligible young men to call this week, and they had no expectation of being matched.
Sir George Reed, Mr Walsh, and Captain Peck all agreed to meet his injured friend.
He should feel happier about that than he did.
When he climbed his stairs at the end of the evening, it surprised him to see Elizabeth alone in the drawing room with her foot propped on a stool.
“Have you been abandoned here?” he cried. “I asked my valet to help you move.”
She laughed. “No, not at all. I was only reading a little longer. He would help me if I asked. Your sister and Mrs Annesley were with me all day. We did not even bother to dress for dinner, and Miss Darcy and Mrs Annesley acted as my crutches to help me to the table and back.”
“But they did not stay up with you?”
Elizabeth gave an indulgent smile as he joined her. “I think by dinner, Miss Darcy was weary of me. Or, at least, she was weary of talking in general. I hinted I wished to be alone so she would not feel guilty about going to her own rooms.”
“I hope you do not take her timidness as a dislike of you.” She shook her head even before he finished speaking. “At least your aunt will come tomorrow to give you another option for company.”
Her expression fell, and she leant toward a table with a short stack of letters.
To save her from straining herself, Darcy rose to hand it to her.
“My aunt sent a note not long after you left. My cousins have been sick with colds, and now my aunt has caught it. She does not wish to make anyone in your house sick, but she said she had a fever and cough. Jane’s letter fills in what my aunt did not say, that she is too poorly to come.
And Jane cannot call either, as she has taken up the mantle to help care for four sick little children under the age of eight. ”
He hated to see her look saddened. He would be an awful object if a surgeon confined him to the house for two weeks. Such an active and amiable person like Elizabeth would be lonesome and wearied in short order.
“I am sorry. That means you will be more often on your own. My cousin said he would call tomorrow, and hopefully Mrs Gardiner can come in a week to see for herself how you are faring. And I am sorry to have been so engaged recently. I meant it when I said I would make a better effort to be at home, but I had already given my commitment for several engagements.”
“I mistakenly thought you were unsocial and taciturn,” she said in the tone she typically used to provoke him. “I thought you spent your days glowering at those beneath your notice rather than be so sociable.”
“Those beneath my notice do not come into my house, so I must go into the world to find them to look down upon them.” She looked surprised that he had allowed her to amuse herself by teasing him.
“ You will soon tire of my glowering, so I must go out and scowl at others. I would hate to cast a gloom over your currently small domestic circle. ”
As he hoped, she laughed a little. “What activities take such an unsocial man from home?”
“Mr Wheeler’s dinner in Portman Square, Lady Trice’s party in Gloucester Place, Mrs Baldwin’s rout in Grosvenor Square.”
“This is a busy week.”
“No, those took place this evening.” Her face was awash in surprise.
“And those are only the ones which I was invited to or are public events that I should attend. Throughout the week there are multiple routs, card parties, dinners, and balls every night, and of course concerts and the opera and readings. And the Duke of Devonshire’s assembly at Devonshire House is this week as well. ”
She looked a little conscious, and it was some time before she raised her eyes to his.
“When I visit my aunt and uncle—we live in so different a part of town…” Elizabeth heaved a sigh.
“I did not fully appreciate how different our connexions are. We go out so little. The theatre a few times, a few evenings with friends.”
“The season looks different for us,” he agreed. “Rarely do I have two consecutive evenings at home with nothing to do.”
“Do you enjoy the whirlwind of social activity?” she asked with interest.
“Some of it,” he hedged. “Routs I do not care for. There is no conversation or cards; only elbowing and winding from room to room to see and be seen. A card party is not as bad, as you just take all the ladies and gentlemen you can get, place them in a room with a low fire, and provide them with a few packs of cards. I like the theatre very much and prefer concerts and lectures. But there are always more assemblies and balls than anything else.”
“That is a lot of dancing for a man who does not like the exercise.”
There was no undue inflection to her words, no arch tone or satirical eye, but he still felt all the guilt he should feel for how he insulted her at Meryton.
“I am sorry for what I said,” he said hurriedly. “I made a thoughtless judgement, and I spoke wrongly. I cannot defend my remark, and I hope you can forgive me.”
“You already apologised,” she said. “I ought not to have brought it up all these months later, and while I think you ought to dance at any ball where there is a lady sitting down, you are entitled to your opinion about me.”
“And I already told you that since I first wished to know you better, I saw how handsome you are. I should have let Bingley have your sister introduce us and asked you to dance. I deeply regret offending you.”
“I was offended, but worse, I allowed it to cloud my perception of you.” She fixed her pretty dark eyes on his. “Until recently, I am afraid I thought you ungentlemanly and proud.”
This felt like a deeper confrontation than his not wanting to be introduced or dance with a stranger. Trepidation settled in his mind that he deserved it. He had not acted in a gentlemanlike manner. Now it shamed him to think on it. His previous behaviour must have continually been giving offence.
Leaning forward a little, he asked in a rush, “Do you really think I glower at those I deem beneath me? That I disdain everyone?”
Darcy saw the answer on her face, although she tried to hide it in her words. “I think you treat those outside your closest circle more meanly than you realise.”
He rose to pace, his unsettled thoughts making it impossible to be still.
Elizabeth was right. “I was selfish and ungracious to you, to your entire neighbourhood, and even to my friend. I was given good principles as a child, but now that I reflect on it, I think I was encouraged to be selfish and overbearing.” He stopped pacing to look at her.
“It is a humbling moment for me, Miss Bennet.”
She watched him with a sincere and, he hoped, approving expression. “You are not used to feeling humbled. I can tell,” she added with a smile. “But I can also tell you have the character and determination to make any change you feel is right to be done.”
His heart beat unnaturally fast. The strength of the attachment he felt for Elizabeth had not waned. Perhaps more time was all he needed. He would surely move on if he saw her married to a decent man, would he not ?
“Did you,” he said a little anxiously as he sat again, “did you and my sister make a list of your requirements for a suitor?”
His change of topic surprised her, but she answered him directly. “I avoided her repetition of the subject because I could not tell if you truly approved of Miss Darcy forwarding the cause.”
He shrugged. “All ladies want to match their friends. If you say she will do you no harm, then I do not mind. I even mentioned to a few of my friends that you were confined to my house and wanted company other than mine. They are all eligible, respectable men. Although, they might not suit your lengthy list of marital requirements,” he said, smiling.
Elizabeth gave him a wry look. “Oh, yes. Very lengthy. In fact, I would call them demands rather than requirements.”
“Tomorrow is Sunday, so you and Georgiana will have a quiet day to work on your lengthy list. You can present them to me, and I will tell Georgiana that the friends I have already spoken to are all suitable to your requirements. She can believe I have selected them especially for your consideration, but we will know they are only coming to sit with my injured friend.” There was nothing objectionable about the manners and habits of Sir George Reed, Mr Walsh, or Captain Peck.
Whether they would truly suit Elizabeth remained to be seen. “But only if you truly want to.”
“I do not oppose Miss Darcy helping me, or in meeting any of your friends.” She looked like she wanted to say more, so he sat back in his chair to wait. After looking at him for another moment, she said, “What is on your list?”
“ My list?” he cried, laughing. “I am not the one trawling for a spouse.”
She crossed her arms, smiling. “Can I guess? Extensive reading, if I recall, must be a requirement for an accomplished woman. But what is extensive? What sort of education does the great Mr Darcy require?”
“I will not say.”
“I am here until the seventeenth. You cannot avoid my questions. ”
“No, but I can avoid giving an answer. Let me help you to your room.”
He rose to lift her, and as he carried her across the corridor she asked, “Do you require a serious person, like yourself, or a playful one because you have a sense of humour after all?”
Rather than answer, he said, “What will be first on your list for Georgiana? Tall and handsome?”
“Of course,” she said flippantly as he set her down on the sofa. A heart beat later, she shook her head. “No, actually. Neither matter. I suppose it could be helpful if he is at least taller than me by enough so we can easily dance together. Kindness will be first.”
“Kindness?” he repeated.