Page 32 of Requirements for Love (Love in London with Mr Darcy #3)
“Yes, Lizzy!” cried Georgiana. “I hope you will be a frequent visitor.”
Elizabeth smiled at her. “You will become quite sick of me, I will call on you so often. I am used to having you to myself all day and every day, after all.” To him, she now gave a more serious look. “I must send a note to my uncle and see when he can come for me. It might not be for a few hours.”
“There is no hurry,” he cried. Good gracious, he could not have her believe he was throwing her out. “It is nearly dark. You must certainly stay the night, and tomorrow I will send you home in my carriage whenever the Gardiners can receive you.”
“You must stay for dinner,” seconded his sister, and Elizabeth agreed. They all parted to dress, so he came forward to pick her up, but she shrank back.
“I have the surgeon’s leave to walk on my own now, Mr Darcy,” she said, avoiding his eye as she stood and cautiously walked from the room.
As Elizabeth moved around her room the next morning to pack to return to Cheapside, she no longer felt as though something in her ankle was twisted and torn. Now it felt as though she could walk short distances, but it would be a little longer before she danced or rambled any significant distance.
Last night, her family wrote in reply that they would be delighted to receive her so soon and asked her to thank Mr Darcy for providing his carriage. They would all meet at the theatre next Tuesday, and she would call on Georgiana in a few days. Everyone was in good spirits about the news.
Especially Darcy, since sending for the surgeon was a way to be rid of her.
If she had harboured a hope he was still fond of her, that he would overlook her family’s foibles, that he wanted to marry her, they were all dashed when she realised how eager he was for her to leave. There was no reason for her not to pursue Captain Peck and make a match before she left London.
A footman entered to say they had readied the carriage, and he took her things down the stairs.
She followed him into the lobby above the stairs and saw him wait for Darcy and servants to pass on their way down.
They were putting the breakfast table and its chairs back in the morning room.
Why did Darcy have to remove his coat and roll up his shirtsleeves again?
It was cruel of him to tease her, and after he resolved to behave with more kindness to others, too.
Looking at his sleek skin and the veined lines made her feel a pulsating, miserable energy.
Darcy set down the chair at the bottom of the stairs and asked someone to put it away before he ran back up to where she stood near the top.
“I hope your stay was agreeable.”
She made a valiant, truly heroic attempt to ignore his bare forearms and keep her gaze on his face. “Well, I am healed, and I made a new friend, so I say it was. ”
“My sister? Or me?”
He said this perfectly evenly, with not a smile or inflection to let her know if he was hoping she meant him. “I meant your sister, but I suppose we are friends too. Or at least better friends than we were in Hertfordshire.”
“And I hope we will remain so.”
His gentle civilities were worse than anything. She wanted to provoke him a little. “I also now have a fine list of the things to look for in a husband.”
“I remember it well.”
“But I do not know a single thing on your list.”
“My sister is not trying to find me a wife with the same effort she wants to find you a husband.”
That was certainly true. Georgiana had never considered her brother as a prospect for her.
“You have been very secret about your own requirements for when the time comes. What of her accomplishments? Her wealth? Her appearance? Her character?” Darcy continued to stare with cool composure.
“You must tell me one requirement before I go.”
“Forgive me for being unable to oblige you.”
Darcy seemed to feel nothing, not for her and not on her leaving. Elizabeth curtseyed to part from him, but rather than bow, he stepped nearer and picked her up. She gasped in surprise as he bore her directly down the stairs.
“I have been given leave to move about as normal,” she cried.
“When you are back in your uncle’s house, you can run up and down the stairs as you wish. I will not be responsible for you taking a tumble down mine.”
Her soul blushed at being in his arms, at feeling his bare forearms against her body along with the firm grip of his hands. Darcy quitted not his hold till he had her at the bottom, and he stood very near to her after he did let go.
There was that look in his eye when she looked up at him, the same as when he had nearly kissed her last week.
A look that hinted that he might still have warm feelings for her.
As much as she liked Captain Peck, she did not feel for him what she felt for Darcy, certainly not the thudding heart and stomach flutters Georgiana mentioned.
There was no one in the hall with them at this moment, so she asked in a rush, “Is there any reason I should not encourage Captain Peck?”
Darcy absolutely started. Her heart beat quick, and she felt quite unequal to surmising or soliciting anything more.
His expression held an interest so sharp she could not imagine it was affected for politeness. Then, the intensity in his gaze, the affection she thought she glimpsed there, shuttered. “Certainly not. I would not have introduced him to you if I found him in any way objectionable.”
The footman returned and opened the door for her, and there was nothing left to do but curtsey and say goodbye.