Page 9 of Requirements for Love (Love in London with Mr Darcy #3)

She was all smiles and animation, and Elizabeth strove to match her enthusiasm. “It could be a charming exercise, but if you have no gentlemen friends and I can go nowhere, I am afraid we will make little progress.”

Her eager expression fell, but then she said, smiling, “My brother has single friends! What if we compile a list of the characters and qualities you wish for, and he can select a few that might suit you and have them call?”

“Yes,” Mr Darcy said from behind his paper. “For what reason does a man have to make friends if not to match them with his sister’s friends?”

Miss Darcy thought for a moment and said, “What about Mr Bingley? He lives near to you, I understand. You would be settled near to your family.”

Elizabeth shook her head. “Mr Bingley is calling on my sister today, and she will be thrilled to see him.”

Miss Darcy gave her a blank look and then said, “Oh. Then that would be inappropriate.” She pursed her lips in thought. “My cousin is single, the one who carried you in from the street. Was it romantic of him to come to your rescue?”

She was na?ve to think being swept up in someone’s arms was enough to make one fall in love.

But Elizabeth might have felt the same when she was fifteen.

Lydia and Kitty would have planned her wedding breakfast if they had seen her in Colonel Fitzwilliam’s arms yesterday, but the bar for a husband must be low if all one had to do was be appalled that she was knocked down.

“He was kind to help me,” she said judiciously.

“But there was nothing of romance in it.”

“Forgive me for interrupting,” Mr Darcy said, still behind his paper, “but Fitzwilliam is a younger son who, by his own admission, must marry with some attention to money.” She noticed he had not turned a page of his newspaper.

“Oh,” Miss Darcy said again. “I ought to have asked about your fortune. I am sorry. I did not think—I presumed…” She was bright pink and could not raise her eyes. “I am not good at this.”

Miss Darcy looked so crestfallen that Elizabeth strove to comfort her. “I am not offended. And I have done nothing wrong by not being rich enough for your friends. But perhaps the exercise ought to be abandoned.”

“Not all our friends and acquaintances are preoccupied by money,” she said quickly. “Rank and wealth have their place, of course, but there are worthy men in town who can marry wherever their heart leads them, just as my brother can.”

Elizabeth had often thought her parents had done wrong in not adequately providing for her and her sisters, but there was nothing she could do about it.

“I have a thousand pounds after the death of both of my parents, so whomever of your brother’s friends who would suit me must be able to afford to marry a poor woman. ”

“Well, first we ought to consider what you are looking for in a husband. My brother has told me that my preferences matter as much as the man’s station and wealth, so before we begin, we must settle that.

” She rose to beg writing supplies from Mrs Annesley and returned, pulling a side table near to her chair. “What are your requirements?”

“My requirements?” she repeated. “Are you placing an order at a shop to be delivered by close of business?”

“If only it were that simple to find one’s life companion,” muttered Mr Darcy. He tossed aside his paper and rose. “Speaking of Fitzwilliam, I am meeting him now. We are going to have a look in at Tattersall’s.”

“If you have any friends who might suit Miss Bennet?—”

“Yes, yes, all my single friends are yours to dispose of,” he said in a voice that was more curt than Elizabeth had heard him use with his sister.

In a milder voice, he added, “I am dining out, but will be back in the evening. Please do not allow Miss Bennet to hobble back to her room on her own if I am not here. My valet has been told to help move her in my absence.”

He bowed to everyone and strode from the room. When he was gone, Miss Darcy took up her pen and said, “If you list your requirements for a husband, we can begin.”

Elizabeth gaped at her, struggling to think of a reply.

“Perhaps we can leave our new friend to consider for a while before pressing her for a list,” said Mrs Annesley, coming into the room. “Miss Bennet might enjoy listening to you play while she gathers her thoughts about what manner of man she requires.”

Mrs Annesley gave her an amused grin as she led Miss Darcy away.

Everyone realised this project was done more to amuse Miss Darcy than Elizabeth, but she did not mind.

What harm could there be, and nothing could be wrong in properly contemplating what sort of husband she wanted?

She had idly considered it, but never in rigid terms.

After today, she realised she required a husband who would help when needed, willingly throwing himself into any task that his family or household needed done. And it would not hurt if his arms beneath his shirtsleeves looked like Mr Darcy’s.

Darcy did not bother ordering his carriage and hurried on foot toward his cousin’s rooms at the Albany.

It bothered him to hear all of that talk about Elizabeth marrying.

There was nothing wrong with the scheme, and there was nothing wrong with her marrying any of his friends if they were mutually attached and it was prudent with attention to family and finances.

And any of his friends would certainly be better for her than that sycophant, Mr Collins.

A lively, witty, pretty woman like Elizabeth deserved to be well settled, but it troubled him deeply to hear of it.

When he turned onto Piccadilly, he saw his cousin amid a group of men outside Hatchards at the corner of Duke and Piccadilly. Fitzwilliam noticed him with a nod and then parted from his friends.

“Were you looking for me?” Fitzwilliam asked, pulling out his pocket watch. “I thought we were not going to Tattersall’s until two o’clock.”

Darcy shrugged. “I was eager.”

“To look at horseflesh and circulate in the subscription room?”

He avoided his cousin’s eye as they turned together to walk in the other direction to take Piccadilly to Hyde Park Corner. “I was eager to leave my house. Is that satisfactory?”

Fitzwilliam laughed. “Too many women there? I was actually going to call on the patient when I left Hatchards. Is she in better health?”

“Lively as ever.” She was not in so much pain that she could not spear his heart with a well-deserved arrow.

She had heard him say she was not handsome enough to dance with.

He had spoken recklessly, heartlessly, and she must have held that callous comment against him for the entirety of their acquaintance. And he deserved it.

“I will call on her tomorrow. How is Georgiana with Miss Elizabeth?”

“Georgiana is so fond of her that she wants to find her a husband. She is determined to match her. You might have been considered, but I told them you cannot afford to marry since her family can give her nothing.”

They sidestepped a large party arguing on the pavement, and Darcy nearly slipped on the ice. It was no wonder Elizabeth fell yesterday.

As they came back together, Fitzwilliam said, “That is just as well because apparently her family is also not worth the trouble.”

He now doubted that was true. He could endeavour to forget her relations, especially because they were not immediately before him. But could he overlook their embarrassing behaviour when he was forced to meet them? Could he love and respect them for his wife’s sake?

Darcy blew out a breath as they walked down Piccadilly Street. He could not give the reins to his imagination and fancy that this charming woman would make him a suitable wife.

Fitzwilliam was looking at him as though he expected a reply.

“Bingley seems to have decided that Jane Bennet and her objectionable family are worth the trouble.”

“You sound jealous of him,” Fitzwilliam said suspiciously. “Do you love Miss Bennet?”

His heart stopped. Surely his cousin could not have guessed his feelings. But after a moment of thought, he calmed. Fitzwilliam meant Jane Bennet. “No,” he said firmly. “She is beautiful, but too serene. A sweet girl, but not for me.”

“Is it that great an evil that she has connexions to trade?”

“That is not the primary issue, at least not for me. The situation of her mother’s family, though objectionable, is nothing compared to the want of propriety frequently betrayed by her entire family—save for her sister Elizabeth.

And I had often seen Bingley in love, and I did not think Jane Bennet cared for him.

I was wrong,” he said with a sigh. He had behaved badly by his friend and injured both him and a woman whose only offence was having appalling parents and sisters.

“I told him I was wrong, and I have done all I can to set him on a path to win her if he chooses it.”

They walked a little in silence and were nearly at Tattersall’s when his cousin asked, “Why are you really prowling the streets rather than be in your own house?”

There was no point in lying, not when his cousin knew him so well. “Georgiana wants to ease her own heartache by finding the perfect husband for Miss Elizabeth. I did not care to listen.”

“Poor dear,” Fitzwilliam muttered. “You know she feels badly for what she did last summer.”

“Almost did,” Darcy retorted. “She was manipulated and na?ve, and now she wants someone to have a romantic ending.”

“What does Miss Elizabeth say to the scheme?”

“She is a gentle and sympathetic person. She excels at reading people, and she knows it is important for Georgiana to find her a match. But she does not know why it matters to her so deeply. She is going along with it just to make Georgiana happy.”

Few women were endowed with such loveliness as hers. Elizabeth was as amiable and gracious as she was handsome. She was full of vivacity, and she entered with so much spirit and such apparent enjoyment into every amusement. He was every bit in love with her now as he had been in November.

Darcy felt hot and then cold all over. He could not deny his feelings any longer. He loved her, but how could he marry her, with relations like hers?

“Miss Elizabeth needs to get married,” he said, loud enough so that people passing them on the street gave him an odd look.

His cousin threw him a confused look. “Why do you say that she needs to? It sounds like she is humouring Georgiana and giving them both something to do while Miss Elizabeth is confined to the house.”

He had no reply and affected a careless shrug as they walked along. Fitzwilliam stared at him for a few paces and then made an oath of surprise. “You like her,” he whispered. “You like her, but her connexions are inferior to yours, so you won’t offer for her.”

It was true, but he could not put it into words. The feeling, the knowing he loved her and the knowing he could not marry her was painful.

“Georgiana wants to find her a husband, and I am going to help her. I have plenty of single friends, after all.”

“Will you put an advertisement in the newspaper that says, ‘Monday evening, Mr Darcy’s home near Berkeley Square, any single gentlemen of his acquaintance are welcome to call at half seven to meet his incapacitated friend for the purpose of matrimony’?”

“I can be more selective than that,” he said drily.

Elizabeth’s future happiness deserved more attention.

He could at least introduce her to a few friends to see if any of them liked her enough to further the acquaintance after she returned home.

“Sir George is single, and so are Walsh and Captain Peck. All of them are of an age and can afford to marry wherever they like. None of them have near relations who might dissuade them from a woman with no connexions. I will ask them if they will meet her when I see them at Lady Trice’s tonight. ”

“What a scheme!” Fitzwilliam cried. “Georgiana’s plans are nothing to yours. You are carrying a torch for this woman, but you would never lust after a married woman, and therefore, she must be married as soon as possible.”

“I am not lusting after her,” he said quickly.

Lust implied there was no sincere affection behind his feelings, as though desire and attraction were where his interest in Elizabeth began and ended.

He wanted to sit by her side while she played all evening.

He wanted to hear every ridiculous opinion she spouted to provoke him.

He wanted to know what she loved and why.

“Well, whatever your feelings are, it will end if she was married to another man. You would never countenance such a thing. At least you would not look at her so much if she was another man’s wife.”

“What makes you think I look at her?” he cried. “You only saw us together for half an hour yesterday while she was injured and awaiting a surgeon.”

“That was enough,” he said plainly. “I just never thought there was any love in your gaze. Does she admire you at all? I do not mind you being disappointed, but two weeks with you might lead to heartbreak if she loves you in return.”

He felt his cheeks heat in the January air as he recalled her arch comments from earlier.

“I thought she considered me as a friend. Perhaps she does, but…” He shook his head, feeling ashamed.

“I said something rude about her when we first met. Now I fear she has always disliked me.” His cousin asked with his eyes what had he done.

“I told Bingley she was not pretty enough to dance with me.”

“And she heard you?” he cried, drawing the glances of those they passed.

“No wonder she was reluctant to stay in your house. You should invite friends who will be kind to her and flatter her. Maybe you could take notes to woo your future wife. Georgiana can match your single wealthy friends to the lady, and then your problem will be solved.”

Finding her a husband she admired and loved was a perfect solution for everyone’s happiness. His, hers, even his sister’s. So why did he feel sick at the thought? That was why he left his house in a fit of pique that he dearly hoped he had hidden from Elizabeth and Georgiana.

Fitzwilliam was right. He would help Georgiana match Elizabeth, and that would finally purge her from his heart and mind.