Mr. Darcy's Refuge (17 page)

“How lovely for me,” the colonel remarked. “I rather fancy being master of Rosings Park, especially once you move to the Dower House, aunt.”

“Ungrateful monster!” cried Lady Catherine. “
This
is the thanks I get for all I have done for you! I’ll see you hung if you come near my daughter.”

“What a charming family gathering this is,” said the colonel. “Wouldn’t you say so, Darcy?”

Elizabeth buried her face in her hands. The colonel had been right – it would be a relief if a squad of Napoleon’s finest soldiers stormed the house. She hoped his antics were giving Darcy a moment to collect himself before facing the onslaught.

Darcy had apparently seen enough. “I thank all of you for sharing your opinions with me. I am certain you have only the best of motives. However, the fact remains that my choice of wife is exactly that –
my
choice. I owe no duty to anyone but myself. Mr. Bennet, I would like to speak to you privately. There are factors here of which you are not aware.”

“I doubt it. That gentleman there has already been kind enough to inform us that you have been spending your nights in my daughter’s bedroom. I have
nothing
to say to you. Now, where is my daughter?”

Elizabeth could only imagine the look of betrayal Darcy must be sending in the colonel’s direction. His voice was quite clipped as he said, “I do not know what you have been told, but nothing untoward has happened between Elizabeth and me. She will tell you the same.”

“Darcy, I know you will see reason.” The earl was apparently changing tactics, now all oily politeness. “I cannot imagine you would risk Georgiana’s reputation this way.”

“My marriage will have no effect on Georgiana’s reputation. Miss Bennet is respectable.”

The colonel drawled, “You misunderstand him, Darcy. That was a threat. If you persist in marrying Miss Bennet,
he
means to ruin Georgiana’s reputation in retaliation.”

Elizabeth could not believe her ears, especially when this response was met not with a denial, but by silence. That was the end of it, then. She would not be marrying Mr. Darcy. She would never see him again. Suddenly, she found herself choking back a sob. When had she come to care about him? She bit down on her hand until it hurt. How could she expect Darcy to sacrifice his sister for her sake? He could not. No, she would leave here alone, with her reputation in tatters and nothing to show for it but an aching heart, all because Lord Matlock said so.

When Darcy began to speak, Elizabeth covered her ears with her hands. She understood why he had to renounce her, but did not want to hear him say it, or it would echo in her mind forever. But she could hear him anyway, speaking in that same distant voice she had heard the previous night. “You offer me the choice between ruining Miss Bennet’s reputation or Georgiana’s. I have given Miss Bennet my word, and I will not withdraw it.”

Her hands were on her chest now, holding in her pounding heart. Had he really said that? She could only imagine how much it hurt him – and all for a woman who had not even accepted his proposal, but whom he would still not allow to be injured. It was too much to bear. Even the colonel seemed to be speechless in face of this.

Elizabeth could not stand it. Without a thought to the consequences, she picked up her skirts and raced downstairs. She reached Darcy’s side and slipped her hand into his arm. “I am
quite
surprised at all I have just heard,” she said with a false brightness. “My lord, of course you wish to see your nephew make a brilliant marriage, but he has proposed to me and I have accepted, and we have a number of witnesses to that. I will not release him from the engagement. Before you try to force
him
to break it, I urge you to consider the effects of a breach of promise suit. He would only have to pay me a settlement, of course, but everyone will know that he broke a publicly acknowledged engagement
after
compromising the lady in question. Under those circumstances, will any gentleman risk allowing his daughter to contract an engagement to him? I think not. While it might be more satisfying to you to see both your niece and nephew ruined, would it not be more sensible to concentrate your efforts on making a brilliant alliance for Miss Darcy, since Mr. Darcy’s case is already quite hopeless?” She did not dare to look at her father.

The silence that met this statement was broken only by Colonel Fitzwilliam’s slow clapping. “Oh, brava, Miss Bennet! Spoken like a Fitzwilliam born.” He was sprawled in an upholstered chair with one leg hooked across the arm of it, a large glass of brandy in one hand. He gave a quick wink when he caught her looking his way. “I say, Darcy, is there any more of this ghastly brandy to be had? This was the last of the bottle, and I am not
nearly
foxed enough if I am to be forced to deal with my
family
all day.”

She felt a rush of gratitude toward him for defending not only Darcy, but her as well, when he owed her nothing and had reason for resentment as well.

“There is another bottle in the study,” Darcy said slowly, but he was not looking at his cousin. His eyes were fixed on her face.

It was at that precise moment that Elizabeth realized that, in her impulsive rush to defend Mr. Darcy, she had also utterly committed herself to marrying him. Her skin prickled with goosebumps as she met his gaze, her insides churning with the knowledge that she had just agreed to be his wife, flesh of his flesh, till death parted them. He would take possession of her body, and she would live by his side. It felt as if the wind had been knocked out of her and she had forgotten how to breathe.

“Did you mean that?” Darcy spoke just above a whisper, his words directed only at her, as if he had forgotten the presence of all the others.

For some reason, his doubt put her own worries to rest. They might still disagree on many things, but somehow they would work it out together, and that idea made her feel light as air and as if the sun had just come out. “I meant it,” she said, then with a sense of daring she stood up on tiptoe and whispered in his ear, “About marrying you, that is – not the other part.” Having no reputation left to ruin, she discovered, could be quite freeing.

A slow smile dawned on his face. He took her hands into his, a pulse of fire racing where their fingers entwined.

Then the colonel was standing, swaying slightly. “Oh, please, Darcy.
You
may be happy about gaining a leg-shackle, but is far too early in the day to subject
me
to your amorous displays.”

The earl wheeled to face his son. “You worthless ingrate! You are a disgrace to the Fitzwilliam name.”

Richard held his glass up as if to examine the contents. “A disgrace to the Fitzwilliam name? Dear me, my memory must be failing me. Why is it that the proud Fitzwilliam name is no longer as proud as it was? Could it be because….”

“Miserable cur!” shouted the earl.

Elizabeth lost track of the shouting match when her father approached them, his face hard. He made no acknowledgement of Darcy. Instead he took her arm in a painful grip and said, “We are leaving now.”

“We cannot leave, not with….”

His face turned purple. “You
will
obey me. I have been far too lax with you, and I am paying for it now.”

Darcy said, “Mr. Bennet, we have a great deal to discuss, but perhaps we could do so outside.”

“I have
nothing
to discuss with
you
. Come, Lizzy.”

“Please, I know you are angry, but can you not spare a moment listen to Mr. Darcy – and to me? This is not what it seems, and….”

“Enough. You are my responsibility and under my rule, and if I tell you to go, then you will go.”

Elizabeth hardly recognized the man who stood before her. “But…”

Darcy stepped in. “Mr. Bennet, I ask you to allow me a few minutes of your time.”

“You have no rights in this matter at all, and you will unhand my daughter!”

Looking bewildered, Darcy released her hand, searching Elizabeth’s face as if for clues. “I have the greatest respect for your daughter, sir.”

“Yes, you
respect
her all day and all night, I am told!” Mr. Bennet tugged Elizabeth’s arm until she followed him out of the sitting room and then through the front door.

Elizabeth threw a helpless look over her shoulder at Darcy, who kept pace with them as much as the narrow corridor would permit. “Papa, that is not true. I do not know why Colonel Fitzwilliam said that unless it was to impress his own father. Mr. Darcy
could
have taken advantage of my defenseless situation, but he
chose
not to.”

“That would explain why he announced your engagement without speaking to me first, I suppose.” Mr. Bennet’s voice dripped sarcasm.

Once outside, Darcy strode around them until he could face Mr. Bennet as he pulled Elizabeth along. “There were pressing reasons for that, which I would be happy to explain to you if only you would allow me to do so!” His veneer of calm was beginning to break.

Mr. Bennet ignored him and continued to head down the road toward the ruined bridge.

Elizabeth tried again, speaking more gently this time. “I do not understand. This is not like you.” Although her father had been forced to hear terrible things about her – untrue things - she would not have thought anything could put her usually easy-going father into a state like this. What could have happened to him?

Her father ignored her just as he had Mr. Darcy, which only concerned her more. That was unlike him as well. Could he be ill, or fevered in the head?

“Mr. Bennet, while I understand your desire to take your daughter away from here, I fail to see how it is in her best interest for us not to discuss what is to happen next. I would have been much happier to ask your permission first, but that was impossible at the time. Any delay in the announcement would have resulted in damage to Miss Elizabeth’s reputation and rumors that I had only married her out of necessity. If it appeared that our engagement predated the floods, she would be protected.”

“And it never occurred to you, not once, that I might refuse my permission?”

Darcy glanced at Elizabeth in confusion. “No, sir, it did not. Your daughter was compromised by my presence, but through no fault of mine. I am well able to provide for her, I am of good family, I love her, and I now also have a responsibility to marry her. If I were to refuse to marry her, you would have every right to be furious with me, but I am
not
refusing!”

“Oh, yes, I have seen your
good family
, Mr. Darcy, and you will forgive me if I want my daughter to have nothing whatsoever to do with them. I would rather see Lizzy disgraced and alone than treated with such disrespect. Perhaps your ten thousand pounds a year would be enough to convince any other father, but you have nothing to offer her that
I
value. You have likely already ruined her life, and that is more than enough.”

“Papa, please! I
want
to marry him.” There was an edge of desperation in her voice. How much of this outrageous insolence Mr. Darcy would tolerate before deciding that she was not worth the trouble? “He is a good man!”