Or at least what she thought had been an empty room. She hadn’t taken more than two steps toward the bedroom door when a sleepy voice froze her in her tracks.
“Lizzy?” Darcy said incredulously.
She debated going back out the window or hurrying on as if she hadn’t heard him, but she figured he would only call the police on her if she did that. She gave up either pretense when he reached over and flicked on the lamp beside the bed, flooding the room with light and illuminating her features.
Unfortunately, it also illuminated him. He was sitting up in bed, his hair rumpled and sticking up in odd directions, looking confused and only half awake. Her startled gaze drifted lower to his bare chest and all rational thought fled. She wanted to scowl. Couldn’t the man have the decency to sleep with a shirt on? He was too good looking as it was for her peace of mind. She didn’t need an additional distraction in the form of strong shoulders and a lean waist wrapped in solid muscle.
He demanded, “What are you doing here?”
She flashed him a bright smile and tried not to let her gaze sink back to his bare chest where it wanted to linger and enjoy the view. “I was just returning a book I borrowed from the library.”
He looked bemused. “Did it ever occur to you to go in the front door and leave it with the desk clerk?”
“Well, yes,” she admitted. “But I also wanted to short sheet Caroline’s bed for breaking my sister’s heart.”
That made the corners of his mouth turn up, before he started frowning. “What do you mean, breaking your sister’s heart?”
“That conniving, scruple-less woman broke up Jane and Bingley and then she had the nerve to brag about it to Jane! Can you believe it? Jane was devastated!” She parked her hands on her hips and shook her head indignantly.
Darcy couldn’t help but think she looked adorable, standing there defending her sister. It was even more adorable that her idea of payback was short sheeting Caroline’s bed. He didn’t have the heart to tell her Caroline had already left for London.
Then he remembered the part he had played in that little scenario between Jane and Charles. Uneasy, he reached for the shirt lying beside the bed and tugged it on, giving himself a few seconds to think through his response. He threw back the covers and swung his legs over the side of the bed. “Are you trying to tell me your sister is in love with Charles?”
She stalked a few steps closer and took a seat on the bed beside Darcy, dropping her backpack to the floor. “Of course she is! I’ve never seen Jane so happy before, and now Caroline’s ruined it. I can’t believe she would do such a thing! I refuse to believe Charles didn’t feel the same way about Jane, regardless of what Caroline may say.”
“Lizzy, did it ever occur to you that Charles might not think Jane loves him, too?”
She scoffed. “That’s just ridiculous. It is so obvious! Jane’s never acted like this before.”
“It wasn’t obvious to me, and I was careful to observe her, once I realized how attached Charlie had grown to her. She seemed to enjoy his company, but I couldn’t tell that there was more than a friendly attachment on her part. She treated him with the same easy manner she did everyone else. You, being her sister, might have seen more, but to the rest of us, she didn’t look like a woman in love.”
Dumbfounded, Lizzy couldn’t do more than gape at him open-mouthed for several minutes. Finally, she rallied, sputtering, “But…but…”
He silenced her with a finger to her lips. “There’s more, Lizzy.” He eyed her with trepidation. Maybe he shouldn’t be within striking distance when he told her this. He stood up to pace to the far end of the room, out of range of her fists. “Caroline wasn’t the only one who encouraged Charlie to take some time off from the relationship. If I had realized how Jane truly felt, I would never have suggested he go on that trip to South America, but I thought she was just being kind.”
Lizzy turned a heated glare on him. She growled, “Are you telling me you had a hand in this, too?”
He bit down on his bottom lip, hard. She kind of scared him when she looked at him like that. He backed up another step toward the bedroom door, just in case she decided to pounce on him. “Maybe.”
She held up one shaking finger at him. “You’d better make this right.”
He ran an agitated hand through his hair and blew out a breath of relief. At least she hadn’t turned violent. He hastened to reassure her. “Don’t worry, I will. The only problem is, he’s going to be in the jungle for a month, looking at possible sites for hotels. Nobody’s going to be able to contact him until he gets back to civilization, including me.”
Lizzy looked dazed at that information. “A month?”
Darcy nodded.
“Poor Jane,” murmured Lizzy, all the anger washing out of her at those two words to be replaced with sympathy for her sister. “A whole month. What am I going to do?”
Darcy came back to sit beside her on the bed, reasonably certain that he wasn’t going to come to bodily harm anymore. He took one of her hands in his and intertwined their fingers, relishing the feel of her work-roughened hands against his. “You’ll keep her busy. And I’ll write out an email and mark it urgent so that Charlie finds out as soon as possible. That’s all we can do. I’m sorry, Lizzy. If I had realized, I wouldn’t have encouraged him to leave. Do you forgive me?”
She looked at his imploring face and couldn’t help but smile. How could she not when he was looking at her like that? “I suppose so. But you will have to help me come up with some way to distract Jane. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Darcy grinned big. “I think I have just the thing.” And he’d already set his plans in motion, too, before he knew anything like this was going to happen. “My house in Derbyshire, Pemberley, is in need of a little attention. I’ve already talked to your father about Longbourn Design and Construction taking on the project next, but since you and Jane have been so busy here at Netherfield, I have not had a chance to bring it up to the two of you. Now, I think it would be perfect. What do you say?”
She shook her head at him, smiled, and pressed a kiss to his cheek before standing. “I think it would be just the thing, Darcy. Thank you.”
That little kiss shocked him senseless. He was incapable of speech, but Lizzy didn’t seem to mind. She picked up her backpack off the floor and headed for the door before he could realize what she was doing.
He hurried after her. “Wait a second, Lizzy. Where are you going?”
“To return my book and short sheet Caroline’s bed.”
Darcy looked at her guiltily. “I didn’t want to tell you this earlier, but Caroline’s already in London. It will not do you any good to short sheet her bed. The only reason I’m still here is because I had to finish up some hiring decisions.”
He felt even worse when her face fell with disappointment. She heaved a weary sigh. “That’s just my luck. I guess I’ll have to wait for a more opportune time.” She dropped her backpack to the floor and unzipped it, withdrawing a leather-bound book. She handed it to Darcy. “Here.”
“I didn’t think you really had a book to return,” he admitted, hefting it in his hand to feel the weight. “I thought that was just an excuse.”
“Oh, it was an excuse,” she told him. “It was just a real one.”
“I’ll return it for you.”
“Okay.”
They stood there, staring awkwardly at each other for a long moment, before Darcy cleared his throat and broke eye contact. “Before you go, I wanted to tell you I’m leaving tomorrow. I have to get back up to our Derbyshire branch. I’ve let things slide for as long as I can to be down here, but I can’t let them go for any longer. I’ll be in touch so we can work out the details for the Pemberley project.”
He hesitated, and she thought that was the end of it.
She hefted her backpack on to her shoulder and headed toward the window. “Okay.”
“Can I have your phone number? So, I can, you know, call you about
the project?”
When she turned back to look at him in surprise, his cheeks were pink. She couldn’t refuse him, not with that endearing little half smile on his face, although for some reason the thought of giving Darcy her phone number scared her out of her wits. Maybe it was because it forced her to admit to herself, just a little bit, that the thought of Darcy calling her thrilled her. “Okay.”
He reached for a pen and pad of paper on the bedside table and wrote down her number as she rattled off the digits.
Then he smiled, thanked her, and bid her goodnight. She had already clambered out the window and was fast disappearing into the night when Darcy called after her quietly, “Lizzy, how did you get here?”
She looked back over her shoulder at him and couldn’t help smiling to herself, knowing he would be shocked. “I walked.”
“You walked!” He sounded suitably surprised.
“Yes.”
“Are you going to walk all the way back?”
“I had planned on it.”
“I can’t let you do that. Give me a minute to put on some clothes and I’ll drive you.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I insist.” His head disappeared back inside and she imagined him rooting through his closet and throwing on clothes. She could have left while he was otherwise occupied, but she didn’t. Truth be told, Lizzy didn’t mind catching a ride from him, even if the long walk back home would have given her time to think over the night’s events and clear her mind.
Several minutes later, his dark shadow appeared at the window again and he climbed out after her, his long legs easily finding the ground. He strode towards her purposefully and took the backpack from her shoulder, slinging it over his own. “Come on.”
She was only too happy to oblige.
*****
Darcy left early the next morning, the outline of Longbourn in the smoky mists of dawn making him smile as he drove past. Somewhere in that house, Elizabeth slept, tired out from her nocturnal ramblings.
It was bittersweet to leave her behind, but he knew they would soon be reunited at Pemberley, where there would be far fewer stressors around them. Hopefully, in the home and among the family he loved, she would come to see who he really was and like what she saw. That was the plan, at least, and he was going to move heaven and earth to make sure that it worked out to the best of his abilities. He was going to try, really try, to be the sort of man she could love. Social interactions did not come easy to him, but for Lizzy’s sake he could and would do anything.
He had several calls to make to ensure everything was in order, but he was confident. He had to be. If he wasn’t, despair would overwhelm him. He had said those three pivotal words to her, and she had not said them back. No man liked to lay his heart out on the line and not have his love be reciprocated.
As he left Hertfordshire and Lizzy Bennet behind him, Darcy thought about the future. He thought about the near future, with Lizzy in Derbyshire, and the future that was still too far off for him to quite picture, of a lifetime with her by his side.
That image was still a little fuzzy around the edges, because Lizzy was an opinionated, sometimes obnoxious, and almost always outspoken woman, who knew her own mind and was not afraid to stamp on Darcy’s dreams if they interfered with her own. Somehow, he had to find a way to merge those dreams. He had not quite figured that out yet, but he was certain he knew people who could help him with it.
His sister Georgiana was one. She had been after him for years to settle down and give her nieces and nephews. Even though he had complained and stalled, she had never given up hope. She would be thrilled to know he was even contemplating the possibility now.
His cousin, Richard Fitzwilliam, was another. Those two would do everything they could to help his cause, especially once they met Lizzy and realized just how special of a woman she was.
He grimaced. He just had to keep her away from Aunt Catherine. That woman could scare people away with one sentence and a haughty glare. That would be no easy task, given that Lizzy already had connections to his aunt through that student of her father’s, William Collins. He just hoped nothing went awry before he had the opportunity to get everything set up in Derbyshire. He really did not want Lady Catherine entangled in his personal life any more than she already was, trying to push him to sell Pemberley to her and his cousin Anne.
Poor Anne, having to live with that termagant day in and day out. Aunt Catherine was almost as bad as Caroline Bingley.
The sun broke over the horizon, flooding his dash with golden light and brightening his mood as it did the sky.
He had the feeling this was going to be a great day.
*****
The instant Lizzy stepped into the dining room for breakfast, she knew it was going to be a humdinger of a day. Good or bad, she wasn’t sure yet. What she did know was that it was going to be memorable.
The family was gathered at the table, with even William Collins in attendance. She was the last to arrive, and as she eyed her relatives ringing her, she couldn’t help but wonder if that had been a purposeful act on their part. But then she remembered that Jane was one of the crowd and Jane would never do something like that.
Feeling trepidation, she sat down in her seat and reached for a box of cereal.
“Good morning, Elizabeth,” William greeted her, while the rest of her family remained mum.
This was even stranger, for her family wasn’t exactly known for their silence. They were loud and boisterous on all occasions, and the dining room and breakfast table had never been off limits to that noise.
“Good morning,” she responded hesitantly, keeping her head down so she would draw less attention to herself. She opened the box of cereal and started to pour some into her bowl.
“Elizabeth, I have been wanting to speak to you about a matter of supreme importance,” William said.
Lizzy paused, the box of cereal suspended in mid-air, wariness rising. One of the younger girls, she wasn’t sure which one, giggled and was quickly shushed by Mrs. Bennet.
Her throat suddenly dry, Lizzy set down the box of cereal with a thud and raised her eyes to meet William’s across the table, silently berating whoever had suggested this seating arrangement. Panicking, all she could think to respond with was, “Oh?”
He nodded brusquely. “Yes.” Turning his attention to those around them, he asked the table at large, “May we have a few moments to speak alone?”
Alarmed, Lizzy protested as her family got up to leave her alone with him, “That is not necessary. Anything you have to say to me can be said in front of them, I am sure.”
“Nonsense!” Mrs. Bennet exclaimed, bustling her daughters out of the room. “We don’t mind, do we, girls?”
Lizzy tried to snag Jane’s arm as she went by, her panicked gaze finding her sister’s laughing one. She scowled at her sister. It was not a funny situation! But at least Jane was smiling. Whatever this was about, she couldn’t be sorry about that.
Her father dropped her a wink as he slipped out the door, a door she knew her family’s ears would be pressed against the instant it shut. She scowled at William and crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, you’ve got me to yourself now. What did you want to say?”
William Collins was blissfully unaware of the foul turn her mood had taken. He came around the table to take the chair beside her, throwing his shoulders back confidently and addressing her formally. “Miss Bennet, as you are aware, I have lately had the good fortune of securing a benefactor to fund my endeavors. Lady Catherine has been very forthright in her determination that I should find a complement and helpmeet for my endeavors, and I have singled you out as the ideal companion.”
Lizzy’s head spun at this speech. Surely, he didn’t mean that the way she thought he did. Before she had the opportunity to respond though, he spoke again.
“I have long admired-” For all of two weeks, she thought. “-your industrious spirit and take charge attitude. But, as Lady C
atherine has often assured me, I cannot have any girlfriend of mine working in such a male-dominated profession. It is simply not done. So, I have decided to offer you a position as my secretary in Hunsford. It is not what you are used to, I know, and you will have to leave your family and home here in Meryton, but I think you will enjoy helping me to further my career and joining me at society’s parties and soirees. I am convinced we would make a most excellent team.”
Lizzy could stand it no longer. She broke in. “You might be convinced that we would make a most excellent team, but I am not. I am sorry, William but I cannot accept your job offer, nor will I be your girlfriend.”
He smiled condescendingly at her. “I know the concept is a new one to you. Please take your time and think about it. I don’t need an answer until I leave on Saturday.”
Anger seething from her every pore, Lizzy threw back her chair and drew herself erect. “I do not need to think about it. The answer is no!”
“Your vehemence and modesty do you justice, Elizabeth. I look forward to getting a more complete picture of your fine qualities as we get to know each other better.”
“For the last time, William, I will not date you!” She narrowed her eyes at his serene smile, and realized he wasn’t taking her seriously. Exasperated, she said, “I cannot date you, because I’m already dating someone else.”
That finally got through to him. The smile disappeared from his face, she noted with pleasure and short-lived relief.
“But your mother assured me that you had no prospects for male companionship.” Anger started to enter his features but Lizzy refused to back down. “Who is it?”
She quickly backtracked. “That is none of your business.”
“It’s Fitzwilliam Darcy, isn’t it?!” demanded William. “I saw you two sneak out together at the party earlier this week!”
Lizzy opened her mouth to answer, but the door launched open before any words came out. Mrs. Bennet threw herself through the door and wrapped Lizzy in her arms, pressing her face into her voluptuous bosom and cutting off her air supply.
Pride and Precipice Page 14