Darcy & Elizabeth: A Season of Courtship (Darcy Saga Prequel Duo) by Sharon Lathan Read Free Book Online Page B

Bennet reporting Lydia’s affair with George Wickham
violently destroyed everything, in Darcy’s dismayed opinion.
    How could Elizabeth ever forgive
him? He who had the power to stop Wickham yet remained silent. It was a
dramatic reminder of his pride and failure. The only bright spots during that
whole sordid mess were a handful of vague comments by Mrs. Gardiner alluding to
Elizabeth’s favorable impression of Pemberley—and him. Darcy had tucked
them away in his mind but prohibited his heart from dwelling upon them.
    Upon the few, brief interactions
when Darcy returned to Netherfield with Bingley, Elizabeth had not appeared
angry or disgusted. His heart had lifted, but he clamped down on the tiny
trickle. After all, her sister had just been proposed to! What woman would not
be in a fine mood with smiles and cheery conversation?
    Every day for the subsequent week—while
Bingley danced with joy and gushed on and on about his great happiness—Darcy
had remained torn. Not only had he felt the urge to throttle Bingley—purely
out of his own heartache and not because he was unhappy for his dear friend and
Miss Bennet—but he had also disliked the train of his thoughts.
    He had never suspected that
Elizabeth knew of his involvement with the Wickham fiasco but figured it
obvious to her that he had played some part in bringing Bingley back to
Hertfordshire—and to Jane. Add to that the natural romantic sentiments
that revolve around an engagement and promised wedding, and it was not a leap
in logic to imagine that, if he pressed Elizabeth, she may have been amenable.
    While it made perfect sense on one
level, and had been hugely tempting, Darcy refused to win Elizabeth’s hand
under any sort of leverage or artifice. Frankly, woman or not, he doubted her
gullible enough to succumb to such emotional sentiments. Nevertheless, he
preferred not to take that chance. The lesson painfully learned in the spring
assured him that winning Elizabeth Bennet’s heart, wholly and unreservedly, had
to occur honestly. So he had decided that dwelling in London, rather than at
Netherfield, at least for a while, was best.
     A small voice inside had
doggedly whispered Fool! and Coward! without ceasing. He had
ignored it as best he could—aided by business endeavors and constant
activity—and had remained determined to give her space to enjoy Jane’s
happiness before he returned to the area. Then, so his nebulous plan had went,
he would proceed slowly and see where fate led as they found themselves
together due to mutual connections to Charles and Jane.
    Then, Lady Catherine descended upon
Darcy House like a black tornado resolved to obliterate whatever positive
headway had been made.
    Darcy drained the cup of coffee and
popped a fig into his mouth. Replaying yesterday’s scene with his aunt actually
made him smile. Envisioning what his cousin Richard’s response would be to the
scene broadened his grin. Darcy tolerated his mother’s imperious older sister, ignored
her attitude for the most part, and endured her rudeness for the sake of family
stability. Richard, on the other hand, had a difficult time holding his tongue.
He would thrill at the exchange, begging Darcy to describe her expressions in
vivid detail.
    Thinking of imparting his momentous
news to Richard led Darcy to imagining the joy of telling of his great fortune
to all those who were dear to him. The sudden vision of Georgiana’s ecstatic
face and Mrs. Reynolds’ relieved pleasure supplanted any residual pique over
Lady Catherine. Besides, it was her interference, as horrid and misplaced as it
was, that prompted him to return to Hertfordshire immediately rather than
waiting until closer to Bingley’s wedding.
    He had determined to speak with
Elizabeth as plainly as possible, as soon as possible. Nothing had been
certain, not by a long chalk, but the one irrefutable fact he clung to was that
Elizabeth Bennet, above all, was frank and unafraid to speak bluntly. If she
had