While Elizabeth saw through Caroline’s charade, Jane remained blissfully unaware. Or perhaps she did not, for Jane held her hands out and asked Miss Bingley to help her upstairs. After such a direct request, Caroline certainly could not refuse but Elizabeth’s jaw dropped as her sister abandoned her in a room once more with the Hursts, Mr. Bingley, and Mr. Darcy!
Elizabeth glanced at the remaining patrons of the room and quickly curtsied. “I beg your pardon, but I do not wish to burden Miss Bingley with my sister’s care for the remainder of the afternoon. I hope you understand.”
“Of course, we do dear. I hope she is well again soon.” Louisa Hurst offered without even looking up from her knitting.
Frowning at yet another slight from a Bingley family member, Elizabeth scooped her hands to retrieve her thick novel and hastened above stairs.
Darcy’s throat tightened as Miss Elizabeth dashed out of the room. He had thought she enjoyed the dance as much as he had, so why was she so eager to quit his company? Frustrated, he stormed over to the brandy to pour himself a glass. Mr. Bingley quickly joined his side to mimic his actions.
“I say, aside from Miss Bennet being unwell once again, what a jolly, good time! I am surprised Miss Elizabeth seemed to enjoy dancing with you, Darcy.” Bingley knocked back a healthy portion of his liquor.
“That was rather offensive, Charles. Why ever should a woman of her background not enjoy a dance with me? There are scores of ladies in London who would enjoy nothing more than the same pleasure.”
Bingley laughed at his friend’s ego. Few could fault Darcy, though, the man was worth over £10,000 a year and one of the largest landowners in the country. Still, sometimes his friend did not know his own limits of attraction. “I tried to explain to you yesterday, she overheard your remark at the first night’s assembly calling her not tolerable enough to tempt anyone.”
Frowning, Darcy felt a sharp pain in his chest. His words said out of anger at Bingley’s constant nagging that he pick a partner and dance echoed in his memories.
“Not handsome enough to tempt me. Those are the words I uttered.”
Bingley finished his drink and slammed the glass back on the sideboard. His sister Caroline reentered the room and started a conversation with Louisa, who still sat on the other side. “Either way, you accuse Miss Elizabeth of flirtation and I am afraid to say she has been trying to match your original disdain with her own.”
“Thank you ever so much for this intelligence, though I do wish you might have made a greater effort to apprise me of it earlier in their visit. I owe her an apology.” Darcy walked away but Charles called for his friend to come back. Darcy obliged, expecting more intelligence of similar value.
Instead, with a hiss, Bingley explained Darcy could not apologize to Miss Elizabeth as it was a confidence Jane gave him in the first place.
“You would undermine my trust with Miss Bennet. No Darcy, you must find another way to make Miss Elizabeth confess and make your amends that way.”
Just as the two men finished their semi-private conversation, Darcy found Miss Bingley suddenly very much attached to his left arm.
“Mr. Darcy, if you are still in the mood to dance, I have arranged with my sister to play for us.” Darcy looked over and Louisa Hurst indeed sat at the pianoforte and was beginning the first strains of a reel. Involuntarily, Darcy groaned and Bingley laughed at him. Caroline pretended not to notice the reaction and instead escorted a very reluctant Mr. Darcy to the open space of the room for her own turn with the elusive man of Derbyshire. Halfhearted, Darcy completed the moves but his mind was elsewhere.
After taking a full inventory of his exchanges with Miss Elizabeth Bennet, the totality of her hatred towards him appeared to be an insurmountable obstacle. How on earth was he to make amends and apologize to a woman he could not acknowledge offending in the first place? The problem would require strategy and stealth.
“Ooh!” Caroline stopped the dance and stood on one foot, her face crumpled in a pout.
Darcy also stopped and forgot his worrying about Elizabeth for a moment in response to his dance partner’s pain. “Did you turn your ankle?”
“No,” Caroline said meekly as Darcy helped to escort her to the nearby sofa, forcing her to hop in a most undignified manner. “You stepped on my foot!”
“I am terribly sorry,” Darcy bowed in apology but secretly thanked his bumbling feet for ending the set early.
Louisa stopped playing the piano and came to see to her sister, causing Caroline even more agitation. “Louisa!”
“You are injured, you do not need me to play any longer. You only wanted to dance with Mr. Darcy.” Louisa Hurst huffed as her condition made her more fatigued though her gowns scarcely showed the future joy expected to arrive in mid-summer.
Mr. Darcy looked at Charles who shrugged and the two sisters ignored one another.
“Charles,” Darcy addressed his friend, “was there not some estate business on which you wished my opinion?”
“Estate business? No, I do not believe so.”
“The spring plantings. You mentioned yesterday you wanted more explanation about Pemberley’s plans.” Darcy clasped his hands behind his back and glared at his friend.
“Why not discuss the matter here? I am certain I should find the knowledge of your excellent stewardship of your family’s land most fascinating.” Caroline Bingley attempted to encourage Mr. Darcy to join her on the sofa with a barely perceptible lay of her hand on the corner of the cushion next to her.
“Er— I am afraid the subject matter is quite dull. And you would not have the experience to see the benefits of rotation and soil restoration. Charles, might we return to your study?” Mr. Darcy’s glare became an icy stare. One even Charles recognized as a final warning.
“Oh, yes, how daft of me to forget not just the spring plantings, but also the contract for the butcher,” Charles smirked as he led the way to his study, the last refuge for the men of the house. He always enjoyed the sport of watching Darcy squirm away from Caroline’s advances. But he had to be more mindful to not push his own entertainment too far, he did not wish for Darcy to abandon him with his sisters and that idiot brother of his over Caroline’s forwardness.
As the men escaped the drawing room, Caroline stood and stomped out her frustrations in front of the window, frowning at the weather outdoors.
“This is patently unfair! The entire point of this house lease with Mr. Darcy instructing Charles was to give me more time with the man!” Caroline fumed and clenched her fists at her sides.
Louisa looped her yarn over her hook and continued to work the needles. “If it rains another week, mark my words we will have a double wedding by Christmas.”
Caroline stopped her progress and considered her sister’s words. “You truly think so? I do not approve of our brother marrying such a penniless bloom, but my match with Mr. Darcy will more than compensate. And we can make sure Jane cuts herself off from her family once we take her to London.”
Sighing, Louise flopped her knitting into her lap and looked at her sister with exasperation. “I am warning you it will be a ceremony of Bennet brides. Not Bingley.”
Caroline scowled as she realized Louisa was pointing out Mr. Darcy preferred Miss Elizabeth’s company to her own, a fact that had not escaped her own notice. Her mind raced over how she might combat Nature’s inconvenience to her own profit. And soon, a plan unraveled in her thoughts that was fairly simple. Every time Mr. Darcy enjoyed Miss Eliza’s company, Caroline would find a way to best her. It was the only way to prove, once and for all, she was the best match for a man of his stature.
“Do not underestimate me, sister, for I have a plan.”
Lack of interest in Don Quixote for over two hours justified in Elizabeth’s mind another trip to the library. She knew the estate had not magically spawned new titles for her to peruse, but something about the room still drew her to browse the shelves. Jane was truly on the mend, and she wondered perhaps if the el
der Bennet sister milked her illness as an attempt to avoid Caroline Bingley and Louisa Hurst. But such malice was uncharacteristic of Jane though Elizabeth would gladly play the part of the invalid if it meant she might stay abed in such a lovely home as Netherfield.
After edging her way between the heavy doors, the room offered a warmness and smell of leather bindings, despite the meager offerings. Her heart raced wildly as she wondered if Mr. Darcy were present, hiding in a corner or some other dark shadows as was his habit. The innocent chess board remained directly in front of her, but the arrangement had captured her attention. Someone had moved a pawn.
Giddy elation bubbled up in her chest as she stepped forward to inspect the board. She took a deep breath and with a shaky hand reached out to move her queen’s knight from behind the defensive line of pawns to greet her adversary. A deep, baritone voice startled her.
“You agree to another game? Does this mean you have forgiven me?”
Elizabeth spun around and tucked her hands behind her back. Remembering she was not a wayward child caught in mischief, she pulled her hands back in front of her, but could not cease wringing them in worry. What might she say? She had not truly thought through the implications of starting another game, another stupid headstrong move would cause her trouble!
“And what, sir, have you done that begs forgiveness?”
Mr. Darcy took two decisive steps towards her but stopped before encroaching upon her personal space in an uncomfortable manner. “I have behaved poorly, unlike a gentleman in your regard. I confess my words are not always chosen so carefully when I am angered or feel strong emotions.”
Elizabeth smiled. “Then I must anger you on all occasions.”
“No, Miss Elizabeth, you do not anger me. Quite the opposite.”
Shocked he would once more reveal so much when their acquaintance was of such a short duration, Elizabeth felt her body flush at the excitement of another compliment. Her heart sang his praises while her mind tried to recall his insult at the assembly and many other times in this very house.
Mr. Darcy did not abide her silence well and felt compelled to do something to put the situation back in his favor. Clearing his throat, he walked away to retrieve two chairs from elsewhere in the library. Elizabeth stepped away from the table to watch the great man take on the employment of a footman for her amusement.
Once finished, Mr. Darcy bowed low in her direction. “Miss Elizabeth Bennet, would you give me the pleasure of playing a game of chess?”
Elizabeth bit her lower lip and glanced towards the library door which was decidedly closed and irrevocably placed her in danger of being considered compromised. Mr. Darcy followed her line of sight and nodded. Dutifully, he strolled over to the double doors and opened them wide, grunting as he moved the heavy potted ferns to keep them thus. Slightly perspiring, he returned to Elizabeth with a rare smile on his face.
“I should wish you comfortable in my company, and I promise to think twice before I speak.”
To signal her answer, she walked over to her chair and waited expectantly before Mr. Darcy caught the gist. His long legs nearly tripped him up as he tried to move quicker than was reasonable, but he did manage to pull out her chair and push it back in once she sat down in White’s position.
“Thank you, Mr. Darcy, for the invitation. My sister is resting, and I find chess and games of the mind to be a favored activity.”
“Do you— do you often play with your father?” Darcy made another move to respond to her knight’s entrance.
Elizabeth nodded her head most vigorously. “Indeed,” she frowned before moving a pawn to allow her bishop free movement. “If I were at home, my father and I would be in his study when the weather is such as it is today.”
Darcy moved another pawn, daring her to take it with the piece she previously moved. “How old were you when you began to play?”
Elizabeth was not fooled. She moved another pawn only one space to take his pawn if he now took hers, the art of warfare relying on equal and opposite reactions. “I was eight.”
“Nine.” Darcy responded, answering his own question for himself, moving his black knight out from behind the front lines.
Elizabeth smiled at the cheeky familiar piece and moved her pawn up one space to the same level as his. “There is my old friend.”
She anticipated Mr. Darcy taking her pawn as it sat perfectly located in the L-shaped distance from his knight’s position. He swiftly took her piece, and she moved too quickly to take his knight with her own, brushing her hand against his as they tried to reach for the same space. The skin to skin contact sent a jolt of energy up her arm, paralyzing her movements and arresting his own. Their hands still touching, she looked up at him and sighed. Mr. Darcy offered her such sad eyes; she could not help but smile at him in hopes of sending good cheer.
“Mr. Darcy!” Caroline Bingley entered the library, and her chirpy voice ended the moment of intimacy. Elizabeth snatched his knight and moved it to the side of the board, placing her offending hands in her lap. “There you are! I had looked everywhere for you; I should have realized you were in the library.”
Mr. Darcy grimaced, staring at the chess board and refusing to acknowledge Miss Bingley’s inopportune arrival. His senses inflamed by the slightest touch of the woman in front of him, his baser nature chafed at behaving in a civilized manner when Elizabeth triggered every natural masculine instinct in his possession.
“You are teaching Miss Elizabeth to play?” she whined. “But it was I who requested your instruction first. Tut, tut, you have forgotten.”
“Mr. Darcy is not teaching me to play chess, Miss Bingley. I already know how.” Elizabeth flicked her eyes to Mr. Darcy as he moved his other knight from the reserves. She caught a wink from him and felt more steady. He was not cross she had breached propriety and allowed her hand to linger before. Decisively, she moved her queen to the far corner of the board.
“You cannot possibly know how, you’ve just moved that piece, there, diagonally, and Mr. Darcy moved his piece in a jumping motion.”
“Your queen may move in all directions, but may not jump over pieces like a knight,” Elizabeth explained.
Caroline looked at the pieces as Mr. Darcy moved in yet another way entirely, feeling very confused the different pieces apparently followed different rules. “And what is the point of this game?”
“Protect the king,” Mr. Darcy said.
“Oh, so there is a king, he must be able to move anywhere.”
Elizabeth laughed, taking another of Mr. Darcy’s pieces. “Again, you are mistaken, the king may only move one space in any direction.”
Mr. Darcy locked eyes with his Elizabeth as the two continued a flurry of movements to Caroline’s continued arguments about how silly the game must be to confer such freedom to a queen piece but not a king piece. Elizabeth broke away as she used her queen to take one of his bishops, and tried to explain to Miss Bingley that chess resembled a battlefield, with different units holding unique capabilities. She missed Mr. Darcy’s next move while explaining the game as she would to a child.
“Checkmate.”
The warm, viscous tone of Mr. Darcy’s voice washed over Elizabeth, making her wish to hear the man’s voice even more if she admitted it to herself. Offering him a half smile, she tapped her king piece, the tallest with a cross upon his head, and allowed him to fall over.
“Huzzah to Mr. Darcy. It would appear Miss Eliza is not so very good at chess after all.”
Mr. Darcy offered his hand across the board to the surprised Elizabeth just as he would a male opponent. After carefully considering her options, she extended her own and shook his hand, savoring another taste of the delicious feeling she enjoyed when they came into contact.
“You are mistaken, Miss Bingley,” Mr. Darcy said slowly to elongate the time his hand held Elizabeth’s, “she bested me the first time we played.” The handshake ended so as not to push the limits of Caroline’s observations too far and Elizab
eth returned her hands to a wringing motion under the table. How could a man’s touch cause such a tingling sensation against her will?
Caroline huffed. “Well, I am quite accomplished at backgammon and wonder if you might like to play a game with me, Mr. Darcy. We can move to the drawing room where the lighting is much better, despite the wretched rain outside.”
Darcy looked to Elizabeth before answering, but she waved him off.
“I should return to my sister and see to her comfort. Perhaps we might play another game before Jane and I leave.”
Mr. Darcy rose from his chair as Elizabeth began returning the pieces to their proper starting positions. He bowed low over the table. “It was a pleasure and a privilege, Miss Elizabeth.”
Elizabeth giggled as she spied Darcy’s posture become rigid when Caroline looped her arm in his to leave the library. Breathing deeply through her nose, she cautioned herself no matter the thrilling emotions the man caused her to feel, in fact, she knew very little of him. The strictures of a proper upbringing warred with her romantic heart fantasizing about being held in his arms and dare she even wish it, receiving a kiss!
The storm outside did not rage so harshly as the previous day, but the rain fell in a steady staccato symphony, and Elizabeth laid her cheek against the cool window and closed her eyes. It was well and good to tease Jane for her sighs over Mr. Bingley, but to feel a similar state of charity towards a man was a new experience Elizabeth wished to keep utterly to herself. With any luck, Miss Bingley would continue to keep her and Mr. Darcy from enjoying too much time together, and that safeguard was one Lizzie Bennet appreciated.
Dinner on the fifth day found Elizabeth more at ease than any previous night. With Jane fully participating in the meal, most of the attention fell not on her, but instead upon Jane. Gone were the impertinent questions Elizabeth endured. Both Caroline Bingley and Louisa Hurst appeared to be happy to engage in conversation with the sweet Jane.
Unfortunately, the addition of her sister had moved Elizabeth down the table, so the two Bennet sisters flanked Mr. Hurst on Bingley’s right, and Mr. Darcy sat in between the two Bingley sisters on Mr. Bingley’s left. But not participating in the conversation suited Elizabeth just fine as she dedicated her attentions to the delicious dinner brought out in no less than five courses.
To Capture Mr. Darcy, a Pride and Prejudice Variation Novel Page 5
