The Unforgettable Mr. Darcy

“My aunt and uncle Gardiner who live in London—and their children?”

“I am not acquainted with them.”

“Did they not attend the wedding?”

Damnation! He had forgotten the “wedding.” This is why he abhorred deceit; one lie begat a whole series of falsehoods. “They did not attend the wedding,” he said truthfully enough.

“I hope nobody in the family was ill!”

“I heard nothing of any illness,” Darcy reassured her. “You were their only source of anxiety.”

“They believe I am lost at sea.” Elizabeth’s hands twisted in her lap. “Oh, we must hurry home so I may lighten their hearts!”

“Indeed.”

She pressed fingertips to her forehead. “If only I could recover the rest of my memories!”

Darcy could only pray that she did not recover them too soon.

***

Elizabeth dreamed.

She did not recognize the place: a modest drawing room with well-worn furnishings and a blazing fire in the hearth. Several unremarkable paintings on religious themes adorned the walls.

His face quite pale and drawn, Mr. Darcy leaned against the mantelpiece on the other side of the room. This was not the proud, distant man she recalled from previous encounters. Obviously in the grip of some strong emotion, his chest heaved with each breath. Was he angry?

Finally, he spoke in a strained voice. “And this is all the reply which I am to have the honor of expecting! I might perhaps wish to be informed why with so little endeavor at civility I am thus rejected.”

Elizabeth’s entire body trembled with an unaccustomed fury. “I might as well enquire why with so evident a design of offending and insulting me, you chose to tell me that you liked me against your will, against your reason, and even against your character! Was not this some excuse for incivility if I was uncivil? But I have other provocations. Do you think that any consideration would tempt me to accept the man who has been the means of ruining, perhaps forever, the happiness of a most beloved sister?”

He did not deny it. In fact, he looked even more tranquil—and far haughtier. Such superciliousness further stoked her anger. “Can you deny that you have done it?”

“I have no wish of denying that I did everything in my power to separate my friend from your sister, or that I rejoice in my success. Towards him I have been kinder than towards myself.”

Such effrontery! Calmly agreeing that he had ruined Jane’s life! Elizabeth wanted nothing more than to hurt him the way he had hurt her sister. “But it is not merely this affair on which my dislike is founded. Your character was unfolded in the recital which I received many months ago from Mr. Wickham.”

His face grew red. “You take an eager interest in that gentleman’s concerns.”

“Who that knows what his misfortunes have been, can help feeling an interest in him?”

Mr. Darcy scoffed, “His misfortunes! His misfortunes have been great indeed!”

Anger surged through her veins, giving her energy. “And of your infliction. You have reduced him to his present state of poverty. And yet you can treat the mention of his mi

sfortune with contempt and ridicule.”

Abandoning the mantelpiece, Mr. Darcy took a few steps in her direction; a muscle twitched in his jaw. “And this is your opinion of me! But perhaps these offences might have been overlooked had not your pride been hurt by my honest confession of the scruples that had long prevented my forming any serious design. I am not ashamed of the feelings I related. They were natural and just. Could you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your connections? To congratulate myself on the hope of relations whose condition in life is so decidedly beneath my own?”

Elizabeth marveled for a moment, staring open-mouthed at the man. He actually believed she would have accepted him if he had made her the offer in a more acceptable way! Did he not understand how contemptible he had rendered himself? Well, she would correct that misapprehension. She drew herself to her full height. “You are mistaken if you supposed that the mode of your declaration affected me in any way than as it spared me the concern which I might have felt in refusing you—had you behaved in a more gentleman-like manner.”

He started at her words, his face a frozen mask. Had she gone too far in accusing him of being ungentlemanly? It was, to be sure, quite an insult. But he still offered no apologies or excuses. Apparently he still found his behavior acceptable.

Well, she certainly had more to say. “You could not have made me the offer of your hand in any possible way that would have tempted me to accept it.” His eyes widened with astonishment. “From the first moment of my acquaintance with you, your manners impressed me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit and your selfish disdain for the feelings of others. I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed upon to marry.”

Mr. Darcy finally moved, taking a jerky step away from her. “You have said quite enough, madam. I perfectly comprehend your feelings and have now only to be ashamed of what my own have been. Forgive me for having taken up so much of your time and accept my best wishes for your health and happiness.”

His face a stony mask, he strode swiftly through the door and then was gone. Elizabeth sank into the nearest chair, barely perceiving the room around her.