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“Whatever do you mean?” Elizabeth asked.

“It is difficult for me to say. The last time we were together, you seemed less spirited—I would say, even downhearted. But look at you now.”

As if she was not feeling heated enough, the sun’s rays seeped through the gaps in the drapes and slanted across Elizabeth’s face. Elizabeth placed her hand on her cheek. She hoped she did not look as discomforted as she felt.

“I have been exerting myself with greater alacrity of late,” she started, “taking longer walks every day and what not.”

“That must be what it is.” Charlotte eyed her friend with concern and a touch of humor. “But then again, you have always been an excellent walker which makes me wonder if there is another explanation for your revived spirits.”

“Charlotte, what are you implying?”

“Pray, Eliza, I am only teasing you. Why, I have only your best interests at heart and seeing this change in you is a joy to behold.” Charlotte took another sip of her tea. “By the bye, Jane was speaking to me of Netherfield’s houseguest, Mr. Darcy, although Jane’s commendations were far more measured than my mother’s. I fear Mamma is just as excited over there being a single man of a large fortune in the neighborhood as your own mother must be.”

“Indeed, as it is the business of my mother’s life to get rid of all of us,” Elizabeth conceded.

Charlotte nodded. “Pray, is Mr. Darcy as handsome as he is proclaimed to be?”

Elizabeth could feel the color spread all over her body. Handsome? Here was a man blessed with all the best parts of beauty, and she had seen and touched most every inch.

Elizabeth swallowed. “You’re asking me?”

“Am I to believe that because you are engaged to marry Mr. Collins, you are oblivious to other men and all their charms?”

Oblivious to other men? Elizabeth’s thoughts were far more of Mr. Darcy than of the gentleman to whom she was betrothed. All she did of late was think of Mr. Darcy. She imagined herself dancing with him at a ball. She imagined herself talking with him as they walked together down a long, winding path under a canopy of trees. She imagined herself snuggled against his side.

Elizabeth coughed a little. “I would not say that.” She threw a glance at Jane, who had been silently taking in the discourse, hoping her sister would enjoy a share of the conversation. It was all she could do not to pour her heart out to Charlotte regarding her opinion of her secret lover.

Charlotte said, “It is not a tough question. Either Mr. Darcy is as handsome as my mother says he is, or he is not. What say you?”

“I daresay he is,” Elizabeth confessed. Emboldened, she added. “I daresay Mr. Darcy is the handsomest man whom I have ever laid eyes on.”

Charlotte sipped her tea. “That was not so hard, was it?”

“Perhaps not,” Elizabeth allowed.

“That leads me to my next question. Is Mr. Darcy amiable?”

Here, Jane interceded. “Mr. Darcy is my husband’s closest friend. How can he not be amiable? Charles declares Mr. Darcy is one of the best men he knows, and I have seen no evidence to refute his assertion.”

“And there you have it, Charlotte. Surely your interrogation is now complete,” Elizabeth said.

Charlotte sat back and smiled smugly. “As you wish, Eliza. Shall we discuss other things?”

“Yes, we shall,” Elizabeth said, glad that was the end of that. Part of her felt Charlotte knew more than she was letting on, or maybe it was just as Charlotte had said and she was merely teasing Elizabeth. Whatever was the case, Elizabeth knew in the future she had to be far more guarded if she were to continue to conceal the truth.

Chapter 10

Fitzwilliam Darcy was only meant to be in Hertfordshire for a month. He had put off his departure more than once, but he could not expect to stay in Hertfordshire indefinitely, and this fact was becoming the hardest to bear. He was no youngster to waste his time in idleness. The time was fast approaching when he would have to choose between the life of a gentleman of independent means or taking an active role in the running of his Pemberley and Rosings estates. And yes, to marry and beget an heir.

Elizabeth’s steadfastness in her farce of an engagement did not make things any easier for him. Darcy had never fancied himself a gambling man, yet he had gambled his own heart with her. Gambled and lost.

Elizabeth’s words of sacrificing her own happiness for the sake of her family were proving more unsound by the day. Darcy dared not deny her attachment to her family home, and neither could he blame her. But what difference would it make if she were to live the rest of her days in misery of the acutest kind owing to stubbornness on her part to hold on to the past?

The time had come. Darcy was quite prepared to take his leave, to settle for a life devoid of the sort of passion he and Elizabeth shared—a life away from the only woman who had the power to turn his world inside out and upside down.

It did not escape him that he had been walking in circles for over a quarter of an hour. He was waiting to meet Elizabeth for a much-needed talk. In Darcy’s mind, Elizabeth’s future was by his side, the mistress of his homes, and the mother of his children. But if she did not know it by now, after all they had shared, she would never know it.

Then it dawned on him. Perchance Elizabeth can be prevailed on to come with me to Derbyshire.