Page 97 of Her Whole Heart
The door was thrown open so hard that it cracked against the wall and Lady Henrietta leapt back, barely avoiding being struck. Mr. Darcy stepped in front of Elizabeth and Jane.
Given Lady Henrietta’s earlier warning, Elizabeth was not surprised to see that it was Lady Penelope bursting into the room, a crowd of eager onlookers trailing behind her. The fact that many of them carried candles told Elizabeth that far from stumbling upon her by accident, Lady Penelope had followed Jane and Mr. Darcy, then doubled back to assemble the audience she so clearly desired. She simply would not give up whatever vendetta she believed they were engaged in.
Lady Penelope’s hand flew to her chest in mock surprise as she realised that Mr. Darcy was in the room, and her lips curled into a sneer.
“Do you see?” Lady Penelope nearly shouted. “Miss Elizabeth Bennet is alone with Mr. Darcy! She has ever been a fortune-hunting chit! I have no idea how she has fooled so many usually sensible people of her virtue, but she has certainly never had any.”
The crowd murmured, their faces a mix of shock and curiosity. Elizabeth saw Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley standing at the front of the crowd, laughing to one another.
Lady Penelope, emboldened by the reaction, pressed on. “It seems our dear Miss Elizabeth is brazen enough to pursue a gentleman of wealth and standing even in a dark room at a ball with hundreds of people in the rooms just down the hall. A woman who is low enough to agree to such as assignation only for personal gain is surely the sort of person who would set a fire to prove herself heroic.”
“How dare you, Lady Penelope,” Mr. Darcy said. “If there is anyone guilty of inappropriate behaviour here, it is you. Have you been following Miss Elizabeth all evening? Your obsession with her is appalling.”
“I am far from obsessed with Miss Elizabeth,” Lady Penelope scoffed. “The very notion.”
“Then why are you here?” Mr. Darcy inquired.
Jane stood from her chair. “Regardless of your purpose, Lady Penelope, Mr. Darcy and my sister were never alone. Mr. Darcy came into the room with me to look for her.”
Lady Penelope’s eyes narrowed to slits, and her lips curled into a ferocious sneer. Ignoring Jane’s explanation, she inquired, “What were youbothdoing in here with Mr. Darcy, then?”
The buzz of voices increased, and there was some indecent laughter.
It was school all over again. Everyone listened to the lie and very few to the truth. Elizabeth considered whether she even wished to address such a disgusting inquiry. After all, what right had Lady Penelope to issue questions and expect that she would answer them?
“How could a maiden even know enough to ask such a thing?” Mr. Darcy asked coldly, and Lady Penelope’s mouth dropped open.
She snapped it closed and narrowed her eyes. “Then whatareyou doing here, Miss Elizabeth?”
The crowd went absolutely silent while Elizabeth and Lady Penelope glared at one another.
“She was here to speak with me,” a voice rang out from the far side of the room. Lady Henrietta emerged from the shadows, her head held high as she walked into the light.
This did surprise Elizabeth. She had thought Lady Henrietta had slipped out as the crowd was pouring in. She reluctantly conceded that there might be something to Lady Henrietta’s desire to change after all.
The crowd gasped as they all observed Lady Henrietta step forward. Lady Penelope’s complexion turned an almost ghostly shade of white. Her mouth opened but she struggled to find words.
Elizabeth nodded as regally as she was able, not being used to it. “Thank you, Lady Henrietta, for coming forward. I did not wish to speak for you.”
Lady Henrietta lifted her chin and stared down her nose at Lady Penelope. “Youhave ever been discreet, Miss Elizabeth. I am sorry that I had not understood that before.” She took a steadying breath, and Elizabeth was close enough to see that Lady Henrietta’s hands were shaking. She sympathized with her former nemesis. It was no easy thing to break off a friendship, certainly not one of such long-standing, and in such a public manner.
“It is time for the truth to be known, Pen. Miss Elizabeth is not the villain we have painted her, and I will no longer participate in what I now know to be lies. She saved our lives at Mrs. Buxton’s that night—mine, but also yours. She knocked on everyone’s door though she could have easily escaped herself without warning anyone and made certain that she and her sister were safe.”
“She likely set the fire herself.” The whispers behind Lady Penelope grew like a stream meeting the river. Everyone was aware of the disdain Lady Henrietta had previously felt for Elizabeth. To have her speak in Elizabeth’s favour would go a long way to countering any innuendo Lady Penelope might concoct.
“Another tired lie, Pen. She could not have set the fire. I have recently learnt from my father that the fire started in the attic.”
“What difference does that make?”
Lady Henrietta raised her voice loud enough for everyone to hear. “You know as well as I that we had locked Miss Elizabeth in a bitterly cold classroom two floors down for the temerity of protecting a servant from my ill-conceived wrath. Certainly, you recall Miss Elizabeth’s response. We neither of us escaped untouched.”
More gasps. Mr. Darcy glanced at Elizabeth, and touched the skin below his eye before lifting his brows in question. She recalled he had wondered about his cousin’s bruised eye and how she had acquired it. Elizabeth answered with a short, tight nod.
His smile was almost feral.
Lady Henrietta was still speaking. “My father also related to me that Miss Elizabeth and Miss Bennet were on their way to their room when they smelled the smoke. All the parents knew this, including yours. Unless Miss Elizabeth could be in two places at once, it was not her.”
“If we locked her in, how would she have escaped?”
