Page 94 of Ashes and Understanding
“I am glad to hear it.”
“I owe it entirely to you,” he added, his voice lower now, more earnest. “To your dedication to your sister all those years ago, and your kindness in offering it to me now after you accidentally stumbled across me at the assembly.”
Now her face felt as though it were burning, though some of it was due to mortification. “It was no trouble at all… although I am ashamed to admit, it was not entirely an accident that I found you in that corridor. I… I followed you from the assembly.”
His face froze in a blank mask, and his voice was stern as he asked, “Youfollowedme from the room? Why?”
“I was intending to challenge you for cutting me.”
Darcy blinked. “Cutting you?”
She recounted the scene in brief from her perspective—how she had overheard Bingley encouraging him to dance, how Darcy had looked her way, met her gaze, and promptly turned his back and walked away without so much as a word.
“I thought perhaps you were rejecting me, my appearance or my status. It was at such odds with how I remembered you from Hyde Park, and I thought perhaps you remembered me and were put off by my unladylike behavior back then. I was hurt at first, but then I was angry—angry enough to want to confront you.”
Darcy looked mortified. “I had no idea at all. I could barely breathe with the heavy air and the perfume. I intended no slight.”
“I know,” she said, laughing softly. “I realized it the moment I saw your face. You looked utterly miserable.”
He shook his head, still looking pained. “I am truly sorry. I would never—”
“There is no need,” she said gently. “I forgave you long ago.”
He hesitated. Then, in almost a whisper, he said, “Perhaps I might make amends… by reserving the next dance? Should there be another occasion?”
Her heart stopped.He does not know about the ball. I cannot allow him to make such a request when his honor may bind him to it without all the facts. He could merely be paying lip-service.
“You should be careful before say such things, as you may be held to them,” she lightly teased, attempting to give him a way out. “Shortly before you arrived, Mr. Bingley spoke of holding a ball soon at Netherfield.”
She held her breath, waiting for his reply, not daring to hope…
“Then allow me to ask you formally.” His voice was soft as he leaned forward, his breath caressing her ear. “Miss Elizabeth Bennet, may I have the honor of the first set?”
She could only stare at him for a moment, searching his face. The sincerity of his gaze broke through the last wall she had erected.
“You may,” she said softly. “If your health allows.”
“For you,” he said, “it would be worth the risk.”
The moment held—charged, fragile, and full of something unspoken.
Then a crash sounded from the upper floor, followed by a familiar, indignant wail. Elizabeth flinched and guiltily jerked her away from his, looking around frantically to make sure none in the room had witnessed their proximity.
“Lydia,” she groaned as another shriek sounded from above.
Mrs. Bennet hastily rose to her feet. “Those girls will be the death of me! Come, Mary, I shall most likely require your assistance. Excuse me, gentlemen.”
As her mother swept from the room, leaving the door just slightly ajar, Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief that no one had seemed to notice the tender moment she and Darcy had shared. Jane and Bingley were clearly in their own world, already having resumed their conversation.
The colonel chuckled as he rejoined the group, casting a glance toward the doorway through which Mrs. Bennet had just departed. "Your mother possesses an intelligence network that would put some of His Majesty's finest agents to shame," he remarked with a wry smile. "Her knowledge of the neighborhood is both vast and impressively detailed."
Elizabeth could not help but smile at the colonel's observation. "Indeed," she replied, "my mother has a talent for gathering and disseminating information that rivals any formal intelligence operation. Although I doubt that her penchant for neighborhood gossip has any strategic value.”
He chuckled. "Strategic, perhaps not. But comprehensive? Absolutely. Her knowledge of the local families, their histories, and their connections is nothing short of impressive. If ever I needed a dossier on the residents of Meryton, I would know precisely whom to consult."
Elizabeth laughed softly. "Be careful, Colonel. Flatter her too much, and she might draft you into her social campaigns."
He grinned. "A fate I shall endeavor to avoid."
