Chapter 4

"Miss Elizabeth," Col. Fitzwilliam said to the he dark haired beauty. "It is a pleasure to be in your company again. When I found out from my cousin that your family's estate was near by, I insisted on paying a call on one of my good friends."

At the word friend, Elizabeth who had been eyeing the colonel warily relaxed and sent him a beaming smile. One that caused his heart to beat rapidly as it also cracked. He had taken her uncle's advice and not asked for a courtship in the spring, but had rather asked if he could call on her at her home. She had teased him that such a thing would not be wise, that her mother was sure to get the wrong idea with five daughters. Col. Fitzwilliam had offered that he would not be offended if she did, and that perhaps it was not the wrong idea, but the right idea. Elizabeth had joked that seeing as how she would be the one left to live with her mother it certainly was the wrong idea and did not wish it to ruin their friendship. He had found himself agreeing not to call on her at her father's estate but limit their friendship to when she visited her family in London. Declaring he had come as merely a friend and not a suitor he saw put Elizabeth at ease and she relaxed into her previous manner he had enjoyed in the spring.

As Elizabeth and Col. Fitzwilliam chatted pleasantly, Col. Fitzwilliam attempted to covertly watch his cousin. His cousin had his face drawn into a scowl, his entire focus on Elizabeth, yet he uttered not a single word. Next to him on the sofa, the colonel gave him a nudge with his elbow after almost a quarter hour had gone by. When Darcy frowned at him, he cleared his throat and moved his eyes towards Elizabeth.

"Your sisters are absent I see," Darcy said stiffly, taking his cousin's hint to make conversation.

Squaring her shoulders, Elizabeth said, "My sister Mary is practicing while my sister Jane escorted my two youngest sisters into Meryton and my mother has gone to call on the Longs. Had you of arrived ten minutes later you would have found me also gone, out on a walk."

"And where is your cousin?" Darcy demanded.

"He has removed to Lucas Lodge," Elizabeth said.

"Since we have kept you from your ramble through the country side, perhaps you would consent to show us the garden?" Col. Fitzwilliam queried.

"An excellent suggestion, Colonel," Elizabeth said with a smile directed at him. "Let me fetch my outdoor things."

As Elizabeth went upstairs to retrive her pelisse and gloves,while the men retrived their things from the servant, Col. Fitzwilliam said quietly to Darcy, "I hope this isn't how you plan to go about winning her heart. You are as surly as a bear."

"You are entirely to familiar with her," Darcy said crossly. "Did you have to kiss her hand in greeting? It is clear she prefers your company to mine. I am not even sure why I am here."

"So you are bowing out?"

"No," Darcy said his tone short. "Never."

"Did you not see how she instantly relaxed when I assured her I came only as a friend? She has no wish to marry me. My suit has always been doomed to failure it seems. But you, she is not indifferent to you. Her reactions are rather telling. She is more aware of you then I have ever seen her of any other person. If you want her, it is up to you to turn her dislike of you around."

"How do I do that? I keep expecting her mother or sisters to burst in at any moment with vulgar pronouncements or demands she marry her odious cousin."

"I don't know how, but I do know sitting as a stone statue is not the way. She barely noticed me until I spoke up when we arrived. She was completely focused on your presence. I am not sure of her shock at seeing me unexpectedly was any greater then her's at seeing was wary of my prescence but even that was not enough to draw her attention from you. Talk to her."

"So what brings you to Meryton, Colonel?" Elizabeth asked as she strolled between the two men outside in the garden. "My sister was given to understand this morning by Miss Bingley that the entire Netherfield party had quit the area with no plans to return, not that such a welcome addition as yourself would be joining them."

"That would explain your surprise at seeing Darcy," Col. Fitzwilliam said with a chuckle.

"I believe I was rather more surprised that Mr. Darcy knew where Longbourn was without Mr. Bingley here to guide him to our doorstep," Elizabeth said archly.

"Miss Elizabeth," Darcy said speaking up. "You will find that my sense of direction is excellent once I am on course. The way to Longbourn is one I could never forget."

"I shall take your word for it. I am sure Miss Bingley, if she were present, would assure us all of your superiority in matters of direction. "

Col. Fitzwilliam laughed at this and said, "Miss Bingley drives poor Darcy absolutely batty. He cannot stand her. Finds her to be an encroaching snob."

"And here I thought they were of one mind. Or at least that is what Miss Bingley would have us all believe," Elizabeth said lightly. Her tone turning serious, gathering her courage, she turned to Darcy, raised her chin defiantly and asked, "Do you sir, support Miss Bingley's fond wish that her brother marry your sister? Do you have the audacity to support such a match when he has shown a clear preference elsewhere? Would you subject both him and your sister to a match of unequal affection?" Seeing Darcy about to speak, Elizabeth quickly added, "You cannot possibly mean to deny his affection for my sister. Jane may believe Miss Bingley has deceived herself about her brother's affections, and that Mr. Bingley showed her no true regard, but I have eyes and know how to use them!"

"I would never encourage Bingley to persue my sister if his heart lay elsewhere. My sister is not out, when she makes her curtsy it is my hope that she will marry for the same reasons I plan to," Darcy said frowning.

"Connections and fortune?" Elizabeth said icily.

"No. Love. A deep abiding affection. Respect. Compatibility. Because she has found someone to adore and cherish her. Someone who cannot live without her and that she feels the same for," Darcy said with conviction, looking Elizabeth directly in the eye. "Like I have."

"Oh," Elizabeth said softly, blinking in surprise. "Your cousin is to be commended. I had believed your marriage to be one to unite your estates only."

"My cousin?" Darcy asked in alarm.

"Miss De Bough, your fiancee," Elizabeth responded in some confusion unable to label her current emotions.

"That union is a dream only of my aunt's. I am not engaged in any manner to my cousin, " Darcy said stiffly.

Col. Fitzwilliam laughed loudly and said, "Well it may be Anne's dream as well. I distinctly recall her saying once she was married to you she would not be forced to make due with the paltry wardrobe her mother sees fit for her. I believe she is of the opinion that she should never be seen in the same dress twice, though I do wonder at her logic since she dislikes having to put herself out to go places and therefore is not seen by any other then her companion, mother and the servants." To Elizabeth he added, "our cousin Anne is rather like a lazier version of Miss Bingley so I am sure you can imagine her opinions on her companion and the servants. But your original question was why I was here."

"It was," Elizabeth said halting as she cocked her head to the side, awaiting him to continue.

"My cousin sent me word about a scoundrel lurking in the neighborhood. An old enemy. One it appears you have met and befriended. Hearing my cousin finally realized that Wickham could not be allowed to continue on as he has had me securing leave. Imagine my surprise to discover one of my friends, an intelligent, clever young lady, had apparently swallowed his lies wholesale," Col. Fitzwilliam said raising his eyebrow at her.

Elizabeth looked uncertaintly between the two men, but before she could rally her tongue, Col. Fitzwilliam spoke again. "Lizzy," he said in an exasperated tone, taking the liberty of using the nickname he had heard her aunt and uncle refer to her by. "You are smarter then this. Use your wits, lord knows you have an abundance of them. Some stranger comes up to you with a sob stoy about how mistreated he is, placing the blame on a man he hates. Can that one man really be responsible for all his misfortune in life? He is the same age as me, yet he has only managed to become a lowly lieutenant in the milita? A role reserved for boys playing soldier. He has a Cambridge education. How many steward's sons can boast of that? Yet he has done exactly what with his life?"

Elizabeth frowned thoughtfully and looked up at the Colonel, who stood next to her patiently awaiting her response. Seeing the confusion on her features, which quickly morphed into embarrassment and then a chastised expression, he wished he had the right to comfort her. Seeing his cousin's hand twitch, he knew that Darcy also wished to comfort her and gently brush the defeated expression off her face.

"You could not have known," Darcy said softly, "Wickham is an experienced deceiver."

"No. The colonel is right. I failed to use my wits. I was as silly as my younger sisters, putting my faith in a gentleman I knew nothing about," Elizabeth said softly.

"Don't take to much blame on yourself. I can imagine my cousin made it easy to see himself as a villian. He is a rather proud arrogant sort, isn't he?" Col. Fitzwilliam said teasingly.

Elizabeth though only gave him a weak smile in response. Gathering herself she asked, "Do I really wish to know just how big of a fool I have been? You have referred to him as a scoundrel and an enemy. I know enough of you to know that if he is a man you disdain, there is very good reason for you to do so."

"It is not my story to tell," Col. Fitzwilliam said with a glance toward Darcy.

"Wickham and I grew up together. My father was his godfather," Darcy began.

"So I have heard. Yet in my own foolishness I did not stop to consider that he spoke ill of you after moments before claiming he would not in honor of your father. If that should not have clued me in, the colonel is right, he had the education of a gentleman. My cousin managed to become ordained and gain a living and he is younger then Mr. Wickham. Nor is he as charming! Another hole in his story! And if the church was to be his calling, what manner of man tells a new acquaintance such things on the very day they meet? It is forward and improper. Yet because you insulted me, I was willing to overlook these obvious breeches of etiquette," Elizabeth said with a huff.

"I insulted you?" Darcy asked with a frown.

"She is tolerable I suppose, but not handsome enough to tempt me," Elizabeth said in imitation of him. In her regular voice she added, "A type of comment I have heard many times. Yet it has never affected me before. I do not know why I let it get to me this time," she said in confusion.

"I am sorry," Darcy said swallowing. "I never should have uttered such an ungentlemanly and untrue statement.

"Forgiven," Elizabeth said with a jerky nod and then with a tremble in her voice she said, "I must, I must go," before quickly taking off, moving away from the two gentleman towards the path that led to Oakham Mount, her distress clear.

Darcy went to take a step to follow her, but his cousin's hand on his arm stopped him. "Tolerable? Not handsome enough? You are an ass, William," He hissed. "That girl is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. She has a spirit that causes her to glow with life and warmth. Her beauty is a rich and vibrant thing. Her mother decries her as not being as beautiful as her elder sister and then you had to say such a stupid thing within her hearing?"

"I didn't mean it," Darcy said desperately. "Bingley was urging me to dance and then he pointed her out and she was beautiful, but I didn't want a country miss to have her expectations raised, so I denied what I saw. I didn't realize she had heard. I had forgotten about it until this moment. I was never able to take my eyes off of her from the moment I first saw her."

"Let us call on Col. Forester. She won't thank either of us for chasing after her. I might be able to in my role as elder brother figure, but your presence would only upset her more."

"Elder brother figure?" Darcy asked skeptically.

"Well you haven't married her yet so I cannot claim her as a cousin. I think it is a role that may suit me. Or it is at least the closest role she will ever allow me," Col. Fitzwilliam said with a shrug. "I do believe there may be a few advantages in it at least. It is likely to give me more contentment then trying for the role of suitor ever has. Had I of called her Lizzy last spring after making my interest known she would have been displeased, but with my intent to be simply a friend established she allowed me that liberty with out raising an eyebrow. I believe I may finally be seeking the right type of relationship with her."