"We shall remove ourselves to the inn forthwith," Uncle Gardiner declared on his way out of Mr. Darcy's study. Elizabeth let loose a breath she had somehow been holding for the last half hour as she clutched her aunt's hand. Mr. Darcy darted out of his study after his guest, marching after Uncle Gardiner in large, determined strides.
How Elizabeth had managed to get themselves into this mess was difficult to conceive - but, somehow, her eagerness to defend Mr. Darcy had only ended up entrapping the gentleman instead. And as much as Elizabeth would like to think that a marriage to her would be more palatable than a marriage to Caroline Bingley (who was currently prostrate on the breakfast table, wailing her eyes out, ever since Darcy had pried his stolen ring out of her fingers), Elizabeth still would much rather not have forced a man to marry her. It was simply much more flattering to have a husband who actually wished to marry her be her groom.
"Mr. Gardiner, please - if I could but have a word with your niece." Mr. Darcy sounded uncharacteristically pleading.
"Not another word." Uncle Gardiner whirled around and somehow managed to stare down the much taller master of Pemberley. "Elizabeth has been entrusted to my care for the duration of this trip, and to think that she has been thus abused under my guardianship - "
"I have not even touched her, I promise," Mr. Darcy avowed with unexpected passion, sounding almost regretful. "I - I fully intend to marry Elizabeth, and if you only give me the chance to prove my sincerity, sir, I - "
"Suitors court in the light of day, Mr. Darcy. It is rogues and rakes who sneak about at night. I'm afraid your word means very little in light of your actions."
"I love Elizabeth! And I cannot bear to have your party depart from Pemberley under any sort of misunderstanding."
Somehow, in the course of her uncle and Mr. Darcy's public conversation, Elizabeth's corset had managed to grow three sizes too small. Just how was she supposed to react so such a declaration? How far was Mr. Darcy intending to pick up the pieces of her ill-advised confession? What exactly had they could said to each other in the study to have fanned her uncle's temper so thoroughly was not something within the scope of her agitated imagination.
"Mr. Darcy," she began to say.
"Not a word from you, Elizabeth!" barked Uncle Gardiner. "I fear you have said quite enough for the course of one morning."
Elizabeth huffed. "Given that it is my hand in marriage being discussed here, should I not at least be given the opportunity to say my piece?"
"Elizabeth," coaxed Aunt Gardiner.
"Elizabeth is right," said Mr. Darcy, her unexpected ally in the midst of this mess. "I was unable to provide a satisfactory answer only because I need first to consult my future wife."
Future wife - the words nearly had Elizabeth fainting. She breathed deep and stepped forward. "Uncle, I do not mind removing to the inn, but can we at least do so calmly?"
"There is no need to move to the inn," insisted Mr. Darcy.
"You are not the master of me - or of my niece." Uncle refused to budge. "If you cannot tell me that Elizabeth has entered this supposed engagement of her own volition, then I can only consider your actions that of a heartless blackguard."
"Uncle!"
"I will not have you used so ill, Elizabeth."
"No one has used me ill!" she cried. In her peripheral vision, Elizabeth could catch a glimpse of the Bingleys watching their exchange with grave curiosity. It was not a problem she had time for at the moment. "Mr. Darcy has not forced anything upon me."
"I do not know which of you is telling the truth, but I like neither versions of it." Uncle Gardiner growled. He marched over until he stood close enough to Elizabeth to whisper, "Mr. Darcy tells me that he has proposed to you, and that you have rejected him. And yet you have chosen to spend two nights - two nights - together. He cannot assure me that you have agreed to marry him. What am I supposed to think, Elizabeth?"
Somehow, it was not her uncle's blustering anger but his helpless, beseeching tone that brought tears to Elizabeth's eyes.
"I - I think I can explain," she muttered.
"Can you? Truly?"
Elizabeth sniffed. No - she could not. That was the truth of it. Whatever horrible twists in conversation might have happened behind Mr. Darcy's closed study door, she could not fully deny the facts her uncle presented before her now.
"Uncle, I - "
"Edward." Aunt Gardiner rested a hand on her husband's arm. "Perhaps we should let the young people sort it out."
"Madeline, how can I - "
"I will chaperone, from a distance. They can talk - but I shall permit nothing else."
Elizabeth watched as her uncle's temper seemed to seep out of him. He was not usually an angry man, and it grieved Elizabeth that it was her - the professed favorite niece - who had distressed him so.
"Uncle, please?" Elizabeth whispered.
Uncle Gardiner regarded Elizabeth, Mr. Darcy, and then Elizabeth once more. Then the poor man sighed. "Very well. Not for more than a quarter of an hour."
"Certainly," said Aunt Gardiner.
And they were on their way to the gardens.
Darcy did not know when Mrs. Gardiner started counting the presumed quarter of an hour they had been granted by Elizabeth's guardian, but he felt urgency and heaviness mingle within him as he walked beside the woman he had recently declared as his betrothed. Did she welcome his declaration? He had thought it the only gentlemanly thing he could possibly have done given her inadvertent revelation of their recent activities, but now he wondered if he was recklessly forcing her hand instead.
"Miss Elizabeth," he tried to whisper in a low, civil tone when they had finally walked far enough to have a modicum of privacy. "Allow me to apologize - "
"No, please." The woman he loved turned quickly to face him, her gloved hand landing on his sleeve. Darcy swallowed. "If anything, it is I who must apologize. I fear that I was so aggravated by Miss Bingley's machinations that I foolishly spoke out of hand. I never thought - I did not think - "
"Please." It was his turn to say. He covered her hand with his own, hoping that Mrs. Gardiner would prove a liberal chaperone. "If there is anyone to blame in this situation, it is I. I am the master of Pemberley - and yet I have allowed my own desire for your company to override my good sense as a host and a gentleman. To appear in your room the first night could still be construed as an honest mistake. But to linger as I did, and to revisit as I did - it is unpardonable."
"And yet it was I who landed us where we are."
"No." An entirely inappropriate smile tugged at the edge of his lips. "I think that honor belongs to Miss Bingley."
To his relief, even Elizabeth laughed. She retrieved her hand and pressed it demurely against her waist. It was almost overwhelming how much his own fingers longed to follow. "I suppose she did manage to compromise the master of Pemberley after all."
"Although I much prefer this ending to the one she wishes for."
Elizabeth met his eye. As usual, he was instantly lost in their depths.
"I am sorry for entrapping you," she said quietly.
Tentatively, Darcy ventured a hand on her elbow. When she didn't shy away, he trailed his touch down until he held her hand. Now he wished Mrs. Gardiner was looking anywhere but at them.
He tried to speak in as tender a tone as he could muster. Given the depth of his feelings, it came more naturally than he expected. "I think, Elizabeth, that it cannot be considered as entrapping when I feel that you have given me exactly what I wanted."
"Surely, you cannot mean that."
"But I do."
"After Hunsford - "
"I was hurt, yes," he admitted. He pressed her hands. "But even in my grief, your hold on my heart has only strengthened since. Even apart, I thought of you constantly. I imagined your presence everywhere I looked - whether down a lane in Hyde Park or in the music hall at Pemberley or, admittedly, in the very heart of my personal chambers."
She flushed prettily, looking softer than she usually did.
"I can only hope that you can grow to care as much for me one day."
"But I do," she said readily, even pressing closer as she did. "That is, I - I cannot vouch for the depth of my feelings when they are still so frightfully new. But my regard for you has risen, remarkably, in the days since your last proposal. When I see how you are as a master and a friend, when I witness your thoughtfulness and gentleness and care, I - I cannot help but regret not fully understanding you before."
"And if I were to ask for your hand again?" His voice quivered slightly. "Humbly, this time - without daring to assume that my offer is in any way welcome."
His Elizabeth laughed, her eyes brightening with her smile. "In that case, Mr. Darcy, I would be more than happy to accept."
The joy that coursed through his veins was so all-encompassing that he cursed Mrs. Gardiner for not being a hundred miles away. What he would do to get to kiss Elizabeth! She belonged in his arms, and he in his.
She did not share his reluctance, apparently, for Elizabeth threw herself wholeheartedly around his neck, and Darcy gladly gathered her close. He loved her. He had never loved before, and he would never love another. The circumstances leading to their engagement might not be ideal, but he could not be happier with the result.
The loud sound of a throat clearing broke them apart. Darcy let go, feeling exhilarated and guilty in equal measures. One day - hopefully one day soon - he would hold her as only a husband could. He would simply have to play the gentleman for now.
"Mrs. Gardiner." He bowed at the approaching matron.
"Aunt Gardiner." Elizabeth flew towards her relation with a bright smile. "I am to be married - to the best man in the world. Can you not congratulate us?"
Her zest seemed enough to wipe away the frown from Mrs. Gardiner's face. The latter patted her niece's hand. "I am glad to hear it. Perhaps we should be informing your father forthwith?"
"Of course."
"I humbly suggest, ma'am," Darcy said, having managed to master himself once more, "that we depart from Pemberley together the day after next. We shall start for Hertfordshire immediately, and I shall have my solicitor meet us with the marriage settlement once it has been readied."
Mrs. Gardiner seemed impressed by his plans, even as Elizabeth grinned in almost giddy way.
Darcy could not wait to kiss that giddy grin away.
A/N: Yey! They're engaged! But there are still four chapters to go. Oh no! ;)