"I am very impressed, Miss Bennet. You play chess very well. In fact, you outplay several gentlemen I know." He commented for the third time in the last 45 minutes.
"Thank you, Mr. Darcy, but obviously, you are a better player than I," she smiled, as Elizabeth had just lost another game.
Darcy nodded slightly. "Yes, I won. But I have several more years of experience playing chess than you. In fact, you once had me in check." He looked into her eyes with a smile and said, "If you like, we can play again."
"It will have to be another day, Mr. Darcy, as Georgiana and Marianne expect us for tea." She gestured to her two friends, who were also in the library. "Besides, I want to practice with my uncle before we play again."
"Whenever you want," he replied, smiling.
The four of them went to the drawing-room, where there were sandwiches, slices of bread, cakes, and fruits. They talked for several minutes about chess, and then Elizabeth excitedly told them that her cousin Mary and her husband would be in London the next day for Lord Sebastian's ball.
PPP
After Miss Bennet and Miss Campbell left, Darcy stayed late in his study, thinking about all that had happened in the last nine months.
His courtship and subsequent quarrel with Lady Isabella, Georgiana's indiscretion, and the devastating news that both his mother and father had been in love with other people—Wickham might be his brother, and Georgiana might be Lord Hertford's daughter—there certainly were far too many changes and a whirlwind of emotions in such a short time.
Most importantly, Georgiana was feeling better, and he grudgingly acknowledged that much of her improvement was due to Lord Hertford, Lord Sebastian, and Miss Bennet.
He knew he should not be jealous of Lord Sebastian, but he could not help it. He felt that Georgiana admired Lord Sebastian more than him. He also admitted that he was annoyed and jealous when Lord Sebastian conversed animatedly with Miss Bennet. Although he had only known Elizabeth Bennet for two months, with each passing day, he thought more and more about her and realized he was reaching a point of no return—he was falling in love with her!
Sometimes he thought his best option would be to marry a woman from the Ton to make it easier to dispel the rumours about Georgiana. His sister would be easily accepted in society, but on the other hand, he could not deny that Miss Bennet was the kind of friend her sister needed. Added to that fact was how his heart beat faster whenever he was near her.
In the past, when he imagined his life with Lady Isabella, he imagined a marriage where he would only see her for one or two hours a day and visit her in her bedchamber twice or three times a week to produce an heir. He never imagined he could talk about books, Pemberley's tenants, or any other subject, much less play chess with her. He never precisely imagined being happy with Lady Isabella. However, now that he knew Miss Bennet, he realized that he could do all these things with her and much more and was convinced that if he married her, he would be very happy, and his sister would be too.
The prudent thing was to be patient and let Lord Hertford, Lord Sebastian and his uncle, Lord Matlock, carry out their plan to restore Georgiana's reputation before he begins courting an unknown lady to the Ton. He could not bear the insinuations of some ladies of high society that he courted the daughter of a minor gentleman because daughters of peers would no longer have him. He did not want to add to the rumours.
On the other hand, he feared Lord Sebastian would gain the upper hand and marry her. It would be intolerable if Miss Bennet were to marry Lord Sebastian, and he would have to see her frequently as another man's wife.