As soon as the Gardiners and Lizzy departed, Darcy returned to the manor house to bathe. While Mercer dumped bucket after bucket of warm water over his head, he tried to analyze what had just happened. When Elizabeth first saw him in the gardens, her first inclination was to flee. Why? Was it because she was embarrassed? Or was she still angry with him for his remarkable performance at Hunsford Lodge? What was the last thing he had said to her? Oh, yes. “I perfectly comprehend your feelings and only have to be ashamed at what mine have been.” Good grief! What an arrogant bastard he could be.
Darcy tried to recall what had happened in the minutes after he had rejoined the Gardiner party in the garden. Miss Elizabeth and he had walked to the gazebo, and he could see her face light up at the panorama before her, which had given him the courage to speak of their confrontation at the parsonage. He perfectly understood why she would want to forget that awful scene. Surely, he was equally clear that he was ashamed of what had been said, but that his feelings for her remained unchanged. After he had said that, she smiled, and that meant what? It must be a good sign, or she would not have accepted his invitation to dine at Pemberley. But she had been forced into that decision by her aunt and uncle. On the other hand, would she have accepted his extended arm if she was still angry with him? But it would have been rude not to. Damn it! What did it all mean? Would she be receptive to another offer or not?
“Mercer, have you ever been in love?” Darcy asked while soaking in his bath.
“Yes, sir, many times.” When Darcy looked up in amusement, Mercer reminded his master that he had driven a mail coach for many years before going into service.
“I had forgotten. So you had a lady friend at all of the coaching inns.”
“No, sir. Not at all of them.”
“And none of them ran you to ground?” Darcy asked, laughing.
“No, sir, because I had enough lady friends to know that I didn’t understand women and that was not likely to change. So I have been a bachelor for all of my forty-seven years.”
“Then you are as perplexed as I am. Does anyone truly understand females? The more I am in their company the less I know. Their behavior is the opposite of everything in the natural order and flies in the face of logic.”
“Sir, if you have any hope of understanding them, I’d suggest that you not put logic and ladies in the same sentence.”
Darcy finished his bath and went and sat in a chair near the fire and motioned for Mercer to sit down. As much as he loved Pemberley, he found it a lonely place when his sister was not with him. It would not be lonely if Elizabeth had accepted him. She would be here by his side.
Mercer understood that a good manservant was there mostly to listen, but he also knew there were times when the well-being of the master required some intervention.
“I seen that you had guests today, sir. I was unpacking your clothes when they come into the garden. I was watching the young lady with the dark hair and very entertaining she was. She took off her bonnet and threw it in the air and then started spinning ’round in circles. She put me in mind of that pretty young friend of the reverend’s wife who came to Rosings for dinner.”
“You have a good eye, Mercer. The lady was Miss Elizabeth Bennet, the very same lady who dined at Rosings. She and her aunt and uncle were touring the Peak District, and Miss de Bourgh suggested that they come to Pemberley.”
How much did Mercer know? He had been surrounded by servants his whole life, and he knew it was almost impossible to keep anything secret from them. The lives of those abovestairs were dissected on a daily basis by those belowstairs, and so it had been through the ages. But in Mercer’s case, he was more like an able lieutenant than a valet, and he kept close watch on his master. No, Mercer definitely knew something.
“Will the lady be coming to Pemberley when Mr. Bingley and his sisters arrive?”
“Oh, damn. I have been preoccupied with other matters, and I put them out of my mind. Miss Bingley will arrive tomorrow afternoon, and Miss Elizabeth will be joining us for dinner.”
“Is that a problem, sir?”
“Yes, Mercer. It is one lady too many.”
On the best of occasions, he found Caroline to be insincere and manipulative, and that was when she liked you. She did not like Elizabeth Bennet.
“Well, sir, might I suggest that if Miss Elizabeth is still here the day after tomorrow, you should invite her to go riding in the Peak.”
“I hinted at such a thing today, but the lady does not care to ride.” That would have to change if she became his wife. No, he would hope that it would change if she became Mrs. Darcy.
“I guess that must be something common to the ladies, sir, because, as I remember, Miss Bingley doesn’t ride at all. She’s afraid of horses.”
Darcy smiled. That was true. Caroline had a fear of horses and had since her childhood. That was not the case with Elizabeth. It was just that her preference was to walk. “Perhaps it will be possible to change Miss Elizabeth’s mind,” Darcy said, smiling.