Mr Darcy Requests the Pleasure by Elizabeth Aston

Author:Elizabeth Aston [Aston, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Belsyre Books
Published: 2015-06-08T04:00:00+00:00

Before she spoke to Octavius she must talk to Lord Winterbourne. She found him in the library, dressed for shooting and turning over a volume of poetry in a desultory fashion.

Sarah said to him, “William, I want to ask you a direct question and I expect a direct answer. Are you in love with Miss Hawes?”

The book fell from his fingers, and he looked wordlessly at her.

“Come now, we have known one another long enough to be truthful with one another. You proposed to me, even though you are not in love with me. And I am not in love with you. I agreed to give you an answer, and ever since then we have been avoiding each other. On your part, this happened after the arrival of Miss Hawes. She has told me what once passed between you, and confessed that she is in love with you. She is in a terrible state because she does not want to marry Sir Philip.”

Lord Winterbourne’s face lit up. “She does not want to marry Sir Philip?”

“Of course she does not, she is in love with you and you with her. She wants to marry you, not Sir Philip. She cares even less for him than you do for me.”

“So you do not want to marry me?”

“Not in the least. I have entirely other plans. No, I do not have time to speak of it now. I just want to ask you one favour. When you are out shooting today, Mr. Collins is going to go with you.”

“Mr. Collins?”

Sarah nodded. “Yes, and he will be a most tiresome companion. I cannot believe he knows one end of a gun from another, and he will talk and prose away all the time. Mr. Darcy will become more and more annoyed and quieter and quieter and the whole expedition will rely for any good humour on Mr. Bingley, who is never put out of countenance even by a fool like my cousin Collins. Now, what I want you to do is to stop Mr. Collins fretting about the fact that Captain Hyde is not with you when you set out. You must make up some excuse, say that he had some problem with a gun but will catch up with you.”

Lord Winterbourne eyed her uncertainly. “I can do this, but why? What are you up to, Sarah?”

“I am trying to untangle all the knots in this affair. No, I am not up to anything reprehensible and even if I were, it is none of your business. Mr. Collins has been instructed by Lady Catherine to watch Captain Hyde closely. It is all very tiresome and stupid. But Mr. Collins will feel reassured if he thinks that Captain Hyde is merely delayed, and by the time it becomes obvious to him that he is not going to join the rest of you, you will be too far away for him to do anything about it. It would be most discourteous for him to leave the group at that stage.

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