Spirited Away by Alix James

Author:Alix James [James, Alix]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Alix James
Published: 2020-04-11T22:00:00+00:00

17

Darcy watched her go, the words still warm on his tongue as his hand extended helplessly after her. What could have set her off?

“Miss Elizabeth!” he cried.

She whirled back. “Stop, sir! Do not come another step nearer.”

Darcy stopped, but only because his strides faltered in sheer dismay. “I do not understand. Are you to make me no answer?”

She threw up her arms. “How can I be clearer? I wish to depart from you.”

“But you have not said why. Have I given offense?”

Her eyes widened incredulously. “Offense! You have insulted my mother, my sisters, and whether you know it or not, you have spoken meanly of an aunt and uncle whom I dearly love. And this was your means of a proposal? Was that truly your intent?”

He stiffened and took a bold step closer. “What else could it have been? Am I to suppose that men confess their feelings for you so often that you think it a matter of course?”

She drew back. “The only feelings I am confident you possess are disdain and disapproval.”

Darcy’s core flushed—heat filled his vision, and he could barely sputter a response. “Is this what you think of me, then?”

She shook her head, her body inching toward the rock formation. “I think a great deal more. I think you are dishonest—that others have trusted you, and now, no none can account for them.”

“Dis—” Darcy choked on the word, his eyes staring and the very hair of his head standing on end. He took a long stop closer. “Dishonest? Miss Elizabeth, you go too far. Do you dare—”

“Stop!” she cried. Her hand slipped between two boulders and withdrew a palm-sized rock. “I shall defend myself if I must.”

Darcy lowered his hands and backed away at once. “You have nothing to fear from me, but what is this you accuse me of?”

“Sarah Long! Robert and Mary Brown! Where have they gone, sir? You know the truth, and you will not confess it. And we both know I saw you outside the inn with another woman, of whom not a word has ever been said. Where has she gone? You took her away somewhere, did you not? Do you deny it?”

“I deny nothing. There are matters at play that I am not at liberty to divulge. I do not know what you believe or what has been suggested, but do you think I am capable of posing a danger to anyone?”

She lifted her rock. “I think you are a powerful man, to whom no one would dare refuse anything, if you desired it. I believe no one thinks to defy you, and you are accustomed to carrying your way over all claims of decency and humanity. I submit your unkindnesses to Lieutenant Wickham as evidence!”

Darcy’s breath came hot and fast, and all rational thought fled. “Wickham! You take up his cause, hold his words against my own?”

Her chin raised, those fiery eyes wide and sparking. “I only claim the facts I know for certain—that he is amiable and irrevocably harmed by your deeds.

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