An Unexpected Ally

Part 31

A/N - This is the last part of this story - I'll start posting book #3 (the last book) in this series asap, hopefully tomorrow. I'm sorry I've been a bit sporadic with posting lately (tech issues, life issues...meh) and I'm sorry I haven't been able to keep up with any comments - but I am going to get caught up and am so grateful to everyone that reads my stories. I hope you enjoy them! Ok, onwards. Let's get this book finished and onto book #3 and the final end of this little series! xx

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"You must go after them!"

In the wake of Mr Bingley's and Colonel Fitzwilliam's silent departure, an icy silence had settled over the parlour, until Elizabeth Bennet was the one to break it. She looked at her sister, first, whose cheeks reddened but who kept her gaze fixed on the floor. Next, Elizabeth's gaze swept from Georgiana to Caroline before hopelessly resting on Darcy's. He was not quick enough to look away. No, it was not a matter of speed. How could he look away from those eyes that were fixed on him with desperation?

"Will you do nothing?"

"Very well." All at once, life seemed to flood back into Darcy's still limbs, and he turned on his heel, stalking after his friends and fearing to come across a brawl that would need a physical intervention. He tugged at his collar, loosening his cravat and was moments from tugging his cuffs free, too, before he saw that Charles and Richard had not come to blows. Yet.

"You cannot be serious." Richard scoffed. "You truly think you have the upper hand in this? You act without shame -"

"I have no need for shame!" Charles sniffed. "I knew Jane Bennet long before you ever even arrived in Hertfordshire."

"Yes, and she pledged herself to me shortly after you left. I do not see what bearing your knowing one another beforehand has to do with this."

"You cannot truly think she cares for you?" Charles scoffed. "If she accepted your proposal -"

"She did accept it. We are to be married, and you shall cease in your campaign to seduce -"

"I sent flowers, Fitzwilliam. It is hardly a seduction for the ages. If a bunch of flowers is all it takes -"

"Gentlemen," Darcy spoke quietly, but even so his voice seemed to have a calming effect on his friends. Momentarily, at least. Both Richard and Charles turned to glare at him, and Darcy wished he could be anywhere but here. This, then, was the position had tried to avoid. The position fate had placed him in. He was caught between his friend and his cousin and there would be no way to placate them both.

"Ah, Darcy you are just in time. Your cousin here has just challenged me to a duel."

"I asked you to abandon your nonsense, or be made to abandon it," Richard retorted, his eyes flashing dangerously. "If you choose to perceive that as being called out -"

"I do not intend to solve the matter with a brawl here and now, if that is your alternative suggestion," Charles said, with a regal sniff. "I do not know how matters tend to be resolved in the regiment."

He spoke with such scornful disdain for Richard, for his position in the militia, for everything his cousin valued and took pride in that Darcy himself winced. It was the sort of unremitting pride he, himself, might previously have exhibited and it garnered just the result it might have been expected to, from one such as Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam.

"I do not need to be lectured on the rites and rituals of being a gentleman by the son of a tradesman." His eyes narrowed. "Very well. Dawn, then. Name your place."

Bingley conjured a name with such speed and efficacy that Darcy was left certain he had been considering the matter long before this moment, planning it out in his head.

Richard's head dipped in the tiniest nod of acquiescence, his gaze sliding over to Darcy, who opened his mouth to say something -anything - that might ease the situation.

"Darcy will be my second," Charles said, quicky, and Darcy saw the small window he might have had to influence things towards calm slam shut. His cousin's eyes narrowed, his features slipping into an unreadable mask. "Do you have someone you can ask -"

"I have someone in mind," Richard said, briskly returning his gaze to Charles. "You need not spare a concern for my ability to fight a duel and win. The last time I held a weapon is, I wager, rather more recent than yours." He turned on his heel and stalked away, leaving Charles and Darcy to stare after him.

"Well." Charles turned, looking almost pleased with himself. "Come, Darcy, let's go back inside. We shan't let this moment of unpleasantness spoil a social call. The ladies have surely missed us."

The ladies might have missed them, but only one lady stood as if to guard the door to the parlour. She let Charles enter with only a slight frown, which descended into a look of absolute dislike as she moved to block the doorway to Darcy.

"A duel?"

"You heard." Darcy swallowed, raking a hand through his dark hair and wondering how it was Elizabeth Bennet still managed to see as if to his very soul. "Did everyone...?"

"They were too busy talking." She waved away his concern, and took a step towards the window, motioning to him to follow her in hopes that their few shared words might likewise go unnoticed by the rest of the house. "Jane will be devastated if she discovers it, so you must find a way to stop it."

"Stop it?" Darcy shook his head. "Stop it how? The best I can do is go along with it and ensure nobody gets killed."

"That is the most ridiculous thing I ever heard!" Elizabeth's face went white at the word killed and for the most fleeting of moments, Darcy dared to hope she spared at least a little of her concern for him. Her gaze flashed with fear and anger and he realised she was concerned not for him but despite him.

"What would you have me do instead?" he asked. "Leave them to fight it out between themselves with nary a person to moderate? As second I have a chance -"

"A chance to ensure the best man wins." Lizzy scowled. "I can't believe you would side against Colonel Fitzwilliam. He is your cousin! Don't you care about him at all? Or your friend? You care nothing for me and my family -"

"I care everything for you. And for your family. I acted rashly in writing to Charles but I never thought it would lead to this. I did not think - I did not think -"

"Well, now you must think," Lizzy said, sharply. "Think of a way out of this."

They were standing very close to one another now, so close that it seemed to Darcy nothing at all to take her hand in his, startled at how naturally their fingers fit together, as if they had been designed to do just that.

"Help me," he whispered, his voice softer now, his gaze tender, hopeful, seeing a way forward that might be possible only with her by his side, his helper, partner, friend. "Help me, Elizabeth. You are the only one who can."

The End