overnight, and which was only a few hours’ journey from Pemberley. The Hursts’ carriage had been troublesome, with one of the wheels being far from secure, and it was agreed that it would be better for the carriage to take the last part of the journey very slowly.
He knew that there would be business to attend to at Pemberley with his steward. At the Inn, there was an urgent message sent by the post waiting for him.
Accordingly, Darcy decided to ride on alone with his groom the next day, leaving his sister to travel with Bingley and Mrs. Annesley in his own chaise, and the rest of the party with Mr. Hurst.
“You may need,” said Darcy to his friend the following morning before he left, “to go more slowly and stay another night on the way, if that will enable the other carriage to reach my estate without further mishap.”
21
A few hours later, Darcy rode across the fields and entered the park around Pemberley.
He turned his mount towards the valley leading down the side of the woods, where he knew that he would catch his first sight of the house.
It was one of his favourite rides within the grounds, with the trees as a backcloth to the vista across the lake. Now, in July, the green of the woods was at its best against the colour of the sky.
In those few days at Rosings when he had hoped to bring Elizabeth Bennet to Derbyshire as his bride, he had dreamt of them walking together across that same grass. How briefly that happy reverie had lasted. How much pain and distress had tortured him since April.
Darcy rode down the slope, along the drive and into the stable yard at the back of the house. The stableboy looked surprised as his master came into view, and explained why he had arrived in advance of the rest of the party. Leaving his horse to be unsaddled, Darcy walked slowly through the arch into the garden at the side, and went to turn towards the house.
As he came out into the sunlight from the shade of the buildings, he saw a lady walking slowly towards him. There was something familiar about the figure . . .
Then he stopped suddenly, immobile, totally startled.
There in front of him, and from her expression equally surprised, was Miss Elizabeth Bennet.
They were within twenty yards of each other, and their eyes instantly met, the cheeks of each being overspread with the deepest blush.
To begin with, Darcy could not move, could not speak, he was so taken by surprise. Then he forced himself to recover sufficiently to draw closer. Walking forward until he was a few feet from her, he tried to speak calmly as he enquired about her health, and then that of her family.
Before he began, she took a step as though to move away but, as he addressed her, she turned back and answered him.
In contrast to their last meeting in the parsonage at Hunsford, Miss Bennet hardly looked at him, and her replies to Darcy’s pleasantries were as confused as were his questions to her. Despite his state of mind, he was aware that his enquiries, as to the time of her having left Longbourn, and about her stay in Derbyshire, were so frequent and put in so hurried a manner, as must plainly speak the distraction of his thoughts.
As he spoke, he was conscious of his gardener close by. He was also aware, although less clearly, of a lady and gentleman of fashion a short distance back, as though they might be in company with Miss Bennet.
Eventually, every idea failed him and, after standing a few moments without saying a word, he finally recollected himself. Very conscious that his manner of speaking had none of its usual sedateness, Darcy took his leave of her, bowed, and walked swiftly away.
By the time that he had entered the house, Darcy’s agitation of mind had resolved on only two matters.
First, Miss Elizabeth Bennet was at that moment still within the grounds of Pemberley.
Second, his overwhelming desire was to encounter her again before she left.
As he took the stairs towards his dressing room at a rapid pace, he sent one of his servants to see how far the visitors had gone in walking towards their carriage.
When he had changed from his travel stained clothes a few minutes later, the message had come back that the carriage awaited them still, as the gentleman accompanying the young lady had told the coachman that they were to take the walk by the side of the water. Darcy’s gardener had been asked to act as their guide along the way.
That route led further along the stream towards a fine reach of the woods and onto some of the higher grounds. There, the opening of the trees gave charming views of the valley and the hills opposite with the woods enclosing both sides of the stream. If they had taken the circuit around the lake, that would bring the visitors after some time in a descent back towards the house, past the edge of the water.
Darcy almost ran from the house and took the route in the opposite direction from that the visitors had taken. After a few minutes, he came to the steep walk amidst the rough coppicewood in one of its narrowest parts beyond a bridge. At this point, the twists and turns of the path revealed from time to time the path further along the stream. He walked swiftly on.
Eventually, at one of these glimpses of the route ahead, he caught sight of Miss Bennet and her companions coming slowly along that part of the path towards him. He slowed his pace a little and, as they came nearer, Darcy tried hard to compose himself.
Uppermost in his mind were Miss Bennet’s comments at their last meeting in Kent about his behaviour. He remembered so well what she had said:
He was only too well aware that he might only have this one opportunity to redeem himself in her eyes. He had long since ceased to deceive himself that any other course would secure his own happiness.
When they met, he greeted her with all the civility he could muster.
She responded in equal politeness by beginning to admire the beauty of the place, saying how delightful and charming it was. He was puzzled that she then stopped speaking abruptly, as though in confusion. In this pause, he asked her if she would do him the honour of introducing her two companions, who were standing a little behind her.
He was not quite sure of her expression. She almost smiled, and then said that they were her uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner, from Cheapside in London.
Darcy had taken them for people of fashion. But he was quick to greet them. With Miss Bennet and her aunt in front, Darcy turned to walk back towards the way he had come.
He soon found in conversation with Mr. Gardiner that he was a cultivated and intelligent man with pleasant manners and a wide range of interests. He expressed a lively curiosity about country pursuits and, for someone who lived in the city, was unexpectedly well informed about them.
The conversation turning to fishing, Darcy invited Mr. Gardiner to fish there as often as he chose, while he continued in the neighbourhood, and offered to supply him with tackle. As they passed alongside the water, he asked the gardener to point out those parts of the stream where there was usually most sport.
After some time, they reached a part of the path close to the brink of the river, and drew close to the water to inspect a plant. At this moment, Mrs. Gardiner sought her husband’s arm, confessing some fatigue from the exercise of the morning.
Darcy was secretly delighted by this alteration, since it enabled him to take his place by her niece, and they walked on ahead of the others together.
After a short silence, she spoke, wishing him to know that she had been assured of his absence before she came to the place.
“I understand that your arrival had been very unexpected,” she said quickly, “for your housekeeper informed us that you would certainly not be here till to-morrow; and indeed, before we left Bakewell, we understood that you were not immediately expected in the country.”
“You are quite right,” he said, half turning to steal a glance at her as he spoke, “for business with my
