Free Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice Sequel Bundle: 3 Reader Favorites by Linda Berdoll

the vestibule to the dining-room, sending the servants bustling to resecure the light. But before they could, another horrific rattle of thunder erupted, this one punctuated by a show of lightning that revealed a spectre at the door of the dining-room. Louisa Hurst shrieked.
    But Elizabeth did not. Still, she was startled. For the convulsion of flickering light revealed the very face she saw every time she closed her eyes.
    “Darcy!” Bingley declared.
    That proclamation was met with a gradual re-lighting of the candles, which unveiled the condition in which Mr. Darcy had entered the house—soaking wet. He handed his hat to a servant, who then yanked and heaved mightily whilst endeavouring to relieve him of his saturated greatcoat.
    Bingley bounded from his seat, hand outstretched to Darcy, “I say, Darcy, come sit by the fire or you shall catch your death!”
    (Mrs. Bennet would have been very alarmed. Were three days enough time to take pneumonia and die?)
    Apparently the drenching Darcy took had come only from an impetuous, umbrellaless dash from his coach to the house and he convinced Bingley he had not been so foolish as to make the trip upon horseback. After waving off Bingley’s concern, Darcy looked through the dim light at each dinner guest. When his eyes lit upon Elizabeth, they rested their search. Elizabeth saw that they had, as did everyone seated at the table, for all eyes followed the same course as did his. To say she was disconcerted would be understating it by half. His appearance was so sudden, she had not time to decide what to say, much less how to feel, particularly since the room seemed quite anxious to register it. So, her cheeks did what they did best. They coloured.
    Excusing himself for dry clothes, Darcy quitted the room almost within a minute of his introduction. There might have been cause for Elizabeth to wonder if he had really been there had not she continued to be scrutinised by her company. (Mr. Hurst held his oft-replenished wineglass halfway to his mouth for clearly a quarter-minute, which was evidently a record abstention for him.)
    There was enough time to compleat the meal and retire to the comfort of the drawing room before they were joined by a now-dry Darcy. He bowed and spoke to everyone there before he came to Elizabeth. All Elizabeth wanted was to have a private conversation with him, but it appeared he was in no great haste to have one with her. For he merely took her hand, barely brushing his lips across it as he sat down next to her, immediately initiating a conversation with Bingley.
    The evening was spent in that perverse manner. Darcy sat next to Elizabeth, very nearly touching her, but had hardly a comment to her beyond the storm. Darcy and Bingley nearly had their foreheads touching, so confidential was their conversation. Elizabeth only learnt through determined eavesdropping that Darcy’s wet arrival had come about by reason of a stop at Longbourn.
    Darcy told Bingley (and more than one Bingley sister who was eavesdropping as well), “There I discovered the Miss Bennets were dining at Netherfield. I feared their carriage might be caught in this storm, thus I strove on.”
    It appeared to Elizabeth that Mr. Darcy had gone to a great deal of bother and grief to find her so he could ignore her. Yet, when agreement was made to retire and Miss Bingley called for a servant to show the Miss Bennets to their bedchambers, Darcy caught Elizabeth’s hand, allowing the others to quit the room and leave it to them. At last.
    Howbeit she fought it dearly, Elizabeth felt herself trembling. The defence she had fashioned to ward off the worry, vexation, and humiliation over his departure had just collapsed. Relief that he had returned and anger over the manner in which he had taken leave were threatening to make her cry. She did not trust herself to speak. It washe who needed to explain himself, not she to inquire.
    But he offered no explanation. He offered a gift. Elizabeth eyed