Pride and Premeditation (Jane Austen Murder Mystery #1)(84)

He looked away, and Lizzie laughed. “I’m only teasing you. You will be brilliant yourself. Besides . . . I couldn’t have solved this case without you.”

They exchanged smiles until Lizzie felt that perhaps their prolonged gaze was growing a bit indecent. But then Darcy looked away with a feigned cough and said, “You never mentioned Wickham.”

“I know,” she said. It had not been an altogether conscious decision on her part, but as she stood before the judge, she went by instinct—pressing here, revealing there, taking a read of the room. “I suppose you must think me a hypocrite, going on about uncovering the truth. But if I had brought him up, it might have distracted the judge, and muddied our case—especially if we had to explain how you shot him. And then we would have gotten into Abigail, and . . . well, I suppose that you’re right after all, the law doesn’t care about true justice, it just—”

Darcy stopped her by taking hold of both her hands. “Elizabeth Bennet, we seem destined to misunderstand each other.”

Lizzie looked up to see gratitude written across his face. “Thank you,” he said, “for not bringing up Wickham. Evoking his name in court might have compelled me to lie in order to keep knowledge of what he did to my sister a secret. I won’t have her reputation ruined over that man.”

Not for the first time, Lizzie thought what a great injustice it was that a woman should pay dearly for a man’s misdeeds, but she didn’t bring that up now. She was instead reconsidering Darcy, letting go of all of her preconceived notions about him. She found that it was not exceptionally difficult. Her first impression of him was false, she could now see. He was determined, serious, and did not laugh easily. But he was loyal and willing to sacrifice his own reputation—even his own life—for the people he loved. She had greatly misjudged him.

“You’re welcome,” she said. “And I must apologize to you, in turn. I misjudged you when we first met, and I held our first meetings against you. I’m sorry.”

Darcy smiled and began to draw very distracting circles on her palm with his thumb. “I accept your apology, and offer one of my own—I apologize for dismissing you out of hand. I made some, ah, judgments about your character when we first met, and it led me to judge your abilities.”

“I’ll forgive you,” Lizzie said, a teasing lilt to her voice, “if we can agree that I did not break into the Hursts’ house.”

Darcy rolled his eyes. “Miss Bennet, does it annoy you when I insist on accuracy in semantics?”

“It annoys me that you insist on switching back and forth between Miss Bennet and Elizabeth,” she deflected.

“Does it now?” Darcy slid closer to her on the bench. “Which do you prefer I stick with?”

“Miss Bennet when we are discussing legal matters,” she breathed, not daring to take her eyes off of him. “Elizabeth in front of my parents and our colleagues. But my friends and sisters call me Lizzie.”

“Lizzie,” Darcy breathed, and he closed the distance between them by brushing his lips against hers. Lizzie did not pull away, and he deepened the kiss. And Lizzie found out that she wasn’t wrong just about Darcy, for she had not believed that there was a better feeling in the world than when the judge had dismissed Bingley’s case. But kissing Darcy was just as good, albeit in a very different way.

When they broke apart, Darcy whispered, “Good work, Lizzie.”

Lizzie glowed but could not think of an appropriate response, so all she said was, “Thank you. Although I’m not calling you Fitz.”

Darcy broke into genuine laughter for the first time since they’d met, and Lizzie decided right then and there she would endeavor to make him laugh as much as she possibly could, for as long as their acquaintance continued.





Epilogue


In Which Lizzie Receives an Offer She Cannot Refuse



A WEEK AFTER LIZZIE’S success in court, she was summoned to her father’s office at Longbourn. This was not unusual, as Lizzie had been spending every day at the firm, working with her father to review all of Collins’s old cases and redistribute his current workload. The fear that his crimes had blemished Longbourn & Sons’ integrity was great, but thus far they’d worked to mitigate major disaster. Lizzie had not been surprised to find cut corners and sloppy legal work, though.

Charlotte’s work in organizing and deciphering all of Collins’s files had induced Mr. Bennet to call her the greatest legal secretary he’d ever had the honor of working with and mention privately to Lizzie that as soon as they could afford it, they ought to give her a raise so she wouldn’t be tempted to leave them for another firm. Lizzie had agreed that while she would support Charlotte in all of her pursuits, even if they took her away from Longbourn, a raise was very much in order.

Luckily for them, Lizzie didn’t think that it would be long before they might be able to afford it. Business seemed to be on the upswing, as was evident in the bustling atmosphere of the office as clerks hurried to and fro and the other solicitors worked at their desks rather than chatting. People were either curious, or inspired, or just in need of a solicitor, and, having recently heard of Longbourn, sought them out. Lizzie surveyed the office with a keen eye and tried not to let her imagination run wild. They had cases to attend to and clients who could pay, which was enough for now.