aristocratic engagement

At night, the entire Earl's Mansion fell into silence and loneliness.

Darcy was extremely tired, and when he returned to his room, he fell asleep on the bed before he had time to think about his future plans.The servants were temporarily put on leave by the countess, and the guest rooms were not prepared, and because everyone was extremely anxious and busy when the count was seriously ill, the furniture in the guest rooms, which had been unoccupied all year round, was covered with a thin layer of dust.

If Darcy hadn't been used to running around all these years, such an environment would definitely not allow him, a gentleman of rich and noble birth, to sleep surrounded by dust and rotten wood.

Darcy didn't completely fall into a deep sleep, he felt that he was still lying on a ship, heaving up and down with the waves, as if he was floating in a lonely sea, his consciousness was suspended, between sobriety and mist.

Suddenly, a spot of light appeared indistinctly in front of his eyes.Darcy's eyes rolled, and he seemed to see a dim yellow warm light gradually approaching.

He woke up in an instant, before he opened his eyes, his hand touched his waist, pulled out his hand//gun, and aimed at the bright light ahead.

"what!"

The person in front of him exclaimed, and took a step back to the side in panic.

Darcy blinked her eyes, and briefly saw the person coming in the darkness—she was walking slowly with a candle lamp in her hand, the warm yellow light shone on her cheeks, almost every fluff clear and distinct.Her wide eyes were full of surprise and horror.

In fact, seeing such a strange yet familiar face in the candlelight in the dark, such an astonishing appearance also brought him a huge shock.

For a moment Darcy almost forgot how to breathe.

"Ah, it's you—" Darcy lost his strength, threw his//gun onto the mattress, rubbed his sore neck, and asked casually, "What do you want me to do? It's so late, why don't you Didn't you rest?"

Not only did he not take a break, but he showed up in the room of a single gentleman.

Two voices in Darcy's heart were refuting each other, one was reprimanding Miss de Bourgh for her rudeness and lack of self-respect, while the other was justifying that they were just cousins, so why should such precaution and distance be needed?

Annie only showed a faint smile: "I knocked on the door for a long time just now, but there was no response, so I tried to turn the doorknob, but found that the door was not locked."

"...Sorry, I fell asleep." Darcy was a little embarrassed.

"I guessed it." Annie said, placing the candlestick on the locker next to her, and brought a plate from another table, "I brought you some sandwiches and water. The hotel had dinner, and the countess gave the servants a holiday, and there was no cook in the kitchen. I thought, you must be starving when you just came back, so I made a few simple meals to fill your belly."

"You did it?" Darcy's eyes widened in astonishment, and his gaze passed over Anne's hands folded under her chest. These hands were white and slender, and they were not hands of a worker at all.

"Ha, I won't poison you! You can rest assured." Annie spread her hands.

"Haha, of course." Darcy laughed dryly, then remembered his own posture, stood up from the bed, took the tray in Anne's hand, "Thank you, dear, I happened to be hungry. "

Annie smiled slightly, turned around and picked up the candlestick again, took off the lampshade, lit a few lamps by the flame of the candle, came to the sofa again, and squatted in front of the fireplace.

Darcy followed behind her, sat down on the sofa, and started a simple dinner.While he was chewing a sandwich with sausage, fried egg, vegetables and cheese, and drinking hot cocoa, his gaze involuntarily stayed behind Annie.

Annie squatted in front of the fireplace, trying to light the fireplace.She tried various sizes of sticks, charcoal, and even old newspapers stacked next to her, without success. Instead, she choked on the dust that had accumulated in the fireplace for a long time and sneezed.

"Ahem...ahem, it seems that the servants haven't cleaned the fireplace in this room! It's really—ahem!" Before she could finish speaking, Annie couldn't help coughing again.

Darcy stuffed the last bite of the sandwich into his mouth, got up, came to Anne's side and squatted down, and took the things in her hands.He piled up the charcoal and firewood, polished the matches familiarly, lit the old newspaper, directed the flame to the firewood pile, and blew from time to time.

After some tossing, the fire really rose.

Complacent, Darcy suppressed the corners of his lips that were about to twitch, and looked up, only to see Anne looking at him with a smile, her eyes flickering under the light of the fire.

"Unexpectedly, Mr. Darcy has such a skill! A few years ago, I would not have imagined that my cousin could still do such a job—do you remember, you never got involved in these things before of."

Being called "Mr. Darcy" by Anne brought several emotions into Darcy's mind.

"If I haven't changed and improved after seven years of traveling abroad, then I am truly ashamed of my parents' teachings, and I am also ashamed of myself."

"I agree with you very much. You look almost unrecognizable to me."

"It's up to me, my dear." Darcy's voice was inexplicably dry, and his tone turned a corner, "When I saw you and Georgiana from a distance at the door, I didn't dare to confirm it immediately. The two fair ladies are actually my younger sisters."

"So... are you staring at me like this?" Annie asked suddenly.

Darcy's eyes widened, and he looked away immediately.

In fact, he was completely frightened by Annie's words, and what surprised him even more was that what she said was the truth. He had been subconsciously casting his eyes on her face, and subconsciously seemed to be searching for his past from this face. The cousin I knew seemed to be trying to find something different.

Seeing him look away, Annie raised her eyebrows, and said in a pretended relaxed tone: "I'm just kidding—you spend more time watching me than watching a pile of coals!"

Darcy didn't know what to say for a moment, he seemed to have nothing to do with the ladies naturally, so he had to keep a cold face, which made him look a little unreasonable and rigid.

Seeing this, Annie blinked, got up from the carpet, and cleaned up the dinner plates and water glasses.

"Just put it here, I'll take it down by myself tomorrow." Seeing that she was about to take the plate away, Darcy stopped her and said, "Thank you, you are always so considerate. It's late, you should come back The room is resting."

"In the past month, I have never fallen asleep at this time." Annie said abruptly.

"what?"

"I said, after the earl's accident, I never fell asleep before three o'clock in the morning." Anne raised her head suddenly, her eyes flickering in the dancing candlelight, "my mother, the countess and Georgiana have been together Guarded by his bedside all night, we thought that such sincerity would move God to keep our uncle, brother, and husband in the world, but it was all in vain! He rarely opened his eyes, even when he was awake. Sometimes he just looked at us and held the Countess's hand. When I wanted to ask what was going on, he never said a word!" Annie's voice became higher and higher, and she couldn't help feeling a little bit behind. choked up.

Startled by her sudden outburst and collapse, Darcy wanted to reach out to comfort her, but felt that his arm was so heavy that he couldn't lift it at all.

"The count didn't say anything, but both Rommel and I believe that this is by no means as simple as an accident and... this is unacceptable!"

"So, have you found evidence that someone has tampered with it?"

"No...but—"

"No proof?" repeated Darcy.

"No!" Annie closed her eyes in despair, "I didn't find anything. That horse is his closest companion. It has been healthy and smart for several years. There is nothing that can stimulate the horse in the places they rode past... …the man he raced with was a friend of the club and his best comrade in politics! I was almost convinced it was really just an accident!"

"In this case, why do you suspect that this is a premeditated murder?"

The word murder made Anne shudder.

"You don't understand, you don't understand... Darcy, I have too many 'enemies'. All these years, it was my uncle who stood in front of 'me'. As for losing my life, how should I face my aunt and two cousins? What should I do?" Annie's voice turned into tears, and she paced around in a daze, incoherently reversing the repeated guilt if.

Darcy's heart sank.

"Enemy?" he repeated the word.

Annie covered her mouth and nodded.

Darcy felt that he seemed to understand something. He was about to ask, but his words turned around again: "I believe that if it is really a murder as you said, the Earl will not be silent, even if he says If he can't talk, he will try his best to leave a message. Since he didn't say anything or tell us anything, it means that this matter was really just an accident."

Anne was still talking, but Darcy interrupted her immediately: "I know what you are going to say. Rommel also hinted that this incident was not an accident in his letter to me. But without evidence, your speculation It's all just speculation. My dear, it is not your responsibility to blame yourself for such an accident."

Seeing that she just shook her head, Darcy continued: "Look at you, your face tells me that if you don't go to sleep and have a good rest, I'm afraid you will be the first to fall—even if there is such an opponent, you His downfall will only be something they like to see."

"So, do you actually believe my speculation?" Annie only caught his last sentence.

"I believe in evidence and facts, my dear, but now, I only hear your speculations and Rommel's vague hints, but I don't know anything about the facts. I can't draw conclusions, but I will try my best to investigate clearly." Xi looked her in the eyes and said every word.

Having said that, Darcy also understands that his words are only a kind of comfort to Anne.But when Annie was already overwhelmed by desperate guilt, he couldn't be the one who fanned the flames-excessive emotional consumption would only hurt himself, without advancing the facts.

During the few days he was on the ship, he repeatedly recalled the words in Rommel's letter word by word in his mind, and he had already prepared for the worst.When it happened, Darcy was quick to adjust to the momentary grief.But for all the people in this house, they watched the earl's life lost without help. Darcy experienced such pain many years ago...

"Okay, you really should go to rest." Darcy patted Anne's head gently like seven years ago, with a gentle but firm tone, "The Earl is not only your uncle, but also mine, he He is also the father of Lawrence and Lance. I have already taken what you said into my heart, and then I can leave things to me."

"I am back."

作者有话要说：感谢在2020-12-0602:40:29~2020-12-0713:55:21期间为我投出霸王票或灌溉营养液的小天使哦~

Thanks to the little angels of the irrigation nutrient solution: Mo Yue, Xie Tangyan, Lian Sanjiu 5 bottles; minerva￡athene 3 bottles; 231552662 bottles;

Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!