Chapter 4
“ I cannot believe this has happened! In my brother ’ s house, and at his very first ball. It is an outrage!” Caroline Bingley hissed as they went back into the grand salon. “ I would gamble everything I have that she planned the whole thing to get her clutches into you.”
Darcy raised an eyebrow. No doubt Miss Bingley’s rather cynical outlook was shaped by her own aims. He suspected it was a prudent sense of caution, not morals, that had kept Miss Bingley from making an attempt of the kind herself. “ It is a sin to gamble,” Darcy replied coolly. “In any case, Miss Elizabeth Bennet did nothing of the kind. As I said before, it was an accident.”
“ How do you know she did not plan to catch you out? True, the fall might have been an accident, but what was Miss Elizabeth Bennet doing in the library alone?” Caroline ’ s face twisted into a scowl that was remarkably unbecoming, not to mention rather less than ladylike. “ It is not fair that you should have to lower yourself and your standards to come to her aid. It was her fault that she put herself in such an improper position in the first place.”
“ She was browsing the bookshelves. What could be a more harmless pursuit?” Darcy argued. It was not typically his habit to answer anyone back. But Miss Bingley ’ s attitude irked him. He would not allow her to besmirch Elizabeth ’ s character without coming to her aid.
Miss Bingley stopped as they reached the far end of the ballroom. “ You make it sound as though you are happy about the arrangement.” She looked out over the crowd. When he said nothing against the sentiment, she snapped her head up, levelling a piercing gaze at him. “ Are you?”
Darcy was not about to admit anything of his true feelings to her. “ Of course not. I would never wish to take part in such a spectacle.”
“ Then you plan to fight it? What will you say to Mr Bennet to release you from that ridiculous promise?”
Darcy turned slowly, his face grim. “ I will not. I meant every word of what I said. Tomorrow, I will go and officially ask for Miss Elizabeth Bennet’s hand.”
Miss Bingley ’ s scowl turned even more ugly, but she said not another word to him. Her true colours had been shown, and it was as though she knew it. She simply turned and walked away. Darcy could not regret her absence. It was a relief to be left alone with his thoughts.
After such an event, the ball could hardly proceed as normal. All anyone could talk about was the compromise and the engagement. The final touch to the evening’s absurdities was given by Mr Collins, who, having been wandering around the halls looking for Elizabeth, had missed the Bennet’s carriage. In the end, he had departed nearly an hour after the incident ensued, with the Lucases. Lady Lucas told him of the events that had left him stranded at Netherfield, and Charlotte Lucas had arranged for him to join their carriage. Mr Collins was most shocked and refused to look at Darcy as he departed the mansion. Apparently, there must be a silver lining to even the most threatening clouds, if such a disastrous evening could at least free him of the man’s obsequious attentions.
Caroline Bingley had been teasing and angry by turns all evening. Her attempt to take him to task after Elizabeth and her family had departed only hardened his resolve. Nor would Bingley would hear of anyone speaking against Elizabeth or any of the Bennet family. Darcy could not help but smile at seeing his friend’s determination. Bingley was sometimes too easy-going, too persuadable. It spoke well for his future happiness that he knew when to hold firm. He even corrected Miss Bingley sharply when she tried to bring the subject up again.
When the Netherfield party gathered together after the last guests had departed, all looked shaken by the evening’s events. Miss Bingley was undoubtedly furious, though she had little reason to be. Darcy shook his head. He had thought well of her, once, if never well enough to justify her too-obvious hopes. That was all over now. Her callousness had forever shifted his estimation of her character. He suspected there would always be a coolness between them. From then on, he resolved not to be alone with Miss Bingley. What had happened was an accident, but even so, he would not leave Elizabeth with protection. The promise he had made in the library would become his solemn vow.
With a final, desperate look, Miss Bingley turned to him. “ I do not understand why you should have to punish yourself when you did nothing wrong,” she said, sounding half frustrated and half pleading.
“ Leave him be, Caroline,” Bingley had snapped. “ Come with me to the study, Darcy.” They had stayed there for the rest of the night, drinking through Bingley’s best bottle of smuggled French brandy. Though it could not have been how Bingley wished to end the first ball in his new house, Darcy could not bring himself to reject his friend’s kindness. He did not think he could bear to see anyone else, and still less to be left alone with his thoughts.
“Perhaps we ought to speak of it,” Bingley said at last. “Though I hardly know whether I am expected to scold you or commiserate with you.”
“Both, perhaps, or neither,” Darcy allowed.
“ I must confess, my friend, that I suspected you had feelings for Miss Elizabeth Bennet. But I did not realise that you had been so run away with your feelings that anything like this could happen,” Bingley said as they sat beside the hearth, sipping the mellow brandy.
Darcy sat bolt upright. “I did nothing of the sort. Surely you cannot think that I would deliberately attack any woman’s virtue. I was lured to the library.”
“ Whatever do you mean by that? You do not think that Miss Elizabeth Bennet had anything to do with it?” Bingley asked.
“ I said nothing of the kind,” Darcy replied heatedly. “Like everyone else, you must have heard her say she does not wish to marry me. What reason could she have?”
Bingley eyed him dubiously. “You know very well, Darcy. Fortune and consequences such as yours might make a young lady lose her judgement. She might have figured that you would need some convincing , shall we say?” Bingley took another sip, then replaced his glass on the side table. “ I do not mean to be so callous, Darcy. You know I care deeply about your welfare. But what am I to think? It looked very bad.”
“ You saw it?” Darcy asked.
“ I did. Someone yelled that there had been an accident in the library and I came as soon as I could. I would never have been able to forgive myself if someone had lost their life, or been dangerously injured during a party I was hosting.”
“ It was not your fault,” Darcy said. “ And no one was seriously hurt — at least, not physically.” He could still remember the expression in Elizabeth ’ s eyes. She looked horrified when he had announced their engagement. He had been trying to do the right thing by her, even though they both knew the truth: that nothing untoward had happened between them. Convincing everyone else — that was what might prove impossible.
“ I know. But then whose fault was it? You say you were lured to the library, but how?” Bingley asked.
“ I was given a note by one of the footmen, calling me to the library. I thought it strange that Hurst would send a note instead of coming to speak with me himself. When I got to the bookshelf in front of Miss Elizabeth Bennet, something strange happened. One moment I was walking towards her, and then the next, I seemed to trip over thin air, and I was falling.”
Bingley shook his head and leaned back in his chair. “ It is a puzzle, to be sure. Perhaps it is just as you said — an accident.”
Darcy nodded, though he was not convinced. It did not explain why Mr Hurst had written the note and then seemed to disappear for the rest of the evening. That must would suggest his guilt in the matter, if it were not so utterly impossible for him to have any motive. That might be an explanation, of sorts — perhaps Mr Hurst was not the author of the note at all.
But all that was merely wool-gathering. “ Perhaps,” Darcy agreed. It was most disquieting to imagine that anyone might have hatched such a plan against him, might have intended to constrain his choices in such a way.
At the thought, guilt rose in his chest. His intentions had been nothing like forcing a compromise, but he could not deny that he had intended to influence his friend’s choices. The manipulation suddenly seemed much less justifiable.
Darcy straightened up in his chair. “ Bingley, there is something I need to tell you.”
“ Oh? What is that?” Bingley asked.
“ Your — ” he stopped. He did not want to cause a rift between Miss Bingley and her brother. But it was she who had first asked him to separate Mr Bingley and Miss Bennet. “ I know you are attracted to Miss Bennet. Yes?”
Bingley smirked. “ I think it is safe to say that I am more than attracted to her. Really, Darcy, she is the most beautiful woman I have ever beheld. And not only in her person, but in the sweetness of her character. I really can not think of a woman more suited to be my future wife.” Bingley quieted as he said the last words as if he had not meant to say them aloud. His cheeks even took on a slight blush.
It only made Darcy feel worse about what he had been planning to do. “ I have a confession, my friend. I hope you will not be too angry with me.”
Bingley ’ s face fell. “ What is it, Darcy? You know you are my dearest and closest friend. Surely there is nothing you have done that is so terrible — ”
“ It is not something I have done. It is something that I was about to do.” Darcy took a long, steadying breath. “ I was planning to separate you and Miss Bennet.”
He let that sink in for a moment, and while Bingley worked himself into a frenzy, he tried to think of a way to keep Miss Bingley ’ s name out of the excuse. “ How could you do this to me? I love her, Darcy!”
“ I know. And I could see your attachment to her growing. However, I did not think that Miss Bennet ’ s attachment toward you was the same. I did not want to see you fall in love with her, only to find that she did not feel the same way about you. You are a catch of no uncommon degree for a young woman with so small a dowry. She would have been a fool to say no to you, even if your feelings were not shared. Indeed, I doubt her mother would allow her to do so. The risk was simply too great.”
“ That should be for me to decide!” Bingley said. He rose from his chair and paced, his face gone pale with anger. “ You had no right to interfere.”
“ No, indeed I did not. It was very wrong of me to think of it. In my defence, I can say only that I have not yet interfered. Nor do I have any intention of doing so after tonight.”
“ You have changed your mind?” Bingley asked. “ Why?”
Darcy coughed. “To own the truth, it seems rather absurd for me to prevent you from marrying a Bennet sister you love when I have just promised to marry another.” That left the question of his feelings for Elizabeth unspoken, but Darcy would not have known how to represent them. She intrigued him, fascinated him. He respected her intelligence and her refinement, particularly when she had been shown such badly wrong behaviour by her parents. He was less horrified by the idea of marrying her than he ought to have been. He ought to have been frantic to find any means of escape, and instead, Darcy very much feared that his feelings could be called nothing so much as eager. But what that added up to, he hardly knew.
At last, Bingley’s anger seemed to run its course. He breathed out a long sigh and sat back down. “ Well, I suppose I must forgive you. After all, not only did you give up your plan, you admitted what you were about to do. I suppose my family had a great deal to do with this scheme, hmm?”
Darcy could not deny it. Unfortunately, Miss Bingley had never tried to disguise her dislike of the Bennet family. He had assumed she simply wished her brother to make a more ambitious match. But could it be more? She seemed surprisingly vehement against Elizabeth — as though she had known of his growing infatuation even before he had.
“ I cannot deny it. The idea was not initially my own.” Darcy sighed, stood, and began pacing back and forth in front of the blazing hearth. “ I must confess, I am sorry for how things played out this evening.” He looked into the fire, resting a hand on the mantle. “ It was not how I imagined it.”
He had dreamed of Elizabeth — he could not deny it. Not only of kissing those lovely lips, but of taking her to Pemberley, making her known to Georgiana. It had seemed nothing more than a dream. However magnificent Elizabeth would be as his wife and the mistress of Pemberley, he thought he must hold out against the temptation to ask for her hand. His family would not wish him to marry a woman without fortune or connections, no matter how sparkling her wit or how beautiful her eyes.
Now, it seemed, the choice was no longer his. Their destinies were tied together. However much Darcy would have preferred a more dignified and less shocking courtship, the result was at least acceptable. If nothing else, he could give over his attempts to forget her.
“ I am sure you and Miss Elizabeth will be very happy together. Indeed, perhaps Miss Bennet and I will also soon be happily married. It is a pity you have stolen my thunder, Darcy. If all went well, I was planning to ask the young lady to be my wife within the next few weeks — before I was due to return to Town for a brief visit to look over Father ’ s holdings.”
Darcy gave a soft chuckle. “ Ahh, I see. You wanted to ensure she was yours before you left the county?”
“ Most certainly. And I am not ashamed to deny it. She is the most beautiful creature I have ever beheld!”
“ Yes, you ’ ve said that,” Darcy teased.
Bingley got up and joined him before the hearth. “ I am glad you have seen the error of your ways, my friend.” He clapped Darcy on the back, looking into the flames as well.
Darcy looked at him in surprise. “ Error? What error?”
“ Surely you have not forgotten? Our first night here in Netherfield, or rather, the first night out in society? At the Meryton assembly, you told me that Miss Elizabeth was not beautiful enough to tempt you. Obviously, she is possessed of other charms.” He raised his brows, but said nothing else as he sipped his drink.
Darcy looked away, frowning deeply. He remembered now. He had spoken clumsily in the heat of the moment, overwhelmed by all the curious eyes and whisperings throughout the room. There had been many eager mothers who, upon seeing Bingley enter the grand assembly, had thought to marry off their daughters to a man with five thousand a year. When they had found out that Darcy was worth twice that much, they had quickly changed their focus to him, particularly when it had become clear to all that Bingley ’ s attention was given to the enchanting Miss Bennet. And who could blame him?
He had all but forgotten ever speaking slightingly of Elizabeth. Since uttering the flippant words in confidence to his friend, he had come to find her a spirited, intelligent, and quick-witted young woman. Not to mention rather intoxicatingly lovely. “ Please never utter that outside this room. I am ashamed I ever said the words.”
Bingley ’ s head shot up in surprise. “ Really? I do not think I have ever heard you apologise.”
Darcy scoffed but was not offended. “ I do not speak half as much as I listen, therefore my words rarely come back to haunt me.”
Bingley looked at him askance. “In this case, Darcy, I am very much afraid they might. A number of people overheard you. I rather suspect the lady herself was among them.”
Darcy grimaced. “Ah. You have a point. Indeed, perhaps I ought to apologise.”
“Excellent, see that you do,” Bingley said, grinning broadly. “It is not so bad, my friend. I am quite accustomed to speaking out of turn, I am afraid. Like the old adage, ‘Listen first, speak later.’ Wise words, and I wish I could live by them better in the heat of the moment. But, especially when I am faced with a pretty girl, my thoughts come out faster than my tongue can wag, and they all seem to get jumbled up on the way out.”
“ Well, it seems that Miss Bennet has not noticed,” Darcy remarked. “On the contrary, I think you are doing remarkably well.”
He put down his drink and turned away from the hearth. The night was already well advanced, and Darcy suspected that sleep would elude him even once abed. But if he was to be fresh and alert for his appointment with Mr Bennet, he needed to at least try.
Bingley put down his glass for a footman to collect. He walked out with Darcy, placing his hand on his shoulder. “ It will not be so terrible, Darcy. I predict a brood of children for you in the next few years, and a very happy, witty wife — which is what you have always said you wanted.”
To his own surprise, Darcy felt a smile breaking out on his face at the thought. “I suppose I did.” Hideously embarrassing as the events of the evening had been, he could not deny his bone-deep satisfaction at the thought of claiming Elizabeth as his wife.