Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
December 1813, Hertfordshire
T he night after the Bennets’ party, Mr Bingley and Mr Darcy had been invited to dine at Longbourn. Only Elizabeth and Jane were ready to greet them when they arrived. It was torture for Elizabeth to be in such intimate company with Mr Darcy; she would have preferred meeting him more informally at dinner once the rest of the family was around. Yet Jane, in her embarrassment and anticipation of her family’s tardiness, had asked her to help welcome and entertain the gentlemen until dinner. Only her love for her sister could tempt her to tolerate the man’s presence.
After a brief greeting, the four made their way towards the drawing room to sit down and talk until the rest of the family arrived. Jane and Mr Bingley immediately sat down together on one sofa; Mr Darcy sat on the one across from them. Rather than sit on the sofa next to him, Elizabeth chose to pull up an empty chair.
Jane and Mr Bingley mostly carried the conversation between them all. Elizabeth was resolved to not speak often to Mr Darcy. She dared not look at him but felt his gaze upon her frequently. After waiting half an hour, and with no signs of anyone in the house stirring beyond themselves, Mr Darcy shifted in his seat, looking uncomfortable. “I apologise if we misunderstood the desired time to be here.”
“Not at all, sir. Schedules are followed loosely at Longbourn,” Elizabeth replied matter-of-factly. She knew he would consider it impolite for her family to conduct themselves in such a manner, and took almost perverse pleasure in their proving him correct. What could she do but find the humour in it all? Tonight would be a barrage of humiliations and she was resolved to find amusement in the ridiculousness of it instead of yielding to the mortification.
She watched Mr Darcy inhale deeply and exhale slowly. No doubt he was summoning patience for an evening amongst savages. She was not ignorant of her family’s shortcomings but despite their disadvantages, the Bennets were a close and loving family. No matter what fights or traces of tension were bubbling near the surface, there was a strong bond of love between all of its members. Yes, often she did wish they behaved with greater propriety, particularly her mother and younger sisters, and naturally she wished her father had been a better steward of their fortune. But it was not how it was and one could not lament it.
As she grew older, she had seen there was greater value in being together and suffering a little nonsense than being alone with dignity as one’s companion, as Mr Darcy was. As she dwelt on these matters, she eyed the man and mentally dared him to look on them with disdain.
The tardiness of the Bennets, she knew, had to be driving him mad. As a man whom she knew followed schedules rigidly, he looked distinctly uneasy. He alternated between looking at his pocket watch and rubbing his fingers together at his side. At last, her sisters began to trickle in. Lydia and Kitty entered first and were arguing about a misplaced brooch. “I know you borrowed it without asking!”
“What difference does it make? It was back in your bedchamber before you even noticed.”
“You cannot merely take what you wish, Lydia! I do not care if you put it back before I noticed! And there is a bead missing!”
“It was like that when I got it from your bedchamber,” Lydia replied airily.
“It was not like that before.”
“Yes, it was!”
“You are never careful with my things!”
As Lydia and Kitty took their squabble to the other side of the drawing room, the Gardiner children entered the room. A toddler holding small slippers ran by Elizabeth and Mr Darcy, nearly bouncing into them as she ran by. A little girl a few years older chased behind her yelling, “I didn’t particularly want my shoes off, Annabelle. I particularly wanted them on.” She bumped into Mr Darcy, and he looked quite alarmed.
“Amelia! Watch out sweetheart, can you apologise for running into Mr Darcy?”
The girl glared at him for a moment before continuing to chase her sister, ignoring Elizabeth’s command. Elizabeth hid a smile.
Mary and the eldest of their Gardiner cousins walked into the room, fully engaged in a discussion of music. Seven-year-old Lillian was educating Mary about song-writing, singing a ditty she had written for her new doll. “Oh Emma, you are so great. Come let’s celebrate,” she sang. Then she declared, “Sometimes I make up songs and I am really good at it. Would you like me to help teach you how to do it?”
Mary replied in her most sanctimonious voice. “I think not and you should heed the scriptures which tell us that pride goeth before a fall.”
Elizabeth could not help herself and glanced at Mr Darcy when Mary said the word ‘pride’. He was too busy looking at his pocket watch to notice.
The Gardiners and Mrs Bennet could be heard talking in the corridor, adding to the general volume of the gathering. The last of their party to arrive was Mr Bennet who, despite knowing the desired hour for dinner, startled visibly when he saw such a large party already gathered and ready to eat. He entered with his two overgrown spaniels trailing behind him. The two dogs—one young and energetic, the other old, with arthritic hips that made him hobble more than walk—scampered about, adding even more commotion to the scene, sniffing every person in the room twice before being shooed outside again by Mrs Bennet’s shrieks.
Elizabeth sighed. The entire scene was a loud and hectic domestic hurricane. The cacophony was made complete by the hearth’s roaring fire, which seemed determined to be heard in spite of all the noise of the others.
Though the lack of ceremony would have suggested an informal family dinner, the table was to include some few extra from the neighbourhood as well. Mrs Bennet had gone into Meryton earlier that day to call on her sister, Mrs Philips; true to her hospitable nature, she could not resist inviting others that she encountered to join them for dinner.
As the large group began taking their seats, Elizabeth felt a sense of relief upon seeing that Mr Darcy was seated farther down the table, away from her and next to Mary and Mr Gardiner. She was glad to be distanced from him but also reassured that his proximity to Mary and her uncle, with their quieter demeanours, would likely ensure a less offensive dinner than if he had a front-row seat to the noisy antics of her youngest sisters.
However, I am certain that since he is not seated near Mr Bingley, he will not trouble himself to talk to anyone at all.
As the food was brought out and dinner progressed, her prediction proved accurate: Mr Darcy remained silent. He would actually enjoy conversing with my uncle, if he would only give him a chance, Elizabeth thought as she resisted the urge to shake her head.
The conversation between the rest of the guests was energetic and disorderly. Lydia and Kitty had now made up and were laughing with the young and earnest Mr Andrews. Family anecdotes were being shared, and political debates rose and waned. Conversation was never dull and engaged all members of the table. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves save for one . Elizabeth glanced at Mr Darcy and could see that he looked stricken. Though she could not be certain, as she was not sitting next to him, she had not heard a syllable from him. She had been to enough of his family dinners that she knew they were nothing like this.
Elizabeth was distracted from her thoughts when she felt something tugging at her dress on her side. She looked down to see her four-year-old cousin looking up at her .
“Why are you not in the nursery, Amelia?” she enquired gently. “Have you already eaten all your dinner?”
The girl whispered, “Could you give me a chocolate biscuit?”
“A biscuit?” Elizabeth exclaimed softly. “I am afraid I do not have any biscuits but I should imagine that once I eat my dinner, I may have some dessert later. Do you think you ate enough so that you could have a biscuit later, too?”
“Um…” Amelia twirled a strand of her hair. “Maybe I ate three?”
“Three bites?”
“Mm-hm.”
“I think you should go and have three more bites, and then I shall see that Mrs Hill brings some biscuits to the nursery. Will you do that for me?”
With that Amelia nodded and ran off, hopefully back to the nursery. Glancing up she saw that Mr Darcy had observed the exchange. No doubt he was appalled that the children were roaming about as they were. With that in mind, Elizabeth sent her mother an expressive look which Mrs Gardiner noticed. Blushing lightly, her aunt rose and left the room, no doubt wishing to speak to the maid acting as nurse for the evening, and urge her to keep better control of her charges.
“She is quite like you were as a child,” said Mr Bennet.
“Strong-willed and refusing to cede to anyone’s notions of what she should or should not be doing. Giving anyone who tried to rein you in a downright difficult time,” added her mother.
Mr Darcy was within earshot and his interest appeared piqued for the first time. Looking curious, he turned towards Mrs Bennet .
Feeling acutely aware of Mr Darcy’s judgment, Elizabeth spoke first. “Well, yes. In any case…Uncle Gardiner, have you had any word from?—”
She was interrupted by her father, who had a mischievous smile on his face. “Amelia particularly reminds me of when Lizzy yelled at the Finke family.”
“I told you specifically not to talk to them that day, yet you went ahead and did it regardless. No one could know how much your escapades have threatened my nerves all these years,” Mrs Bennet said, giving her daughter a look and a small shake of her head. Mr Darcy’s eyes followed her mother’s, landing on her.
“I forget how that one goes. Do tell it, Papa,” cried Lydia.
Elizabeth kept a smile on her face even as she hoped her eyes shot daggers at her youngest sister. “No, I do not think anyone wants to hear that story and in any case, it was a long time ago.”
Mr Darcy cleared his throat. “I think I would like to hear it.”
Elizabeth looked at him, slightly shocked and wholly mortified. It was one of the first things she had heard him say all night and she was loath to give him more reasons to think ill of her, even if the event occurred when she was a child.
“Well, it appears I have no choice. Mr Darcy is the type of man to whom I could refuse nothing.” Mr Bennet smiled. “When Elizabeth was eight years old?—”
“It appears I have lost an ally in my father.” Elizabeth laughed weakly and moved her gaze to her plate. She could not face Mr Darcy’s satiric eye, and it appeared he was determined to stare at her.
“The Finkes, our neighbours to the east, had two fearsome hunting dogs. They were not responsible with them, and they were frightful beasts.”
Only a desperate need to defend herself could prompt her to address Mr Darcy directly, and she interrupted her father. “Mr Darcy, before my father continues, you should know that the Bennet family has a practice: truth matters very little in pursuit of a good story.”
Mr Darcy smiled briefly.
Waving her off, Mr Bennet continued. “As I was saying, these dogs frequently went to various neighbours’ properties and killed chickens or scared children and the like. We had an old, loyal dog called Shep. He had been a hunter in his younger days but by this time he was more of a pet. Our children loved him and he was good to them. One day, the Finkes’ dogs came over to our property while the children were outside playing. It so happened that Shep protected the children from their violent dogs, and ended up with the bottom half of his ear bit off. After we bandaged him up, when all the excitement had died down, we discovered our little Lizzy was gone from the house. Later we found out she had marched the three miles over to their property with the bloodied piece of skin from Shep’s ear and gave Mr Finke a piece of her mind. She yelled at him that he had not trained his dogs well enough, that they were a menace to the neighbours, and that he needed to do something about it. He was a gentleman, mind you.”
Elizabeth was covering her face in embarrassment.
“Mr Finke was outraged that Elizabeth had the audacity to address him in such a manner,” her father said, “but those dogs never again troubled anyone in the neighbourhood.”
“And Mr Bennet did not punish her for what she had done,” Mrs Bennet added .
“Why would I?” he said, smiling at Elizabeth. “She was right—Mr Finke was a fool, and those dogs were dangerous. I admired her for her bravery in standing up to him.”
“And so, she has been a little impertinent thing ever since,” said her mother. “Headstrong and speaking her mind, scaring off any men who would have her.”
Before Elizabeth could feel embarrassed, Mr Darcy quietly said, with a small smile, “I would like to think so.”
Elizabeth met his gaze and returned the smile, feeling unable to tear herself away from his dark eyes. After a moment longer than deemed appropriate, their smiles began to fade but their eyes remained on each other. Remembering herself, Elizabeth dropped hers away first.