Darcy Makes a Deal (Pride and Prejudice Variation)
Chapter 1
Fitzwilliam Darcy noticed the very moment that Elizabeth Bennet entered the ballroom at Netherfield. It was impossible not to. No matter what setting they were in, his eyes seemed to be magnetically drawn to her.
It had been this way for a month, despite his poor initial opinion of her. There was something about the sparkle of intelligence in her eyes, the grace of her form as she moved, and the brightness of her smile that pulled his attention toward her even against his will.
And it was most definitely against his will. While she was certainly everything charming, she was also entirely unsuited to his station in life. Every single one of her relatives was suffering either from poor standards of behavior or simply a poor position in life.
His glance slid to the lady at Miss Elizabeth’s side.
Perhaps not every relative. Miss Bennet was Miss Elizabeth’s older sister.
By objective measurements her behavior was perfect, as was her beauty.
But Miss Bennet was the only exception. Even Mr. Bennet occasionally showed poor manners by ridiculing his daughters or his wife in public.
Darcy watched as Miss Elizabeth looked around the room. She was clearly looking for someone in particular, but her disappointed expression told him she did not see her intended target. Instead, she and Miss Bennet moved towards Miss Lucas, the eldest daughter of Sir William Lucas.
They chatted for a bit, but their conversation was interrupted by one of the officers, an ensign by the name of Mr. Denny.
He spoke briefly to Miss Elizabeth. Then he bowed and departed.
Darcy was surprised to see that after the officer’s departure, she sent an absolutely venomous look toward himself.
He did not think about what might have prompted such a look for too long, simply because her anger lit a fire in her eyes, making her even more entrancing than usual.
With a great exercising of willpower, Darcy turned his attention away from Miss Elizabeth and observed the rest of the guests.
For the most part, other than the addition of the officers of the militia that were stationed nearby, it was the same group of people that he had first seen at the assembly in Meryton six weeks ago.
There was little fashion and even less manners among them, but Darcy had learned to appreciate that they were, for the most part, friendly and welcoming, at least to Bingley. And for Darcy, that was what mattered.
Darcy would only be here another week or two.
Then, he would be going back to London to spend the winter with his sister, Georgiana.
Bingley, on the other hand, seemed to truly enjoy himself here.
Though his neighbors were not quite up to Darcy’s standard of living, Bingley fit right in, often going hunting or fishing with the local gentlemen or even just riding around for the enjoyment of it.
The only reason Darcy thought that Bingley should not necessarily settle down here was Miss Bennet.
From their first meeting, Bingley was absolutely smitten with the eldest Bennet daughter. Darcy did not have any objections to this, of course. He had seen Bingley in love many times, and his friend was notorious for falling out of love as quickly as he fell into it.
Even if his friend was serious this time, however, Darcy had no objection to Miss Bennet, herself…
at least not for his friend. The Bennets’ connections, including an uncle who was a solicitor and another who was a London tradesman, which would be impossible to tolerate for himself, would be no problem for Bingley.
Darcy’s objection was simply that he could see no evidence that Miss Bennet returned Bingley’s regard in any way.
He would not wish for his friend to be saddled with a loveless marriage.
Darcy continued to watch as the first dance was forming.
Only when Miss Bingley appeared at his side did he remember he had promised this dance to her.
He was not particularly pleased at the prospect, but he had done it out of respect for his friend.
Miss Bingley, who was the hostess for the evening, could not be left without a partner for the first dance.
He held his arm out to her and internally winced as she smiled and simpered at him.
For the first five minutes of the dance, Darcy was entirely engrossed in ignoring Miss Bingley’s conversation…
mostly. He paid just enough attention to be able to say “Yes,” “No,” or “Of course,” which was the only input she needed to keep her torrent of words flowing.
He was distracted from this one-sided conversation, however, when there seemed to be a bit of a disturbance further down the line.
Darcy looked at what might be causing it. In the middle of the disturbance was a young man of somewhat large proportions. It seemed as though he had gone the wrong way, but instead of correcting himself and allowing the dance to continue, he had stopped everyone to tender his deepest apologies.
Darcy’s gaze flew to Miss Elizabeth, who was standing nearby, embarrassment written clearly on her face. She must have been his partner. Within a few moments, she managed to get the man moving again, and the disturbance cleared immediately afterward.
Darcy no longer had attention to spare for Miss Bingley.
Rather, his mind was taken up wondering why Miss Elizabeth would have accepted a dance from such a bumbling idiot in the first place.
He vaguely recalled seeing the young man in her company when he saw her in Meryton a few days ago, but his attention was immediately distracted by the appearance of Wickham, so much so that he didn’t speak to any of them. He simply turned around and rode away.
Wickham had been a thorn in Darcy’s side for far too many years, and he didn’t think he could speak to the man with any amount of equanimity. Not now. Not after what he had done to Georgiana last summer.
Darcy shoved thoughts of Wickham out of his mind.
Thinking of that man always made his face far more forbidding than it usually was, and that would be entirely inappropriate at Bingley’s ball.
Thankfully, the scoundrel had the good sense not to show his face here, so he was able to set that memory aside.
Then, he refocused his attention on Miss Elizabeth and her partner.
The young man made several more errors as the dance progressed, and he caused two additional disturbances among his near neighbors before it was over. Darcy felt an increasing amount of pity for Miss Elizabeth.
A strong desire to save her from her discomfort arose in his chest, and he had to prevent himself from barging over to that young man and berating him for embarrassing his partner so badly.
The dance eventually ended, and Darcy made his way over to the edge of the room. He had no wish to speak with anyone, and he certainly had no intention of dancing again. He would have to dance with Mrs. Hurst at some point, whether he wished to or not, but for now he needed a rest.
~~~~~
Elizabeth was utterly mortified and thoroughly disappointed.
She had so been looking forward to this ball.
She had dressed herself as carefully as possible.
She had acquired fresh flowers for her hair and had worn her favorite necklace, a strand of pearls her mother had given her when she turned sixteen.
Though she would have taken such care regardless, as she prepared for the ball she occasionally wondered if Mr. Wickham would approve of her appearance. He seemed to think she was rather pretty when they first met, and once they had a chance to converse, the conversation had flowed smoothly.
He was clever and genteel, friendly and cheerful. In short, her first impression of the man was that he was everything a young man should be. If he had not been so poor, as an ensign in the militia must undoubtedly be, Elizabeth felt she might well be able to fall in love with him.
Love or not, she was quite looking forward to seeing him at the Netherfield ball. He had explicitly told her that he would be there, and she fully intended to dance with him at least once.
Now, however, all her plans for an enjoyable evening were ruined.
Almost as soon as she entered the ballroom, Mr. Denny had delivered the message that Mr. Wickham was not able to attend after all.
Though the officer did not say so explicitly, he implied that Mr. Darcy was the true reason behind Mr. Wickham’s absence.
Mr. Darcy, the bane of Elizabeth’s existence.
Deep down, Elizabeth knew she was exaggerating, but she needed someone to blame for how miserable her evening was so far, and Mr. Darcy made for a fine target, especially since he wouldn’t care one way or the other.
Mr. Darcy didn’t care for anyone but himself, and his own opinion of himself was so great that even all of Elizabeth’s ire would not make one dent in the man’s wall of arrogance.
The evening didn’t get any better when the dancing began, for she had been forced to accept her cousin, Mr. Collins, as her first partner.
Mr. Collins was the most unpleasant man Elizabeth had ever met.
Well, perhaps the second most unpleasant man.
Mr. Darcy still came first in that category.
Between Mr. Collins’ groveling subservience toward his patroness, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and his unwarranted arrogance concerning his position as a parson, the man had yet to say a single sentence that didn’t make Elizabeth cringe.
The only reason he was in any way welcome among her family members was that he was her father’s heir. Since Longbourn, the Bennets’ estate, was entailed to male heirs, and the Bennets did not have a son, Elizabeth’s cousin, Mr. Collins, was due to inherit their home once Mr. Bennet died.