Chapter 26
Darcy retired to his rooms while contemplating how poorly the first night after the Bingleys' arrival went, and he considered it poor because he didn't get to even so much as speak to Elizabeth while the rest of the house party was present. His sister and Miss Llewellyn were on him continuously. Darcy felt a peculiar obligation to Georgiana and thus gave Miss Llewellyn undo attention, as long as the young lady asked for it. But the entire time, he had wished he could just break away and go straight to Elizabeth's side.
He was a little jealous of Fitzwilliam for getting to converse with her, but he was even more jealous of Mr. Swann.
He didn't know much about the man, but he did know, through Fitzwilliam, that he was actually a recent widower, his young wife having died from scarlet fever just a year past—so while on the one hand, Darcy didn't truly think the man would even be ready to find a new wife so soon, on the other hand, he feared the man's attentions to Elizabeth. He saw the man giving her looks before the dinner began; then he escorted Elizabeth and was seated next to her; and finally, the man escorted her out of the room at the end of the evening. Darcy couldn't merely discount the man's interest on account of Elizabeth's older age—what would she be now, seven or eight and twenty? A widower may not have too much of a preference, nor did Elizabeth even look her age; in Darcy's opinion, she looked more beautiful than both Miss Llewellyn and Miss Swann, and these ladies were certainly not older than twenty.
Darcy sighed as his man undressed him.
"Not good, eh?" Smith said.
Darcy shook his head. "I couldn't get away from Georgiana and her sister-in-law. Miss Bennet looked beautiful, yet I didn't so much as even speak to her."
"It is only the first night, sir."
Darcy nodded and closed his eyes for a moment before saying, "That is true. And we had such rapport when she first arrived..."
Soon Darcy was alone, attempting to sleep. But it was nigh impossible to sleep, knowing that Elizabeth herself was under this very roof, in the same house. How he had dreamed of seeing her here at Pemberley, though his dream did not consist of Elizabeth being here with a houseful of guests. He let out a disgruntled sigh at the situation. How he would have liked a small party of just the Bingleys, perhaps his sister and only her immediate family, Fitzwilliam and only his immediate family, but alas—it was the way it was, and Darcy had to find a way to cope.
Maybe tomorrow he could offer the Bingleys a tour, just he and them—Bingley had seen Pemberley, of course, but it had been many years, and he knew the man would stay on Mrs. Bingley's arm, leaving Elizabeth to hold onto his. Darcy warmed to this idea quite nicely, as he smiled to himself in the dark of his room imagining it. But then he scowled, thinking Georgiana might have some activity planned. He wasn't sure, of course, but it seemed likely.
He turned over. He would find out early in the morning what would be happening that day. Then he would somehow, one way or another, have the Bingleys to himself and entertain them, alone and away from the other house guests.
He wasn't going to let tomorrow pass the same way this evening had, that was for sure.