Chapter Twenty-One
Powers Of Conversation
The morning after they returned home to Pemberley following the ill-starred visit to Hardwick and Chesterfield, Elizabeth sought out her sister after breakfast. She found Jane in her bedroom, changing into a riding habit that, although shabby, suited Jane’s figure and complexion to perfection.
“Mr Bingley suggested we might ride this morning.” Jane’s cheeks took on a rosy hue.
“Indeed?”
“I thought to ride towards Furness Vale. I do not believe Mr Bingley has seen the country there yet, and it boasts some pretty vistas.”
“I am sure he will agree, every time he glances at you! You will take a groom with you?”
“Of course. I would never flout propriety.”
“I know. Mr Bingley seems all admiration, Jane. Do you return it, then?”
“I like and esteem him. He is exactly what a gentleman of his education and experience ought to be. He is sensible, even-tempered, and lively, and he has so much ease and good breeding! But beyond that… it is all too early, Lizzy, to be certain of anything other than wishing to learn more of him.”
“He is also handsome,” replied Elizabeth, smiling.
“He is handsome. I was flattered by his asking me to ride with him this morning.”
“He cannot but help seeing you are about five times as pretty as every other woman in the district. I cannot be surprised he admires you. He is an estimable, agreeable young man. Mr Darcy appears to trust him, and more to the point, so does Mr Reid, and I fancy that gentleman is harder to please. Yes, I think your admirer a trustworthy escort for my beautiful sister.”
Jane smiled as she took up the tall, plumed riding hat and her crop, and fidgeted with them for a moment. “Am I wrong for being thankful Mamma is not here? She would make too much of his attentions, I fear.”
“Too much? She would have you wed within the week!”
“Poor Mamma. Her fears are real, you know.”
“I do know, Jane. I do. All the same, it is far better that she is at Frith House, and you and Mr Bingley are three miles distant and therefore permitted to improve your acquaintance without interference. Or, at least without interference from Mamma.” Elizabeth made Jane sit before the looking-glass while she set the hat over Jane’s gleaming curls at the most becoming angle.
“What think you of his sisters? Their manners are not equal to his.”
“No, not at first. But they are perfectly polite, Lizzy.”
“Rather superior, and their civility has an icy note to it. They consider us beneath their notice. Miss Bingley, in particular, wishes to show herself in the very best light, as she deems it.” Elizabeth suspected the lady was most intent on showing Mr Darcy.
“Do we not all do that? We wish to be liked, after all. They are pleasant company, and I believe we will be friends.”
Elizabeth doubted they would be friends to the notion of Jane wedding their brother.
She smiled at their reflections in the looking-glass.
“I hope you are right, my dear, but you are all too apt to think well of people, even when they do not deserve it.” She turned her head to plant a kiss on one rosy cheek.
“Be off with you and enjoy your morning. I give you leave to like Mr Bingley as much as he deserves, and you must do all you can to dazzle him exceedingly! As Mamma always says, you cannot be so beautiful for nothing.”
“Lizzy!” But Jane’s protest lacked force, and in another moment she returned the kiss, and whisked herself off to meet her admirer in the stable yard.
Elizabeth watched her go with an odd feeling welling in her—hope that Jane would find happiness, mixed with something else. Foreboding, perhaps, that the path to such happiness could occasionally be a stony one.
And on that thought, she left to find Miss Bingley and Mrs Hurst: quite the two sharpest stones she had met with in some time.
“If you have no further need of me this morning, Aunt, I will go out and walk.” Elizabeth gave Aunt Darcy a wry glance. “Two days spent largely in the carriage give me the fidgets, I am afraid!”
Aunt Darcy put her letters aside for a moment. “Our guests?”
“I spoke to Miss Bingley after breakfast. Mrs Hurst is still overset following… well, we all had a fright at Hardwick, Aunt.” She had woken several times in the night at the inn in Chesterfield, heart hammering and her nightrail damp with the cold sweat of fear, jolted out of dreams of that massive chimney thundering to earth within a few feet of Mr Darcy.
Each time the masonry swayed, crashed down in its ruinous fall, he looked up to see his doom plunging down upon him…
and she looked on, too mute and helpless to even squeak out a warning. It was horrible.
Returning to Pemberley had not brought her ease.
Twice the previous night, the great bulk of stone had rumbled into her dreams. Twice.
She had found herself covertly examining Mr Darcy over breakfast, to ensure he was indeed unhurt, and only in her foolish nightmares did he stand unmoving as death plummeted towards him.
It was beyond horrible.
When the excursion party had returned to Pemberley the previous evening in time to join a late dinner, the account of their adventure had caused great consternation.
Mrs Hurst had reprised her own horrified faintness and displayed a notable talent for drooping pitifully in her chair, Georgiana had positively squeaked out her dismay and fright, her gaze fixed on her eldest brother, and Aunt Darcy had lost all colour.
She had looked quickly from Hugh to Mr Darcy, doubtless relieved beyond measure that both were unhurt.
Her eager questions had been answered by Mr Darcy with a kindly reluctance, as he seemed wishful of never thinking of the incident again, and some sulky responses from Hugh.
But then, Hugh had been sulky ever since he had helped hand the ladies down from the coach at the Chesterfield inn, and had still to recover his usual temper.
Aunt Darcy made a little grimace, when reminded of the mishap. “Thank the good Lord no one was hurt.”
“Yes. We are thankful indeed, but not untouched. Mrs Hurst’s sensitive feelings left her unable to enjoy Chesterfield yesterday.
She and her sister did confess the shops were finer than they had imagined, although, of course, not the equal of London’s.
” Elizabeth and her aunt exchanged knowing smiles.
“She intends to keep to her rooms today and rest, and Miss Bingley will bear her company. Mrs Reynolds will provide a noon repast on trays. Mr Bingley has gone riding with Jane.”
They exchanged another smile, this one pleased and full of affection, and Aunt Darcy nodded.
“Excellent news. His connections to trade are not advantageous, but he is well-mannered and amiable. His position in life is such that marriage to a gentlewoman of Jane’s stamp will help be the making of him, as well as give her an agreeable establishment when he settles upon an estate.
Well, if our guests are all occupied, you need not remain indoors, Lizzy. Enjoy your walk, my dear.”
“Oh, I will, Aunt, I assure you!”
But Elizabeth was fated to be accosted before she had done much more than don a warm pelisse and bonnet, and hasten to the door leading from the rear hallway to the gardens and the grounds beyond.
Hugh could not have been lying in wait for her, surely, but he did call her the instant she laid her hand on the doorknob.
She sighed, turned, and made the corners of her mouth turn up into a smile. “Good morning, Hugh.”
He grunted a greeting. “Where is everyone?”
“Our guests do you mean? I do not know where Mr Hurst is—”
Hugh waved a dismissive hand. “Oh, he will be in one of the parlours with a bottle of wine. I care nothing about him.”
This was not surprising intelligence. “Ah. Well, Mrs Hurst and her sister are keeping to themselves for the morning, to allow Mrs Hurst to recover whatever equanimity she can lay claim to.”
Another dismissive wave. “Is she still pretending to be overcome by the nonsense at Hardwick? What a fuss about nothing! No one was hurt, and it is a bag of moonshine to pretend Fitzwilliam’s life was in any sort of danger.
I’ll wager he was well away from it all.
Indeed, I’ll also wager he jumped away quickly enough!
” Hugh twisted his mouth into a smile that was not entirely pleasant.
“The chimney fell close enough to alarm everyone. We all jumped. You were not there to see it.”
“I was nowhere near. I was walking in the woods and knew nothing about it. And to be treated in such a cavalier fashion when I did rejoin you all at the coach is outside of enough! That man, Reid, glowering at me as if he held me responsible for the mishap! I am vexed beyond measure Fitzwilliam allows the man licence to be impertinent to his betters. Of course I am sorry if you all had a fright, but it was nothing to do with me.”
“Are you sorry, Hugh? You seem not to be sorry your brother had to jump away, as you put it.”
Hugh had grace enough to look a trifle chagrined. “Oh, well. He was not harmed, and I am glad, of course. But he is so very superior. If it took down his crest a trifle to be leaping around like a startled goat before his London friends, I will not repine.”
“Hugh.”
He shrugged and blew out a sigh. “No more about that nonsense, Lizzy. I will be good. Are you going out?”
“For a walk, yes.”
He made the sort of “Mmmnn” noise that indicated he was not truly interested in her answer, and regarded her through moody eyes. “Is not Cousin Jane going with you?”
Ah. And there they came to the nub of the matter, the reason Hugh had stopped her.
Elizabeth’s own version of “Mmmnn…” was more tentative than indifferent, and she followed it with another forced smile. “Oh no,” she said, trying to keep her tone light and easy. “Jane has gone riding.”
If Hugh had stiffened any further, he would have turned to stone before her, as if she were Medusa herself.