Chapter 6
Mrs. Bennet breezed into Jane’s bedchamber with Kitty and Lydia chattering behind her. She gave her favourite a quick examination. It was worrying, but no one died from a trifling cold, did they?
“Are you looking after your sister well, Miss Lizzy?” Fanny demanded. “You are not chasing the men and leaving your sister alone, are you?”
“Mama, I am with Jane constantly and barely leave her side. I have hardly slept in my own bedchamber as I prefer to be with my sister,” Elizabeth replied indignantly.
“Do not take that tone with me, Miss Lizzy,” Fanny responded. She knew Elizabeth would move heaven and earth to be of service to her sister, but she did not want her second daughter becoming complacent.
“When do you think Jane will be able to come home, Mama?” Elizabeth asked hopefully.
“I believe it will be at least a sennight,” Fanny replied. Jane needed to spend a few nights at Netherfield after her recovery so she could trap the wealthy Mr. Darcy.
Mrs. Bennet departed the bedchamber with a flounce, followed by her two youngest daughters who had found something to giggle about—what it was, Elizabeth had no idea. When she made to accompany her mother below stairs, her mother admonished her to remain at her ailing sister’s side.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Miss Bingley reluctantly rang for tea when Mrs. Bennet and her two youngest daughters joined them in the drawing room.
After his sister’s comment—wondering if every Bennet in the county was to join them—Bingley, knowing she disliked being hospitable to the Bennets, gave his sister a pointed look when she did not move to order tea right away.
Because of Miss Bingley’s complete lack of hospitality to guests in his house, including the comment about the Bennets, Bingley threatened to remove her as his hostess and confer the title on Mrs. Hurst.
Miss Bingley panicked. If that happened, she could not demonstrate her superiority as a hostess to Mr. Darcy! Therefore, she would grit her teeth and bear the company of the Bennets in her house.
“What a sweet room you have here, Mr. Bingley,” Fanny Bennet effused after she had been served her tea. “Such fine, expensive furnishings.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Bennet; however, I cannot take credit for the state of the furnishings as they were as you see them when we took up the lease,” Bingley clarified.
“If Miss Lizzy is any trouble, please send her home,” Fanny said dismissively. “She is nothing to my Jane,” she stated as she looked directly at Darcy, “so you need not trouble yourself with a carriage; she can walk home the same way she arrived here.”
‘What a vulgar woman and what kind of mother denigrates her daughter publicly in such a way?’ Darcy asked himself in wonder.
‘Miss Elizabeth is the only one in that family worth knowing.
How she turned out so much better than the rest, I have no idea.
If Mrs. Bennet thinks I have any interest in her oldest daughter, who hides her true self behind insipid smiles, she is deluded.
‘Look at the way Miss Bingley is lapping up Mrs. Bennet’s comments about Miss Elizabeth. When I get back to Town, I will talk to Aunt Elaine; she will know how to put the woman in her place.’ Darcy’s musings ended just in time to hear the youngest Bennet begging Bingley to hold a ball.
“It will be so, Miss Lydia. Once your sister is well again, we will set a date,” Bingley promised.
“Thank you, Mr. Bingley. Be sure to invite all the officers,” Lydia urged.
After more inane conversation, the three Bennets departed.
As soon as Bingley returned to the drawing room after seeing them off, Miss Bingley pounced.
“Charles, you cannot be serious. Why would you hold a ball for these country mushrooms?” she demanded with her shrill voice raised an octave higher than normal.
“You know some of our party would find a ball distasteful.”
“If you mean Darcy, then he may retire to his chambers rather than attend,” Bingley stated jovially.
“Surely, Mr. Darcy, you will agree with me that we should not be casting pearls before the swine.” Miss Bingley was convinced Mr. Darcy would support her completely.
“A ball will be a good way for your brother to socialise with his neighbours, and contrary to your assertion, Miss Bingley, I do not object to attending such an event. Do not forget, as the lowest ranked family in the neighbourhood, it will show your brother, and by extension you, in a good light.
As she always did, Miss Bingley ignored anything she did not wish to hear and only took notice that Mr. Darcy appeared keen to attend the ball.
Of course that meant he wanted to ask her to dance all the significant sets.
“In that case, I will show these bumpkins what a ball given by one in our level of society looks like.” Miss Bingley was determined to impress Mr. Darcy so he would forget about anyone, fine eyes or not, except for herself.
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That night, Jane’s fever broke. About one in the morning, she began to sleep restfully and she had cooled down significantly. Elizabeth was relieved as she had feared for her favourite sister’s wellbeing.
When Jane woke in the morning, it was after ten and the sun was already well above the horizon. “Jane, you look so much better,” a much-relieved Elizabeth stated. “When I checked an hour ago, there was only a trace of a fever, nothing like you had for the last three days.”
Until that moment, Jane had not been aware it was three days later. “I am sorry to have caused so much trouble,” Jane responded insincerely.
“Mr. Bingley asked after you often, Jane. I believe he has tender feelings for you,” Elizabeth informed her sister happily.
“Only, Mr. Bingley?” Jane asked, revealing some disappointment.
“No silly, all of our family were most worried; Mama, Kitty, and Lydia were here yesterday. Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst sat with you for a few minutes now and again,” Elizabeth informed her sister.
Elizabeth was singularly unimpressed by Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley and the lack of empathy or compassion the sisters displayed.
Jane was unhappy; Mr. Darcy had not asked after her. She had hoped to garner at least some sympathy from that quarter. As she had not, she knew when she felt better, perhaps in another day or so, she would take matters into her own hands.
“Jane, did Mr. Darcy insult you or say something untoward to you?” Elizabeth enquired.
“No,” a confused Jane replied. “Why would you ask that?”
“When you were somewhat delirious from the fever you mentioned both Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy’s names,” Elizabeth revealed. “Mr. Bingley I understand, but not that arrogant, insufferable man’s name.”
“No, Lizzy, he has not harmed me, except for his treatment of you. Perhaps I was remonstrating with him in my dream for the way he treated you,” Jane blatantly lied.
In Elizabeth’s mind, it was another black mark against the man from Derbyshire. That his behaviour had upset her sister, who was all that was kind and good, while she was sick was unacceptable. She was close to berating the man publicly.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Darcy sat in the library thinking about his obsession, Miss Elizabeth Bennet. He was at a loss as to what to do about her. She was everything he had ever imagined he would want in a wife. Intelligent, witty, compassionate, and it did not hurt that she was the handsomest woman of his acquaintance.
The trouble was she was so far below him in consequence and seemed to have no connections of note or much of a dowry. The most significant problem was her family.
Darcy had not met the father as his family always seemed to be out without him.
It was no great leap for Darcy to assume Mr. Bennet was as indolent as they come and did not trouble himself to check his wife and daughters.
The only one Darcy exempted from his disdain for the family was Miss Elizabeth.
The mother and other four sisters behaved terribly. The middle sister was the best of the other four. The few times he had seen her, she was either spouting moralistic texts she did not understand from Fordyce’s Sermons, or she was banging away on a pianoforte with her pedantic style of play.
The oldest, while a classical beauty, was predatory and mercenary, no matter how well she hid those traits from most. Darcy understood wearing a mask; it was, after all, his own defence in society.
Since the first huntress had set her sights on him, even before his father passed away, Darcy had developed what he called his mask. He quickly developed a scowl if anyone not already known to him approached him.
It kept most away, except for the most determined fortune hunters, of which Miss Bingley was a prime example. He detested the fawning and grasping of the debutantes and their parents, who saw him as naught but a source of wealth and connections.
After his father died, Darcy and Giana mourned for a full year secluding themselves at Pemberley. The only major disruption to their peace had been when his late mother’s sister, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, dragged his poor sickly Cousin Anne to Pemberley to execute the non-existent betrothal.
Fortunately, Uncle Reggie had sent his sister packing with a flea in her ear. He was the executor of Robert Darcy’s will and the latter had made sure there was no question as to his wishes and the lie of Lady Catherine’s claim.
On his return to society a year later, the huntresses and their parents redoubled their efforts to capture Darcy now he had inherited. However, all he did was develop an even more fearsome version of his mask. A few, such as the aforementioned Miss Bingley, were undeterred, but most were.
As he thought about the visage he sometimes presented to the world, he considered the reasons for his and Miss Bennet’s use of such a stratagem. He did it to keep unwanted attention from himself, whereas she did it to hide a grasping, selfish, and mercenary nature.