Chapter Two #2
“Oh, I never expected that of you,” Elizabeth said. When the mirth drained from his face, Elizabeth regretted her remark. After such talk as this, the proud man might never deign to give another apology again.
“Given the strange circumstances of our gathering, and Mr. Tilney’s plans gone awry, I doubt any of us were a credit to ourselves last night,” she said encouragingly.
He nodded. “Under happier circumstances, we might have continued the lively debates we enjoyed at Netherfield.”
Elizabeth let out a breathy laugh, first believing him to be in jest. She glanced up and could see that he was in earnest. All the times she had argued with him, with no other aim than to vex him, Mr. Darcy had apparently considered it an enjoyable debate!
“Well, I should be happy to argue with you endlessly, sir, if you should ever wish to visit my brother Bingley at Netherfield again.”
He nodded his head. “I hope to have that pleasure very soon. My sister has had some difficulties with… with her health. It was this that called me away on the evening of Bingley’s ball last year.
Georgiana has been through a dreadful ordeal, and has only recovered this summer.
I wrote to Bingley, for I believed a visit would do my sister some good; she and Mrs. Bingley are of a similar disposition.
Bingley told me his bride was nearly in her confinement, and I thought that she and Georgiana might do better to become acquainted once Mrs. Bingley recovered.
I had a letter from Bingley that they were ready to receive me on the very same day that I was contacted by Mr. Tilney, or Mr. Butler as he called himself. ”
“I cannot think why he should use an alias,” Elizabeth said with a playful shake of her head.
“That is perhaps because you have not had any dealings with his father. The name Tilney would surely have raised my hackles.”
Elizabeth tensed, remembering that this was a man with a secret.
If he had no hesitation in using his late father’s godson so ill, what ghastly thing would he wish to remain concealed from all the world?
She was chagrined by the recollection of all that Mr. Wickham had told her; she had nearly begun to enjoy Mr. Darcy’s company.
Elizabeth let her gaze drift across the meadow for a minute or two, watching with delight as golden leaves were caught in an eddy of wind, swirling in a circle before finally disappearing on the breeze.
She felt that the secrets of her companions were doing just the same in her mind, whirling about in confusion.
“I suppose we were both rather dull last evening, each being of such an unsocial, taciturn disposition, unwilling to speak unless we expect to say something that will amaze the whole room… and that distinction belonged entirely to Mr. Tilney.”
Mr. Darcy’s lips twitched upward at her pert jest. “I rather pity his predicament. He set out to do us all a great kindness, which is better than some amongst us may deserve, I suspect. I hope he is able to resolve his father’s untimely arrival, for it shall be strange enough, I daresay, for us all to reside here amongst such an air of mystery. ”
“I quite agree, Mr. Darcy. It hardly promotes a convivial house party when one comprehends that all of one’s companions are hiding something.”
He sucked in a sharp breath, his gaze piercing hers so intensely that Elizabeth stumbled as they stepped across the kemp suspended high above the moat.
Mr. Darcy moved his arm until it was encircling her back and steadying her steps, and to her mortification she clung to him a little as they traversed the drawbridge, determined to look anywhere but at the cold, dark water below.
Mr. Darcy smiled down at Elizabeth, who wondered if it pleased him to detect another failing in her, as she succumbed to her moment of panic.
She moved away from him as they passed under the portcullis and into the castle’s courtyard.
But Mr. Darcy stepped closer, once more offering her his arm.
He remained perversely determined to attach himself to her, and she wondered at him, for she had made her own wariness evident.
“If our walk had been longer, I might have confided in you, Miss Bennet. Another time, I hope you will allow me to do so. While I am amongst those guests who have something to conceal, the secret is not my own, and I daresay it is not the sordid sort of thing some others may be hiding.”
“You ought to be careful, sir. A lady’s imagination is very rapid, and mine has been an unrelenting companion since last evening.
I have a great many conjectures. Who knows which of us might have committed a terrible crime, or done something very wicked.
” And then, emboldened by their arrival at the breakfast room, she added, “I wonder if it is anything so awful as disregarding the will of one’s father, and damaging the prospects of a friend, ruining his chances perhaps forever. ”
At this, she moved away, for Miss Morland was beckoning her to take a seat at the table near some of the other ladies.
The atmosphere in the room was nearly as tense as it had been the previous evening, but Miss Morland was whispering merrily with Miss Woodhouse and Miss Smith, while Lady Allen and Lady Susan quietly assessed one another.
Elizabeth took the seat that Miss Morland saved for her, breathing a sigh of relief as she saw Mr. Darcy relegated to the other end of the table after making a plate at the sideboard.
“I made you a plate already, with all of my favorite things,” Miss Morland said.
“They are mine as well,” Elizabeth replied with a bright smile for her new friend. “Have you mentioned our plan for the afternoon?”
“I was waiting for you. But listen to this, Miss Smith, Miss Woodhouse! Mr. Tilney said that since we must keep to our rooms while he gets rid of his father, we ought to make a little party of it. My room shares a parlor with Miss Bennet’s, and we wish to invite you to come and play cards with us.
Other games, too, if you like. Or we could draw, or perhaps read together. ”
“That is an excellent notion, my dear,” Lady Allen said with a nod of approbation. “Lady Susan, would you care to join me in sitting with the girls? The company of lively young people shall make us quite gay.”
“I hope I am already that,” Lady Susan said with the coy smile of a practiced coquette. “But if you can promise that none of the gentlemen will be permitted to crash our party, I should be happy to join you all.”
Miss Woodhouse glanced pointedly down the table. “Sir Walter Elliot certainly looks keen,” she told her aunt with a smirk.
“He looks absurd,” Lady Susan quipped. Elizabeth could not disagree.
The aged baronet was dressed as a young dandy from decades past, and just as he had done at dinner the night before, he was presently attempting to simper and smile at every pretty woman at the table.
Alarmingly, it was the newly married Mrs. Rushworth who appeared most receptive to his dubious charms. Her husband, insensible of his lady’s wandering eye, might very well be the cause of it, Elizabeth supposed. Poor Mr. Rushworth!
Again Elizabeth considered the secrets her companions all concealed – Mrs. Rushworth was not among the ladies Mr. Tilney had vouched for, and Elizabeth wondered who else amongst them was not to be trusted.
Further down the table, Mr. Tilney was urging the gentlemen to organize some entertainment of their own, and addressed himself chiefly to a short young man, who might have been plain but for his animation as he teased their host. “You would have us all make merry while in such peril? I shall be quite terrified of the general bursting in to work some wicked scheme on us, or lay all my secrets bare. I wonder you can be so cheerful in such company, knowing us all to be… well, let us say a little bit tarnished.”
“I hardly know all your secrets,” Mr. Tilney said. “I read only a few of my father’s files, but that he has a dossier for all of you told me that you must all be bound to him in some fashion. I shall do my best to send him on his way in all haste.”
Lady Susan narrowed her eyes as she stared at Mr. Tilney, but adopted a playful attitude as she teased him from several seats down the table.
“If you have not learned anything about some of us, it may be that there is nothing to learn. I should think we ladies are quite beyond reproach, poor creatures as we are.”
Mr. Tilney only winked at her, and then turned away to speak with Sir Walter, who suggested their host give them a tour of the castle.
“I expect to receive word that my father’s carriage has been sighted within the hour, so I shall hardly have time to do the place justice until after he has departed. But then, what fun!”
That signal soon came, and a quarter hour later they all dispersed to occupy themselves privately. Sir Edward was warmly in favor of entertaining some of the gentlemen with cards in his apartments, and Elizabeth was no less keen to do likewise with the ladies.
The six women retreated to Elizabeth and Miss Morland’s shared parlor, where Mr. Tilney had a small buffet of refreshments already laid out.
They began with cards at a round oak table beside a large diamond grille window, and after some debate over which game would best suit six players, Miss Morland suggested beggar-my-neighbor.
“It is a favorite in my home, though my brothers and sisters can be chaotic at times, and we have invented a few new rules. Lady Allen, I believe you taught us the game.”
“I learnt it from my uncle,” Elizabeth said, recalling the many curious glances Sir Edward and Lady Allen had exchanged.
“I know it, too,” Miss Smith said shyly, clasping her hands about Miss Woodhouse’s arm as they sat together on a little bench. “We played it when your sister visited last Christmas.”