Chapter Three #3
“Are we going to discuss the merits of accomplished women all evening or do you believe, Louisa, you can concentrate on the cards?” Mr. Hurst’s annoyance at such frivolous thoughts showed.
As all conversation came quickly to an end, Miss Elizabeth returned to her sister’s care. Her leaving disappointed Darcy. He felt exhilarated. It was a beginning, he thought; tomorrow could not come too soon.
“Eliza Bennet,” said Miss Bingley, when the door closed on Miss Elizabeth, “is one of those young ladies who seek to recommend themselves to the other sex by undervaluing their own; and with many men, I dare say, it succeeds. But, in my opinion, it is a paltry device, a very mean art.”
Darcy found it amusing how Elizabeth’s presence affected Caroline to the point that Miss Bingley repeated herself.
If she could see herself as others see her, Darcy mused.
Caroline criticizes Elizabeth for using wily means to entice men when her flamboyant displays border on rudeness.
“Undoubtedly,” replied Darcy, “there is a meanness in all the arts which ladies sometimes condescend to employ for captivation. Whatever bears affinity to cunning is despicable.” Caroline’s countenance took on a disturbance; her remark had won her no new ground with him.
Meanwhile, Darcy had thought Miss Elizabeth’s allurements genuine where Caroline’s purely for show.
Miss Elizabeth made another brief appearance with news of her sister’s continued illness, begging their pardon for abandoning their company.
She would not leave Miss Bennet. Bingley urged sending immediately for Mr. Jones, the local apothecary.
Feigning true concern, his sisters declared a dispatch for a more eminent physician should be sent.
Miss Elizabeth declined the offer, but she agreed to allow Mr. Bingley to send for Mr. Jones in the morning if Miss Bennet felt not more herself.
While Darcy noted his friend’s sisters were not easily disturbed by Miss Bennet’s illness, this latest news had Bingley even more distracted.
Meanwhile, the Bingley sisters spent time complimenting each other on their pianoforte performances.
All these exceptions in what he had once accepted as appropriate behavior created more turmoil in Darcy; he was beginning to realize he could no longer rely on what he had previously assumed to be accurate portrayals of a person’s character.
As Darcy pretended to listen to the ladies’ performances, he wondered if the situation placed either Caroline or Louisa in need of care, would they be concerned for each other?
In his estimation, Miss Elizabeth Bennet had proved herself remarkable.
She traversed on foot the distance of three miles in poor conditions to give service to her sister.
She had refused to be intimidated by Miss Bingley’s so-called social mores and his verbal challenges.
Miss Elizabeth had battled him with an unaccustomed quickness of mind.
If he chose a “sister” for Georgiana, he would choose the qualities displayed by Miss Elizabeth over those of Miss Bingley.
As he slid his long limbs under the counterpane that evening, Darcy pictured Elizabeth standing on the staircase at Pemberley; ironically, doing so brought him the first peaceful night he had had in some time.
The following morning, Darcy found Bingley up hours before his friend’s usual appearance in the breakfast room. Bingley appeared distraught, his concerns for Miss Bennet evident. “Bingley, please sit down. You are wearing a path in the flooring,” Darcy teased.
“Darcy, what should be done for Miss Bennet’s well-being?” his friend pleaded.
Darcy attempted to assuage his friend’s fears. “One may trust Miss Elizabeth to do what is best for her sister. The lady will soon send word on Miss Bennet’s progress.”
Almost as if he had willed her to do so, a housemaid brought Mr. Bingley a note from Miss Elizabeth.
Miss Bennet’s health appeared much improved, but Miss Elizabeth wished a message sent to Mrs. Bennet to visit Jane and to form her own opinion on her eldest daughter’s health.
Bingley dispatched the request immediately.
Darcy stifled a groan of disapproval: He did not require a reminder of Miss Elizabeth’s connections.
He even worried over whether Mrs. Bennet would choose to stay at Netherfield and to send her second daughter home to Longbourn.
How intolerable that would be! Although he could not explain it, Darcy wished Miss Elizabeth to remain at Netherfield.
Last night was a beginning; he did not want the dawn to bring an end—an end to what, exactly?
He remained uncertain, but being near Miss Elizabeth had taken on a new importance to him.
Much to his amusement, as well as his horror, the two youngest Bennets had accompanied Mrs. Bennet. After spending time with her eldest, Mrs. Bennet and her daughters intruded upon the Bingley household in the morning room.
Darcy stood by the window, taking in the prospect.
In reality, he desired to be away from Mrs. Bennet and the reminder that the woman was Miss Elizabeth’s mother.
He did not wish to think about the prospects of saddling himself to the Bennet family.
Such thoughts undermined his hopes from the previous evening.
As he watched the Bennet brood from the corner of his eye, he wondered if Miss Elizabeth might consider a brief affair.
Perhaps, if he could actually spend intimate time with the woman, he could shake this new obsession.
Mrs. Bennet’s fawning gestures interrupted his thoughts.
Darcy briefly wondered how well Miss Bennet must be before Mrs. Bennet thought her daughter should return to Longbourn.
Clearly, having Miss Bennet ill and at Netherfield pleased the woman excessively.
“Oh, Mr. Bingley, my Jane is a great deal too ill to be moved. Mr. Jones says we must not think of moving her. I fear we must trespass a little longer on your kindness, sir.”
“You may depend upon it, ma’am. Miss Bennet will receive every possible attention while she remains with us,” Bingley added sincerely.
“Oh, we do hope you plan to stay at Netherfield, Mr. Bingley. It is such a fine estate,” Mrs. Bennet said, and her younger daughters nodded their agreement.
“I do like it here. I hope to stay a long time, but those who know me well will attest to my changeable nature.” He gestured about the room.
“Mr. Bingley,” Miss Elizabeth said amiably, “that is exactly what I should have supposed of you.”
“Indecision, as they say, brings lamenting for lost days,” Bingley responded.
Darcy admired his friend’s ability to be at ease in such conversations, and at that moment, he envied the attention Bingley received from Miss Elizabeth.
But Mrs. Bennet’s reprimand of her daughter interrupted those thoughts. “Lizzy, do not forget your place, child.”
Bingley ignored Mrs. Bennet’s warning to her daughter. He replied teasingly to Miss Elizabeth. “So, Miss Elizabeth, you amuse yourself with a study of your fellow man—of his character? If I am correct, you begin to comprehend me, do you?”
With sparkling eyes, of which Darcy found of late so compelling, she retorted, “I prefer to study intricate characters for they are the most amusing; in that, they have all the advantage.”
Despite his pledge not to become involved in any conversation involving Mrs. Bennet, Darcy could not resist engendering a response from Miss Elizabeth.
“If you prefer more intricate characters, Miss Elizabeth, the country can, in general, supply but few subjects for such a study. In a country neighborhood, you move in a very confined and unvarying society.”
He found Elizabeth’s enthusiasm enchanting as she replied, “Fortunately, Mr. Darcy, people themselves alter so much there is something new to be observed in them forever.” Touché, he thought, and the lines of his forehead relaxed.
For a brief moment, Darcy and Elizabeth stared deeply into each other’s eyes, and they both sported a hint of a smile of understanding.
Regrettably, Mrs. Bennet’s voice shattered the flash of companionship between them.
“I believe you are mistaken, sir; country society is not lacking in anything of consequence,” she said with self-importance.
Her affront to a man of Darcy’s standing silenced the Bingley party. Darcy thought to respond, but a note of the mortification Elizabeth suffered at her mother’s hand stifled his disfavor. Instead, he turned silently away.
Attempting to smooth the indignity, Elizabeth came to his defense, which privately pleased him.
“Mama, you mistake Mr. Darcy’s intention.
” From the corner of his eye, Darcy noted how Elizabeth blushed in embarrassment.
“He only meant that there was not such a variety of people to be met within the country as in the Town, which you must acknowledge to be true.”
Her kindness drew Darcy’s attention to her countenance. He watched as she resettled her shoulders and brought her chin up in an act of defiance. He had developed a fondness for the woman’s temerity, and he rued the day he had thought her not handsome enough to tempt him.
“Of course, Lizzy,” Mrs. Bennet continued, wrapped in her own conceit, “but we live in a large country neighborhood; I know we dine regularly with four and twenty families.”
Bingley opened his mouth to deny the woman’s words, but Elizabeth’s obvious embarrassment concerned his friend as much as it did Darcy.
Darcy ordered Bingley’s silence with an imperceptible shake of his head.
However, Caroline Bingley could not channel her disdain elsewhere; a roll of her eyes and a shift of her seat away from the offending woman acted as a cut.
She caught Darcy’s eye and offered him an expressive smile, which said, “See what your appreciation of very fine eyes will earn you. If you pursue your interest in Miss Elizabeth, Mrs. Bennet shall be a regular guest at Pemberley.”
The Bingley party marked Mrs. Bennet as impossible!
Darcy’s back stiffened. Such deplorable manners.
Yet, how Miss Elizabeth felt mattered more to him.
He watched her countenance closely for any signs of distress.
Somehow, he would protect her—even from her mother.
However, his tongue could find no words that would ease the awkwardness.
When no one else appeared willing to breach the silence, Elizabeth attempted to divert her mother’s thoughts. “Mama, have you spoken to Charlotte?”
“She was by to see you yesterday, dear. Oh, the poor girl! There is an old maid in the making, for certain. Not that I think Charlotte is very plain, but she is our particular friend. Of course, my Jane is considered to be the most handsome woman in the county. One does not often see anybody better looking.”
“Mama!” Miss Elizabeth protested. The woman’s audacity amazed Darcy; he rarely experienced such boorishness. He pitied Miss Elizabeth for having to share the woman’s company. Miss Elizabeth deserved to be the center of attention of the beau monde instead of suffering her mother’s insensibilities.
Mrs. Bennet ignored her second daughter’s plea.
“When Jane was but fifteen there was a gentleman at my brother Gardiner’s, in Town, so much in love with her that my sister in marriage was confident he would make her an offer before we came away.
Unfortunately, he did not. Perhaps he thought her too young.
However, he wrote some verses on her, and very pretty they were,” the woman insisted.
Darcy suspected the man withdrew because of having Mrs. Bennet as part of his family rather than thinking Miss Bennet was too young.
He turned to observe Miss Elizabeth’s growing impatience with her mother.
She actually interrupted this denigration of her friend and the overt promotion of her beloved sister by saying, “And so ended his affection. There has been many a one, I fancy, overcome in the same manner. I wonder who first discovered the efficacy of poetry in driving away love!”
Darcy enjoyed how the quickness of her mind permitted Miss Elizabeth to take control of an embarrassing situation. He could not resist another verbal challenge. “I have been accustomed to considering poetry as the food of love.”
“Of a fine, stout, healthy love it may be. Everything nourishes what is strong already. But if it be only a slight, thin sort of inclination, I am convinced one good sonnet will starve it entirely away.”
A broad smile of contentment overspread Darcy’s face.
He cared not that everyone’s attention was now directed at him and Elizabeth.
The connection between them had resurfaced.
Thankfully, Mrs. Bennet did not respond.
Instead, the woman thanked Mr. Bingley for his diligence in caring for Jane and for his “acceptance of Lizzy” in his household.
Bingley acted with unaffected civility and even forced Caroline to respond in the same manner.
Darcy remained engrossed in the folly of the scene.
The Bennet family circus appeared to be coming to a close; yet, before their departure, he witnessed yet another social faux pas brought on this time by the youngest sister.
“Mr. Bingley, we do hope you will keep your promise of giving a ball at Netherfield,” Miss Lydia Bennet abruptly reminded Darcy’s friend.
“A ball at Netherfield would be the most pleasant of evenings,” Miss Kitty Bennet added to her sister’s outrageous demand.
“And invite the militia,” Miss Lydia said dreamily. “They make excellent company.”
“I am perfectly prepared, I assure you, to keep my engagement; and when your sister is recovered, you shall, if you please, name the very day of the ball. But you would not wish to be dancing while Miss Bennet is ill?” Bingley offered a diplomatic answer.
When Mrs. Bennet and her daughters finally departed, Miss Elizabeth returned to Miss Bennet’s care.
Immediately, the Bingley sisters took up their usual censure of the Bennet family, often calling upon Darcy to join them in their mirthful display.
Yet, he would not engage. He was a man in turmoil, and he could not befoul Miss Elizabeth Bennet with disparaging remarks.
Nothing, including his contempt for her relations, would allow him to do so.