Chapter 3
Chapter Three
The next day the ladies of Longbourn attended Lucas Lodge.
They were greeted by Lady Lucas, Charlotte and her younger sister Maria, who was not out in society yet and had missed the Assembly.
Once all were congregated in the front parlor Mrs. Bennet and Lady Lucas scuttled into a corner to gossip about the gentlemen who had danced with their daughters and the daughters dispersed into their own friendship circles to also discuss the previous evening.
“I still can’t believe he said that to you,” Jane said in a low tone. “His friend is far more amiable. He is everything a gentleman ought to be.”
Elizabeth twisted her fingers tight in her lap.
She wished with all her heart to never speak of a certain gentleman from Derbyshire.
The dream had been too vivid, too real for her to feel comfortable within her skin.
The things they’d done... she corrected herself again with unaccustomed hardness.
.. what she’d done, was sinful. She’d behaved as a woman unhinged, totally wanton in the abandonment of everything she held sacred.
Even though it was but a dream, she’d allowed a man to touch her intimately and kiss her in a way most scandalous.
Who else could she blame for the nightmare she now relived, minute by minute?
As it was, she had to wear a lacy fichu because of self-inflicted marks.
“Lizzy, are you well?”
Charlotte touched her arm in concern. She pulled herself back into the conversation with great difficulty. Her sister and best friend must never know what she’d been thinking.
“I’m very well. I was contemplating how the party from Netherfield were quite full of their own importance.”
“Not Mr. Bingley.” Jane defended the young man.
“Yes, Jane, your Mr. Bingley was very amiable. I refer, for the most part, to his sisters and Mr. Darcy.”
“Thankfully, his cousin made up for his bad manners.” Charlotte said, almost as a sigh.
“Colonel Fitzwilliam did set many hearts to fluttering.” Elizabeth sent up a silent prayer that her redirection had worked. “Even Mary danced with him and she is usually rooted to a far wall, not willing to venture from the relative safety of obscurity.”
“I don’t believe I saw Mr. Darcy’s cousin.”
Both Lizzy and Charlotte turned to look at Jane, their mouths agape.
“What?” Wide-eyed, she returned their stare.
“How could you not notice the most handsome man I’d ever seen in my life?” Charlotte blurted out.
“He wasn’t that handsome?” Lizzy started to say.
“Not handsome? Were we in the same ballroom, Lizzy Bennet?”
“Well... I... Yes, we were.”
“And did you not look upon him with your own two eyes?”
“Yes,” she answered pertly. Lack of sleep had her losing whatever tenuous control she had on her temper. “But I did not find him handsome.”
“Are you girls talking about the gentlemen from Netherfield?” Mama called from her side of the room.
“We were talking about the ball in general, Mama,” Lizzy said in a half-hearted attempt to belay their mother’s rambling about five thousand a year and Charlotte’s obsession with the genial Colonel Fitzwilliam.
“You began the evening well, Charlotte. You were Mr. Bingley’s first choice.”
“Yes – but he seemed to like his second better.” Charlotte gave Jane a little smile. In turn, Jane blushed a lovely shade of pink.
“Oh – you mean Jane, I suppose – because he danced with her twice.”
Lizzy rolled her eyes heavenward. There would be no stopping their mother now.
“No doubt Mrs. Bennet.” Lady Lucas said. “I overheard Mrs. Robinson ask him how he liked our little assembly and did he not think there were a great many pretty women in the room, and which he thought the prettiest.”
“How did he answer?” Mama almost sat on the edge of her chair in excitement.
“Oh! – the eldest Miss Bennet, beyond a doubt, there cannot be two opinions on that point.”
“I knew Jane could not be so beautiful for nothing!” Mama eased back into her chair with great satisfaction. “Upon my word, that was very well done, although the bird is not in the cage just yet. But he’s tempted, my dear friend. He’s tempted.”
“I must say, his friend left much to be desired by way of gentlemanly behavior.” Lady Lucas cast a quick glance at Lizzy. “He stood with only those from his own party and barely spoke to anyone else.”
“He did speak with Lizzy, although he didn’t ask her to dance.” Charlotte offered.
“After what he said about my daughter...” Mama pursed her lips in anger. “Elizabeth, I give you leave to never dance with Mr. Darcy.”
“I believe, Ma’am, I may safely promise you to never dance with him.”
The conversation ebbed and flowed around Elizabeth and she nodded and smiled in all the right places but her traitorous thoughts kept flowing in the direction of Netherfield Park and she wondered what the dour man of Derbyshire was up to and whether he’d dreamed of her.
~~oo0oo~~
Meanwhile, at Netherfield Park, a similar conversation was taking place, although the ladies were not as generous in their praise as the Longbourn party.
“I have no idea what you are nattering on about, Caroline. I’ve never met pleasanter people or prettier girls in my life.”
“You say that about every place you go and every party you attend.”
“I agree that I find most people amiable but Meryton feels different. I found no formality, no stiffness of manner and I felt as though I’d come home. And Miss Bennet” – he ignored the narrowing of his youngest sister’s eyes – “I cannot conceive an angel more beautiful.”
“What say you, Mr. Darcy?” Caroline re-directed her attention to her brother’s friend. “Do you agree with Charles’ assessment?”
“While I found little beauty and no fashion, I concede the elder Miss Bennet is pretty, even though she smiles too much.” What he dared not add was that she also smiled in her sleep.
He almost regretted having to wipe Elizabeth’s mind of their encounter.
His momentary lapse of control would not happen again.
He intended to know her character and family background.
Until then, he needed to tread carefully.
With Wickham on his way to Meryton with the ______shire militia, his pursuit of Miss Elizabeth needed to proceed with a casual air.
If Wickham caught even a scent of his overwhelming desire, she would be in grave danger.
For nothing would please his former friend turned enemy more than to take and destroy something he held precious, and having failed with Georgiana, his tactics would be more subtle and eminently more dangerous.
Richard intruded on his thoughts.
I have found a solution to your problem of Wickham. How to throw him of the scent, if you catch my drift.
There are times you are quite obnoxious.
Aye.
Well, what is your grand plan?
You could make him think you desire Caroline Bingley.
Leave me alone, Richard. Find someone else to haunt.
I’ll grant you reprieve for today as I must return to London and arrange for my trunk to be delivered to Netherfield.
I’m at the end of my rope with Miss Bingley and her snide comments. I also worry about Wickham.
You know I’m not far off in my suggestion. Let him think you lust after the Bingley chit and all your problems would be solved with one fell swoop.
A much as I despise Wickham, even I couldn’t be that cruel.
He heard Richard’s laughter until it faded from his mind.
“...do you agree, Mr. Darcy?”
The object of his and Richard’s silent communication watched him with a superior look upon her face.
“I’m sorry, Miss Bingley, I was not attending the conversation. To what do you refer?”
Her face fell at his assertion he didn’t hang on her every word.
“Louisa and I were saying that although her family is atrocious, Jane is a sweet girl and we give leave for Charles to think of her as he chooses. But Miss Eliza... I don’t know how anyone could think her a beauty.”
“And what were you asking me to agree with?” His temper began to rise at their sniping.
“That Eliza Bennet is no beauty.”
Darcy considered Charles’ sister. She had an uncanny knack of finding the underbelly of her perceived enemies.
No doubt she’d heard Mrs. Bennet proclaim to all and sundry how beautiful her eldest daughter was and when chastised by neighbors had sulkily agreed that all her daughters were pretty.
If Mrs. Bennet was that voluble in public, who knew what was said in the privacy of their own home and how often Elizabeth was found lacking.
“I do not agree with your assumption and find this conversation distasteful. Although they lack proper connections by society standards, they are gentleman’s daughters and should be treated with respect.
” He stood and gave them a polite half bow.
“I have business to attend and will see you at dinner.”
All the way to his room he fumed. Not at Caroline Bingley, but at himself.
How could he hold the two Bingley sisters in such contempt when he’d sunk to the lowest form of cad and seduced a maiden in her dreams?
With his heritage and lineage came great power and he’d abused it the first time lust took hold of his belly and tied it in knots.
As soon as he reached the privacy of his chamber and locked the door, he shimmered out of time and space to Lord Matlock’s house in London.
His uncle barely glanced up from his desk when Darcy materialized in his study.
‘What drags you from the wilds of Hertfordshire, nephew?”
“How does my sister fare?”
Lord Matlock carefully placed his quill into the ink pot and clasped his hands together on top of his desk.
‘She pines.” He raised a hand when Darcy started to speak.
“Rest easy, Darcy. Not for Wickham. She pines for her innocence lost. Her eyes were cruelly opened and I fear for the time she turns sixteen. If she learns then she has no magic, her grief will double as she knows he’d have cast her aside as she had no use, other than a well-funded dowry.
If she does have magical ability, her fury is such she may launch her own vendetta against the cur.
Either way, she has been altered considerably. ”
“Damn Wickham and his unholy war against my family.” Darcy paced as he growled out the words.
“The only thing which tempers his hand is the fact his magic is learned, not inherited. His greatest desire to beget an heir with magical power and mold that poor child to do his bidding.”
“I’m surprised he attempted to seduce Georgiana before her sixteenth birthday. There’s no guarantee she’ll have magic.”
“He took a calculated gamble on not only her cherished childhood memories to make him desirable, but on the fact your lineage is impeccable. There are only a handful of families who trace their magic back so many centuries.” His uncle closed the ledger book he’d been writing in and leaned back in his chair.
“In truth, there are not many of us left. Miatharans are not known for having large families. We are slowly fading into extinction.”
“Our numbers dwindle each generation. As you well know, all sons born from magical parents have the gift. It’s the daughters that are harder to track.
Their abilities only show up on their sixteenth birthday.
Over time, as the human population grows and previous members retreat and retire into obscurity, it’s harder to track of all their progeny.
Especially if the parents don’t wish for their secret known by anyone, including other Miatharans. ”
Darcy strode to the window and gazed out onto his aunt’s rose garden. Should he confide in his uncle that he’d met a young lady that stirred him like no other? He had no idea how long he’d remained in that pensive mood until his uncle spoke again.
“You have no idea how many times I wished I had the familiarity you have with Richard.”
Darcy turned to face his uncle. “Why is that?”
“Because then I could speak to you wherever you happen to park that tall carcass of yours and not wait for a polite letter every quarter with boring details of your estate, or how much you detest balls along with society in general.”
His cheeks burned in shame. He was a terrible correspondent. The silence must have gone on too long for his uncle because he continued, “I don’t believe your visit was only to check up on the welfare of Georgiana. I think you’ve met someone in Hertfordshire who tempts you.”
Darcy turned back to the window not knowing how to explain.
Yes, someone tempts me. In fact, Uncle, I stole into her bedroom, entered her dreams and ravished her like a licentious rake.
Would his uncle collapse at his desk from apoplexy?
First, Miss Elizabeth was a gentleman’s daughter and therefore not magical.
Second, no Darcy had ever married a woman who did not have magic and he couldn’t, absolutely couldn’t be the first one to break an eight-hundred-year tradition.
At Darcy’s continued and prolonged silence, his uncle said, “I see. Well, nephew, when you are ready to talk about her, pray return. Perhaps now is not the right time.”
It was with great relief when he shimmered back to Netherfield, away from his uncle’s all to knowing gaze.
He had to get a handle on these feelings.
Lusting after Miss Elizabeth would be detrimental to his mental and physical health.
As he strode from the room to join Charles for an afternoon ride, he muttered, “I shall conquer this. I shall.”