Chapter 5 #2
“Would you?” She smiled as if she was about to mock him, “I thank you, I am honoured but I am just as slighted by other men tonight as I was last week, sir. I would not want to expose you before your exalted friends.”
Sir William looked confused when he noticed Darcy blushing deeply, and looking down to his boots in embarrassment.
When Darcy failed to respond, Elizabeth simply curtsied and moved on, followed by Sir William who did not know how to restore things to an easy politeness again.
Darcy stared at her back in utter astonishment, has she just refused to dance with me? He felt an unfamiliar sense of rejection. A novel feeling since no woman, young or old, had ever had the courage to deny him anything he asked.
He expected to feel a deep sense of outrage at the insult, but it did not materialise.
Instead the sensation was almost refreshing.
He had, at last, met a young woman who believed enough in her own convictions to stand resolutely against his wishes.
He blinked to steady himself, looking around to see if anybody had noticed his discomposure.
At that moment, Miss Bingley appeared from behind him and whispered in his ear, “I can guess your thoughts at this moment.”
He recoiled from her, “I think not,” he answered firmly.
She leaned towards him again, “You are thinking of how insupportable it would be to spend many evenings in the company of such tedious people.”
He turned around and glared at her, “Miss Bingley, I would thank you if you would refrain from the intimacy of whispering in my ear. As for the company, you could not be more mistaken. I have just discovered that people who do not bend over backwards to agree with me, are infinitely more appealing to my constitution.” He then walked away from her going towards his own family.
Miss Bingley stood rooted to the spot in utter astonishment.
Soon after this confrontation, Elizabeth played a piece at the pianoforte and Darcy could not take his eyes off her. Both his mother and Miss Bingley noticed his fascination: one with a sense of playful mischief and the other with a deep sense of rage.
***
The following morning, Darcy, his mother and sister all appeared at Longbourn to give Miss Elizabeth her first horse riding lesson.
Elizabeth did not know how to get out of it without offending her new friends, so she agreed.
Darcy had borrowed a gentle mare from Bingley’s stables.
He rode her himself to Longbourn to test her.
Once Elizabeth was comfortably side-saddled, he led the mare by a rope around her neck to keep her under control.
They made their way slowly out of the Longbourn gardens and took the path to Oakham Mount.
He noticed how enthusiastic Miss Elizabeth was in talking to his mother and sister, but was disappointed that she barely acknowledged him, even though he was the one teaching her.
As the path narrowed, forcing them to ride single file, Lady Anne and Georgiana moved ahead of them leaving the teacher and pupil behind.
“Miss Elizabeth,” he said, “If I give you the reins and control of the horse, will you be comfortable?”
She looked panicked, “oh please do not.” She begged, “I can deal with difficult people all day long, but spare me the pain of falling off a recalcitrant horse.”
He chuckled, “by difficult people, do you mean me?”
She twisted her mouth in his direction allowing her expression to say what she would not with so many words.
“But I would have you know that this gentle beast is not as recalcitrant as you give her credit for. In fact, she could not be gentler.”
Elizabeth looked miffed but said with a smile, “if she throws me, Mr Darcy, and I break my neck, how are you going to live with yourself, knowing that you caused a young lady to die for no good reason other than proving your point?”
“But my desire is not to prove a point but give you a little freedom.”
“I have freedom well enough when I walk everywhere, I do not require you and your horse to provide me with what I already have.”
“But you will find that you can go a lot further sitting on a horse than walking.”
“Nevertheless, the choice is mine to make, not yours.”
“One day, when you marry and move to a bigger estate than your father’s, you will be thankful that I took the trouble to teach you.”
“I thank you, but the trouble of teaching me how to ride will then fall upon my husband, not a man who finds my company barely tolerable.”
“Miss Elizabeth,” he stopped pulling on the rope and looked intently at her, “please forgive me for my appalling behaviour at the assembly and my insensitive words. They were not meant for your hearing.”
She noticed that he did not say that the words had been a falsehood. He simply apologised for being overheard. But she remembered him saying distinctly that he hoped she could hear him because the words were true.
She nodded curtly and their company descended into a heavy silence, until they reached the top of the mount. There the three ladies dismounted and proceeded to admire the view, leaving Darcy feeling complete forgotten.
The exercise being satisfactory to all, despite Elizabeth’s protestations, they reunited two more times; once at the Goulding’s for another dinner party and one more time for another riding lesson, which was called short as the rain came.
In neither meeting was the relationship between Darcy and Elizabeth expanded upon; Elizabeth ignored and avoided him, while as much as he tried to draw her into conversation, he failed, learning that her good opinion once lost, may have been lost forever.