Chapter 34
The Theatre
“What do you mean, you have never been to the theatre?” Elizabeth asked in horror.
“Exactly what I said. It is plain English.”
Elizabeth shook her head in consternation. “You cannot blame your mother for that. The theatre requires you to walk a few hundred yards and sit for a few hours in a comfortable chair. You never had an excuse aside from laziness.”
Anne looked chagrined, and Elizabeth started to soften her stance, but Anne started speaking first.
“You are right. Old habits die hard. It took all my courage to ask you for help. You are correct that I could have done better had I been braver. I intend to remedy that, with your help.”
Embarrassed by her outburst, Elizabeth started to apologise, but Anne overruled her again.
“Do not apologise. I need to toughen up. I imagine your younger sisters will school me soon enough.”
Elizabeth laughed. “I hope you do toughen up. You know I will not be there for your entire stay. I travel with my aunt and uncle in the summer.”
“You mentioned that. Do you know where?”
“Not yet. They mentioned Brighton, Ramsgate, and Cornwall, but nothing is decided.”
“They all sound lovely; do not worry about me.”
Elizabeth smiled, the earlier discussion forgotten. “Let us see what the summer brings. Perhaps Aunt and Uncle will offer to bring you along.”
Anne considered. “Do not encourage such a scheme. I—”
Elizabeth waited patiently, and Anne continued. “I treat you like a mother bird. You feed and shelter me; but sooner or later, you must push me out of the nest and hope I do not splat on the ground. If I cannot handle the Bennet sisters by summer, what hope have I against the ton?”
Elizabeth nodded. “So, you plan to have a season?”
“There is no you in that sentence,” Anne laughed. “We will have a season. Mother will insist on sponsoring you next season… unless, of course, you have other arrangements at the time.”
Elizabeth laughed. “Let us crawl before we splat—or is that how the old saying goes?”
Anne squeezed her hand, and they rose to dress. Anne had, with a great deal of stealth, obtained tickets through her uncle, and treated the Gardiners, the Bennets, and Jane’s Mr Jameson to an evening out.
~~~
“Jane, this box is wonderful. We must be certain Anne conveys our heartfelt thanks to her uncle.”
Elizabeth and Jane stood with Mr Jameson in a beautifully appointed box, waiting for the play to begin. Aunt and Uncle Gardiner spoke with acquaintances in the hall. Anne had joined a distant aunt she had not seen in some time.
Jane gave Elizabeth a smile that bordered on a smirk. “I agree on the quality of the arrangement, but I must correct you on the identity of our benefactor. Anne’s uncle needed his box tonight for some political purpose, so he arranged another. Did Anne not mention it?”
“Perhaps it slipped her mind. Nevertheless, I shall convey my heartfelt thanks. Do you know who our mysterious host is? Might we expect his presence, and should we write a note of thanks?”
“His presence is not expected, but he is not as predictable these days as he once was, so I cannot give you a firm assurance. I am certain he would welcome the note.”
Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. “Pray tell, perhaps you can expand on that… or is confusion your goal? If so, you have made a good beginning.”
“Of course. I have not spoken to the gentleman for weeks, but at the time of our most recent conversation, he did not plan to be in town tonight. He apparently has other urgent business away from London.”
Suspecting her sister was baiting her, Elizabeth kept her curiosity in check and asked blandly, “It is someone you know, then. Very mysterious! Very mysterious, indeed! Might I at least know who this person is?”
Jane’s smile deepened. “Of course! This is your Mr Darcy’s box.”
Elizabeth paused in shock, bereft of anything to say for several moments. Jane and Mr Jameson waited patiently.
At length, Elizabeth said, “I can see my labours at instructing you in mathematics were ill-advised. I should have made you study English, as you do not seem to understand the meaning of certain basic words. What in the world would make you mix your and Mr Darcy in the same sentence?”
Jane remained annoyingly unperturbed. “I understand perfectly. I stand by my assertion. When I met the gentleman recently, he seemed completely transformed.”
“And you did not feel some desire to mention this to me?”
Jane ducked her head. “I planned to, but—”
“But?” Elizabeth asked suspiciously.
“You seemed so engaged with Miss de Bourgh, and I was engaged with my beau, then we shopped for new dresses, and… the time never seemed quite right.”
“But here in the theatre, in public, a quarter-hour before the show seemed ideal?”
Jane stared at her calmly. “As good as any other, but may I ask you something?”
Elizabeth reined in her temper. “You may as well; and I suppose it would not kill you to tell me when, how, and why you met with Mr Darcy while you are at it.”
“I shall come to that presently, but why do you react to my calling him your Mr Darcy so strongly? I have teased you with words of a similar nature for half a year with nary a raised eyebrow. At most, you might have said something like—” Jane lowered her voice in her best approximation of a man.
“My Mr Darcy thinks I am tolerable but not handsome enough to tempt him.”
Instead of a laugh Elizabeth gave a strangled exclamation and, a weak smile, accompanied by a slight blush.
“I apologise, Lizzy, I did not realise it might be a sensitive subject. It is just that he seems such a changed man. I dug poor Mr Occam up from the garden, and he asserts that you must have set him on the right path while visiting Rosings. That is why I called him your Mr Darcy.”
“That makes no sense. By the same logic, you could refer to my Mr Jameson.”
Much to her consternation, that gentleman chuckled; she had mostly forgotten her future brother-in-law was listening.
“I do not oppose that scheme, Miss Lizzy. When you helped me with your little boxes, I became your most ardent admirer. I shall soon be your brother, and should the need arise, your protector to the best of my ability. I am very happy to be called such, as long as you do not claim exclusivity.”
Elizabeth laughed, embarrassed by the entire conversation, and smiled at the couple to show she was not distressed.
“I suppose if that is all you meant, and it was mostly in jest, you may refer to him as such, privately. Please, by everything that is holy, do not ever say something like that among less discreet listeners. My reputation is fragile enough as it is.”
“Of course not, and I shall stop teasing about him entirely if you still hate him.”
Jane and her beau watched Elizabeth carefully. A wistful expression appeared, though neither could identify exactly what it was.
“Mr Darcy and I have… we have… I mean to say—”
A confused and stammering Elizabeth Bennet was a sight to behold.
Thought storms were one thing; she was accustomed to those.
She might go silent while her mind went in circles, but when she came out of her cave, she usually spoke clearly and forcefully.
She had done so since childhood, even when what she said either made no sense at all, or made you want to tear your hair out—or hers.
This confusion was new ground, and Jane could not say whether it was reassuring or worrying.
She waited patiently, and at length was rewarded.
“As you suspect, Mr Darcy and I have had a few awkward conversations. Actually, I have endured awkward conversations with almost everyone at Rosings except Anne’s companion. We are—”
She seemed to run out of words. The age-old signs of an incipient thought storm brewed, so Jane leaned nearer and asked softly, “You are? You are what, Lizzy?”
“I cannot truly say. I imagine we are friends, though our friendship, such as it is, would be considered quite odd. I guess… that is to say… well, I believe we understand one another.”
Jane gasped.
Elizabeth looked up from her new slippers.
Jane’s face made it plain that any speculation must be nipped in the bud.
“Do not take my poor choice of words to mean anything. We do not have an understanding of any kind. It might be better to say we comprehend each other.”
To Elizabeth’s surprise, Mr Jameson asked, “There are understandings, and there are understandings. Would it be fair to say that there is no chance that your current understanding will ever become another type?”
Flummoxed and cornered, Elizabeth snapped, “Stop poking, both of you. I have said all I have to say on the matter.”
Jane took her hands. “We apologise, Lizzy. We truly did not want to make you miserable. It started out as light-hearted teasing, and we are sorry it got out of hand.”
“All right, Jane. Let us not allow it to become acrimonious.”
Mr Jameson cautiously asked, “How should we treat any friendship, or whatever it is? Should we treat it as a sensitive subject and refrain from mentioning the gentleman?”
“All is well. Things between us are… complicated… and unlikely to simplify soon. Just speak about him normally. Since you brought it up, can you tell me the subject of your conversation?”
Jane lowered her eyes. “It seemed decidedly odd at the time. He applied to Uncle Gardiner and requested a brief discussion with me. Uncle told him I was engaged, and he said he already knew.” She looked up at her sister intently. “How did he know?”
The memory of that night in the parsonage and all that had occurred rushed back to Elizabeth.
There was not the slightest chance she would share everything said that evening, so she said only, “He visited just after I opened the dollhouse, so I… well—”
The colonel’s conversation came to mind, and she thought better of mentioning it, but Jane continued. “I imagine you were still angry about the colonel’s revelation?”
Elizabeth’s eyes snapped back to Jane. “How did you know about that?”
Jane ignored the question. “I imagine I should finish my story. He told Uncle he owed me an apology on a certain matter, and very respectfully asked his advice about the best way to go about it. I imagined that if Mr Darcy was on Gracechurch Street, you were no doubt behind the scheme, so I asked him to come back the next day and talk to me along with my intended.”
“And he agreed to this?”
“Oh, yes. To tell you the truth, Uncle says he looked relieved. He returned as promised and apologised profusely for interfering in my affairs. Then I knew for certain you must be involved.”
“I made him… ah… aware of his officiousness, but told him explicitly that he could let it go, as all had turned out for the best.”
Jameson said, “Were I in the unlucky gentleman’s shoes, I could not leave well enough alone, and I suspect you were waving a red cape at his sense of honour He came prepared to eat humble pie, and when we were disinclined to serve it, he brought his own.”
Elizabeth laughed and catalogued the turn of phrase for later use. “So, what did he do?”
“He apologised and said he was ashamed. He said he had not acted in a gentlemanlike manner. Oddly enough, he said that he would ordinarily offer reparations, but he was afraid I would be offended by the idea.”
Jane answered her sister's unspoken question. “I had never considered it one way or the other. I simply decided it was best to confuse him a little further, so I thanked him very kindly for his handsome apology, then thanked him very kindly for taking the action in the first place.”
Elizabeth laughed. “So, you thanked him for two opposite things at once?”
“Of course. If he wants to be your friend, or whatever he is, he needs to embrace the ambiguities of life.”
Elizabeth laughed. If Mr Darcy was trying to learn to act in a more gentlemanlike manner, he was certainly making a good start of it.
Jameson took up the story. “He said he would like to invite us to his town house for dinner, but he had another urgent matter of business to attend to. He then indicated he had heard I was looking for an estate and offered to lend any assistance I might require.”
Without thinking, Lizzy said, “You should take him up on it. He is very good at what he does.”
All that had been said so occupied her that she missed the nod and smile between her sister and future brother-in-law.
Jameson continued, “He said he would be honoured to host us at Pemberley, should we ever be prepared to make the journey to Derbyshire.”
Elizabeth squeaked, “He what?”
Jane chuckled. “You heard him. Pull it from your own head, Lizzy. We are invited to Pemberley at our convenience.”
Elizabeth nodded. “Well… that is… interesting.”
The whole conversation had muddled her thoughts. Would the play ever start?
A small commotion sounded at the door. In the corridor, someone said, “That is odd. Someone seems to be in Darcy’s box.”
She wondered if it was about to turn into a messy social debacle.
Before Elizabeth could decide, the most unexpected exclamation came from the corridor. “Miss Bennet! How wonderful to see you! This evening just gets better and better.”