Chapter 7. Mr Bingley’s Betrayal #2
Elizabeth’s mouth became tight, but she replied, “Mr Darcy introduced us just moments before you…your accident left him with hot tea poured down his arm.”
“How… I never…” sputtered Miss Bingley.
Charles intervened saying, “Come Caroline, sit over here and we shall wait until Darcy returns to make your apologies.”
“Apologies? If the girl had not been in his way, Mr Darcy would not have slipped and knocked against me,” argued Caroline.
Elizabeth managed to stifle her giggle upon hearing that fiction.
“Yes, Beth, shall we sit and wait for Mr Darcy to return?” suggested Mr Gardiner. “We would not want anyone to have an improper impression of what occurred here this morning.”
Frowning but finding no support from her brother, Miss Bingley attempted to solicit information from the ‘tradesmen’ across from her.
“Where is your shop, Mr Garden? Is it in the fashionable part of London?”
Mr Gardiner nodded politely at Miss Bingley’s question with the incorrect name, “I am certain you have never been in my establishment, Miss Bangley.”
“Bingley!” she corrected him. “Our name is Bingley!”
Uncle Gardiner turned to Elizabeth for a moment with a look of wonder on his face and a wink, before he exclaimed, “Bingley? Did you know Horace Bingley from Scarborough? He was a respectable tradesman that many men here in London knew. Honest and fair, hardworking and as I understood it, very successful.”
Mr Bingley nodded and spoke up, “Yes, we hail from Scarborough and Horace Bingley was our father. He inherited his business from his father and then from our mother’s father when he died. Left us quite well off too.”
“Yes…well,” Miss Bingley said as she blushed. “We are settled in London now and will join the gentry…”
“I thought the gentry were in the countryside?” asked Miss Gardiner. “Landowners and their families I believe.”
Charles Bingley looked very uncomfortable at Elizabeth’s question and Caroline Bingley’s face resembled a child who had eaten something very sour and unpleasant.
“The countryside is not as pleasant as we first thought,” Charles explained. “I have leased an estate near London but…”
Miss Bingley interrupted her brother by saying, “Mr Darcy guided my brother through the first months of being the master of an estate, but we are considering other options now.”
“Indeed,” Mr Gardiner replied, most solicitously. He watched Mr Bingley and ignored the sister. “I hope your investment was not in a poor estate.”
“No, the farms appeared good…Darcy said the tenants and farms were good,” Bingley mumbled.
Miss Bingley announced, “We found the local people to be totally insupportable. They were rough country bumpkins with no fashion, no taste…”
Displeased to hear his sister begin her usual list of complaints against Hertfordshire society, Charles interrupted her saying, “Caroline, I told you that country folk are not…”
At just that moment, Mr Darcy returned in a new coat.
“Mr Gardiner, Miss Gardiner, forgive my sudden exit,” he said immediately upon entering the room. He turned toward his other guests but was interrupted before he could say anything.
“Ah, Darcy, is your arm burned?” Charles asked.
Hopeful of avoiding another apology to Mr Darcy, Miss Bingley leapt upon one of her favourite subjects. “Mr Darcy, we were just saying how dreadful we found all the people in Hertfordshire this fall. I wanted to thank you for helping save my brother from a most unfortunate marriage…”
Miss Bingley’s words affected everyone around the tea service; Darcy’s face showed shock, Mr Bingley was unable to look at anyone, Mr Gardiner grew angry, and Miss Gardiner’s face grew pale.
Unaware that her words had affected everyone, Caroline turned to the Gardiners and shared her story saying, “There was an upstart of a woman in Hertfordshire named Jane Bennet, and she chased Charles from one farm to the next. Her sisters were horrible, and their mother practically had Charles and Jane at the altar after two meetings. The night after…just the other morning, Mr Darcy deserted us for London, and then Louisa and I convinced Charles to return to town as well.”
“Miss Bingley, what do you mean?” demanded Mr Darcy as he turned from the sister to the brother. “Charles, you intended to ask Miss Bennet to marry you the morning following the ball. Why did you hesitate to continue?”
Darcy sat and leaned forward, staring at his friend as Charles stuttered, “Caroline and Louisa…they reminded me how you…you said that Miss Bennet sought me…as escape from her future of poverty.”
Darcy shook his head, “Charles, that was only the first night we met the Bennet family at the assembly. Do you remember Miss Lucas talking with me at the gathering at her family’s home?”
“That ghastly house?” sneered Miss Bingley. “The father claimed to the knighted, but I am certain his title was a work of fiction.”
Ignoring Miss Bingley, Darcy reminded Charles of his conversation, “Miss Lucas told me that Miss Bennet was reserved with her friends and there was only one person with whom she was open–the missing sister named Elizabeth.”
Mr Darcy stood and in an accusing tone said, “Charles, you led everyone in Meryton, to believe you would propose marriage to Miss Bennet. I came back to London the day after the ball to finalize contracts due before Christmas.”
Mr Bingley looked decidedly uncomfortable as Mr Darcy’s voice grew more strident, “I told you I would return in one week and remain through the day of your wedding. I was to stand up as your groomsman!”
“Charles could not marry that girl!” Caroline swore. “She was from lesser circles in society.”
“Indeed, Miss Bennet was not of your ‘circle in society,’ Miss Bingley. She is a gentleman’s daughter and is placed much higher in society than your family.”
Surprised by Mr Darcy’s statement, Caroline asked, “How…what do you mean?”
“Miss Bingley, I met Charles at university, and we became friends in our second year. I introduced him to my business associates and social contacts to bring him up without care to his ancestors being tradesmen and peasants,” Darcy explained.
Then he added, “Despite my best efforts, you continually pull him down…”
“What?” screeched Miss Bingley.
Elizabeth pleaded, “Uncle, please, take me home.”
Mr Darcy frowned at the Bingley siblings when Mr Gardiner led his niece toward the door of the room. Banks was there in a moment and Mr Darcy followed them down the hall to the front door.
“Gardiner, Miss Gardiner, you have my most profound apologies for this unseemly matter,” Mr Darcy said. “My…Mr Bingley and his sister will be leaving immediately.”
“Mr Darcy…” Edward began to say but Elizabeth leaned against him, almost overcome with emotion. “I must get my niece home. Good day sir.”
Darcy’s face remained frozen, but he bowed formally to the uncle and niece before motioning one of the footmen to help Mr Gardiner to help Miss Gardiner to the street and into the carriage.
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Upon his return to the parlour, he signalled Banks to collect and remove the tea service. Caroline’s face grew sour as she relinquished her cup and plate of untouched biscuits. When Charles and Caroline did not rise to leave, Mr Darcy said, “I must return to my work.”
Then he arched an eyebrow before Bingley sighed and rose from his seat.
“Come along, Caroline. We have over-stayed our welcome,” Bingley told his sister.
“Charles, ask him about the theatre box,” she whispered. “I want to be seen in town this week.”
Darcy ignored the whispered request, turned to Banks and said, “See the Mr Bingley and his sister to the door. Then remove the knocker; I shall receive no other guests until after the first of the year.”
Just a few minutes later as their carriage headed toward the Hurst home, Caroline fussed, “It was rude of Mr Darcy to pretend he did not hear my hint about the theatre box.”
“Sister, we have been dismissed from Darcy’s company for a time,”
“What do you mean?”
“He asked us to leave and then stated that there was to be no company again before the first of the year. He was all politeness, but there was no mistaking his message.”
“But he did not mean you…me…why would he do that?” she wailed.
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