Chapter Seven #2
Elizabeth took another step backward, her calves coming up against the bench along the table.
“I told my sister Jane, but she is good at keeping confidences.” But that didn’t mean she wouldn’t tell Mr. Bingley, who might tell one of his relations, or Mr. Darcy.
Even if each person told only one person, the story would get around, but it was too late to keep Mr. Wickham’s revelation from Jane.
Mr. Wickham sighed, a sound Elizabeth suspected should have pulled at her sympathy, but instead vaguely annoyed her. He regretfully shook his head again and dropped his gaze to study the floor.
“I should not have behaved so irresponsibly, but I was angry. Seeing Darcy brought everything back.” Voice edged with vehemence, Mr. Wickham looked up to meet Elizabeth’s gaze.
“I am sorry I didn’t meet you at the ball as I said I would.
I worried that I would create a scene. That I would let my emotions rule me. ”
“That’s understandable—” Elizabeth tried to say, but Mr. Wickham wasn’t done speaking.
“Then I realized I was being childish,” he said with increased drama but not volume. “The Darcy family has been very good to me. I should not let anger control my behavior. I shouldn’t sink to Darcy’s level of pettiness.”
Elizabeth waited a moment to be certain he was done, then said, “That is a sensible and generous way to look at it.”
Mr. Wickham’s misery vanished in a broad smile. “I’m so happy you see it that way. It pained me greatly to disappoint you, and to miss our dance.”
“Consider it forgotten.” Elizabeth edged to the side, to move around him, seeking a path to the parlor.
Mr. Wickham caught her hand and bowed, brushing his lips across her knuckles. “I look forward to our next opportunity.”
Elizabeth retrieved her hand. She mustered a smile, thoroughly confused by the emotions speeding through her.
She felt sympathy for Mr. Wickham, deprived of a good living by the machinations of Mr. Darcy.
She also respected Mr. Wickham’s ability to look past the deeds of one man in view of all the good he’d known from the Darcy family.
More than that, she found Mr. Wickham handsome and charming, and should be delighted at the attention he paid her, not nervous to be alone with him in the dining room with so many people about.
“I look forward to our next opportunity to dance as well, but for now, I believe I must carry my mother’s regrets to the parlor.
” With that, she darted past him and into the hall.
Elizabeth led the way back into the parlor. The men all stood, and she crossed quickly to take the remaining chair, allowing all the men to sit, except Mr. Wickham.
“We couldn’t locate a chair to add,” Mr. Wickham said easily, moving to stand with his back to the fireplace. “But I am happy to have the warmest location in the room.”
Lydia and Kitty didn’t appear to notice that Elizabeth and Mr. Wickham had been absent, and neither broke off talking despite the standing and sitting of their audiences. Mary frowned slightly, but turned back to Colonel Forster, apparently in a discussion about music.
Elizabeth made no effort to enter any of the conversations, or to engage Mr. Wickham, who soon gave up standing by the fire to sit on a log, inserting his opinions into Lydia’s conversation with Mr. Denny. Elizabeth’s thoughts spiraled around what had transpired between them in the dining room.
Mr. Wickham had originally said that the terms set out by Mr. Darcy’s father were written in such a way as to allow Mr. Darcy to withhold the living.
Disliking Mr. Darcy as she did, Elizabeth hadn’t thoroughly considered the implications intrinsic in that declaration.
Mr. Darcy gave Elizabeth the impression of someone who was very attentive to detail.
The idea that his father had written so slipshod a will as to allow his wishes to be misinterpreted seemed, at the very least, odd.
Even if Mr. Darcy and his father had very different personalities, both would have access to good legal advice and would probably use that advice to write a will.
Even Mr. Collins had sought legal advice for such documents.
Elizabeth contained a sigh, sad for her cousin once more. For all that he’d been unbearable, presumptuous and bumbling, he’d cared enough to make out a will in her favor. Yes, he’d based that care on a false assumption that she would marry him, but he’d cared, nonetheless.
If Mr. Collins had left a copy of his will with Mr. Phillips, she would have inherited whatever Mr. Collins had left her.
She wouldn’t have refused the inheritance based on his mistaken assumption, especially as he’d burned down their home and because his primary motive in having a will seemed to be honoring his father’s wishes by leaving his sister nothing.
Despite her own misgivings, Elizabeth would have taken what Mr. Collins willed her because both the law and his wishes said she should.
And what had Mr. Darcy thought, when he’d denied Mr. Wickham his living? He must have had the law on his side, at least. That ambiguity in the will of which Mr. Wickham spoke must have been such that legal action against Mr. Darcy would have failed.
But morally, Mr. Darcy must be deemed reprehensible for not obeying his late father’s wishes.