Chapter 7 #2
Even though Elizabeth had attempted to be kind, Miss Bingley did not respond in the same vein. “The best thing about Vauxhall is that one can meet and speak with so many of one’s friends. Since you have no friends in Town, I suppose such an outing would be a waste of time and money!”
Both Mary and Mrs Hurst gasped audibly, and Elizabeth could not control the laughter that bubbled out of her.
“Oh, dear, and I thought you might recommend the Transparencies or the Magic Cascade! I was certain that the Grand Exhibition of Fireworks would get at the least an honourable mention! But I wish to assure you: rest easy, New Friend, because I can enjoy watching people even if they are strangers.”
“When we are married, Elizabeth,” Fitzwilliam said, “I would be happy to delight you with every exhibition available in Vauxhall Gardens.”
Miss Bingley narrowed her eyes and said, “You? Happy to go to Vauxhall Gardens? You never wish to be in such places!”
“Once I have a young and lively wife, my previously-held never’s may transform into attendance at outings and events I otherwise would not consider.”
“I am all astonishment!” Caroline said.
“I only wish to go if you truly do not mind, sir,” Elizabeth murmured.
“We can discuss it later,” Fitzwilliam whispered back, and he lifted her left hand from her lap and kissed it tenderly. It seemed that nobody breathed for a good ten seconds at the sight of this unprecedented display of affection. Elizabeth blushed and noted that her intended did, as well.
“Thank you all,” Jane said firmly, “Mrs Abbott, Miss Bingley, Mr Bingley, for the delicious lunch. I suppose it is time we ride?”
“Ride?” Miss Bingley asked.
“Yes, Caroline,” Mr Bingley said. “The ladies are not here merely for luncheon; their main goal in coming was the riding lesson that had been promised before we knew you would be surprising us with your presence.”
“Lesson? Are there children in attendance whose presence I have not yet spotted?”
Fitzwilliam responded repressively. “Although the Bennets have some familiarity with riding, their horses are generally needed on the farm, so I have been helping them learn more advanced riding skills using some of the mounts kept here.”
“And you have purchased additional horses for the purpose, Charles?” Miss Bingley sounded quite cross with the notion.
“No, Darcy brought extra horses. Especially mild-tempered and gentle ones….”
Elizabeth noticed that Mr Bingley’s voice trailed off, as if he was wondering why his friend had brought mild-tempered and gentle horses to Netherfield before he met the Bennets and happened on the idea of providing riding lessons. She was certainly wondering.
“I wished to acquire some gentle mares for Pemberley,” Fitzwilliam interjected.
“It is a part of my breeding strategy. When I suggested riding lessons, the idea had occurred to me in part because I knew I had some excellent mounts for relatively inexperienced riders. And now that I am engaged to marry, I cannot help but congratulate myself for my forward thinking, for surely I will need gentle horses in half a decade or so….”
Elizabeth blushed again with the implication. Of course people got married in part to have children, but the way he said it, in front of everyone—it affected her.
Miss Bingley said, “Oh, my goodness. Say no more, ladies, gents. Please do take advantage of Mr Darcy’s extremely tractable female…mounts….”
Gasping would do no good; the woman seemed to have no shame. So Elizabeth, once again, decided to laugh.
The lesson went very well. Elizabeth rode Misty at various speeds while Fitzwilliam worked with Mary and various enclosures.
When Mary and Melvin began to ride trails to build Mary’s confidence on various kinds of terrain, Elizabeth rode alongside Fitzwilliam, mounted on Misty and Orion, respectively.
He gave her tips for how to make gradual and then tight turns, and after they trotted and cantered in open fields, they took on the road between Netherfield and Meryton.
Elizabeth was not ready to gallop yet, but she felt confident enough that she had begun to wonder about her reluctance to ride in the first place.
As they rode slowly back towards the manor house of Netherfield, she asked her betrothed about what Miss Bingley had said about “every woman in London” being at his feet.
“I am certain she was deliberately trying to upset me, and I assure you that I will always believe you over her, but what is the basis for her words?”
A frown flitted across Fitzwilliam’s face, but he took up the seemingly disagreeable topic readily enough.
“I believe I have already told you that I had a reputation for never calling on or courting ladies, rarely dancing, and so forth.
I was also known for not frequenting seraglios nor having mistresses, and for disdaining such habits.
I am not even certain how this reputation developed.
It is not as if I was introduced to someone in a parlour and immediately said, “By the by, I do not visit brothels, nor do I hold with such a propensity.”
Elizabeth laughed. “I should think not!”
“I suppose…part of the reason for my reputation is that my father was well known to scorn the usual habits of wealthy men, himself. Neither he nor I were ever seen at gambling hells nor seraglios, and neither were we seen in Town with ladies on our arms. I suppose I can see how my reputation has grown….”
“I imagine that having that reputation made many ladies wish for your attentions even more than your obvious assets would explain.”
Fitzwilliam frowned more deeply. “Please do not refer to my wealth and estate as ‘obvious assets.’ It makes me feel like…something one covets in a window display in Town.”
Elizabeth felt genuine dismay that she had made her intended feel such a thing, and she hastened to reply, “Fitzwilliam, I was certainly not referring to your fortune, nor Pemberley! I…I was considering the very great attraction ladies everywhere must have to your person and your…your ease of movement, your general air of mastery.… All the things that they see and hear—yes, your voice is exceedingly attractive….”
She was relieved to see his frown banished by a smile. “I am grateful that you can list what you consider my attractions, my love. I have sensed that some ladies find me attractive, but I am positive the main draws were always wealth and Pemberley. Until you.”
“Well, I am almost positive that you are wrong. I believe that you have never seen young ladies just coming out, being steered towards men of consequence who trample their shoe roses during a dance, whose malodorous breath makes standing opposite them a chore, whose greasy hair has been combed over a monkish tonsure as if such a shining globe could be disguised.” She shook her head and assured him, “Trust me, when young ladies are herded towards wealthy men who lack an agreeable face or who suffer from objectionable odors, most ladies are not eager to make a good impression.”
Elizabeth was glad to hear his laughter as the only response.
They rode for a while, and eventually she said, “So you had a reputation for not calling on women, rarely dancing, and not indulging in the customary vices of your class. With all of that in addition to you being a man of great fortune, a man of good blood and strict honour, a man with a remarkably handsome person—as Miss Bingley said, they must have thrown themselves at your feet. How did that seem to you?”
He sent an amused grin her way and said, “Do not forget, I was hiding at the edges of ballrooms, eagerly buttonholing men to speak of investments, rather than actually interacting with ladies. I am happy to report that only ten or twenty ladies literally threw themselves at my feet. I dealt with such actions by speed of thought and, happily, speed of reaction, and I have so far managed to dodge every attempt to accidentally fall upon me. Not that I would have gone along with any so-called compromise—I would not have wed a woman even had she managed to rend her gown in two while tripping into my arms—but I did keep alert to such dangers and managed to avoid any entanglements so that I never had to pay off an angry father.”
Astonished, Elizabeth asked, “Are you seriously saying that multiple ladies made such attempts?”
“Miss Bingley among them,” he said.
“Oh, my!”
“She claimed she was overtaken by vapours and the heat from the fire.”
“She—what? Aimed a swoon in your direction?”
“As she walked by, she almost fell onto my lap. I sprang up and away, and she crashed awkwardly onto the arm of the chair on which I had been sitting. Luckily, Bingley was right there, so I did not have to play the gentleman in helping her to stand. I let him do it.” He shuddered.
“Well, perhaps, now that we are betrothed, I have saved you from additional sudden giddiness in your presence?”
“Not until I am wed, I fear. But I remain in training, light on my feet, and I am rarely in places in which single ladies congregate.”
“Except you will be sleeping under the same roof as someone who has proven her interest by targeting you in the past!”
He chuckled. “Do not worry. I already plan to lock all my doors and have my valet sleep on a cot in my room. This is not the first time I have faced this particular danger.”
“I hate that you have ever had to face such!”
At that moment, they happened to be passing a very thick copse of trees. She was startled when Fitzwilliam dismounted and tied off Orion, then lifted her off Misty and did the same thing with her reins. Startled, but glad—and Elizabeth happily took his hand as he led her into the thicket.
“I believe I need reassurance in the face of my current danger,” Fitzwilliam said as he pulled her close.