Chapter 2 #2
He wandered through a copse of white birch, the leaves turning from green to gold. His mind wouldn’t settle. So when Caroline approached, he appreciated the respite. Caroline was sensible and logical. She would help him regain his equilibrium.
Caroline placed her arm in his before he knew he’d offered it. They were comfortable together. Their muscles moved like a clockwork, without the aid of speech.
He couldn’t put a name to that comfort. It wasn’t friendship, much less love. Was it nothing more than familiarity? He supposed, perhaps, it was.
Caroline’s wellbeing mattered to him for Bingley’s sake. But she wasn’t dear to him. He didn’t miss her when they were apart.
Yet he tolerated her perfectly well. He could be placid in her presence.
The same couldn’t be said for Elizabeth Bennet.
Elizabeth challenged him in ways he didn’t understand. No one else dared laugh at him. All the barriers he’d erected turned transparent under her gaze, and she saw him as he truly was.
To her, he wasn’t a catch. He was a man.
Which was wonderful and terrible at the same time.
For years he’d longed to meet a woman who saw beyond the trappings of his position. Elizabeth did—and found him lacking.
Plagued by thoughts of her, he sought to clear his head. He said to Caroline, “Now that we’ve settled in, how do you find life at Netherfield Park?”
“It’s all very well for you and Charles,” she said. “You fill your days with shooting and riding. But it’s rather dull here for a lady.”
“Why do you not ride as well?”
“Louisa is no horsewoman, and Charles says I slow him down.”
Darcy scowled. “That’s not very chivalrous. You’re welcome to ride with us anytime you wish.”
She looked up and gave him a beaming smile. “Thank you, Mr. Darcy. You, at least, are a gentleman.”
Her approbation soothed him. Whether she truly liked him, or simply liked his fortune, didn’t matter in that moment. Her unmitigated acceptance lightened his burdens.
His worries about Georgiana, about his tenants, about the fate of the nation—they all slipped away amidst her cheerful chatter. For a while at least, he could be happy in that illusion of ease.
∞∞∞
Lizzy returned to Jane’s room carrying the books Mr. Bingley had gathered. They included a volume of poetry by Byron and a novel by Mrs. Radcliffe. Jane was delighted with the suggestions.
Leaving Jane to her reading, Lizzy stepped outside.
From the window, she’d spotted a litter of springer spaniel puppies.
She walked in that direction. As she stood by the kennel, the pups nipped and wrestled and tumbled over one another.
They looked like chubby black-and-white sausages with floppy ears and wagging tails.
She strolled along the tall hedge towards the formal garden. Michaelmas daisies in shades of purple and pink ringed a small fountain. Water spilled from a wood nymph’s pail and down the tiers of stone.
Voices approached, and Lizzy looked around, realising they came from the other side of the hedge.
She was about to make herself known when Caroline’s voice spoke her name. “I confess, I was shocked by Miss Eliza’s appearance this morning. She looked positively bedraggled.”
Lizzy stood stock still, hardly daring to breathe for fear of discovery. The words stung more than she cared to admit. She hadn’t been paying a social call. Why should anyone care how bedraggled she looked?
But the response of Caroline’s unseen companion surprised Lizzy.
“I wouldn’t have described her thus,” Darcy’s voice said. “Windblown, to be sure, and her hem muddied. But the woman had walked three miles through the countryside. One couldn’t expect her to look as if she were attending a London ball. I found her exuberance refreshing.”
A smug sense of vindication filled Lizzy’s chest. It was wicked to thrill at Mr. Darcy’s defending her to Miss Bingley. Yet she was grateful for his kind words, especially after the argument they’d just had.
Caroline spoke in a cloying tone. “Why Mr. Darcy, you astonish me. Shall I wish you joy?”
Darcy chuckled. “A woman’s mind moves rapidly from admiration to love, and from love to marriage. I knew you would be wishing me joy. A man’s mind follows no such path, or at least moves more slowly. I can admire the sparkle in the eye of a woman I have no intention of marrying.”
Lizzy gritted her teeth. Only Darcy could compliment her and dismiss her in a single breath. She needed to escape, to put an end to this torture before she was caught.
Caroline’s voice grew fainter as they continued on their way. “Surely you wouldn’t permit Georgiana to behave with such abandon.”
“Certainly not. My sister is being raised to marry a peer. It wouldn’t do for a future countess to walk three miles through muddy country paths.”
“And what about the future mistress of Pemberley?”
Darcy was silent a long moment. “She must of course be above reproach, and observe a certain decorum.”
Decorum! Lizzy simmered. Who cared about decorum when her sister was ill?
The two seemed far enough away now that she could retreat without them hearing her—as long as she moved with care. She crept back towards the kennel. A groundskeeper brought her a puppy, and she cuddled it against her chest. It lapped at her cheek enthusiastically.
She spotted Mr. Darcy and Miss Bingley at a distance, heading towards the house. Darcy met her eyes and tipped his hat. She gave him a smile and a shallow curtsey. She couldn’t say that she liked him more than before. But he seemed less loathsome compared to Caroline.
What a hateful woman Caroline Bingley was proving herself to be! Not at all the considerate soul she appeared in Jane’s presence. Somehow Lizzy would have to warn Jane of that, without saying so directly.
Jane could explain away the misdeeds of others with remarkable patience. She saw the best in everyone—as if it pained her that evil could exist in the world. Lizzy loved that about her, but worried for her just the same.
Because evil did exist in the world. And if Jane wasn’t careful, it could sneak up and drag her to her knees.