Chapter 15 To Charm and Be Charmed
TO CHARM AND BE CHARMED
Darcy hoped to meet Elizabeth before the assembly, but such hopes proved to be in vain.
Elizabeth, it would seem, was forever busy doing something that no one saw fit to discuss with him.
He went to a card party held in the home of Mr and Mrs Jonathan Willingham, a newly married couple who had settled in nearby Purvis Lodge.
They were an agreeable and elegant couple who spoke warmly of Elizabeth several times, clearly on good terms with her; yet Elizabeth did not come to their party.
Miss Bingley invited Miss Bennet to tea one day, and Darcy held his breath in anticipation for Elizabeth to attend with her, but alas, Miss Bennet arrived with Miss Mary in tow.
He roamed the countryside in the early mornings hoping to see her, to no avail, and began to harbour real fears that somehow, despite the smallness of the neighbourhood, he might never see her.
The day prior to the assembly, Bingley and Darcy again went to call at Longbourn. By this time, Darcy would have been shocked if Elizabeth had been in her own mother’s drawing room; evidently, she and Miss Mary King were inseparable.
Bingley had none of the frustration that he had.
Miss Bennet had been perhaps a trifle cool to him at first but had warmed rapidly.
She was casting demure looks at Bingley from the moment they were announced, and he strode confidently to join her where she sat by an open window.
Darcy followed, albeit less confidently, hoping Miss Bennet might offer some information on her sister’s whereabouts.
The rest of the drawing room had returned to whatever they had been doing when the two men arrived, and thus Darcy felt unembarrassed by delving directly into his questions.
“I do not believe I have had the pleasure of meeting the owners of Ashworth. Is the estate nearby?” he asked Miss Bennet, speaking quickly.
“Just above ten miles,” Miss Bennet replied with a demure smile. “It is owned by the Goddards. Mrs Goddard is Miss King’s aunt.”
Bingley spoke up, likely for no other reason than to direct Miss Bennet’s attention back to himself. “I believe I remember Miss King from the ball at Netherfield.”
Miss Bennet smiled. “Yes, she was there.”
With that, Miss Bennet and Bingley were back in their tête-à-tête and Darcy was forgotten. Mrs Bennet noticed his discomfiture and called him to come and sit by her, which he did albeit reluctantly.
“I heard you ask about Miss King,” she said with an exaggerated hush.
“Nasty, freckled thing,” Miss Lydia called from her chair.
“Lydia, pray do not speak so,” Mrs Bennet scolded. To Darcy she said, “Alas, yes, she is a very plain girl. Nothing at all to my girls! Everyone has always said the Miss Bennets are the jewels of the county! But forgive me; I do not like to boast of my own children.”
She paused, and Darcy, after a moment to realise what was expected of him, said, “Your daughters are undoubtedly the beauties of the county.”
One in particular and likely not the one you think I mean.
“Oh, you are very good, sir,” she said with a little pat on his sleeve.
“But dear Miss King. The trouble is all those freckles—what she ought to do is rub her face with lemon juice and Gowland’s.
It might not make them disappear, but they would get lighter.
” She nodded vigorously at him. “And I must say, I do not believe her aunt’s maid is doing what she could with her hair; Lizzy’s hair is just as curly and yet never so frizzled and untidy! ”
Again she paused, but this time Darcy was quicker to respond. “Miss Elizabeth has beautiful hair.”
I should very much like to run my hands through it.
“Lizzy’s hair can become quite unkempt when she is out scampering about, and do not even ask me what happens when she is in wind!” Mrs Bennet clucked and shook her head, frowning and tugging at the lace in her sleeves.
Darcy waited patiently, but when it seemed that the storytelling got stuck, he enquired, “And what of Miss King?”
“Oh yes. Well, you must remember George Wickham whom we all admired so much in the autumn when he joined up with Forster’s regiment.”
A faint look of uncertain comprehension dawned on Mrs Bennet’s face—no doubt she remembered, belatedly, his association with Wickham. She glanced at Darcy uneasily for a moment.
He smiled blandly at her, and it seemed reassurance enough.
“We all thought he quite admired our Lizzy, but she did nothing at all to encourage him. Could not be bothered! Next we knew, he had offered for Miss King. She is a sweet girl, but nothing at all to Lizzy! I can only imagine the wiles she employed to draw him in!”
If I know Wickham, it could only have been money. That aside, he had to admit to some pleasure in Mrs Bennet’s saying that Elizabeth had done nothing to encourage Wickham.
“But the engagement was announced prematurely. Miss King’s uncle had not given his consent and must have refused it, for suddenly the engagement was off and Miss King was sent to live with another uncle in Liverpool.”
Here again Miss Lydia entered the conversation. “But dear Wickham was so much in love that he left his regiment, and went down to Liverpool to persuade her to elope with him.”
“Fortunately her uncle stopped it before they did,” said Mrs Bennet briskly. “It seems Mr Wickham had fooled us all! Played quite the gentleman and meanwhile had run up debts all over Meryton and likely beyond; they did not wish to see Miss King’s inheritance wasted on clearing his name.”
The names may change, but it is always the same story for Wickham. “Miss King had recently come into some money?”
“Ten thousand pounds from her grandfather.” Mrs Bennet shook her head regretfully.
“Poor dear. She was quite distraught. My Lizzy has been just what the girl needs to mend her broken heart. Of course it is no hardship to Lizzy—they are a merry party over there at Ashworth! I told Mr Bennet, if this goes on, we shall need another carriage.”
Something in the way she said ‘merry party’ raised Darcy’s alarm. “Has Miss King many cousins?”
“Mr Robert Goddard is the only one there, but he is there with his friend Sir James of…oh, who knows? I cannot recall, but he is a fine young man, as is young Goddard. You would not have met them in the autumn—they were travelling. They will be at the assembly, I daresay.”
“Excellent.” Darcy forced a smile. In fact, it was anything but excellent.
Was this why Elizabeth was forever elsewhere?
He remembered vividly what had happened to him when Elizabeth visited Netherfield to nurse her sister; how much worse was it for these gentlemen when she was there for no other purpose but to visit, flirt, charm, and be charmed?
He did his best not to be taciturn for the rest of the call, but his mind was whirling. Had he a rival?