Chapter 20
FOOLS FOR LOVE
When the Bennet ladies had departed, Bingley invited Darcy to play billiards with him.
Relieved to be away from Miss Bingley, Darcy accepted with alacrity.
Bingley was silent as they racked the balls and prepared to begin their game.
He remained silent as he proceeded to knock the balls wildly about the table, only rarely sinking one, and nearly always hitting the ball too hard to have any direction or effect on the progress of the game at all.
Several balls were struck with sufficient force to jump the bumper on the table and strike the floor.
Finally, after several such episodes, Darcy asked, “What troubles you?”
“I believe I will leave for London tomorrow. Pray remain as long as you like,” Bingley replied in clipped tones.
“Leave for London?” Darcy asked, and Bingley nodded without looking at him. “When shall you return?”
“I do not plan to return,” Bingley replied, an angry flush ascending his neck and lower face. “Ever.”
Darcy had no idea what to say and only watched as Bingley violently attacked another ball on the table, which careered about haphazardly for a few seconds before coming to rest, thankfully still on the table.
Bingley watched it and then, with a mighty sigh, leant himself and his stick against the table.
“What happened?” Darcy enquired gently.
Bingley was silent for several moments, then opened his eyes and said, “I asked Jane Bennet…not to marry me, exactly. Sort of a promise of an offer, you might say. I told her I wished to marry her and loved her since the day I knew her.”
“What did she say?” Darcy laid his stick gently beside his friend’s to better give Bingley his attention.
“She said she could not credit such sentiments and thought it just as likely that I would hie off and leave again,” he said flatly.
Darcy bowed his head. “I see.”
Bingley sighed, his apparent anger suddenly replaced with sadness. “I cannot blame her of course. I abandoned her once; it is quite reasonable that she would fear I might do it again.”
“Allow me to speak to her,” Darcy urged. “If she understood my part in it—”
Bingley shook his head and then began to pace.
“She knows your part in it, as well as Caroline’s, and while she understands that I was influenced, she said that nevertheless, I allowed others to tell me what to do, and did it without another thought.
She said that she had to believe that my feelings for her were thin inclinations indeed, if I could be so easily put off. ”
“You and I both know that is untrue.”
“Yes, but the two of us knowing that does not signify, does it?”
“Have you told her of all of those things you told me? Of your regret and pain since parting from her, and of the many changes you have made? You are not the same man who parted ways with her those many months past—does she know that?
“I tried to tell her.” Bingley stopped pacing. “I could not say much beyond the fact that I was truly sorry for the pain I had caused her.”
“You cannot leave,” Darcy opined firmly. “It would only prove that what she believes of you is true.”
“What sort of fool would try to woo a lady who has already told him she will never marry him?” Bingley’s frustration nearly made him shout.
“Am I a fool?”
“Possibly,” Bingley shot back, and unaccountably, it made Darcy laugh. A few seconds later, Bingley joined him, though his chuckle was less hearty. At the end of it, he scrubbed his hands through his hair and Darcy clapped him on the back.
“I daresay we are both fools,” Darcy said. “You are attempting to pay court to a woman who maintains she will not marry you—though I think she will—and I am wooing a woman who I know despises me.”
Bingley shrugged. “She seemed friendly enough today. You were laughing like old friends.”
Darcy walked a few steps and sank into a nearby chair, conceding with the unspoken agreement that their billiard game be forgot.
“I have this Sir James to contend with. He is obviously smitten with Elizabeth, and from the sounds of things, spends every available moment with her. He has not insulted her, and he has not harmed Miss Bennet or anyone else dear to her. It is clearly to his advantage.”
Bingley walked over and likewise took a seat. “From what I have seen, she does not appear to be smitten with him.”
“I wish I could be so sure of that, but for all that she is artless and open, I have come to understand that she keeps herself under good regulation. One rarely knows what she is thinking—or at least I do not. She is frighteningly skilled at hiding her true emotions. Even that night in Kent—the night I almost proposed to her—I perceived her anger, but I doubt anyone else did.”
“But she is not angry now, is she? You have made an excellent start in a very short period of time.”
“It is a short period of time,” Darcy said. Then levelling a look at his friend, he added, “For you and Miss Bennet as well.”
“You think I was too hasty?”
“I do not want to assert undue influence,” Darcy said immediately. “But…perhaps. It might have been a trifle too soon for the lady.”
“Which I find hopeful, if that was all it was.” He absently rubbed at a spot on his boot, seeming thoughtful. “Perhaps I should have another ball. Do you think it would be well received?”
Darcy threw back his head and laughed heartily. “That is certainly a turn but then again, your desire to decamp was as well.”
“Yes, in this case I am only returning to a former plan, so ’twas easier to arrive at,” Bingley replied with a good-natured grin. “In any case, I cannot leave now. I have a lady to persuade to love me, as do you.”
Darcy could only shake his head in astonishment. “In that case, I say yes, a ball should be just the thing.”