Chapter 2
Two
Moments after Darcy strode through his own front door, he flinched at the unwelcome sound of Miss Bingley’s twittering laughter drifting down the hall. It was moving towards him, even, and he was sorely tempted to place his hat back on his head and leave again if only to avoid seeing her.
Alas, he had dawdled too long in deciding, and the lady appeared before him, arm linked with Georgiana’s as if they were bosom friends.
Mrs Hurst had ensnared his sister’s other arm, and the poor girl’s expression was a study in misery.
Darcy did not know how they could not see it for themselves, but then he supposed they were studiously disregarding their captive’s dismay.
“Mr Darcy!” cried Miss Bingley upon spotting him. She immediately disengaged from Georgiana—who appeared much relieved—without so much as a glance in her direction and made directly for where he stood quibbling with himself over whether to stay or leave. “How good it is to see you.”
Internally sighing at his bad luck, Darcy at last handed over his hat and stick to the footman and bowed to his guest. “Miss Bingley, good day to you.”
“So formal!” She giggled and latched onto his arm in the same fashion she had Georgiana’s, silently claiming ownership. “And here I thought we were much better friends than that.”
There was nothing Darcy could reply to this, so he allowed her to prattle on.
“I am so glad you are here, for there is something I wished to speak to you about, if you have a moment.” So saying, she shot a look at her sister, who all but dragged Georgiana away to marvel at an oriental vase displayed on the far side of the entry hall.
“Of course.”
Lowering her voice, Miss Bingley reported, “You will not believe who paid me a visit only just this morning! Should I give you a hundred chances, you would never guess.”
Darcy waited several extended seconds for Miss Bingley to reveal the mystery of her caller’s identity, but she merely stared up at him as if she expected him to conjecture after all. “As I am notably dismal at guessing games, I suppose you must be right. Who was your visitor?”
“Miss Jane Bennet!”
Darcy reared back from Miss Bingley with alarm. “Miss Bennet is here in town? Does Bingley know?”
“No, he was out, thank goodness, but can you imagine her nerve? Chasing a gentleman all the way here is…there are no words for it! I have never been so shocked and appalled in all my life as when her card was presented to us. Clearly, she did not take the hint that her company was unwelcome when I neglected to respond to her letters announcing her impending visit. The absolute audacity…”
Darcy thought Miss Bingley’s invectives went a little too far, given that she had presented herself as Miss Bennet’s friend whilst in Hertfordshire, but he was dismayed at what he suspected were the penniless lady’s ulterior motives.
He had not expected the mild Miss Bennet to be so bold in her pursuit of Bingley, but then fortune hunters had been known to go to extreme lengths in order to achieve their ends.
Apparently, Bingley’s five thousand a year was enough of a lure to bring Miss Bennet all the way to London.
Bingley had only recently begun to show signs of being his old self again, the affable gent he had been before Miss Bennet had dug her claws into him.
For the past month he had refused all invitations, drunk more heavily than his wont, and generally bespoke an air of melancholy that was most unlike him.
Never had Darcy seen him so affected by one of his flirtations, and it deeply concerned him.
Should Bingley see Miss Bennet again now, he would surely fall prey to her machinations once more, and there was no guarantee that they would be able to save him a second time.
There was nothing for it—Bingley must never know of Miss Bennet’s residence in town. It was for his own good.
Miss Bingley continued her complaints about Miss Bennet and her presumptions while Darcy largely disregarded her until she regained his attention by saying, “I shall not return her call, of course.”
“No,” Darcy immediately objected, a sharp bite to his tone.
When Miss Bingley looked at him with affronted hurt, he said more softly, “That will not do. If you do not return Miss Bennet’s call, she might very well take it upon herself to visit you again at Grosvenor Street.
We were lucky today that Bingley happened to be elsewhere, but what if she comes on a day when he is not?
No, you must return the call but make it clear that you have no wish to continue the acquaintance.
Tell her that Bingley has found himself another angel if you must, but dissuade her from her pursuit. It is the only way.”
A devious smile unfurled across Miss Bingley’s face, and Darcy felt a shiver race up his spine. “Of course, how did I not see it myself? If Miss Bennet is determined enough to come all this way, she will not be put off by something as simple as negligence. She must be made to know her place.”
“I would not have put it quite like that,” said Darcy, feeling unaccountably dirty, “but she must understand that her pretensions are not welcome. If she does not, she might persist and eventually succeed in putting herself in your brother’s way again.
Such would be dangerous with Bingley in his precarious state. ”
“I agree. He is far too weak to Miss Bennet’s charms to know what is good for him.”
Darcy swallowed and looked away, discomfited.
He could entirely sympathise with Bingley’s ‘weakness’, as his sister put it, for did he not suffer from the same in regard to another of the Bennets?
Elizabeth was witty, lively, utterly beguiling, and he had no doubt that she could just as easily pluck his strings as Miss Bennet did Bingley’s.
Should she cast him so much as a single longing glance with those remarkably fine eyes of hers, he would be lost to her.
It would be but the work of another moment for him to prostrate himself at her dainty feet and beg her to be his wife, forsaking every expectation of both his family and society.
If Elizabeth had come to town instead of her sister, he knew not what foolishness that might lead him to.
Darcy could admit to himself now that he had absconded from Hertfordshire for his own sake as much as for Bingley’s.
But that was neither here nor there in the present moment.
His duty now was to preserve Bingley from the ignominy of an unequal marriage, both in wealth and in affection, and he would not fail.
“Bingley must never know of Miss Bennet’s being in town.
Return the visit and make sure the lady knows she has failed in her quest to capture him. ”