Chapter Thirty-Three
While Mrs. Bennet was speaking with Georgiana, Mrs. Hurst was closeted with her brother. “Charles, Caroline has been in her room since before the Colonel arrived. What are your plans for her?”
“I scarcely know, Louisa,” Mr. Bingley confessed. “I do not think she can change her character.”
“I do think she should be given the chance,” Mrs. Hurst said. But her voice was uncertain.
Mr. Bingley shook his head. “I cannot give her the opportunity to insult the Darcys. His friendship is important to me.”
“More important than your own sister?” Mrs. Hurst demanded.
Mr. Bingley considered this. “I am not saying that Darcy is more important that Caroline; but I am saying that Darcy is more important than giving Caroline full rein to express herself as she wishes.”
Mrs. Hurst nodded. “I understand that. Will you explain that to her?”
“Can I not just keep her locked in her room?” Mr. Bingley asked, rather plaintively. “The past few days have been quite pleasant.”
“I fear not.”
***
Mr. Bingley knocked on his sister’s door. “Caroline, it is me.” He waited a full three minutes before he heard a reluctant “Come in.”
He opened the door and went in, closing the door behind him. He looked around. The room was, as might have been expected, quite untidy. He moved a hat from a chair and sat down. The two siblings stared at one another for several minutes in silence.
“I assume you are here to apologise to me,” she said at last.
“Apologise? Hardly. No, I am here to negotiate the terms under which I will allow you to leave this room.”
“Terms? Terms! You should be apologising to me!”
“After you offended my guests in my own dining room? I was never so embarrassed in my life, Caroline.”
“What did I say that was not true?”
“What is true is not important; what is important is what is kind! Was it kind for you to tell the Darcys that neither of them would be able to make good marriages? Would you like someone to tell you something like that? What if someone told you – in front of others, mind you – that you would never make a good marriage because your father was a tradesman?”
Caroline gasped, but her brother was undeterred. “It is true, is it not? You are of a low social class, despite our money, but you would not want to be reminded of that, would you? Let alone in company?”
Silence.
“I am waiting for your answer, Caroline.”
She bit out, “No, I would not like that.”
“Yet you said that to Mr. Darcy, as well as his shy and vulnerable young sister.”
Silence.
Mr. Bingley finally shook his head. “Caroline, when you are able to explain to me why you said that, and give me some reassurances that it will not occur again, then we will talk about you leaving this room.” He rose and walked out, just in time to escape the pillow she threw at his back.
***
But Mr. Bingley’s time with his sister was not completely wasted, as once she got past her rage, she thought a good deal about what he had said. No, she certainly would not have wished to be reminded of her own deficiencies, particularly not by someone who she considered a friend.
In fact, what sort of friend would say such a thing? A dreadful friend, she was forced to admit. Someone who was not truly a friend at all. And knowing how protective Mr. Darcy was of his sister, she suspected that he would never forgive her.