Chapter 15 #3
“Oh my, Lizzy! Poor Miss Darcy! How can it be – Mr Wickham a wastrel, a gambler and a fortune hunter? Yet his countenance is so amiable and so trustworthy. It seems wrong that anyone without goodness should possess so much the appearance of it. Do you think perhaps he might be reformed since the time he did such injury to the Darcy family?”
Elizabeth patted her sister’s shoulder and shook her own head.
“You are perhaps too good yourself, Jane, to understand the bad in others. No, I do not believe him reformed. Mary King’s family evidently do not think him a good match for her, do they? If they did not have some serious objections against him, they would not have sent her away to Liverpool.”
“That might only be for want of fortune or position,” Jane pointed out. “They might not know all the particulars that Mr Darcy has laid before you. How did he come to take you into his confidence, in any case? My impression was not that there was any great liking between the two of you.”
“That was my impression also,” Elizabeth replied.
She could not seem to meet her sister’s eyes.
“Mr Darcy had his own reasons for wishing me to know the truth, but that is not so important now. I am more concerned with whether any of this should be shared more widely. I should not mention Miss Darcy, of course, but ought I to say something more general to our acquaintance?”
Jane considered this question gravely. No wonder, for it was unquestionably a difficult decision.
“I see what you mean. We should not spread idle and unfair gossip, but if the information that has come into your hands is true, and if some warning might prevent a tragedy, then we may also have a duty to speak.”
“Those were my first thoughts too,” said Elizabeth, sighing. “But as Mary King is gone from the neighbourhood and we have no other heiresses of note, the worst danger may have passed. The rest of us can be of no possible interest to a fortune hunter, can we?”
“Added to that, the regiment is soon leaving Meryton anyway,” Jane informed her. “Lydia told me as soon as I arrived home. They will be going to Brighton very shortly, and both she and Kitty are bereft.”
“If Mr Wickham is gone from the neighbourhood entirely, there seems to be no point in telling anyone, does there?” Elizabeth reflected on the whole picture.
“It would only be another piece of gossip. And we have seen what idle gossip did to poor Mr Darcy. I should not wish to be a part of spreading still more.”
“You had best not say anything, I think,” Jane agreed. “We shall keep this to ourselves.”
“We will then have the chance to look very clever and knowing before our friends if George Wickham ever does publicly disgrace himself,” Elizabeth laughed. “Now then, it is time to tell me of your last weeks in London. Your final letter has not caught up with me yet.”
This time it was Jane who cast down her eyes as she replied, although Elizabeth suspected that her sister was hiding feelings more than facts.
“Our aunt and uncle were so kind, and I enjoy being with the children so much,” Jane said. “We dined with neighbours in Gracechurch Street regularly, and I took the older children to the park every day.”
“Mr Bingley did not call on you?” asked Elizabeth tentatively, and Jane shook her head, rather disappointing Elizabeth’s hopes.
“He returned to London with Mr Darcy some weeks ago, and I imagined that he would. As I told you in my letter, he had not known earlier that you were even in London. Caroline Bingley had kept it from him.”
The feelings Mr Bingley had expressed in Kent had made her sure that he would seek Jane out in London. That he had not done so puzzled her immensely.
“Mr Bingley called once while we were all out and left a card, but then he did not return. I don’t suppose there was any reason why he should. His sisters no longer even write. I doubt they wish me to know their brother, and it is natural that he should respect their wishes more than mine.”
The hopelessness in Jane’s face roused Elizabeth’s spirits on her sister’s behalf.
“No, you must not give up, Jane, nor think that Mr Bingley has forgotten you. I tell you that this whole muddle is really Mr Darcy’s fault. He was the one who took Mr Bingley away from Netherfield Park, and it was very selfish of him —”
“Lizzy…” Jane attempted to interrupt.
“Mr Bingley himself told me how much he longed to return to Netherfield Park, although he could not say when that might be. I remember him saying that his time in Hertfordshire was perhaps the happiest of his life.”
“Lizzy, that shows only that Mr Bingley is good-mannered and amiable, not that he holds me in any particular regard. Please, let us not talk more of it now. I feel I have deceived myself in thinking that anyone in the Bingley family had true affection for me.”
At this entreaty, Elizabeth held her tongue.
“I am sorry to see you only so briefly,” said Elizabeth as she walked with Mr and Mrs Gardiner to their coach.
Mr and Mrs Bennet and the younger Bennet daughters had said their farewells indoors, and Jane was busy on the front lawn, bidding each of the little Gardiners farewell with many hugs, jokes, and promises to visit again soon.
“Business calls me back to London, I’m afraid,” said her uncle with a smile. “Next time Jane visits us at Gracechurch Street, you must come too, Lizzy.”
“I should like to,” Elizabeth agreed, “although Father would find it hard. He did not enjoy having both Jane and me away from Longbourn at the same time.”
“Well, then, why do we not take Lizzy to the Lake District with us in the summer, Edward?” suggested Mrs Gardiner. “We would both enjoy the company, and Jane could look after the children for us here at Longbourn while we were away. See how unhappy they are to be parting from her!”
All three of them looked across at Jane and her small cousins, the youngest clinging to her rather than saying goodbye. Elizabeth’s uncle laughed and nodded.
“Yes, the children will be far more cheerful on the journey home if we can promise them Jane’s attention again in only a few months. What do you say, Lizzy?”
“I would love to see the Lake District,” she assured her uncle and aunt quickly. “Indeed, there is nothing I would like more. Thank you for your kind offer. I will speak to Mother and Father, of course, and write to you directly.”
“Perfect,” said Mrs Gardiner, beaming and beckoning to her little ones. “I shall write back to you with the dates once Edward’s business schedule is clearer.”
With her arm around Jane’s shoulders, Elizabeth waved off their relatives a few moments later, feeling calmer and more settled than she had done for some time.
A few weeks of walking and sightseeing in beautiful lake country with kindly and undemanding relatives was just the kind of thing she needed to look forward to.
There would be no controversial gossip to try her principles, no inconstant, moody, or dishonest young men to worry her mind, and certainly no unwanted proposals to confuse or anger her heart.