Chapter 12
Darcy
Fitzwilliam Darcy found that he was not as shocked by Miss Elizabeth’s question as he should, by all rights, be.
First, the expression on his sister’s face tipped him off to the likelihood that she had told her friend all about Wickham.
Second, he knew Miss Elizabeth was very intelligent, and he had seen that she wondered about his seeming inability to protect his sister from Miss Bingley.
Third, Elizabeth not only looked as solemn as Georgiana’s confession warranted, but she had a look in her eyes of steely determination.
As if…she was sure that she could do something about all of this, and she was resolute about taking action.
He considered what to answer, but his hesitation was apparently too long.
She said, “We are here, in the middle of this fallow field, so that we will not be overheard. I have a strong suspicion that Miss Bingley is the type of woman who would listen at doors or use her powers as mistress of the house to unlock private chambers and eavesdrop from adjacent rooms.”
Darcy nodded, considering her words likely correct. “This is a pretty good spot not to be overheard,” he conceded.
“And,” Miss Elizabeth continued, “you seem so decisive and protective of your sister, but when it comes to dealing with Miss Bingley, you seem…well, I would say that you flounder a bit. As if you do not know what to do. I thought maybe your protective instinct was trying to work to protect Georgie in two contradictory ways. Thus, I thought of blackmail.”
Darcy said, “I believe you are right. Here is all that I know.” He then proceeded to tell her of the two times that Miss Bingley had issued vague threats and of the short, badly written note that had been shoved under his bedroom door.
Georgiana gasped. She looked scared; Elizabeth looked puzzled.
“Miss Bingley seems to be warning you against a friendship with me!” Elizabeth said.
“And Georgiana told me yesterday—was it only yesterday?—that Miss Bingley directly told her that she should not be friends with me. Why am I involved in this at all? Why is Caroline Bingley involving me in her threats and scoldings?”
Heat rose to Darcy’s cheeks, and he felt her eyes flick to his face with even more bewilderment. Then he saw the beginnings of a theory forming as Elizabeth’s eyes showed a new awareness. She blushed, and her mouth opened a bit in a surprised “O”—and of course she looked even lovelier than usual.
Georgiana looked between them, and when she opened her mouth to say something, Darcy had an impulse to try to stop her. But the words were already out, quivering in the crisp fall air: “Because my brother likes you.”
Elizabeth’s eyes narrowed. “That cannot be true. I have it on good authority that I am not handsome enough to tempt him even just to dance.”
Darcy dipped his head in shame. He wished he could thrust his head into a bucket of icy water, although he supposed any bucket would do.
He said, “My apologies for my untrue and utterly ungentlemanly words, Miss Elizabeth. I said them while contemplating Miss Bingley’s vague threats that seemed to indicate that I had better not show interest in a Hertfordshire woman, or else.
That anxiety is one of several reasons why I felt poorly that night, but it is absolutely no excuse for those irrational and unkind words. ”
Georgiana looked between the two of them. “I apologise, too, for speaking out of turn. Although what I said was at least honest.”
“Georgie, please desist!” Darcy pleaded.
He turned to Elizabeth and said, “Miss Elizabeth, I have come at this question several times now, for as long as I have been here at Netherfield, and I am of a mind that Miss Bingley has somehow learnt about Ramsgate, which I gather you now know, as well?” Miss Elizabeth and Georgiana both nodded, and Darcy continued, “I believe that Miss Bingley hopes to achieve with threats to my sister’s reputation what she has not been able to achieve in the last several years: that she will be able to bend me to her will and force me to propose to her. ”
His sister cried out, “Noooo! You can never do that, Brother! That would be awful—and for a lifetime!”
He responded, “Do not worry, Poppet. I will never marry Miss Bingley. Also…I have no proof at all that she knows about and is threatening to divulge information about Ramsgate. The only shred of evidence that points that direction is the use of the letter ‘W’ as the signature of the note. That is not much to go on.”
As always, Elizabeth’s face was lively, her eyes were sparkling, her entire body seemed to be engaged with the discussion.
She said, “Miss Bingley has not revealed much, yet, but let us look at this from another angle. Let us consider how she could have learnt about this incident. How many people know of it?”
“Only five people. Well, now, including you, Miss Elizabeth, only six people. Georgiana and Wickham, of course, myself and Mrs. Younge, and my cousin Richard—who is Georgie’s other guardian.” He turned back to his sister to confirm, “You have not told anyone else anything about it, correct?”
“I have not.”
“Not even a part of the story?” Elizabeth asked.
“Here are some examples: Did you tell anyone at all that you went to Ramsgate with your companion? Did you tell anyone at all that you met your father’s godson recently?
Did you tell anyone that you thought you fell in love, but then later realised that it was not truly love?
” Georgiana shook her head firmly, but Elizabeth persisted, “If you told a bit of the story to one friend and then another bit of the story to another, someone who eavesdrops quite frequently might be able to put the stories together and come up with the whole.”
“Honestly, Elizabeth, until you I have barely talked to anyone, about anything. I swear to both of you that I did not say anything about it, nor even to say that I have been to Ramsgate.”
Darcy was happy to see Elizabeth take his sister’s hand and squeeze it in support.
“We believe you,” Elizabeth said. She turned to him and asked, “You likely told multiple people about part of it. For example, you must have warned the butler and housekeeper at your estate about not allowing Mr. Wickham into your home.”
Darcy nodded and said, “All of my servants and tenants—from coachmen to laundry maids, from stewards to stablehands—have been warned about him by name, and shown a likeness my father had commissioned. But those warnings were first made when he became irrationally angry upon hearing that he only received four thousand pounds from my father, on his death, and Wickham left my presence making threats. That was several years before Ramsgate, and various servants are responsible for reminding people of the general threat, what he looks like, and so forth. None of those people—not even my highly trustworthy valet—have been told about Ramsgate.”
Elizabeth nodded. “Good,” she replied. “But unlike Georgiana, you have had to talk about the incident, because you told your cousin about it. You need to consider how many times you discussed it, where you were each of those times, and if it is at all conceivable that Miss Bingley could have listened in on any of those discussions.”
Darcy had thought about this before, and had decided that she could not have learnt about Ramsgate from overhearing him and Richard.
But that analysis had been done on the night of the assembly.
With his travel-induced headache and all the noise of the gathering, he might not have been in top form that night.
He took the time to think it through again:
His initial narrative of the attempted elopement had been in Richard’s private sitting room at his parents’ estate, Matlock.
Caroline Bingley had never in her life been in that house; he well remembered his aunt, the Countess of Matlock, scolding him for his friendship with Bingley, citing the stench of trade as the objection.
He and Richard had long determined not to write a word of the incident in any letter, and they had set up a code phrase in case they needed to exchange information; whoever wanted to set up a meeting would write “I need to discuss the copper investment.” They both had investments in copper, giving the phrase verisimilitude, but they had never in their lives needed to discuss such, so it was a good code phrase.
As to further discussions in person…there had been two.
The first was in Darcy House, in London…
. Not only was it held in his study, which had very adequate sound proofing, it had been held during a time when the entire Bingley family was in Scarborough.
The second discussion occurred at Pemberley, and the Bingleys had been visiting.
He had not considered it possible that they could have been overheard, but now he rethought the idea.
Richard had brought up Wickham when they were outside.
They had been alone, on a terrace, but it was possible that someone could have overheard from the orangery or from the planted area near the veranda.
They had decided to move the conversation into his study, for fear of being overheard.
Like his study at Darcy House, Pemberley’s study was soundproof.
But….
“You thought of something,” Elizabeth said, and Darcy turned to her, his eyes wide.