Chapter 18
As much as she hated rising at the hour the rest of the residents of Netherfield Park did to break their fasts, the morning after the assembly she had missed because of her family’s betrayal, Miss Caroline instructed her maid to wake her in time to attend the morning meal.
When Miss Caroline stormed into the dining parlour, the other four were already seated about the table. None of them looked at her, which only increased her fury. She stood in the doorway, her arms akimbo.
“How dare you…” Miss Caroline began to screech. The tirade ended prematurely when her brother slammed his fist onto the table.
“Think very carefully about the next words which cross your lips, for they may be the last you utter in this house. If you would like to join us and break your fast without any dramatics, then please do so. Anything else will see you begin to pack for your journey north,” Bingley warned firmly.
“After we have eaten, if you would like to say something, then we will speak in the drawing room, without screeching or shouting. Am I understood?”
Seeing that she could not afford to be sent away before she secured her future as Mrs Darcy, Miss Caroline headed for a seat next to the target of her matrimonial plans.
“No, Caroline,” Hildebrand said with an icy voice. “As we all did, you will help yourself to the buffet, and then you will sit next to me, either side, I care not.”
Why would her family not allow her to spend time with Mr Darcy? Miss Caroline was certain that due to her superior education, she was the only one with whom Mr Darcy would want to converse.
Miss Caroline helped herself to eggs, ham, toast, and some butter.
All small helpings of course; she did not want Mr Darcy to think her a glutton like the disfigured Louisa.
With no good cheer, she seated herself to the left of her aunt.
It was the same side of the table as Mr Darcy, but there were a half-dozen empty places between them.
She sat steaming as the anger built, hardly touching her food as she watched Mr Darcy chatting amiably with Charles and even Louisa, though she was without her veil. Was the man blind that he ignored the terrible deformity on her sister’s face?
Their late father had told her and her late mother that it was not the mark of the devil, not an indication of some deficiency, or anything else.
He had said it was some sort of wine stain, a birthmark that did not mean anything was deficient in Louisa.
However, her late mother and she had known better. No one could be so ugly for no reason.
As they were finishing the meal and Miss Bingley was getting ready to have her say, her cogitations were interrupted by the butler.
“Mr Bennet to see Mr Darcy,” Nichols announced.
“Why is some local country mushroom calling now? What does he want when it is me who wants to speak to you!” Miss Caroline demanded.
“Nichols, please show him into the main drawing room,” Bingley requested.
He waited to speak until the butler had left to carry out his instructions.
“I forgot that Mr Bennet was expected at ten. Caroline, you may wait in your bedchamber, go to practise in the music room, or take a walk in the garden. You will be summoned when Mr Bennet leaves. Also, you just lost another quarter’s allowance for being rude to one of the leading landed gentlemen in the area.
You seem to forget that we are the offspring of a tradesman and much lower than the gentry. ”
Miss Caroline turned a darker shade of puce when her brother reminded her of their roots in Mr Darcy’s presence.
She would have issued a set-down or asked Mr Darcy to correct her brother had she not feared that Charles would take more of her dowry.
She stood and stormed out of the breakfast parlour.
“Darce, if you would like to meet with Mr Bennet alone, we will go to the library,” Bingley offered.
“Thank you, but that is not necessary, Bingley. My bad behaviour at the assembly could have negatively reflected on your family, so it is good that you who were witnesses to my ungentlemanlike actions are present,” Darcy responded.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Rather than do any of the things her brother suggested, Miss Caroline slipped into the library, a room she had no use for under normal circumstances.
She knew that it shared a common wall with the drawing room.
After previously hearing a servant talk about the shared chimney with the fireplace in the drawing room, she had investigated before Mr Darcy arrived.
It was possible to hear what was being said in the neighbouring room, even if a fire was burning in the drawing room’s fireplace, like today. Fortunately, there was no one in the library now. This was perfect! Could it be she would be able to use this to make sure Mr Darcy married her?
She closed the library door softly, then opened the damper and waited.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
As his daughters had predicted, the time Bennet took to think during his ride on Jupiter to Netherfield Park, he no longer felt the burning anger he had when hearing the man’s words aimed at his Lizzy at the assembly.
Bennet looked up when the door opened. He was pleased to see that Miss Louisa Bingley was not veiled like she had been at the assembly.
Bennet’s attention fixed on the tall man he knew to be Mr Darcy.
It was easy to see that the man felt shame for his behaviour.
That allowed Bennet to relax a little more.
If the man had looked defiant or haughty, Bennet’s ire would have been ignited again.
“Darcy, I present Mr Thomas Bennet of Longbourn. Mr Bennet, Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy of Pemberley and Darcy House.” Bingley made the introductions without requesting permission from his friend.
The men bowed to one another.
“Will you be seated, Mr Bennet?” Hildebrand invited. “I can order tea or coffee if you require something to drink.”
“Thank you, but no beverage for me, Miss Bingley,” Bennet replied as he sat.
“Mr Bennet, had I not been so ashamed of my words at the assembly, rather than hide in the cardroom, I would have asked Bingley to make the introduction so that I would have been able to offer my sincere apologies right away.
As soon as I realised that my insult about, but not truly aimed at, your daughter was heard, I should have begged your and her pardons immediately.
“But it is more than that. The words should never have been spoken. It does not excuse my words, but I was not in humour to be in public yesterevening. If it were not for a certain problem, I would have remained at the house. Also, I wanted to show my support for my friend, but I ended up doing the opposite.” Darcy paused.
“Worst of all, I insulted you and your family, who I realise my late father held in high esteem.”
“I was saddened when I heard your father had passed. I used to take great pleasure in my correspondence with him. You have my deepest sympathies,” Bennet stated gently.
“I thank you, Mr Bennet, he was a great man, something I have fallen very short of.” Darcy inclined his head in gratitude for the sympathetic words.
“The two Miss Bingleys will tell you that the only one who was not angered at your slight was my daughter. She reads people and their moods very well. In fact, when you walked into the hall Lizzy…Miss Elizabeth told me that she could tell you did not want to be there and that you were carrying a great weight. It was because of that she did not take your words to heart. At least, you recognised my daughters Jane and Mary’s beauty.
” Bennet paused as he remembered something.
“As a point of order, you do realise that you who only just arrived in our neighbourhood cannot give consequence to one born here whose family has been on their estate since the signing of the Magna Carta, do you not?”
“As I said, the words should never have been uttered, but yes, I do know that. Also, I became aware,” Darcy looked at Miss Louisa Bingley, “about the practice of the ladies sitting out soon after. The words that should not have passed my lips were also not at all true. Miss Elizabeth is one of the handsomest women I have seen.”
“It seems you are not blind…” Bennet stopped speaking as the drawing room door was thrown open.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Miss Caroline could not believe that Mr Darcy was apologising to some nobody for what seemed to be something he did right in insulting some fortune-hunting country bumpkin.
Her approval changed to anger very quickly when she heard Mr Darcy humiliating himself before the lowborn nothing.
She cared not that the man had some tenuous connection to the late Mr Darcy.
Her anger boiled over into fury when she heard the mushroom speak of Mr Darcy’s comment about two of his doxies, and finally, it became an uncontrollable rage when she heard Mr Darcy call the slattern handsome.
She would not stand for this. Miss Caroline was beyond angry.
Angry people are seldom sensible. In Miss Caroline Bingley’s case, this was a double problem due to the fact that she and good sense had never met.
She stormed out of the library and stomped her way to the drawing room, where she threw the door open with all of her might.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“How dare you expect my Mr Darcy to humble himself before you? You are a nothing, but are trying to throw your ugly daughters, who are nothing but strumpets, at him! You are not good enough to look at me or Mr Darcy. The only one who is as low as you, is that deformed sister of mine who has stolen part of my dowry! Neither of you should have been born. How dare your harlots tempt my Mr Darcy with their arts and allurements? You should all…” Whatever Miss Caroline was about to rant next was lost when her face was slapped with great force.