Chapter Five #3
When the Gardiners and their nieces departed, Bingley invited Darcy and Richard to stay and have a drink with him, and Miss Bingley was unusually compliant in leaving the gentleman to their occupation.
“Well, Bingley, you have outdone yourself,” Richard declared. “Miss Elizabeth Bennet is an absolute delight.”
Bingley looked quizzically at Richard for a moment before laughing until he nearly choked on his brandy. “Miss Elizabeth! Well, I ought to have known you would take a liking to her. She is most agreeable, though she is clever in a way that frightens me a little. But her sister Jane is an angel.”
“Her sister?” Richard laughed. “I see—well, I am relieved to hear we will not need to call for pistols at dawn. Miss Bennet is a charming young lady—indeed, I can see how her disposition might suit you. I believe I misunderstood—well, never mind.”
Darcy found himself screaming internally. Richard, who had always believed he would need to marry prudently, now faced a tragic turn of circumstances which would allow him the liberty of choice. Darcy despised the notion that Richard’s choice might be her.
Bingley grinned at Richard with wicked curiosity. “What was the nature of your mistake?”
“Well, I thought that you preferred the sister more similar to your own open disposition, and that your sister disapproved of your choice, and deliberately seated the quieter sister beside you. I supposed she had placed Miss Elizabeth near herself and then incited the aunt to tell stories that would mortify the lady. Of course, she is a charming girl, and was gracious about it all, but I cannot be sure if Miss Bingley’s comments were meant in friendship or out of some intent to discomfit Miss Elizabeth. ”
“I confess, I had thought the same,” Darcy replied.
Bingley looked momentarily affronted, and then confused, and then contemplative.
He swirled his brandy in his glass for a moment and then took a drink.
“You are both dear friends, but I believe you entirely mistake my sister. She likes both the Miss Bennets very well. To be sure, she is not as fond of the rest of the Bennets, though she seems pleased by the Gardiners—are they not exceedingly affable? But Caroline has spoken very favorably of Jane and Miss Elizabeth, in unguarded moments at home as well as in their presence. I believe we put paid to her mischief, Darcy.”
Darcy and his cousin were both taken aback by Bingley’s solemn defense of his sister; Darcy was also rather impressed by it. “Of course—forgive me. I do wish to believe that your sister has learned to be content with your choice, and with her new friends.”
Richard’s eyes gleamed as he scented the mischief. “But how did you put paid to her mischief?”
Bingley grinned and refilled his drink before launching into an account of how he had urged Darcy to speak of his resolution never to marry Miss Bingley on the night that she and her sister had eavesdropped on them.
Richard howled with laughter, but insisted Miss Bingley could not possibly have learned her lesson from the experience.
“Forgive me, but you must both be on your guard with Miss Bingley. It seems to me that she has observed the superior manners of the Bennet sisters, and wishes to demonstrate that she is capable of being equally charming. Or perhaps she hoped the Gardiners would prove to be exceedingly vulgar.”
Bingley whimpered. “How could she not like Jane? She is the kindest, most agreeable creature.”
“I shall grant you that, but you may be required to remind your sister that you have not come to London to discover Georgiana Darcy a superior creature to Jane Bennet.”
“Miss Darcy is a dear girl, but she is like another sister to me—a much younger sister. No, Colonel, we must agree to disagree. I have been vastly contented by the changes to my sister’s disposition since going to Netherfield, and I shall not interfere.”
“I should like to see how you all get on at Netherfield,” Richard mused.
“Then come and see,” Bingley said warmly. “You are very welcome, and I daresay Miss Elizabeth would agree.”
“And your sister will not object?”
“She is charmingly reformed,” Bingley declared.
“Excellent! What do you say, Darcy? You are very quiet. I hear there are several Miss Bennets—is there not one for you, perchance?”
Bingley snorted. “Think again! He declared them all unsuitable even to dance with, our first week in Hertfordshire. He flatly refused to stand up with Miss Elizabeth at the assembly.”
Darcy set down his brandy for fear he would shatter the glass in his hand.
He would have to find a way to apologize to Miss Elizabeth, and soon.
He could not admit to anything beyond an appreciation for her beauty and her clever wit, and the way her teasing mirth seemed to captivate every room she walked into.
Beyond this, he would not better not to think of her at all, lest he be tied to her ghastly family.
But Darcy could not bear to think of her as attached to his cousin, forever in his life and thinking ill of him.