Chapter 11
Darcy cringed when the shrew grabbed onto his one arm possessively as soon as he stepped out of his coach. He shot Bingley an annoyed look and saw the guilty look telling him that his friend had never told Miss Bingley that she would never be Mrs Darcy, under any circumstances.
As much as he wanted to throw the hand from his arm, Darcy checked himself; he was not ready to lose Bingley as a friend.
He had so few men he could count as true friends that he did not want to jeopardise his friendship with one of them.
He pushed his family and Lambert’s words from his head, the ones that told him that he was raising expectations by never being explicit with Miss Bingley.
Darcy did not miss the way Mrs Hurst looked on with approval.
“Welcome to Netherfield Park, Mr Darcy,” Miss Bingley purred. “It is so gratifying to welcome those at our level of society to our home.”
Mrs Hurst saw the look of outrage on Mr Darcy’s face when Caroline made that statement.
Mr Darcy had schooled his features, but it looked like he had come very close to issuing a set down.
That would not do. She would have to speak to her sister about being a little less forceful in her attentions to Mr Darcy.
“I trust the journey was not arduous,” Bingley stated.
He did not miss how annoyed his friend was.
Bingley was worried that Darcy was close to breaking the connection.
“Caroline, why do you and Louisa not go see Mrs Nichols and make sure that everything is ready with Darcy’s chamber,” he suggested.
He was praying Caroline would take the hint, as he could see that Darcy was close to losing his vaunted control.
He had tried to convince his sisters that he alone should meet his friend, but they had chosen to ignore him.
Miss Bingley was about to vent her spleen at her brother when she saw her sister incline her head towards the house.
She plastered a false smile on her face as she relinquished Mr Darcy’s arm.
“I will go make sure all is ready for you,” she managed.
She swept up the stairs with her sister following.
Ignoring the waiting housekeeper and butler, Miss Bingley stormed up the stairs to the drawing room. “Why did you pull me away from my Mr Darcy?” she demanded.
“Because your Mr Darcy was getting angry with you and was about to set you down. Had I not interceded, your chase of him would be over even now,” Mrs Hurst asserted.
“Caro, when you marry him you will be at the same level of society as him, but we are not there yet. You did not see Mr Darcy’s face when you intimated you and he belong to the same circle of society; I thought he was about to refute your words there and then.
You know how much pride he has in his position in the first circles, do you not? ”
“I do, as it should be,” Miss Bingley replied. “He never contradicts me, so I thought he agreed with me.”
“He is only being a gentleman. That does not mean he thinks that you have the right of it. We need to be careful. Let him see what a good hostess you are, but be much less forceful in your hunt. Try to remember that he is not enamoured with you when you take his arm without him offering it to you.”
“But what if after all of this he does not offer for me?” Miss Bingley whinged.
“If we see Mr Darcy is no closer to offering for you before it is almost time for him to depart this benighted estate, then you will compromise him. I will be your witness, and I will make sure Charles supports your claim as well,” Mrs Hurst laid out.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
After washing and changing, Darcy joined the rest of the residents in the drawing room where tea was to be served.
Miss Bingley prepared his cup without asking his preferences in a transparent attempt to show how well she knew him.
He did not correct her, but he did not add milk or sugar to his tea as she had, but rather some lemon.
“Charles committed us to attend a public assembly in this backwater this evening. I am sure you would prefer not to mix with all the riffraff, so if you choose to remain at the estate, no one would fault you,” Miss Bingley cooed.
Typical of Bingley to accept an invitation to something Darcy would dislike attending. “I am somewhat fatigued from the travel this morning,” Darcy said.
“Then we are of like minds, I will remain with you because I could not in good conscience allow a guest to be alone at the estate where I am mistress. That would be very inhospitable of me, and you know I am most attentive to all of those things as I was taught to be at the exclusive seminary I attended after my sister had been a student there,” Miss Bingley purred.
Although he had wanted to tell her many times that most of the top families of the first circles did not send their daughters to seminaries, Darcy kept silent on the subject.
The other thing Darcy would not allow, even if he would not submit to a compromise, was the harpy to remain at the house with only him for company.
“Bingley, this is an opportunity for you to meet a wide cross section of your neighbours, is it not?” Darcy enquired.
“Yes, that is true,” Bingley agreed. “Some of the men called on me, and I have returned those calls, but I have met only a few of the rest of the members of their families. I understand that the assembly is well patronised, so it will be an ideal time to be known to the wider area.” He did not say aloud that he was hoping to discover an angel.
After hearing from others beside Sir William that the Bennet sisters were diamonds of the first waters, Bingley was hopeful one of them was beautiful, blonde, blue eyed, and willowy.
“In that case, I will accompany you. It would be rude of me to remain here when my host is moving among the populace.” Darcy decided. He did not miss the pinched looks on Miss Bingley’s and Mrs Hurst’s faces.
“Yes. Then I suppose we will attend and show the locals what true sophistication looks like. Come, Louisa, we need to prepare ourselves,” Miss Bingley said.
Caroline Bingley could tell herself whatever she wanted, but there was nothing Louisa could say which would make what occurred have a different meaning.
The instant she said she would remain with Mr Darcy, he changed his mind and said he would attend.
What did that say about the way he felt about her?
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Fanny kept flitting in and out of Jane’s bedchamber with contradictory instructions regarding what to and not to wear. Jane just smiled and wore what she had planned to anyway.
Elizabeth and Mary were very thankful that they were spared their mother’s helpful advice. She concentrated all of her attention on Jane. The aforementioned sisters felt sympathy for the eldest Bennet sister and could not repine that Mama seemed unconcerned with their apparel.
As much confidence as Mary had gained thanks to her education and ability on the pianoforte, she still was not fully comfortable in crowds like those who would be present at the assembly.
Thanks to Aunt Maddie’s help when Mary was twelve, she realised that Fordyce’s sermons made no sense, and that the good reverend was the last person who should opine on the behaviour of young ladies. In the last six plus years, not once had Mary repined giving up reading that book.
The reason she was thinking of that, or any book, was that at her first assembly she had brought a small tome with some of Shakespeare’s sonnets, and with the spectacles she did not need, sat herself in a corner, her nose in the book.
Aunt Maddie had worked with her to show her that what Mama used to say about her looks was so much stuff and nonsense, and slowly but surely her confidence had built.
The first thing to go were the spectacles.
Next Aunt Maddie had helped Mary change how she wore her hair, gone were the severe buns she used to prefer.
After that, the colours of her dresses were changed to ones which suited her complexion better.
It was then that Mary was able to see that she was as pretty as her sisters.
By the time of the third assembly she had attended, rather than hide, Mary had remained with Jane and Lizzy.
She had danced almost every set. So now, even though she no longer hid her light under a bushel, Mary still felt a shiver of trepidation when attending an event like the assembly, but she no longer feared attending.
Mary was snapped out of her reverie when Kitty told her that Jane and Lizzy were on their way down the stairs. She followed behind them, Kitty after her.
Contrary to their mother’s assertions that they would be late, the three eldest Bennets were waiting for the Bennet matriarch when she joined them in the entrance hall. Fanny farewelled Kitty and then looked for Lydia. She left wordlessly once she had donned her warm outerwear.
“Is Lydia sulking because she is not the centre of attention?” Elizabeth queried.
“I believe so, she is in her chamber,” Kitty replied. “Did you not hear her slam her door three or four times to attempt to garner attention? She gave up when even Mama was too busy to see what vexed Lydia.”
“I am sure she meant nothing by it,” Jane stated. Her cheeks turned pink due to the cynical looks directed at her by her three younger sisters.
“If we do not exit the house now, Mama will not be pleased,” Elizabeth opined.
Her three older sisters hugged Kitty, and then joined their mother in the Bennet carriage. As soon as the footman closed the door after Mary was seated, they were off.
That there were only four ladies in the carriage was a great advantage. It meant there were no gowns which were wrinkled or crushed.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~