Chapter 27 #2
Mrs Hurst could see that no offer of marriage would be forthcoming for Caroline from Mr Darcy, not now, not ever. She caught her sister’s eye. Caroline looked like she was ready to cast up her accounts. She flicked her eyes towards Mr Darcy, who was looking at Charles, and mouthed, “Go.”
It took Miss Bingley a few moments to understand what her sister was telling her, but then she took a few steps towards Mr Darcy and threw herself in the direction of his arms. She felt strong arms around her.
“Oh, Mr Darcy,” Miss Bingley cooed, “how happy we will be.” She did not understand why the response was laughter from various points in the room.
“CARO! NO!” Mrs Hurst screamed.
Miss Bingley looked up. She was not in Mr Darcy’s arms; she was being held by one of his footmen.
“Allow me to tell you what I have told your brother more times than I care to remember. I will never offer for you. Even had Thompson not been ready to catch you, which, mind you, he was thanks to the Gardiners’ suggestion, and you had reached me, I would not honour a compromise.
” Darcy turned to face his former friend who was looking rather green around the gills.
“Did you ever honour our so called friendship and tell your sisters that nothing would ever induce me to marry Miss Bingley?”
“I thought you did not mean it, and I did not want to face their wrath,” Bingley admitted.
“And now because you are unable to check your sisters, our friendship is at an end. I will let it be known that none of you may use my name to gain entry where you are not invited or wanted. It is time for you to leave my house and never return,” Darcy stated with finality.
Not wanting to accept that all of her dreams were vanishing like wisps of smoke on the wind, Mrs Hurst decided she had a way to turn their fortunes around.
“Mr Darcy, your reputation will be destroyed; I will let it be known that you compromised Caroline and refused to do the honourable thing.” Like there had been when Caroline thought she had fallen into Mr Darcy’s arms, there was derisive laughter.
“We are witnesses here,” Maddie stated when she had ceased laughing.
“No one will believe some insignificant tradesman and his wife over us,” Mrs Hurst hissed.
The Countess of Matlock had been waiting in the music room with the charming Miss Elizabeth.
Until that instant she had thought that perhaps she would not be needed.
Hearing the termagant threaten her nephew and speaking to her friend in such a manner changed all of that.
She stepped through the open door between the drawing room and music room, Miss Elizabeth at her side.
“Beside the fact that no one will take your word over William’s, I will see you all ruined in society. You will be lucky if even tradesmen will allow you into their company when my friends and I are done with you,” Lady Matlock promised. “It is good to see you, Maddie.”
“As it is you, Elaine. Did I not say that one of, what do you call them, Lizzy?” Maddie responded.
“The supercilious sisters,” Elizabeth replied. She turned to the lady at her side. “It was very good meeting you Lady Matlock.”
“That is the one. Elaine, did I not say one of the supercilious sisters would attempt to overplay her hand, and you would have no choice but to step in and ruin them?” Maddie asked.
The Bingley sisters froze. The hated Eliza called the woman ‘Lady Matlock.’ If that was true, how was it that the tradesman’s wife was allowed to address the Countess so informally?
It was then that Mrs Hurst finally realised with absolute finality that her dreams had turned to dust. If Lady Matlock was to be believed, the Bingleys and Hursts would become pariahs in society.
As much as it irked Mrs Hurst to admit it, Mrs Gardiner was correct.
They had overplayed their hand many, many times over.
“We need to go,” Mrs Hurst suggested, her head down.
The Bingleys and Hursts filed out of the drawing room without another word. The butler was waiting with their outerwear; the coach was being held for them in front of the house.
Once they were all seated, Bingley was in too much of a stupor to hit the ceiling with his cane. Hurst did the honours.
“Now that you, your sister, and brother have been ruined by your machinations, my level of society does not look so low any more does it,” Hurst stated.
“I am putting Hurst House up for lease, so Bingley and Miss Bingley, you need to leave within one day’s time.
Mrs Hurst and I will make for Winsdale, so she can learn how to be a mistress of an estate.
There will no longer be any contact between her and you two. ”
“But we live…” Miss Bingley began to say.
“We will travel to Scarborough. There is nothing left for us in polite society any longer,” Bingley decided.
For once, Miss Bingley said nothing, and her sister was silent as well.
Mrs Hurst knew that she had no choice but to obey her husband.
All of her clever plans had come to nothing.
Could it be that they were not as brilliant as she had thought them to be?
It seemed by her husband’s reaction, he had given her enough rope to hang herself, and now that she had, he had asserted his authority.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“Thank you for your assistance, Aunt Elaine,” Darcy stated gratefully after the Bingleys and Hursts had left his house.
“You are lucky that Maddie told me that you apologised to her niece for your boorish behaviour in Hertfordshire. If you had not begged to be forgiven for your unacceptable behaviour, and in addition, you had angered the Gardiners, your uncle and cousins would have not been at all pleased,” Lady Matlock responded.
It was something he would need to remember.
It was never appropriate to abandon good manners.
In other words, he needed to be a gentleman, not just bear the moniker.
It was not the fact he had almost been told to take his money and lose the lucrative investments with Gardiner.
No, the thing which had bothered him more than anything was how his past behaviour looked when viewed through the eyes of others.
Darcy renewed his vow to work as hard as he needed to so he would never make the same errors again.
“When will Uncle Reggie and Andrew return from Kent?” Darcy enquired.
“I had a note from him this morning. Catherine is in the dower house. She caterwauled all the way there. More vexing to her is the very limited allowance she will have. That and only having access to a pony pulled trap,” Lady Matlock reported.
“I am sure that without Catherine regulating everything in Anne’s life, she will be a good mistress of Rosings Park.
Without her mother’s draconian rule, everyone in the area will be much happier. ”
“Mr Darcy, is that not your cousin to whom a certain lying seducer claimed you were engaged?” Elizabeth queried.
“The same,” Lady Matlock responded. “In our family, we do not hold that close cousins should marry. We all know it was a phantom engagement and Catherine’s plan to retain control of Rosings Park.
I think the fact she missed was that if William had ever agreed to marry Anne, and she him, the very first thing he would have done as owner would have been to remove my sister-in-law. ”
“Another reason that I would never marry Anne is that I do not love her romantically, and I am resolved I will only marry for love and respect, not connections and or wealth.” Darcy was looking intently at Elizabeth as he spoke.
As much as she tried to stop it, a blush rose in Elizabeth’s cheeks.
She found that the prospect of Mr Darcy as a suitor was no longer something abhorrent to her.
Her opinions of him had been changed completely.
Of course, with her newly learnt lessons about not jumping to conclusions, Elizabeth told herself that she needed to wait and see.
It could have meant nothing that Mr Darcy had been looking at her, but still somewhere deep down, Elizabeth’s hope was that she was not reading more into the look than was actually there.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
By that evening, the Hursts were on their way to Surrey; Mrs Hurst was unnaturally subdued. Her husband had laid down the law, and unless she followed his instructions, she would find herself returned to Charles with none of her dowry.
The remaining two Bingley siblings were on the Great North Road by four that afternoon. They did not care they would only be able to travel for an hour or two. All they cared about was that they were out of London.
Bingley had no doubt that word of their ruin would spread swiftly, and it was possible it was well deserved.
No one had called him a rake, but his behaviour had not been any better than one.
He decided to be honest with himself. Bingley admitted he still had feelings for Miss Johnstone, but he was also aware he had much maturing to do before he could think of pursuing a woman again.
He finally understood how superficial he looked to others due to the fact that his criteria for a wife were all based on her outward facade, and had nothing to do with her character.
He was sure that he had not loved Miss Bennet.
It was all about her looks. She had been the most beautiful of all of his so-called angels, but he had felt no attraction other than her looks.
Miss Johnstone had been the only one who had attracted him beyond her looks.
Why had he ever allowed his sisters to separate him from her?
The chances were she would never want to see him again.
He knew the answer. He had been too weak to stand up to them. That was why he needed to grow and become a man before approaching another woman, be she unmet or one he had known before.