Chapter Three
THE FOLLOWING MORNING, a game of bowls was already going on by nine o’clock, and the players had been drinking ale with breakfast, and so they were already boisterous, crowing loudly as they stumbled around the lawn.
Elizabeth had come outside because she wanted fresh air, but then she could not escape the bowls game and its noise, so she declared she was going on a walk.
Caroline Bingley, of all people, said, “Oh, I should fancy a turn about the grounds myself,” and she came over to link her arm with Elizabeth’s. “Shall we?”
Elizabeth could hardly say no, though she wasn’t certain she wished to be in Caroline’s company.
Truthfully, she had little reason to truly dislike Caroline, she supposed.
The other woman had always struck her as a bit silly and shallow, it was true, but that could be said of a number of women.
There was the fact that Caroline had snubbed Jane rather cruelly when Jane had come to London in the winter, but Elizabeth didn’t know if it was fair to lay the blame for this entirely at Caroline’s feet, for she knew that it was more complicated than that.
Mr. Darcy had wanted Mr. Bingley to distance himself from the Bennets. Caroline had shown herself to slavishly agree with simply everything that came out of Mr. Darcy’s mouth.
Her snub may not have been personal, in other words.
True, all of this added up to Caroline not being a person of principle or backbone, Elizabeth thought, but her dislike of the woman went beyond this.
Caroline beamed at Elizabeth. “Oh, Eliza, my dear, it’s been ever so long since we’ve had the chance to speak, just the two of us, has it not?”
“It has,” said Elizabeth, trying to beam back and failing.
Maybe it wasn’t only that she didn’t like Caroline, it was that she felt guilty about disliking Caroline.
Elizabeth did not think of herself as a petty sort of person.
It seemed petty to her to dislike Caroline.
She wished to rise above all of it, to be magnanimous to everyone.
But maybe that was simply impossible, in the end. One could not be friends with everyone. One could not like everyone.
She could, however, be polite, and she would be.
“I shall confide something to you that perhaps you have already guessed,” said Caroline. “I had a bit of a scheme at one point, one that would have matched myself and Miss Darcy with both of our brothers.”
Elizabeth was surprised that Caroline was admitting this aloud.
She supposed she’d suspected it. There had been something in the letter that Caroline had sent to Jane when they all quit Netherfield, in fact, that had hinted at a connection between Mr. Bingley and Miss Darcy.
“Well, no, I did not know that, but I suppose it is, er, well, not an entirely surprising revelation.”
“Yes, you did guess,” said Caroline, sighing.
“And I must say, I cannot understand my brother at this juncture. He courts Miss Bennet for weeks in London and then invites her here, which must mean that he is quite interested, must it not? However, if he is so interested in her, why has he not asked for her hand? Then Miss Darcy appears here, and I confess I find it all very awkward.”
Elizabeth blinked at her. “Do you.”
“Yes, ever so awkward,” said Caroline. “I wonder if all of it has anything to really do with Miss Bennet or if it is all about my brother’s anger with Mr. Darcy, you see?
He was livid that Mr. Darcy had lied to him.
I think that may be what is keeping him from uniting with Miss Darcy, even now, but I have always thought they shared a special understanding. ” She gave Elizabeth a guileless smile.
“A special understanding,” Elizabeth repeated.
“I do not mean to say anything that would cause pain or discomfort for dear Jane, of course. I adore her! I always have. She is all that is sweet and good, of course.”
Elizabeth glared at Caroline. Perhaps Caroline did not deserve to be liked, not at all. Anyone who could pretend to be kind whilst actually being cruel was not a good person, was she?
“So, I hesitate to bring it up at all, but I do think that Charles has that special understanding, you see? He and Miss Darcy have such a history, after all.”
“And you and Mr. Darcy?” said Elizabeth pointedly. “Have you two shared a ‘special understanding’ also?”
“Oh, I have known Mr. Darcy for years now,” said Caroline airily.
“He is the sort of man who makes you feel as if you are the only woman in the room. He will focus entirely on you, and he will be so careful and serious, thoughtfully considering everything you say. You get ideas about what Mr. Darcy thinks about you. But then you realize he’s simply like that with everyone. ”
Elizabeth could not resist laughing. “If you’re trying to convince me that Mr. Darcy doesn’t treat me differently than he treats other people, you’ll not succeed, I’m afraid, Miss Bingley.
And I don’t mean to be cruel, but perhaps someone should simply say it to you plainly.
I think the fascination between the two of you is one-sided. ”
Caroline stopped walking.
Elizabeth shrugged. She might not be able to couch her barbs the way Caroline did, to make it seem as if they were not barbs at all, but she could lob her own barbs. “Apologies,” she said coolly.
Caroline turned on her, and Elizabeth read the expression on the woman’s face, and then she only felt ashamed of herself. Maybe she was reading it all wrong. Maybe Caroline wasn’t doing it on purpose?
Elizabeth began to speak, trying to dig herself out of it.
“There was a better way to have put that, I’m sure.
I have a bad habit of being too blunt at times.
Mr. Darcy is obviously free and available, and perhaps, if you weren’t always so servile when you were with him, he might not think of you the way he does.
I don’t think he is attracted to women who simply agree with him. ”
Caroline swallowed, her face turning white.
Elizabeth sighed. “Apologies again,” she said. “That didn’t really help things, my saying that, did it?”
Caroline abruptly started walking. She spoke again, her voice high-pitched. “You seem to have come to know him rather well, then?”
“Mr. Darcy, you mean?”
“Yes, I suppose it all occurred whilst he was at his aunt’s house and you were staying nearby. I suppose you formed some kind of intimate friendship then, and he confessed to you the sorts of women he was attracted to.”
“No, no,” said Elizabeth, falling into step with her.
“We have both heard the sorts of women he thinks he’s attracted to, have we not?
” She thought about it. “Actually, it was you who described it, I think, and he simply agreed. The woman with the thorough knowledge of simply everything and who had something in the way she talked and walked?” She smirked.
“Oh, he did say that a woman must read, I suppose.”
Caroline eyed her, confused.
“I’m only saying, he doesn’t know why he is attracted to women,” said Elizabeth. “But when he is, there is very little doubt of it on the part of the woman.”
“So… what? There is something between the two of you?”
“There is not,” said Elizabeth, shaking her head. “No, no, that is not it.”
“But he pursued you?”
“He proposed,” said Elizabeth. “But I said no.”
Caroline stopped walking again, aghast. “You said no?”
Elizabeth stopped walking, too, readying her defense of all of that, but realizing she wasn’t sure if she even had one anymore.
“I know him better now, I suppose. Perhaps if I had known him then, I might have said something else. I don’t know.
But it doesn’t matter now, because it’s all done and over with. ”
“How is it done and over with?” Caroline was walking again, wringing out her hands.
“He is still in love with you, then. Everyone saw him go to you like a shot when he saw you, and that little hushed conversation you conducted together, and then there is the fact that when the two of you are in the same room, he stares at you.”
“Does he.” Elizabeth cringed. “I thought he had stopped doing that.”
“If you know him better now, then you will tell him to propose again, and he will.”
“No, he won’t,” said Elizabeth. Because I am already married, but I cannot very well tell Caroline Bingley that, not unless I want everyone on earth to know.
Then it was Elizabeth’s turn to stop walking.
She considered this prospect, wondering if it might not be the answer to all of her problems. If it were rumored that she was married to the colonel, then perhaps she could simply confirm the rumor.
Hmm. It had possibilities. Of course, she’d have to explain why she’d concealed the marriage at all, and she didn’t know why she might say that, but if she gave some excuse, it must be innocent.
“Yes, I think he will,” said Caroline. “My brother will marry your sister, and he will marry you, and I shall be alone and poor Miss Darcy shall be alone, and why have the two of you upended everything?”
Elizabeth caught up with her. “You’re upset.”
Caroline glared at her. “You unsettle me, I must say. It’s difficult to keep one’s composure around you for some reason.
You have this way of saying things, and you cut right into the meat of matters, and it badly affects me!
Sometimes, and I am ashamed to say this, Miss Elizabeth, for I wish to say that I do not feel this way about anyone, but I think I hate you! ”
Elizabeth had to smile at this, because it was so similar to her own sentiment. “Maybe we simply don’t mix well, Miss Bingley? Like oil and water?”
Caroline eyed her, looking abashed. “Oh, I don’t know.” A pause. “Do you think so?”