Chapter 14
On their walk back to Longbourn, once Kitty and Lydia had run ahead to acquaint the household with the day’s excitement, Jane told Elizabeth, “Mr Bingley said that Mr Darcy felt he must immediately write to his cousin—one Colonel Fitzwilliam, if I recall aright—and tell him that Mr Wickham had been seen and attempted to besmirch their family name.”
“Cousin Jane! Did you say ‘Fitzwilliam’?” cried Mr Collins, who remained all but glued to Elizabeth’s other side.
“I did.”
“And are you certain that is the name of Mr Darcy’s cousin?”
“Fairly certain,” Jane agreed. “I suppose I may be mistaken, but I do think that was it.”
“Why, this is extraordinary! When I heard the name Darcy, I did not think too much of it, for there are several notable families by that name. But there cannot be two who are cousins to the Fitzwilliams! This Mr Darcy must be Lady Catherine’s nephew!”
Elizabeth had to bite her lip to restrain a laugh.
If Mr Collins were correct, this must be the disagreeable aunt Mr Darcy had mentioned to her.
Her cousin’s praise of Lady Catherine de Bourgh had painted a portrait of a lady who wished to be seen as he saw her, all-wise and implausibly perfect, but was in reality an officious, meddlesome termagant.
She mastered her urge to laugh as the man peppered Jane with questions, not pausing long enough to receive an answer.
When at last he was forced to draw breath, Elizabeth intervened.
“Mr Collins, I assure you, this is the first we have heard of any Fitzwilliams connected to Mr Darcy. We cannot satisfy your curiosity. I am certain you will be introduced to the gentleman at some time during your stay, however, so you may have the opportunity to ask your questions of one who is able to answer them.”
As she spoke, she privately resolved to write to Miss Bingley without delay and ask that she warn Mr Darcy of what awaited him should he call at Longbourn.
This would require that she lay bare her cousin’s foolishness, but she was confident that her friend would not hold it against her.
She bore patiently with Mrs Bennet and Kitty and Lydia, after all, and Mr Collins would soon be gone.
What Mr Darcy would think of the warning, she could not guess, and resolved not to dwell upon.
The clergyman was disappointed; he could not understand how his cousins had failed to extract a complete genealogy from the fine gentleman in their midst, nor how that gentleman had not published his connexion to Lady Catherine to public acclaim.
He began to doubt his supposition, and by the time they arrived at the house was more than half convinced that Jane had mistaken the name and that this Mr Darcy was associated with the Fitzwarrens, or perhaps the Fitzwalters of Cumberland.
The writing of her letter to her friend was delayed for some time, as Mrs Bennet demanded reports of the confrontation in Meryton from all three of them, having heard her youngest daughters’ accounts.
It was apparent that Lydia and Kitty had taken Mr Wickham’s side, for no other reason but that he was handsome and had made a comment on how pretty the ladies of Hertfordshire were upon being introduced to them; they declared that no one so handsome could really be a scoundrel.
It was left to Elizabeth to point out that Mr Darcy was also handsome so there must be one well-favoured man speaking untruths, and also that an honest man should have stayed and defended his honour rather than catching the next post out of town; all Mr Wickham needed to do, if he were in the right, was wait a few days for Mr Darcy to fail to produce the notes he claimed to have.
To this, the girls had no reply. Mrs Bennet, at least, was swayed by her second daughter’s logic and declared that she was very happy her daughters would not be forced to meet such a man in company.
Elizabeth’s letter was eventually written and dispatched close to dinner time, and a reply received the next morning.
Miss Bingley was amused by Elizabeth’s account of her cousin, it was clear, but related that Mr Darcy had been duly warned, and had replied that he was indeed nephew to Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and how strange it was that the lady’s parson should be a relation of the Bennets.
Elizabeth was free to confirm the connexion or not, as she chose; Mr Darcy would meet the man at some time or another, and was now prepared to be interrogated.
Still, it surprised her when he was among the party that called on Longbourn the following day.
Mr Bingley had set the date of his ball for Tuesday, and he, his sisters, and his friend had come to convey the invitation to the Bennets personally.
Even the agreeable news of such an amusement so soon to be enjoyed was not sufficient to keep Mr Collins at bay for long, however.
He shuffled his feet, he coughed into his hand, he ensured that his hostess could not forget his presence.
When the introduction was made, he hardly even nodded at Mr Bingley and his sisters, so eager was he to converse with Mr Darcy.
The gentleman from Derbyshire stood clearly bemused as the clergyman rattled on about Lady Catherine, her daughter, the health of both, and the great good fortune he had in being admitted to their company.
This had an effect beneficial to all the other inhabitants of the room, in freeing them from Mr Collins’s conversation to pursue their own.
Mrs Bennet and Kitty and Lydia exclaimed to Mr Bingley their delight in a ball, and even Mary conceded that she did not mind passing an occasional evening in such a manner, while Mrs Hurst stood impatiently at her brother’s side.
As those ladies had their say, Miss Bingley drew Jane and Elizabeth to the side and expressed her pleasure in being able to return the hospitality the neighbourhood had shown her brother’s party.
She also made a delicate comment about their cousin and his devotion to all things and people associated with his patroness.
Elizabeth agreed that he was an unusual sort of fellow, and suggested that perhaps they should attempt to rescue Mr Darcy from him.
In accord, the ladies then approached and Miss Bingley selflessly tried to attract the clergyman’s attention to herself by enquiring about his parish.
Though he seemed happy to be asked, he answered her only briefly before returning his conversation to Mr Darcy.
Even he had to draw breath eventually, and as his speech could not be diverted, Elizabeth took the opportunity to draw the other gentleman’s instead, saying, “Mr Darcy, I must thank you for speaking when you saw Mr Wickham in our midst. I know that when I come unexpectedly upon someone I find disagreeable, my first hope is to avoid them, but had you done so he should have been established in our midst for many months to come. His manners were very amiable; without your testimony, we should no doubt have welcomed and trusted him.”
Mr Darcy seemed a little embarrassed. “I confess, avoidance has been my usual method of dealing with that person. I dislike even to think of him. Yet at that moment, I felt I could not allow him to prey upon my friends here.”
“Such condescension!” Mr Collins exclaimed before anyone else could speak.
“How very like your noble aunt!” He went on in this manner for some time, attributing every virtue to Lady Catherine and declaring that her nephew must possess them also.
After a few minutes of this, Miss Bingley went to her brother and suggested that they ought to depart, for they had other visits to make.
Though Elizabeth must regret the brevity of their visit, this had the happy effect of not only freeing Mr Darcy from Mr Collins’s attention all the sooner, but of freeing Mr Bingley from the chatter of Mrs Bennet and her youngest daughters.
He wasted not a moment in seizing the opportunity to secure the first set of his ball with Jane.
Alas, this seemed to inspire Mr Collins, for hardly had the door shut behind the Netherfield party when he asked Elizabeth for the honour of her first. To decline would have forced her to sit out the entire evening, and so she made him happy and herself unhappy by her acceptance.
“Darcy.”
He turned with a start from gazing out the carriage window to find Bingley regarding him expectantly.
“Pardon me, I was not attending,” he said.
Bingley laughed. “That was apparent! I asked what had put such a frown upon your face.”
Darcy hesitated to reply, for he knew that his present concern was tightly wrapped in his admiration of Miss Elizabeth Bennet.
He answered largely because he believed that two of the three people in the carriage with him would also have her interests in mind.
“When I was speaking with Mr Collins, he made a remark that implied he will soon be wed to Miss Elizabeth, though to my certain knowledge they met for the first time on Monday.”
Bingley and his younger sister were clearly appalled, while Mrs Hurst’s smirk told all that need be said of her opinion.
And yet, she spoke. “He is the heir, as I understand it. He and her father must have arranged the match through correspondence, and now he is come to finalise the matter. Perhaps the engagement will be announced at your ball, Brother—how delightful that would be! Will you like having such a man for a brother, or will the association cause you to reconsider Miss Bennet’s charms? ”
“Louisa, that is quite enough,” Bingley said sternly before addressing himself to Darcy. “I cannot imagine that Miss Elizabeth would accept him. She is far too clever to imagine she might be happy with such a dullard, even if it would be to her family’s benefit.”
“She may not have a choice,” Miss Bingley said with a troubled frown.
“Though no one can compel her to speak her vows in the church if she will not do so, even though she has not yet attained her majority, she could be cast from her home for refusing. That would be a powerful inducement to comply, as it has been for many a lady before her, unless she is certain she has some other refuge available and the means to reach it.”
“She has an aunt and uncle in town with whom she is close, does she not?” Bingley asked. At his sister’s nod, he declared, “I would send her to them in my own coach, if need be.”
“They may not wish to defy Mr Bennet’s authority over her,” Miss Bingley pointed out, a difficulty Darcy had also considered.
“And there would be talk of why a single gentleman chose to intervene, as well. No, Brother, that would not do. However, if it comes to that, I might give her fare for the post-coach and lend her my maid for propriety. To assist a lady in flight from a marriage her father arranged might earn me some disapproval in society if it became known, but it would not be ruinous as it would be for you.”
“First, I think we must understand whether there is an arrangement already in place,” Darcy said, buoyed by the knowledge that his friends, among whom he now could not do other than count Miss Bingley, agreed that such a match would be a travesty.
“I will call upon Mr Bennet tomorrow. When last we met, he invited me to peruse his library, and that shall be my excuse. I will mention Mr Collins’s words and enquire as to the situation. ”
“I do not see why you should trouble yourselves,” Mrs Hurst complained.
“Because she is my friend, and I would not see her tied to a buffoon,” Miss Bingley snapped, clearly past the end of her patience.
“And because she may soon be my sister,” added Bingley coolly. Darcy’s eyebrows rose; that was tantamount to a declaration. Bingley shrugged, smiling enigmatically. It would seem he had come to a decision, or much closer to one, in recent days.
“I should hate to see any young lady of sense tied to such a man,” Darcy said, “and even less if she would connect him to Bingley.”
Mrs Hurst eyed him dubiously but chose not to question his statement.
Darcy was to be thwarted in his purpose by a steady rain which began overnight and persisted until the evening before the ball.
To ride or drive to Longbourn was impossible; indeed, it began to seem as if the ball would have to be rescheduled until they awoke on Tuesday to bright sunshine and rapidly-drying roads.
He had questioned Bingley on his intentions as they whiled away the rainy days and learnt that his friend had made the decision to propose to Miss Bennet. He acknowledged that they had been acquainted for only six weeks, but declared himself utterly certain of his course.
“When Miss Bennet stayed here, though I was concerned by her illness, I also felt…settled within myself, simply knowing she rested inside the walls of my home and was being tended by my servants, visited by the apothecary at my summons,” he had said.
“It was as though I had fulfilled a purpose I had not understood was mine until then. It took me a little while afterwards to understand myself, but once I did, I knew that I had found the lady I wish to marry. Perhaps it sounds fanciful to you, but I cannot explain it any better than that.”
“It does not sound fanciful to me,” Darcy had replied.
“There is a very great satisfaction to be had in taking care of those for whom one is responsible. I have experienced this particularly with my sister, and I imagine the pleasure would not be less with a wife, or a lady one hopes might assume that title.”
He allowed himself the indulgence of imagining Miss Elizabeth at Pemberley, of showing her its halls, its paths and gardens, and in the longing he felt to make those images real, he at last came to know that Bingley was not the only gentleman utterly lost to a daughter of Longbourn.