Chapter 12 #2
“You had better hold your tongue, Sister. Now sit, be quiet, and listen to me well.” Bingley also looked at the Hursts.
“All of you.” He glared at his younger and then older sister.
“When you told me that cock and bull story about Miss Bennet, did you not forget some salient facts? Like the fact that Miss Bennet called here in early January, and you waited a month or more to return her call? Did it also slip your mind to mention that you were rude to her and cut the acquaintance while telling her a fiction about me and Miss Darcy?”
“This is not the way you may speak to us!” Miss Bingley screeched. She prevaricated all the time, but she hated being caught in a lie.
“It is the only way I can speak to those who place their selfish needs and desires ahead of my happiness.” Bingley sighed. “I saw Miss Bennet before coming home; she is lost to me.”
“Did I not tell you she had accepted carte blanche from the Earl of Holder?” Miss Bingley crowed.
“That is so much folderol! Unlike you, who tells untruths as easily as you breathe, Miss Bennet does not have a dishonourable bone in her body! The day you saw her, she had accepted a courtship from Viscount Hadlock, and he was bringing her home, well chaperoned, mind you, to share the good news with his family,” Bingley revealed.
“I told you she was a fortune-hunting, social climber! She could not have you, so she sunk her claws into a much wealthier, titled man.” The truth was Miss Bingley was feeling deep-seated jealousy that the insipid Miss Bennet had somehow trapped a noble, especially one from a family even richer than the Darcys.
She would not let this stand! As soon as may be, Miss Bingley intended to call at Holder House to warn the Carringtons all about the Bennets and their lack of wealth.
“Like everything else you say, you are wrong again. Miss Bennet was in love with me, or believed herself so, but after your performances and my cowardice in not going to discover her feelings for myself, she realised I did not love her enough to fight for her. From what I was told, she did not pursue Lord Hadlock; he pursued her!” Bingley looked at his younger sister with disdain.
“It is very strange, Sister, that most men do not find your cloying and fawning attractive. I should have told you this when Darcy first told me, but I will tell you now! He will never offer for you, and if you compromise him, he will not honour the entrapment. You will ruin yourself more than you have already.”
“That is a lie! Mr Darcy would have offered for me in Hertfordshire if it had not been for that hoyden Elizabeth Bennet and her fine eyes distracting him from his duty to me!” Miss Bingley insisted. “I will go to Darcy house, and you will see he will refute your vile words.”
“Firstly, you are delusional. How many years have you been chasing my friend? From the first time you met him until now, he has yet to look at you with affection, never mind offer for you,” Bingley refuted.
“Do not waste your time going to Darcy House, as you will never again be admitted to any of Darcy’s homes.
If you approach him in public, he will give you the cut direct.
His patience with you has run out. Ignore me at your own peril.
” Bingley knew he should tell his sister of the growing storm in which she would soon be the centre.
As he had said to Darcy, she would not believe him in any case, and the only way she would learn was by feeling the wrath of those arrayed against her.
“Charles, that is rather harsh, is it not?” Mrs Hurst enquired. She would not look at her brother and was playing with her bracelets, as she did when she was nervous.
“I thought better of you, Louisa! You sat there while Caroline made those vile, untrue accusations about Miss Bennet, all the time prevaricating to my face. You said not a word; you never told me the truth,” Bingley accused.
“All you did was sit there playing with your jewellery. Before you use the tired excuse of supporting Caroline to keep the peace, I know it well, and it is no more valid for you than it was for me.”
“I care not how you speak to Caroline, but it is not your place while you stand in my house to speak to my wife the way you are doing so,” Hurst stated after he had been woken by his sister-in-law’s screeching.
“I will not be here much longer, as I am about to make some much-needed changes in my life,” Bingley responded.
“And what would they be?” Miss Bingley asked derisively. She had always been able to control her brother, and she was sure as soon as this petulance was over, she would rule him once again.
“I will release your dowry to you, Caroline. But it will not be twenty thousand pounds; in fact, it will be closer to fifteen thousand pounds,” Bingley said calmly.
“My dowry is twenty thousand pounds, and you cannot reduce it!” Miss Bingley shrieked shrilly as she stamped her foot.
“As the head of the Bingley family, I may do so. The money you are losing covers all of your overspending and the replacement cost of various items I have had to pay to replace each time you have had one of your tantrums,” Bingley related.
“If you want to read Father’s will, go and do so, but you will see that I do in fact have that power. ”
“You cannot do that! What will Mr Darcy say?” Miss Bingley whinged.
“As he is not interested in you, he will say not one word, nor will he care.” Bingley looked at his older sister. “Louisa, have you ever seen one time that Darcy has encouraged Caroline in the smallest measure?”
“Tell him, Louisa!” Miss Bingley commanded.
Mrs Hurst looked away from her younger sister. “No, I have not,” she replied softly.
“Louisa, you traitor!” Miss Bingley spat out.
“Not everyone lies as easily as you do,” Bingley shot back.
“As I was saying about Caroline’s money, I will no longer pay for overages.
My man of business will no longer accept any invoices for your ridiculous clothing or any other of your purchases, and if you spend more than you can pay, you can expect to be sent to debtor’s prison.
It is fortunate you are unmarried, because had you been, your husband and any children would have joined you there until the debt was paid. ”
Miss Bingley looked outraged. Before she could speak, her brother addressed the Hursts.
“As Hurst correctly pointed out, this is not my house, and I have no legal responsibility for Louisa,” Bingley stated.
“That being said, I will no longer pay for its upkeep, your food, or, for Hurst, the copious amounts of wine and spirits. Also, if you want to maintain your membership at White’s and Boodle’s, you will be paying for it yourself. ”
“Now, Bingley, do not make a hasty decision in anger…” Hurst began to say.
“But, Hurst, I am agreeing with what you said.” Bingley looked at his squirming brother-in-law. “You have not spent Louisa’s dowry, have you?”
“No, it is in the funds like it has always been,” Hurst responded.
“If that is true, then please explain why it is that I am paying all the expenses? You receive eight hundred pounds per annum from her dowry, not counting the allowance your father provides you. What is happening to all that money? Why do you two need me to pay everything for your living expenses?”
Hurst mumbled something. He saw Bingley look at him with raised eyebrows. “Louisa and I like to keep au courant, so we spend much on fashions,” he admitted.
“That would not take all of your money. That is neither here nor there! You will live within your own income from now on. You will not receive anything more from me.” Bingley turned to his reeling younger sister.
“You can either move into your own establishment, or you can pool the interest from your dowry with the Hursts and live here, if they allow it.”
“Surely you are not serious, Charles,” Mrs Hurst pleaded. “I know we hid things from you, but it was only for your own good…” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Mrs Hurst knew she said the wrong thing.
“You cared not about me! You allowed Caroline to pressure you into protecting her non-existent position in society.” Bingley paused and calmed himself.
“I am not blameless in this, as was painfully pointed out to me.
No one restrained me from going to Hertfordshire and speaking to Miss Bennet.
I also permitted Caroline to lead me about by a ring in my nose, and I allowed myself to pay for everything for all of you.
I did all of this so there would be peace in our family, but thanks to Caroline, we have never had that.
“Just because I erred in the past does not mean I need to continue doing the same thing. My valet is packing as I speak. I will be residing at Grillion’s for the remainder of my time in Town.
As soon as I depart this house, I will see my man of business and make all the changes I spoke of, and then on Monday, to Scarborough I will go.
You should know I have broken with Darcy.
I need to mature, and until I can stand on my own feet, I will not be ready for a friendship of equals. ”
“You cannot do that!” Miss Bingley screeched. “It will harm us in society.”
“I know you will not hear me, Caroline, but you never had standing in polite society, and now you have less than nought.” Bingley turned to stride out of the room, but he stopped in the doorway and turned.
“You know, it is not wise to put your lies in a letter.” Then Bingley turned and made for his bedchamber.
As Bingley predicted, Miss Bingley ignored his comment about a letter. Instead, she vented her spleen at her brother. She did not care to see the concerned looks on the Hursts’ countenances.
Louisa Hurst had a good idea which letter her brother was referring to; after all, he had seen Miss Bennet earlier. Of more worry was how she and Harold would live without Charles’s money. She was well aware they lived above their means, which meant they would have to retrench rather seriously.
Hurst was sitting and mourning the emptying of the wine cellar as Bingley reclaimed all he had purchased.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“I will flay that harpy!” Lady Edith, the Countess of Holder, exclaimed. “How dare she say such revolting things about Jane and your father? And you say that she managed to cross Elaine Fitzwilliam as well?”
“Indeed, Mother, she did. As part of her attempt to separate Jane from her brother, she wrote a lie-filled letter…” Hadlock told his mother what the harridan had claimed in the letter and how angry Lady Matlock was.
He related how, now that Darcy had the offending letter, he was writing to his aunt to tell her to make Miss Bingley pay.
“At least it seems that Bingley has seen the error of his ways. He apologised to Jane and has committed to becoming a man.”
“Mrs Hurst was not nice to Jane either, was she?” Lady Edith verified.
“No, she was not. However, she was not as bad, and I have heard the younger one rules the older sister, so Mrs Hurst does not gainsay her younger sister,” Hadlock confirmed.
“I will write to Elaine. You said she is at Rosings Park, did you not?” Lady Edith saw her son nod. “We will work together to rid society of that fortune-hunting, social-climbing shrew. When we are done with her, that woman will not show her face within a hundred miles of London!”
Hadlock almost felt sorry for what was to come and befall Miss Bingley, but he did not because she deserved all that she reaped.