Chapter 45
Three days later, Hill notified the ladies that two gentlemen had been spotted riding towards Longbourn from the direction of Netherfield Park.
Mr Collins looked on amusedly as the ladies all moved from where they sat in the drawing room.
Hill removed the tea that had been consumed not long before.
Jane and Elizabeth took up embroidery, which Mr Collins had been sure they had not worked on during his visit.
Mary started to read a book, and Kitty and Lydia were shooed from the room, as was of Miss Farnsworth.
‘Two gentlemen’, echoed in Elizabeth’s head, even as she saw the small smile on Jane’s face.
She waited in anticipation. Surely it could not be Mr Darcy?
she thought, but as the door of the drawing room opened and Hill announced them, “Mr Bingley and Mr Darcy,” Elizabeth’s eyes rose and caught his.
The breath left her lungs when he smiled at her, the light filling his bright blue eyes.
“Mr Darcy, Mr Bingley,” Mrs Bennet welcomed them.
Elizabeth had not been the only one who had learnt of Mr Darcy’s service to their family.
Where before he had been most ill-favoured, that honour had now been bestowed on Mr Bingley.
Mr Darcy was now a favourite of all the Bennets, and it did not take long for him to understand this.
Mrs Bennet enquired as to what biscuits he liked, and Mr Bennet came from his study to greet him, and then Mr Bingley, before departing again.
“Have your sisters accompanied you from London?” Mrs Bennet enquired.
“My sister Caroline has come with me, but the Hursts have decided to remove to his estate in Somerset. My aunt has accompanied us to keep house for us.”
“Your aunt?” Mrs Bennet enquired.
“My mother’s sister, Hilda Willard,” he confirmed, and Mrs Bennet said that she looked forward to making her acquaintance.
Mrs Bennet, Jane, and Elizabeth returned the visit the next afternoon. By tacit agreement, they had all decided to ignore Miss Bingley’s behaviour in London and behave as if she had merely left Netherfield last November and only now returned, with no interactions in the interval.
“Dear Jane,” Miss Bingley said, her tone sweet and unembarrassed, “it is such a pleasure to see you again.”
Jane replied that her delight was equal; such a reply caused Elizabeth’s eyebrows to raise, for she was unsure if Jane’s comment was cutting or sincere.
Their aunt Willard was a small, wiry lady with grey hair and intelligent eyes, and they all liked her immediately.
Returning to Netherfield Park, knowing that it would soon be their home, was disconcerting, but Elizabeth tried to hide her feelings, as she did not wish to be the one to reveal the depth of the change to her family’s circumstances.
She saw her mother looking around the room, and Miss Bingley watching her, and she wondered what that lady made of it.
She would have been amused had she heard Miss Bingley’s complaint after the Bennet party had departed.
“Did you see how Mrs Bennet inspected the house?” she said. “She means to have her daughter here before the month is out,” she exclaimed.
To which her brother responded that he wished it would be so, which had the effect of silencing her.
Mr Darcy admitted to himself that there had been avarice in Mrs Bennet’s eyes as she inspected the property, but he supposed that she had a right to believe that Miss Bennet might soon be mistress of Netherfield Park.
The Bingley party, sans the Hursts and with the addition of Mrs Willard, again took their place as part of Meryton society. Their ill-mannered departure in November had been forgiven with the diplomatic overtures of Mr Bennet, of which they knew nothing.
One morning, as the Bennets and Mr Collins breakfasted, a note arrived from Miss Bingley for Jane, handed to her from the footman, and Jane read it aloud.
“My dear friend Jane, and Miss Elizabeth,
Please come and dine today with my aunt and me, for we are both heartily sick of each other's company. My brother and Mr Darcy are to dine with the officers.
Yours ever,
Caroline Bingley.”
Jane looked to Elizabeth before she turned to her parents.
“You must both go,” her mother announced. “We have decided to reset our relationship with Miss Bingley, and I believe, my dear Jane, that you are not indifferent to her brother?”
Jane blushingly admitted that this was true, and with her father and Elizabeth’s assent, left breakfast to pen an assent to Miss Bingley’s invitation.