Chapter Seventeen #2
The vicious trio began to move away, and Rebecca observed with satisfaction the look of dismay Elizabeth wore as she watched them cross the thoroughfare to approach her sister.
And then Darcy joined them, looking very much as if he were treading lightly to avoid diverting Caroline’s course back to himself.
Elizabeth’s countenance brightened as she greeted him. This was going to be far too easy.
Darcy focused his attention entirely on Elizabeth. “I am glad I found you ladies. I mean to select a gift for my sister while we are in Brighton, and I hoped for some sound feminine advice.”
Bingley waved a hand. “Well met to you, too, old chum.”
Elizabeth flicked her gaze to Bingley, and Darcy’s eyes followed. He smiled lazily at their friend. “Have you any feminine opinions you wish to contribute?”
“Well, I have sisters, too, you know. I daresay I have a fine estimation of pretty ribbons and shoe roses – I have a singular eye for shoe roses!”
Rebecca smiled, then glanced across the thoroughfare before turning to Elizabeth, “Speaking of sisters, I fear Caroline is going after yours, Lizzy. I did not think she really would!”
She made quick work of sending Elizabeth away to Jane’s defense, and then briskly looked back at her remaining companions and linked her arm through Bingley’s.
“Well, I have to say I am quite shocked and appalled that you have never shared this keen sensibility with me before, sir, fond as I am of shopping. I might have had pleasanter company at the modiste than my dreary older sister! Come and amaze me.”
Bingley squared his shoulders and grinned. “It is no surprise to me that I possess the capacity to exceed your expectations. Another time, I might really give you a shock!”
His teasing delighted her well enough, but better still was the look of dismay that Darcy wore. “Good Lord, the pair of you will give me an apoplexy. But Elizabeth….” His hand twitched as if wanting to reach out for her, to beckon for her return.
Rebeca truly did wish for Elizabeth to prevent Caroline from saying anything unpleasant to Jane Bennet – let the tranquil creature have her gay outing with the great giant a beau that followed her about, if that is what pleased her more than poor Bingley.
But then, Bingley did not appear half so lovelorn as Darcy, whom she ushered into the nearest shop that might serve their purpose.
Bingley was eyeing her with considerable interest.
When Darcy skulked off to look over a little display of colorful pashmina scarves, Bingley dropped his voice, tilting his head toward her. “Must I wait until our nightly congress to know what you are up to?”
Rebecca felt her cheeks flush. “Our nightly congress?! How scandalously you phrase it – shall I tell Darcy how you address me? But I suppose you refer to our evening custom of gathering in my brother and cousin’s shared parlor, where I provide you three thoughtless dolts a wealth of fascinating and useful information to edify the scrap of a brain you take turns attempting to make use of? ”
“Ah, yes, that is what I meant,” Bingley said blithely. “Not… anything funny.”
“The only thing funny here is you, if you cannot see what I am about!”
Bingley turned a little pink, and ran his hand through his sandy, unkempt hair.
Perhaps he was affected by Jane’s indifference, for he had possessed an entirely disheveled air about him, which Rebecca was entirely enjoying.
There was something so irresistibly beguiling about a man on the brink of madness; she hoped he might yet come a little more unhinged, for he was really behaving far too well.
A slow smile spread across his face as he stared at her. “Ah – what are we talking about?”
A breathy laugh bubbled out of her. “I shan’t tell Darcy that it is nightly congress – if you could only follow the plot a little closer, Bingley. This is really shaping up to be some of my best work. Here, hold this hat for me, it is hideous. Shall I gift it to your sister?”
Rebecca plucked up an offensive orange and lavender crime against haberdashery, letting some of the obnoxious ostrich feathers tickle Bingley’s nose as she handed it off to him.
Bingley marveled at it, commended her eye for the grotesque, and suggested a matching reticle, which actually boasted the beaded image of an entire ostrich.
Rebecca seized it with both hands, heroically stifling the impulse to howl with laughter. “I love it.”
“A gift – if you will tell me what you are about. You know I have nothing to report that is not staggeringly abysmal, and as ever it must fall to you to cheer me.”
“An honor I live for,” she said drily. “But of course I must tell you without delay – only first you must guess.”
Bingley glanced over at Darcy, who was now brooding intensely at a pair of dancing slippers. “You do mean to help him win Miss Elizabeth, do you not?”
“Of course I do. He is my favorite cousin, all the more because he does not at all desire the distinction – and I adore Lizzy. Is she not perfect for him?”
“I confess, I had never imagined as much in Hertfordshire, but I comprehend the merits of a match between them. Perhaps there is much to be said of such unlikely mismatching.”
“I should prefer it to what is conventional, naturally. A society bride is not exceptional enough for a man of such singular humors, and he is rich and handsome enough – and certainly old enough – to do as he likes.”
“A novelty indeed – I shall have to take your word for it. But why did you maneuver to be rid of her? Darcy might have engaged her assistance and spoken of his affection for his sister, which would have touched her sympathetic heart.”
“Her sister may have a sympathetic heart, and I have no doubt Elizabeth might have been a little impressed, but I do not mean to settle for such tepid approval as seeing him purchase his sister a trinket.”
Bingley furrowed his brows. “What more must he do?”
“I am sure no man could ever answer that question without a little outside interference,” Rebecca quipped.
Bingley was entirely unbothered by her reproach.
“For now, at least, Darcy need not do anything, except labor under a minor misapprehension or two. It is Lizzy who must be worked on, I think – Lady Blanche told Richard that Lizzy is irritated by so many insinuations about her and Darcy from every quarter. She admitted to our hostesses that she feels a confusion of feelings, but I have seen how she looks at him.”
“Like she wants the last biscuit,” Bingley mused, licking his lips.
“Well, yes,” Rebecca chortled. “She was tripping over herself to thank him for saving her sister on Friday, and what do you think I did?”
“I do not suppose you suggested she thank him by putting the poor chap out of his misery and accepting his suit?”
“Hardly! No, I have in fact been a flawless mastermind.” Rebecca eagerly latched onto his arm as she described her triumphant machinations. “I told her that she had thanked him enough, and she ought to leave him alone, lest she give him false hope.”
Bingley considered this – at length – and finally broke into a wide grin. “And she did not wish to! Several times yesterday while we were playing parlor games, you put yourself between them – I knew you were scheming in some fashion! You think that she will do the opposite.”
“I recognize the rebellious streak in her,” Rebecca boasted. “Telling her to leave him alone after her cruel rejection, now that she has seen him acting more normally, will be the fastest way to have her in his arms in a week’s time – mark my words!”
Bingley tapped his chin. “I suppose he is behaving more like himself than he did at Netherfield – he was beastly then. Did I tell you what he said when I suggested he dance with Miss Elizabeth at the assembly?”
“Thrice. Since you have also pointed out the resemblance between Lizzy and I, you need not say it again.”
Rebecca fidgeted with a loose strand of her dark hair.
Given Elizabeth’s more lively disposition, she wondered why Bingley had not been drawn to her in Hertfordshire.
She was just as pretty as Jane, and far merrier.
It was unaccountable that his tastes could really tend toward only the fair-haired and insipid.
Bingley stared at her; he had spoken, but she was obliged to ask him to repeat his query. “Why did you not tell me last night? I am mad to be a part of it – I love a good jape, or a really fine prank – it shall be jolly good fun!”
She narrowed her eyes at him, suppressing her delight. “You would give the game away.”
“I shall be the very picture of discretion and artful subtlety! As I said, I know I possess a talent for astounding you, and so I shall.”
Rebecca smiled at last, and shook hands warmly with him. “I shall look forward to it with all my heart.”