Chapter Twenty Six
The next few days were relatively uneventful – though full of diversions, Elizabeth began to find herself finally relaxing into the spirit of the party.
It had been like a dousing in cold water, when Lady Rebecca challenged her to consider that she might never see Mr. Darcy again after they left Richmond Cove.
Though Elizabeth’s feelings were still greatly confused, she knew for a certainty that this possibility was not one she liked at all.
She rather pitied the newest arrivals, relations of the Gouldings, for they would have less than a fortnight amongst society which had been greatly improved by those who departed early.
Henry Tilney and his sister gave every indication that they would make the party merrier, for he was a cheerful fellow, and though his sister was not as gregarious, she was warm and affable to everybody.
The newcomers seemed to blend seamlessly into the group after a few hours of parlor games and lively chatter.
Miss Bingley and Sir Walter Elliot were the only unpleasant people left amongst them, and Lady Rosamund – whom Elizabeth supposed must have drawn the short straw – most altruistically kept the sour couple occupied with talk of wedding preparations.
Henry Tilney knew Mr. Bingley from their time together at university, and he was also acquainted with Mr. Darcy.
Since his sister was determined to remain close to him, Miss Tilney was also occupied in a great deal of conversation with Mr. Darcy.
Lady Blanche gleefully encouraged this, often glancing in Elizabeth’s direction as if to ascertain whether her envy had been stirred.
Elizabeth hated herself for it, but the ploy worked all too well.
Though she was content and animated in conversation with her friends, she constantly found her gaze drifting back to Mr. Darcy.
He spoke to Miss Tilney and her brother for a remarkable length of time, and it was maddening that they were too far from Elizabeth to hear what they were saying.
In the afternoon, all the young people walked down to the shore.
Elizabeth and Harriet were the only two ladies not keen to walk with a certain gentleman, so Henry Tilney offered them each an arm as they strolled along the gently ebbing tide.
Elizabeth tried not to notice that Mr. Darcy was still happily engaged with Mr. Bingley, Lady Rebecca, and Eleanor Tilney.
“Well, ladies,” Mr. Tilney said, keen to amuse them.
“I must envy your good fortune – I understand you have had an eventful time here already! I am glad to finally be invited to one of these grand parties, but I fear I have missed all the best parts. You must pity me immensely – and better still, do catch me up on all that I have missed. What is the gossip?”
He leaned his head this way and that, batting his eyes at them as if he were one of the ladies, and Elizabeth could not resist laughing and swatting at him. “You will make us very wicked, sir! But I suppose we have enough to say that may fascinate him – what do you say, Harriet?”
“I have kept a marvelous diary of absolutely everything,” Harriet said with a giggle.
“You keep a diary? I would love to read it some time, Miss Smith! But alas, I find myself in some want of more immediate satisfaction, for I am vastly curious how you have all been getting on. Tell me everything.”
The two ladies regaled him for over an hour with tales of their exploits. Elizabeth allowed Harriet to do most of the talking, and she was happy to watch her two companions smiling at one another all the while.
Mr. Tilney was abundantly enthralled by all he heard.
“Oh, I should like to play this game of phantoms! And Shakespeare Night sounds mad! But I must hope that my relations would not allow the second half of their party to be any less thrilling. I am only sorry that I have missed so much that would have been exactly my ideal of good company.”
Elizabeth grinned. “Debauchery and nonsense?”
“Is there anything better, Miss Bennet? What could be more sublime than to make a fool of oneself, and be too swept up in collective merriment to give a fig?”
Harriet giggled again. “I completely agree, Mr. Tilney. I am sorry you were not invited from the very start, for we should be old friends by now! It is strange, but after three weeks, I feel as if I have known Jane and Lizzy and Anne all my life! Jane and I are so similar, it is like having a sister.”
Elizabeth’s cheerful countenance tightened, and she turned her gaze toward the sunlit sea.
She considered Lady Rebecca’s view of things – the hundreds of hours in company, which had swiftly rendered them all so intimately acquainted.
She felt a pang of remorse at her own reluctance to admit it, but both Harriet and Lady Rebecca right.
Elizabeth could not pretend that she did not already know Mr. Darcy very well.
She had wasted too much time resisting, unwilling to alter her first impression, and now she might have spoilt everything.
Mr. Tilney and Harriet chattered on, not noticing Elizabeth’s pensive silence.
They would not need her assistance, and there was nobody left at the party to her to meddle with – she was out of distractions, and she felt the weight of all that she had put off in facing her feelings for Mr. Darcy.
Even now, she was not ready to admit that she admired Mr. Darcy more than she ever had any gentleman.
But she could see a world of possibility – if she had not ruined her chance of his regard, she might very well come to feel that way before she must part from him.
Above all, she knew now that she very much wished to let herself grow fonder of him.
The rest of the afternoon passed quickly, and Elizabeth muddled through it in a haze of contemplation.
She tried not to dwell upon the unease she felt any time Mr. Darcy spoke to Miss Tilney; instead she played over every occasion when she had enjoyed Mr. Darcy’s company, until those blissful moments became innumerable.
Lady Blanche must have taken mercy on her, for Elizabeth found herself at Mr. Darcy’s side when they sat down for dinner. She beamed at him, letting him see how well this pleased her. “How did you enjoy your ramble along the sea, sir?”
It was entirely transparent of her to open with such a loaded question, but she did not care if he could guess what she was feeling. If she made a fool of herself in the end, she had not much time left to bear the shame of it.
His smile did not reach his eyes. “I met Henry and Eleanor not long after they lost their mother, and I lost mine. They knew one another very well, our mothers, having come out the same year. Miss Tilney and I spoke of a summer she recollected, when she visited Pemberley with the late Mrs. Tilney and her father, the general. I was away at school, but she saw my sister, who had only lately begun walking and talking. She was rather a terror in those days – my sister, that is. Speaking of my mother is always bittersweet, but I had the pleasure of telling her that she would soon meet with Georgiana again.”
“Oh.” A pang of guilt tugged at Elizabeth’s heart, that she had envied what must have been a painful conversation for him.
“I suppose your conversation must have been livelier. I know you well enough to suppose you could make anybody merry, but Henry requires rather less cajoling than most.”
“He is vastly amusing; Miss Smith certainly thought so. I must confess I rather envy Miss Tilney.”
Elizabeth sipped her wine; Mr. Darcy nearly choked on his. “Oh?”
“She is fortunate indeed to have such a brother. He reads novels, loves gossip, and has extensive knowledge of muslin; such a brother would have been king of us all, at Longbourn.”
He laughed, and Elizabeth smiled at his visible relief. “If I were nearer in age to my sister, I might boast the same, but I am not beyond receiving a thorough education.”
“Nor am I; in fact, I have been uncommonly contemplative today.”
He dipped his head, giving her what almost looked like a wink. “You did have a charmingly pensive look about you, but then I, too, could stare at the sea forever,”
“I shall be quite desolate to part with it, when I must – but I shall sound like my mother with such talk.” Elizabeth gave him a look of challenge, and a modicum of hope; she silently begged him to say something kind.
Miraculously, he obliged her. “She would do very well here, I think. She should find friends in Mrs. Jennings and all the Goulding ladies, and the sea air would be so fortifying for her that I am sure I should mistake her for Lady Catherine.”
Elizabeth laughed. “With so many like-minded friends and the restorative airs she would perhaps become too powerful.”
His eyes twinkled with mirth. “And will you amaze me with some inkling of what you have been pondering today? I shall happily repay you in kind with a revelation of my own.”
“If you are thinking of the fortune teller’s prediction of a bargain, I must sadly inform you that Lady Rebecca has already laid claim to that distinction. But I have no objection to edifying you with my musings. You must promise to be duly enthralled, sir.”
He nodded soberly. “I am prepared, Miss Elizabeth – but wait, some wine – and now I am perfectly ready to hear you.”
“Mr. Tilney and Miss Smith unwittingly persuaded me of something that Lady Rebecca told me – and you must not let her know it!”
He rested a hand on his heart. “Upon my honor, it will be our secret, Miss Elizabeth.”