CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The News Travels
Meryton learned of the engagement before the ink dried on Sir Thomas's letter to the Queen.
Lydia told Aunt Phillips under a pledge of secrecy. Aunt Phillips told Mrs Long under a stricter pledge. Mrs Long informed her nieces because family could not be counted as society. By noon, Mr Lucas called at Netherfield to express astonishment at news no one had officially announced.
"My dear Sir Thomas, what an alliance! Pemberley, Derbyshire, Lady Catherine's nephew—"
"And Elizabeth," Sir Thomas said.
Mr Lucas stopped. "Naturally. Most importantly, Elizabeth."
Lady Bennet received callers in rose silk and attempted humility with heroic failure.
"We had no expectation of it. None. Mr Darcy admired Lizzy's eyes from the first, but who could have known? Ten thousand a year has nothing to do with happiness, though the house contains a gallery and two libraries. I have not asked how many chimneys."
"Thirty-two," Lydia supplied.
"No one asked you."
Elizabeth escaped with Darcy into the park whenever propriety allowed. Kitty or Mary accompanied them at a tactful distance. Lydia was not selected after she hid behind a hedge to hear whether Darcy used Elizabeth's Christian name.
"I already knew he did," she protested when discovered. "I wished to know how often."
Miss Harwood assigned her an essay on privacy.
The engagement altered Darcy's manner without making him careless. He spoke more. He laughed where he once might have withdrawn. Yet he asked before taking Elizabeth's hand in secluded paths, as if the freedom to touch her remained a gift renewed each time.
On their third walk, she stopped beside the lake.
"You need not look alarmed whenever your sleeve brushes mine."
"I am attempting respect."
"Respect may survive contact."
Darcy looked down at her with a warmth that made teasing difficult. "May it?"
Elizabeth placed his hand at her waist.
He drew her closer, slowly. "Your sister is behind the cedar."
Kitty's bonnet appeared at once. "I cannot hear anything."
"That is the intention," Elizabeth called.
Kitty retreated, laughing.
Darcy bent and kissed Elizabeth beneath the shadow of the trees. The kiss began gently and deepened when she leaned into him. His arm tightened around her; her hand rested against his chest, feeling the rapid beat beneath waistcoat and linen.
When they separated, Darcy kept his forehead near hers.
"Respect survives," Elizabeth whispered.
"Narrowly."
Not every response was joyful. Lady Catherine sent Darcy eight pages in a hand pressed so hard the nib had torn through twice. Anne wrote separately.
I congratulate you, she said. My mother has long arranged my future without asking whether I desired it.
I do not wish to marry you and never did, though I hope we may remain cousins once she recovers from discovering we possess wills.
Miss Elizabeth was kind to Charlotte. That recommends her more than sixteen quarters of ancestry.
Elizabeth liked Anne immediately.
Caroline sent no congratulations.
Bingley brought the silence to Darcy after dinner at Longbourn.
"She says she is unwell."
"Is she?"
"Only in temper."
Darcy looked toward the drawing room where Elizabeth and Jane sat together. "She expected to become mistress of Pemberley. I allowed her expectations to continue by ignoring them."
"You never encouraged her."
"I knew what she hoped and found it easier to say nothing. Her notice flattered me more than I cared to admit."
Bingley sighed. "Must we both become wise in the same year? It is exhausting."
"You may rest after the wedding."
"Jane says marriage is not rest."
"Miss Bennet is already wiser."
Caroline's hurt did not excuse her conduct, but Elizabeth understood its shape.
A woman raised with wealth from trade and taught to seek security in rank had spent years arranging herself around a man who never intended to choose her.
Now he would marry the country woman Caroline dismissed, while Bingley married that woman's sister.
Elizabeth did not require Caroline's affection. Jane required civility.
"Invite her to Netherfield," Elizabeth told Bingley. "Not for me. For a conversation with Jane before the wedding."
"She may refuse."
"Then the choice will be plain."
Darcy studied Elizabeth. "You would receive her?"
"I shall not hide the teaspoons."
"That is Christian generosity."
"Do not expect more before tea."
The invitation was sent.
Caroline accepted.
* * *
Caroline arrived at Netherfield alone.
She wore dove gray, a color too restrained to be accidental. Lady Bennet received her without effusion. Sir Thomas bowed. Darcy remained standing beside Elizabeth, neither hostile nor available.
Jane asked Caroline to walk in the conservatory.
"You need not come," she told Bingley when he moved to follow.
"I thought—"
"I know. This is between your sister and me."
Bingley sat again. "Of course."
In the conservatory, late roses climbed the glass. Jane stopped beside a stone bench but did not sit.
Caroline opened her fan. "I understand congratulations are expected."
"Honesty is expected. Congratulations may wait until they are true."
Caroline looked at her sharply. Jane's serenity had always tempted people to believe she could not see cruelty unless it shouted.
"You concealed my presence in London," Jane continued. "You wrote that your brother might marry Miss Darcy though you knew he loved me. You insulted my family in our former home. If I marry Charles without speaking of it, resentment will enter with me."
"You have won. Is that not enough?"
"There was no contest until you made one."
Caroline's fan snapped shut. "You cannot understand.
You were born to an estate. Then your father gained another.
You were presented at Court and praised for beauty before you spoke.
My father earned every pound, and society reminded us that earning it was inferior to inheriting less.
I learned that connection meant safety. Charles risked attaching himself to people who might always see him as the tradesman's son renting their house. "
"Did I ever treat him so?"
Caroline looked away.
"Did Papa?"
"No."
"Then you punished us for what others did to you."
The words landed. Caroline sat.
"Darcy was supposed to choose me," she said, the confession thin with humiliation. "Not by promise. By sense. I knew his household, his sister, his habits. I made myself useful."
Jane sat beside her, leaving space. "And he did not see what you intended."
"He saw and ignored it."
"That was unkind, though perhaps not knowingly."
Caroline gave a bitter laugh. "You defend him too?"
"No. I understand you. That is not the same as agreeing."
Jane folded her hands. "You are Charles's sister. I will never ask him to abandon you. But you cannot enter our home and undermine our marriage. If you treat me with civility, I will offer the same. If affection grows, I shall welcome it. If it does not, we may still behave with dignity."
"And if I refuse?"
"Then Charles will decide which doors remain open. I do not wish that. Neither does he."
Caroline's eyes filled, anger resisting tears. "You make everything sound simple."
"It is not simple. It is only clear."
They returned after half an hour. Bingley rose so quickly his chair struck the carpet.
Caroline looked at him. "I owe Miss Bennet an apology."
"Jane," Jane said quietly. "If we are to become sisters."
Caroline swallowed. "Jane. I concealed your letter and encouraged Charles to remain away. I was wrong."
Bingley's face reflected relief, grief, and the beginning of forgiveness. "Thank you."
Caroline turned to Elizabeth. "I congratulate you, Miss Eliza. Mr Darcy has chosen a woman capable of answering him."
The words carried little warmth, yet their sincerity was unmistakable.
"Thank you."
Darcy stepped forward. "Miss Bingley, I also owe you an apology. I knew what you hoped and chose silence because it spared me discomfort. I should have told you plainly."
Caroline stared at him. Pride battled humiliation, then yielded to a weary nod.
"I would have hated you for saying it."
"Perhaps."
"I hate you somewhat now."
"That is fair."
Lady Bennet, who had endured more quiet emotion than nature intended, rang for tea.
Caroline stayed through dinner. She did not become transformed.
She corrected Lydia's pronunciation once, asked three questions about Pemberley's guest rooms, and flinched when Darcy used Elizabeth's name.
But she praised Mary's music without comparison to Georgiana and asked Kitty to show her sketches.
At the end of the evening, Jane invited her to the wedding.
"I will come," Caroline said.
Bingley escorted his sister to the carriage. Before she entered, she touched his arm.
"I believed I was protecting you."
"I know."
"You would have married her without me."
"Yes."
Caroline looked toward the lit windows where Jane stood with Elizabeth. "That is why I stopped trying."
She kissed his cheek and left.
Inside, Darcy found Elizabeth near the fireplace.
"You offered her a path back," he said.
"Jane did."
"At your urging."
"Do not make me too virtuous. I also wished to see whether she would take it."
"And if she had not?"
"We would have locked the teaspoons."
Darcy smiled and raised her hand to his lips. "Pemberley will be safe under your governance."
"Our governance," she corrected.
His eyes warmed. "Our governance."