Chapter 52 The Castle
Three days later, Bingley found Darcy in the breakfast room reading a letter from his solicitor.
“More news of Wickham?”
“Nothing that requires our attention today.” Darcy folded the letter. “I have been thinking of the Bennets. They have scarcely been beyond Longbourn in the three weeks since their mother’s passing. A gentle airing might do them good.”
“An excellent idea, Darcy.” Bingley grinned. “I cannot object to anything that gives me an entire day in Miss Bennet’s company.”
“I thought you might approve.”
Darcy glanced toward the footman standing near the sideboard.
“You are from Hertfordshire, are you not?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What do people in this part of the county recommend to guests who wish to see something beyond the usual towns and villages?”
“Berkhamsted Castle, sir. Some go to see the ruins. It was a royal castle once. William the Conqueror came there, and the Black Prince lived there for a time. Old walls still stand, and the great mound where the keep stood. The inner court is planted as an orchard now, and there is pleasant ground for walking.”
Bingley asked the distance, and the footman told him.
“Near enough for the day,” Bingley said.
Darcy regarded the servant with interest. “You seem remarkably well acquainted with it.”
“My uncle works on the estate, sir. I worked under him during two summers before I obtained my place here. If Mr. Bingley wished it, I could send word to him. He would know whom to ask and whether someone could show the party about the ruins.”
“Do so,” Bingley said. “If it can be arranged, we shall go three days hence.”
“Very good, sir.”
The footman had scarcely withdrawn when Caroline entered.
“What is to be arranged?”
“An excursion,” Bingley said. “Darcy proposes that we take the Bennet ladies for an airing. We are considering Berkhamsted Castle three days hence, if the arrangements can be made.”
Caroline’s interest quickened. “Then we should make a day of it. There is little sense in driving all that distance merely to look at a heap of stones and come home again.”
Bingley laughed. “I had not got so far.”
“Cold chicken and ham will travel well, Charles. “We shall want wine and water, and enough tableware and cloths for everyone. We should also learn whether there are trees enough for shade.”
“We shall ask,” Darcy said.
Caroline brightened. “Leave the arrangements to me, brother. It will give me something to do.”
“I surrender them gladly.”
She asked Bingley which wines he had ordered for Netherfield and whether they would have space in the carriages for the larger hampers.
Darcy listened as she settled one question after another.
“You have thought of everything, Miss Bingley.”
She smiled at him. “Not everything, Mr. Darcy, but give me until tomorrow, and I shall have.”
He smiled as he nodded his approbation.
Caroline stayed only long enough to settle the principal arrangements before excusing herself.
“I will go consult with Louisa.”
Caroline left the room and found her sister in her dressing room.
“Mr. Darcy has suggested that we take the Bennets to Berkhamsted Castle in three days, and Charles has agreed. Do come, Louisa.”
Louisa looked at her sister in the glass. “Mr. Darcy proposed taking the Bennets?”
“He thinks they have been too long confined to Longbourn. I have taken charge of the luncheon. Charles would have remembered the wine and forgotten the food.”
Louisa laughed. “That sounds very like Charles.”
Caroline moved to the window. “Mr. Darcy was quite pleased with the arrangements.”
Louisa was silent for a moment. “Caroline, you know I do not wish to discourage you, but Mr. Darcy has known you for years. I am not certain he has ever thought of you as anything beyond Charles’s sister.”
“That is precisely my point. He has always known me principally as Charles’s sister. We have never lived beneath the same roof. Here he sees how I manage a household and entertain his sister. He sees what sort of home I am capable of making.”
“And you believe that will alter his feelings?”
“I believe a gentleman contemplating marriage must eventually consider more than a woman’s face.” Caroline smiled. “You need not look so concerned. I am not planning our wedding. I merely say that circumstances have given Mr. Darcy an opportunity to know me better than he has before.”
“I hope you are right.”
“I am right. This extended stay in Hertfordshire has given him an opportunity to know me as more than his friend’s sister.”
Caroline left to speak with the housekeeper, and Louisa went in search of her husband.
Hurst was still in his bedchamber. His valet had just helped him into his coat when Louisa entered.
“Charles has planned an excursion to Berkhamsted Castle three days hence. Caroline is arranging a luncheon, and the Bennets are coming.”
Hurst regarded her with resignation. “So, I am to be dragged about a ruined castle in the heat while two young bucks court their ladies.”
Louisa laughed. “Two? Charles, I grant you, but Mr. Darcy? Mr. Darcy of all men! Who never looks at a woman except to see a blemish! I am excessively diverted, Edwin. I think you know nothing of it.”
Hurst dismissed his valet before answering.
“Caroline is not the woman he wants.”
“You cannot know that for a certainty.”
“I can. Your sister is handsome enough to suit any man. She has thirty thousand pounds, good manners when she chooses to employ them, and she knows how to run a gentleman’s house. Darcy has known all of that for years, and he has done nothing about it.”
Louisa’s amusement diminished. “You think he prefers Elizabeth Bennet?”
“Miss Elizabeth interests him.”
“Because she is pretty?”
“Miss Elizabeth is a beauty, though not in the same style as your sister, but that is not the point. Have you seen what Miss Elizabeth reads? She had Virgil open in the drawing room when we visited last. Darcy stopped to ask what she thought of it, and twenty minutes later they were still talking.”
Louisa regarded her husband with growing curiosity. “You conclude from a conversation about Virgil that Mr. Darcy intends to marry her?”
“No. I conclude from the way he listened to her that he wanted another twenty minutes.”
Louisa had no immediate answer.
Hurst adjusted his cuff. “Do not misunderstand me. There is nothing wrong with Caroline. But Darcy is a man who reads when nobody requires it of him. Your sister scarcely opens a book unless she has some purpose for doing so. If they married, what would they talk about for the next forty years?”
Louisa stared at her husband for several seconds. “You have given this a remarkable amount of thought.”
“Not at all. It was obvious.”
He crossed toward the door.
“Now tell me whether Caroline intends to bring enough wine to make a ruined castle tolerable.”
“I shall see that Charles’s cognac is included. How does that suit you?”
* * *
Darcy and Bingley drove to Longbourn that afternoon.
Mr. Bennet received them in the library. Bingley had scarcely taken his seat before explaining the purpose of their visit.
“We have come with an invitation, sir. Darcy suggested that your daughters might benefit from a gentle airing. We have arranged to visit the ruins of Berkhamsted Castle three days hence, and we hope they will join us.”
Mr. Bennet glanced from one gentleman to the other. “You mean to invite all of my daughters?”
“Certainly,” Bingley said. “Miss Bingley and the Hursts will accompany us, as will Miss Darcy. We mean to take luncheon with us and spend a few hours upon the castle grounds before returning. There will be no company beyond our own party.”
“It is very well thought out, sir.”
“My sister is in charge of the excursion,” Bingley admitted. “I merely agreed to everything.”
Mr. Bennet smiled. “A wise division of labor. I see no objection. My daughters have had little enough fresh air these past weeks, and I cannot suppose their mother would have wished them shut inside until Michaelmas.”
Bingley’s pleasure was immediate. “Then I hope the ladies themselves will be equally willing.”
“You had better ask them. Jane is two-and-twenty, and I have discovered rather late in life that daughters occasionally have opinions of their own.”
They found the sisters together in the drawing room. Jane’s pleasure at seeing Bingley appeared before she could conceal it, and his expression answered hers so readily that Mr. Bennet gave a low chuckle as he took his usual chair.
Bingley repeated the invitation. Kitty immediately wanted to know whether Georgiana was going.
“She would be very disappointed if you did not,” Darcy said.
“Then I shall certainly go.”
Mary expressed considerably more interest when Darcy mentioned the history of the castle, while Jane looked into Mr. Bingley’s eyes and smiled.
Elizabeth looked at Mr. Darcy. “And whose notion was this expedition, sir?”
“Mine, although Miss Bingley has improved upon it considerably.”
“I should have suspected Mr. Bingley.”
Bingley protested that Darcy ought not receive all the credit merely because the idea happened to be his, and Jane laughed.
Only Lydia had said nothing.
She sat near the window with some sewing in her lap, although her needle had scarcely moved since the gentlemen entered. Mr. Bennet watched her for a moment.
“And you, Lydia? Would you like to go?”
She lowered her work. “I would rather stay at home, Papa, if you do not mind.”
Mr. Bennet’s expression changed.
“You may remain at home with me. I understand.”
“Thank you, Papa.”
Bingley returned to the arrangements. The Netherfield carriages would come for the ladies in the morning, and there would be ample room for everyone. Caroline had undertaken the luncheon, which Bingley assured them meant there was very little danger of anyone going hungry.
“You will not persuade Mr. Hurst of that until he has seen the hampers,” Darcy said.
“I intend to show them to him before we leave. Otherwise, he may order his own carriage and follow us with provisions.”
Jane laughed.