Chapter 3 #2
The set concluded at last, and the dancers separated with the usual expressions of civility.
Elizabeth watched as Jane and her partner withdrew from the floor, their conversation continuing with an ease that suggested mutual satisfaction.
As they happened to walk by Mr Darcy, Mr Bingley said something to him, and he began to walk with them.
“They are coming this way,” Charlotte said quietly.
Elizabeth gave her a slightly crooked smile. “Then I suppose I must prepare myself.”
Jane approached them with a smile, but before she had time to begin making the introductions, Mr Darcy stopped short.
“It is you!” Mr Darcy blurted out on seeing her. “You should not be here, surely.”
For a moment, Elizabeth was as much confused as insulted, before realising that Mr Darcy must still be under the impression that she was not a gentlewoman.
Even as he spoke, he seemed to recognise the impossibility of his assumptions and the rudeness of such a public declaration, for his look of astonishment turned to one of great embarrassment.
With the easy grace that was so much a part of her, Jane spoke up.
“Miss Lucas, Lizzy, allow me to introduce these gentlemen. This is Mr Charles Bingley, who has let Netherfield Park, and Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy, a gentleman from Derbyshire. Gentlemen, allow me to introduce Miss Lucas — I believe you have already met Sir William, her father — and my sister, Miss Elizabeth Bennet.”
Elizabeth bowed, and upon rising, her gaze met Mr Darcy’s for the first time since their encounter in the field. To her private satisfaction, he appeared very little short of mortified.
Mr Bingley looked on her with as much astonishment as his friend, but with considerably less embarrassment. “Miss Elizabeth, how delightful to make your acquaintance properly! Please do excuse me for speaking to you without an introduction before.”
At such frankness and good humour, Elizabeth could only smile. “Consider it quite forgot, Mr Bingley. And now we are properly introduced and may speak to each other as we like.”
“How good you are!” Mr Bingley exclaimed. “I declare, I was never in a more pleasant neighbourhood in all my life.”
Elizabeth chuckled. “With compliments such as that, sir, you will be considered a very welcome addition to it.”
“I very much hope so,” Mr Bingley said. “I cannot say how much I admire everything I have found here.”
Though he might have been speaking of Netherfield Park, the assembly at large, or even of Elizabeth herself, his quick glance toward Jane made the real subject of Mr Bingley’s admiration quite clear.
“I believe I also owe you an apology, Miss Elizabeth,” Mr Darcy said abruptly.
Late, and done in bad grace, but better than nothing, Elizabeth thought. Somehow, she could not feel very charitable towards the man who had caused her such embarrassment.
“Apology accepted, Mr Darcy,” Elizabeth said simply. “Now we, too, are introduced, and may speak.”
Mr Darcy grimaced. “I did not mean —”
“Ah, there is the music beginning!” exclaimed Mr Bingley, either too much excited to think that he was interrupting his friend, or perhaps eager to prevent whatever he had been about to say. “Miss Bennet, I hope you will allow me the pleasure of a second dance.”
Jane accepted with a grace and modesty that rendered the request entirely natural, and within moments they were drawn once more into the movement of the room.
Elizabeth watched them go, then became aware of the silence that had settled in their absence.
“Excuse me, I believe my mother is looking for me,” Charlotte said, looking from Elizabeth to Mr Darcy with a curious expression that Elizabeth could not quite read. With that, she walked briskly away, and Elizabeth was left quite alone with Mr Darcy.
Neither spoke at once, for Mr Darcy appeared to be considering his next words with greater care than his first. At last, he said, with a steadiness that did not conceal his discomfort, “I find I must inquire after the circumstances of our last meeting.”
Elizabeth turned toward him, arching one eyebrow. If Mr Darcy intended to draw out so embarrassing a situation, when he might have simply bowed to her and walked off, let him feel the full weight of it. “Indeed, sir?”
“You were engaged in the fields,” he continued. “I had understood the situation in such a way — I mean to say, I had thought you were —”
Elizabeth interrupted him before he could finish that mortifying supposition. “And now you understand it otherwise?”
He hesitated, then answered, “I believe I do.”
Elizabeth looked at him steadily for a moment. “You will find, I expect,” she said, “that circumstances are not always what they appear at a distance.”
Mr Darcy inclined his head. “I perceive I was in error.”
Elizabeth did not immediately respond, and Mr Darcy did not immediately continue. He seemed inclined to consider his words before committing to them. Elizabeth, who had no desire to assist him in the process, waited impatiently.
“At the time,” he said at last, “I did not fully understand what I observed. I should be obliged if you would allow me to do so now.”
Elizabeth did not allow her expression to change, though she felt the edge of her irritation sharpen. “There is not much to explain, sir. My father is absent from home at present, and in his absence, certain matters cannot be left unattended.”
Mr Darcy regarded her more closely. “Your father is not at Longbourn?”
“He has been away for some weeks.”
“And the management of the estate falls to you?”
Though not seeming intended to offend, the question carried enough surprise to be offensive all the same.
“It must fall somewhere,” Elizabeth replied. “I have no brothers, and my mother does not concern herself with such matters. If decisions are required, they must be made by someone.”
Mr Darcy absorbed this in silence for a moment. “I had not supposed,” he began, then stopped, as though aware that whatever followed would only deepen his error.
Elizabeth raised her brows very slightly. “You had not supposed that a young lady might have occasion to think?”
“That was not my meaning,” he said quickly. “I had not supposed that such responsibility would be placed upon you.”
“Nor had I, until it was,” Elizabeth returned. “But as I have no alternative, I find it best to make the attempt.”
Though she had half expected him to protest, Mr Darcy inclined his head. “Then I must acknowledge that I judged both the situation and your part in it very imperfectly.”
Elizabeth did not reply at once, but only looked at him.
For a long moment, they stood there in silence. Mr Darcy looked as though, being aware that something more was required of him, he was uncertain of what it was, but unwilling to leave it unsaid.
“I owe you an apology,” he said at last. “A real apology, I mean.”
Elizabeth considered him for a brief moment.
She ought, perhaps, to have accepted the apology as easily as she had accepted Mr Bingley’s, but Elizabeth found she did not want to.
Mr Darcy was not a pleasant, cheerful gentleman who wanted all disagreement quickly done away with.
He was a man of sharp wit and sharp edges who had left her considerably humiliated, and it was only fair that she ought to have a little of her own back.
“You do not, sir,” Elizabeth told him, deliberately cheerful.
The answer produced precisely the effect she had anticipated. Mr Darcy looked at her with undisguised surprise. “I do not?”
“No,” Elizabeth said smilingly. “I cannot think that I have any cause to require one.”
He appeared uncertain how to receive this. “I fear I do not understand.”
“Oh, sir, allow me to explain. I find that I have come out of our last encounter rather well. After all, few conversations conclude with such immediate advantage.”
He looked at her more intently. “Advantage?”
Elizabeth gave him a smile as sharp as the edge of a knife. “Why, yes, sir. For at the end of our first meeting, I was the richer by a shilling.”
For the first time in their acquaintance, Mr Darcy was too much astonished to speak. Elizabeth inclined her head slightly, satisfied with the effect she had produced. “I wish you a very good evening, Mr Darcy.”
And with that, she turned and strolled away through the crowd, laughing a little to herself.