Page 13 of Knowing Mr. Darcy
It was foolish, that was the thing. Mr. Darcy could no more marry some country miss from Hertfordshire with no connections and no fortune than he could get a special license from the archbishop. He must not stand in Bingley’s way, not when Bingleycouldmarry one of these girls without any issues or raised eyebrows.
So, there was no point in voicing any interest in Elizabeth Bennet.
There was no point in having any interest in ElizabethBennet.
Interesting how you trapped her here under this roof because of a trifling cold, though, isn’t it?
Mr. Darcy wished that voice in his head would stop its dreadful noise.
Back in the breakfast parlor, the women had now decided to speak of the mud on Jane’s petticoats as if it were the worst of sins, indicative of the stain on Jane Bennet’s soul. Everyone knew that women who walked alone were taking their reputations into their hands.
He broke in gently that no one would suspect Jane Bennet of anything other than sweet solicitude, and they both agreed with him in somewhat dejected tones.
“Even so, what would have induced her to do such a thing?” said Miss Bingley.
“Perhaps she cares about her sister,” said Mr. Darcy.
“Oh, you like her,” said Miss Bingley, looking him over. Then her brow furrowed as if some horrid thought had just occurred to her, and she got such a look of wild fury and fear over her that Mr. Darcy feared she might explode at any moment. Except it passed, quite quickly, and Miss Bingley turned away, smoothing at her skirts, quite composed. “I suppose, then, any moment I am to wish you joy.” Her voice was careless, now.
Mr. Darcy didn’t trust that careless tone. “I think not, Miss Bingley, as you must understand. However—”
“Think of the mother-in-law you will have,” she said, her voice growing fierce.
“I think, Miss Bingley, that mother-in-law will be your brother’s,” he said.
“So, you don’t like her?”
“We have just established that I do like her, very much.”
“But not in that way? You are not… you would not…?”
Mr. Darcy gazed at her, unsure as to why she was harping on this.
WAS CAROLINE BINGLEYin love with him?
Hitherto, Mr. Darcy might have said no, but he was beginning to think that he may have been abundantly stupid. It was true that whenever he danced with women at balls that Caroline attended, she had a tendency to tease him, asking leading questions, which he now was beginning to think was Caroline’s way of reassuring herself that he wasn’t serious about any of those women and that she still had a chance.
He wasn’t serious about any of those women, of course.
But he would never marry Caroline Bingley.
At dinner, she often contrived to sit across from him, but that evening, he put himself on the same side as her, but with someone between them—this person turned out to be Jane Bennet, by happenstance. He wished it to be more obvious when Caroline was looking at him.
Indeed, she did twist around to look in his general direction often, but every time she did, she only spoke to Jane. “Whatever was going through your head this morning? Such a walk? Three miles!”
“I didn’t want to do it, truly,” said Jane. “I only had a conviction, deep inside, that Lizzy would come for me if our situations were reversed. Lizzy is braver than me, you know, but I found I could do it if I only thought about her. Frankly, I thought I would find her on horseback, galloping home, because she is so very determined, and I thought no one should stop her coming home if she had made up her mind.”
“No,” said Mr. Darcy, “I would not hear of that. Your sister was too ill for travel.”
“Well, she is not overfond of horses, to be true,” said Jane. “I’m aware of how it may have looked for me to come on my own, but I thought that surely no one could assign a bad motive to something done out of sisterly concern.”
“No,” said Mr. Bingley, “no, of course they couldn’t.”
“Definitely not,” said Mr. Darcy. He did like Jane Bennet. She was a good sister and a very pretty girl, and perhaps hewas being ridiculous thinking overmuch about the other sister.
So, after Jane excused herself to go see to Elizabeth, and the Bingley sisters started harping onto their criticisms—how could she havedonesuch a thing, truly?—Mr. Darcy cut them all off. “I think she did exactly what she should have done, given the circumstances. She had to see to her sister, and there is nothing else to discuss.”
“But herhair, so blowsy,” said Miss Bingley. “So wild.”
