Page 2 of Knowing Mr. Darcy
“You have not spoken to him yet. You can’t know if he’s unintelligent.”
“I feel strongly he is,” said Elizabeth, smirking.
At that moment, Mr. Darcy’s gaze alighted on Jane. Their eyes met. He tilted his head in recognition and then gave her a graceful nod, his mouth curving into a small smile.
Jane smiled back.
“Jane?” said Elizabeth.
“Hmm?” said Jane, still looking at Mr. Darcy.
“If you don’t tell me what you wish to drink, I shall choose for you myself.”
“All right, then,” said Jane with a shrug.
“What are you looking at?” Elizabeth turned to look.
“Nothing,” said Jane, tearing her gaze from Mr. Darcy’s. “Lemonade, if you please?”
“Of course,” said Elizabeth. “As you can see, there was not such a difficulty in giving me an answer after all, was there?”
ELIZABETH BENNET WASnearly across the room to fetchherself and her sister a drink when the music ended.
She stopped, waiting to see if her friend Charlotte Lucas would join her, now that she was finished with her dance with Mr. Bingley.
But Charlotte was immediately pulled into conversation by another man in the crowd, a Mr. Tom Thane. Mr. Thane was married, but he seemed to have developed a fascination with Charlotte. He was always claiming the first dance on her dance card, and Charlotte could do nothing about it, for it was impolite to refuse a man if he asked a woman to dance. She could claim a malady that prevented her dancing entirely or she could acquiesce—thus were her options.
Charlotte said that Mr. Thane had hinted at untoward things on at least three separate occasions. She and Elizabeth were fairly sure he wanted Charlotte as a mistress, and he thought he might be able to convince her to behave in such an ignoble fashion because she was eight and twenty and had no marriage prospects to speak of.
Elizabeth was triumphant at the thought of Mr. Bingley, the newest eligible bachelor in the area, to take a shine to Charlotte. What a thing for her friend!
Upon seeing Mr. Thane intercept Charlotte, Elizabeth abandoned her journey to get drinks for herself and Jane and went to save Charlotte. She could insert herself into the conversation, get Charlotte free, and then Mr. Bingley might ask her friend for another dance.
“You’re one of the Misses Bennets, aren’t you?” came a voice.
Elizabeth turned to see that Mr. Bingley himself was right beside her, and it was he who had thus addressed her.
Mr. Bingley was an amiably attractive fellow, not nearly as dark or tall or noble in mien as his friend, Mr. Darcy. He had fair hair and a straight nose and a genuine smile, however. Elizabeth could find nothing to complain about the look of him.
Mr. Darcy, on the other hand, that man looked dangerously attractive, she thought. That was the sort of man who was so fascinating to look upon that a womanmight make all manner of awful decisions just to be in a position so as to do so. That sort of man… well, luckily, that sort of man would never notice someone like Elizabeth, who was not a plain girl, but who was not an exceedingly beautiful woman either.
“I’ve gotten the surname wrong, haven’t I?” Mr. Bingley shook his head. “Drat. I have met so many different families over the past several weeks, you see, and I am doing my best to keep them straight but am still failing at the task. Please accept my apologies, if you would, and let me know your name?”
“No, no,” said Elizabeth. “You are correct. I am a Bennet. Miss Elizabeth.”
“Ah, yes,” said Mr. Bingley. “The quick one.”
Elizabeth was confused. “Pardon me, sir?”
“It’s something your father said,” said Mr. Bingley. “He had descriptors for each of you. One was beautiful and kind, one was silly and adventurous, one was a follower, and one was serious and concerned with righteousness, and I can’t remember which any of those were, but I remember that Elizabeth was the quick one.”
“I don’t know what he means by that,” said Elizabeth, furrowing her brow. “Though I may say I’m surprised he had any kind words to say at all. You would never know it to hear him complain about all of us the way he does. So many of us girls and he the only male, you see. He is vastly outnumbered and thinks to even up the score by squawking loudly about it.”
“Squawking, you say?” said Mr. Bingley, chuckling. “You’re his daughter, yes. I can see that. He is very funny, and you are, too.”
“You flatter me, sir,” said Elizabeth.
“You’re the eldest? Oh, no, you said you are Miss Elizabeth, so there is someone else who must be addressed as Miss Bennet?”
