Page 35 of Mr. Darcy and the Mysterious "Miss B"
Bingley was quiet for a long moment, staring into the fire. When he spoke again, his voice was hollow. “I have been such a fool.”
“Not a fool,” Caroline said. “Merely trusting. Your generous nature makes you vulnerable to those who would take advantage.”
“But why?” Bingley looked up with anguished eyes. “If her family is truly desperate, why not explain their circumstances? I would have helped—”
“Because help and marriage are different things,” Darcy replied. “A husband’s fortune becomes her family’s security. A benefactor’s charity might be withdrawn at any time.”
The silence that followed was broken only by the crackling of logs in the grate. Darcy felt a mixture of satisfaction and regret as he watched his friend absorb the harsh reality of his situation.
“What am I to do?” Bingley asked.
“The wisest course would be to withdraw,” Darcy said. “Return to London, seek another property. Distance yourself from this… complication.”
“But what of Miss Bennet? And her sister? They are guests in my house.”
Caroline smiled with false sweetness. “Oh, I believe Mr Morrison pronounced Miss Bennet well enough to travel. They can return to Longbourn tomorrow. I thought that was the plan anyhow.”
“And then?”
“Then you move forward with your life,” Darcy said. “You are a good man, Charles, with much to offer the right woman. Do not waste yourself on someone who sees you merely as a solution to her family’s financial troubles.”
Bingley nodded, like a man accepting his execution. “You are right, of course. I have been living in a fool’s paradise.”
“Shall I speak with the young ladies?” Caroline offered. “Explain that pressing business requires your immediate return to London?”
“No.” Bingley stood with visible effort. “I will speak with Miss Bennet myself. She deserves that much courtesy, whatever her motivations might have been.”
After the others departed, Darcy remained in the study, nursing his brandy and contemplating the evening’s work. He had done what friendship demanded—protected Bingley from a greedy attachment that could only have ended in heartbreak.
So why did he feel no satisfaction in his victory?
***
Twenty minutes passed before Bingley emerged from the drawing room, his face haggard. He paused outside the study door, seeming to gather himself before entering.
“It is done,” he said without preamble.
“How did she take the news?”
“About as you might expect.” Bingley slumped into his chair. “She was shocked that you knew, but she did not deny the arrangement. She said…” he swallowed hard. “She said she had never wanted to marry Morton, that the engagement was forced upon her by circumstances beyond her control.”
“Of course she did.”
“She seemed genuinely distressed, Darcy. She claimed she had been hoping to find a way out of the arrangement, that she had never encouraged Morton’s suit willingly.” Bingley’s voice cracked. “She said she could not bear the thought of marrying a man she did not love, but neither could she watch her family lose their home.”
Darcy felt an unexpected stab of something that might have been guilt. “Such protestations come easily when one is caught.”
“Do they? She asked me directly if I believed her incapable of genuine feeling, if I thought her so mercenary as to toy with my affections while promised to another.” Bingley was quiet for a moment. “I… I told her I no longer knew what to believe.”
“You did what was necessary.”
“Did I? She looked at me as though I had struck her when I said I could not trust someone who had concealed such a significant arrangement.” Bingley’s voice grew thick. “She said she had not wanted to burden me with her family’s troubles, that she had hoped… she had hoped things might resolve themselves differently.”
“Hope built on deception is no foundation for marriage.”
“Perhaps not, but whatever her reasons for silence, I do not think I shall soon forget the pain in her eyes when she realised I doubted her heart.”
Before Darcy could respond, rapid footsteps echoed in the corridor. Elizabeth Bennet appeared in the doorway, her eyes blazing with fury.
