Page 15 of The Cheapside Runners
Bingley echoed his welcome, not that anyone who knew him would expect any different, so Darcy sighed to acknowledge thatthe die was cast.
Miss Bingley prepared to lead him to his room personally when Miss Elizabeth entered, having just returned from a walk in the garden.
Darcy wondered how she would react to meeting a viscount. He knew that her mother and younger sisters would go on for a quarter-hour in raptures, but Miss Elizabeth barely even acknowledged him,so her reactions were harder to predict.
Darcy gave her a bow. “Miss Elizabeth, may I present my cousin, Viscount Fitzwilliam?”
He was slightly surprised when her face took on a hard look, and she simply replied, “You may,” with even less enthusiasm than usual.
Slightly taken aback, Darcy nevertheless performed the introductions in the usual way.
His cousin reacted as he usually did upon introduction to a beautiful woman.
“Miss Bennet, it is a pleasure to meet you. Had I known such beauty existed in Hertfordshire, I should have visited Bingley sooner.”
He reached for Elizabeth’s hand, but she was already curtsying and half-turned to leave. “I thank you, sir,” she said with a tone of voice that did not sound particularly thankful at all. She continued, “I must take my leave, as I am caring for my ill sister. Good evening.”
With that, she curtseyed to the rest of the room at large and disappeared like a ghost, as seemed to be her custom.
Darcy was slightly confused by the exchange while his cousin seemed befuddled. Neither man was accustomed to being so thoroughly ignored, particularly by an insignificant country miss. Darcy had become used to it and was beginning to relish the challenge. The viscount looked as if nobody short of royalty had ever treated him with such indifference.
“What an enchanting creature,” the viscount finally said, which set Miss Bingley to grinding her teeth in annoyance.
“She is alady, cousin! Mind your manners!” Darcy whispered emphatically after pulling his cousin aside.
The viscount was known as a rather brazen flirt. Having him trying to make love to Miss Elizabeth was definitely not something Darcy cared to witness. He doubted the lady would much care for it either, but of course, that was pure speculation. For all he knew, she might be acting as an advanced scout for Mrs Bennet’s matchmaking ambitions, and a viscount would be quite the catch.
Miss Bingley finally dragged the man away as he still had not cleaned the dust from the road, and it was nearly time to dress for dinner.
7.The Noble Guest
Dinner was a raucous affair with Bingley and the viscount at the table competing with Miss Bingley’s usual ceaseless chatter.
Darcy quite enjoyed the fact that his cousin became the object of his hostess’ attentions, so he supposed that was something positive. The viscount just seemed to accept her fawning as the natural course of things and even managed to drag Hurst into a lively conversation about cards. That was hardly surprising as the two men shared at least one vice and a rather high level of indolence.
He was disappointed by Miss Elizabeth’s absence, though having to endure his cousin flirting with the lady would have been torture, so it was probably for the best. It was worrisome that she had sent a note that her sister’s fever had slightly increased, so she took a tray in her chamber.
Darcy wondered if that were true. She had not seemed all that impressed with his cousin, and Miss Bennet made an awfully convenient excuse if she wanted to avoid him for at least an evening. The one thing he had noticed was that Miss Elizabeth did not seem the slightest bit overawed with wealth or status.
The separation of the sexes went about as Darcy expected. He could not avoid speaking with his cousin entirely, but the two men had said just about all they had to say to each other a decade earlier. They were vastly different men with quite different ideas of how to live their lives. Darcy thought his cousin was entirely too indolent, too unreliable, too flirty, and too much of a coxcomb; while the viscount thought Darcy was a stick in the mud.
After the obligatory catching up with those aspects of their lives that neither cared in the least about, Darcy was desperate for an escape. He wanted to write his sister a letter, thoughhe was not exactly looking forward to the process, since he really did not know what to say. Georgiana was still extremely unsettled about Ramsgate, so Darcy thought he might regale her with tales of the Bennet sisters in the hope it might break her out of it. Nothing else had.
Even with that ambition, since Miss Elizabeth had not joined them for dinner, none of the men were in a particular hurry to end the separation of sexes. The accomplishment of writing to his sister was not worth the annoyance of the Bingley sisters’ company, so dragging out the separation seemed the ideal solution.
Hurst apparently thought similarly, so he suggested showing his new hunting rifle to the viscount, an activity Darcy considered dull as ditchwater. He liked to shoot, but as long as he had the best gun his gamekeeper suggested, he knew all he needed. Long experience taught him that men like Hurst and his cousin could drone on endlessly about rifle bores, powder horns, rifling patterns, ignition systems, cleaning regimens… it just went on and on and on, worse than Miss Bingley’s endless recitation ofon ditsfrom London. He had once seen two men nearly come to blows over which polish to use on their gunstocks.
With that in mind, he suggested he and Bingley remain in place for a half-hour to give the other two men time to purge themselves. Bingley was as jovial as any man, but his system was quite simple. Every time Darcy got a new gun, Bingley got an identical one, and he was done with the subject. In effect, he was also dependent on the Pemberley gamekeeper.
Once they were blissfully alone, Darcy idly wondered, “Did you notice Miss Elizabeth’s reaction to my cousin?”
“Yes. She did not seem all that pleased with the acquaintance, though compared to Caroline, I am not certain anyone could compete.”
Darcy grunted, not willing to agree with the obviously true statement.
“I wonder if Miss Bennet was actually sicker, or Miss Elizabeth was using her for an excuse to avoid the company. I would give it about even odds either way.”
“I should have to agree,” Bingley said, then refilled their glasses.
