Page 8 of The Gossip War
“I am confused, Mr Darcy. If Papa gives his permission, how would we avoid the marriage?”
He looked smug if anything. “We would not! It is my greatest desire to marry you!”
I just shook my head, feeling like I had been kicked by a horse, and wondered if this was what he felt like when I summarily announced we were engaged.
After several very awkward and confusing moments, I replied, “That was not a possibility I considered. I did not even like you an hour ago, and I thought our animosity was mutual. Your honour is overcompensating. I well know that the first and most important quality for a wife isnotbeing Caroline Bingley; but aside from that, I have nothing but my meagre charms to recommend me. I see no need to take such an extreme step, and little advantage to either of us in such a union. I am certain we can protect your sister.”
Jane had recovered by then and threw in her two-pence worth. “I agree. The two of you barely know each other. After all the furore dies down, you might call on her and work your way up to a proper courtship like an ordinary man. There is no need to be precipitous.”
He replied with a smouldering look that quite took my breath away.
“Will you hear me out, Miss Elizabeth—and Miss Bennet for that matter—since I doubt that I will prevail without the good opinions of you both?”
At that point, I had lost a little bit of my nervousness and was mostly curious.
“I will,” I said, without the slightest doubt that would be the last time I said those particular words to him.
He chuckled a bit. “I suppose I should be on my knees for this, but I do not wish to make you nervous.”
“You are well-positioned for your task. It would be difficult to assert we are slaves to the traditional forms”
Jane had a good laugh at that, and Mr Darcy joined nervously. Then he took a moment, seeming to gather his thoughts.
“I hope you do not mind if this comes out bit mixed up. I have several reasons I think we should marry, from the practical to the personal. I always imagined I would have my leisure to work out a proposal in advance, but since I have not, would you object if I simply go through them systematically? There is a good chance that, even with a lot of time, I would make a mull of it anyway.”
I was too confused to have any sort of opinion, so I imagine I nodded, grunted, or otherwise suggested he get on with it.
He rubbed his chin like a wise old sage. “You must be nineteen or twenty. May I presume you have been out for several years?”
It was an odd start of a proposal (I imagined), so I simply answered confusedly, doing my best not to take offence.
“I am twenty. I came out at fifteen. As you well know, we do not have seasons here. This is my fifth year out. I am no green girl, but I hardly think myself desperate.”
“I doubt you are. My point is, you have been out for five years and your sister even longer, but you have not exactly beenfishing in a well-stocked stream, if you will forgive the crude analogy.”
He glanced carefully between Jane and me before saying the most surprising thing.
“You are both beautiful, accomplished, and educated gentlewomen. You stand out among your companions, yet neither have found someone worthy of your attentions who reciprocates the feeling. I have been in the same position for a decade. I am also not desperate as you put it, but I think we can assume another year or two of doing the same things are unlikely to produce different results than the previous years—for any of us.”
I was so astonished by the assertion that he considered both Jane and I beautiful and accomplished, I hardly knew what to say, and I was framing a reply when he continued. He squeezed my fingers slightly to make sure I was paying attention (presumably).
“I do not say you are desperate. If your parents allowed you time in London at your uncle’s home, either of you could easily find a well-off tradesman in months. If your father promoted you to men he went to school with, you could find a gentleman farther afield. There are other options that are not exceedingly costly, but to date, you have not tried them. Remember, I am only speaking of the practical side here, but it seems unlikely that any of the three of us will find a match without changing tactics.”
I impertinently asked, “The best of a bad lot, eh?”
Jane said, “Lizzy! That is unkind. You know perfectly well that is not what he meant.”
I tried my best to look repentant, but it must not have been very convincing, as Mr Darcy just laughed softly.
“Not what I meant, and if you took any censure from that, remember that I have been at it twice as long as you have, withconsiderably more advantages—yet I remain unattached. I was just trying to get the obvious things out of the way before I move on to more important items.”
“I concede your point,” I replied, with as much grace as I could muster.
He nodded to Jane in appreciation of her steadying presence.
“In practical terms, we make a good match. Your family’s estate is entailed, so at least one of the sisters must marry well with respect to fortune, and I doubt you can do much better than me. In the unlikely event I need to support your mother and sisters throughout their lives; it would not be a hardship. It would hardly qualify as an inconvenience.”
I found that whole line of thought confusing. “That brings up two questions. First off, why do you call it an unlikely event? Secondly, those are reasons I should marry you, but say nothing about why you should marry a poor, unconnected country nobody.”
