Page 41 of Till Death Us Do Part
Elizabeth chewed on that for a time, and while keeping in mind her promise to her father to at leasttry, she swallowed her annoyance, and asked politely, “Am I to know what this business is, or how long it will take?”
“It is a matter of grave family importance.My family. It cannot be delayed. I have already waited almost too long.”
Elizabeth felt the words‘my family’like a slap in the face. He could not have been any clearer that he did not really considerhera part ofhis family, despite his recent vow to join their lives together. In her mind, he was saying she was not a part of his family, and her pessimistic state had no trouble adding the thought that she never would be, despite a complete lack of any evidence to support the thesis. In her distress, she surmised that this was simply a precursor to disposing of her entirely somehow, but he either lacked courage or had not worked out the specifics yet.
Seething, she asked what she thought to be a completely reasonable question.
“Ifyour family businessis to overrideour marriage, I suppose that is your business. Since I am apparently not to know what this business is, can you at least narrow down where you are going, and how long you expect to be gone?”
By then she was staring at the man, having given up all pretence of keeping her distance. She still had her gloves and bonnet on, but it never occurred to her to remove them. They were very weak protection, but it seemed like she was in more of a battle than an intimacy. Far from moving closer, they were drifting apart already. The first hours of marriage did not seem to be going at all well.
Darcy, seeing her ire, felt his own raising to match.His business was his business,and he was not accustomed to sharing it with anyone, especially when he had no idea if he could trust them.Somedayhe might trust his new bride to share his secrets, butnot that day.
Absent this debacle of a marriage, he would already be sitting comfortably aboard his ship. As it was, his schedule was tight.
He also did not really want anyone knowing exactly what he was doing if they did not need to. Bargaining with a country that they were at war with was not unheard of, but there were plenty of people in thetonwho would use his mission for political or monetary advantage if they could, and there were a hundred ways to do so.
His uncle had arranged to get him to Parisquietly, depending on contacts in the British Navy to get through the blockade to the French sailors and soldiers who would take him to Paris, so advertising his location to all and sundry seemed ill-advised. While he had not specificallycaught his new bride gossiping, if she had a tenth of her mother’s capacity for the sport, he was doomed.
Thinking now was as good a time as any to establish the principle that, with or without theobeypart of the marriage vows, she was to live her life under his rules and hisprotection, he began, “Miss Bennet,” and blushed furiously at the slip of the tongue, before correcting with, “Pardon me, I meant, Mrs Darcy.”
She just stared at him, feeling even more alone and isolated than she had before.
He continued, “I meant no offence. I must accustom myself to the change in your situation.”
Elizabeth fumed that he did not seem to think his situation was changing, just hers. Later, she would think that to be anirrational and narrow-minded interpretation, but that wisdom was not available in the moment.
She said grimly, “You are excused, sir.”
Feeling on edge, Darcy said, “I cannot say where I am going with any precision, as it is a closely guarded secret, and I do not even know the precise details myself. I expect to be gone three to six months, though nothing is cast in stone. I must catch a ship on the dawn tide, which will not wait for me, and the next opportunity would not occur for over a month. We will part in Hatfield.”
Elizabeth just stared at him in shock. “So, your new bride is supposed to just go to your estate,alone, to wait half a year for your return.”
“Yes.”
His headache was preventing him from realising how rude he was being, and his anger at being entrapped made him unwilling to think on it overly much.
Elizabeth seethed. “And what exactly am I todofor this half-year? Become mistress of your estate? Establish myself in the neighbourhood? Entertain our neighbours? Visit the tenants?”
Darcy heard the stridency in her voice and just pictured it escalating a little each year until she sounded like her mother. At the time, he was incapable of appreciating that she was starting from a vastly different place and would go in a different direction if he just treated her well.
He was also at that moment incapable of realising just how rude he himself was acting, nor making the calculation that if he continued his present path, he would become the worst version of her father after some years.
Neither party was reflective enough to understand that history repeats itself, or at least rhymes, and they were not getting a very good start.
Darcy had spent the six weeks of their acquaintance mostly avoiding her and what had, until the compromise, been a growing infatuation with her charms. Dreams aside, in the end, he really did not know her all that well, having exchanged no more than a few dozen minutes of conversation in company. He had not the slightest idea if she would evolve to be more like her mother, or more like—well, he did not actually know any of her other family, so could not say. The aunt who stood up with her seemed fashionable, polite, and elegant, as did the eldest Miss Bennet; but otherwise, he knew next to nothing. In his current state of mind, he just assumed the worst and planned accordingly.
For her part, the lady had never actually liked the man, even a little. She spent the same amount of time in his company as he had in hers, obviously, but she had looked at every interaction with her own prejudice, so she had learned even less than he had. She made no real effort to disguise who she was, aside from refraining from telling any of the Netherfield party what she thought of them, while he worked diligently to hide his growing attraction.
In the end, both were mostly captive to a series of thoughts and impressions driven by a single moment in time. For Elizabeth, it was the moment he deemed her not handsome enough to tempt him, while for him, it was the moment of vulnerability when the Bennets swooped in for the kill. Neither would be able to articulate those thoughts, though.
Darcy looked at her carefully. “No, you will not. My family’s reputation is extremely important, built up laboriously over many generations, and in fact, it has material consequences that I cannot explain at this moment. That is why we find ourselves in this situation. You will go to Pemberley, but you are not to entertain or call on my neighbours. I prefer to manage those introductions myself.”
It never occurred to him to explain that his reasoning was that some of his neighbours were not necessarily friendly, and a few were actively hostile. The fact that he edicted it, should be enough!
“The tenants have been adequately looked after by my steward and housekeeper for well over a decade, and they may continue the task until I return.”
Elizabeth stopped herself just short of gasping, or crying, but seethed in frustration. “Are there any other restrictions?”
