Page 21 of Wickham Likes 'Em Young
“Ohhh.” Elizabeth experienced the need to leap to her sister’s defence, but she took a deep breath and considered what he had said. He had offered his observations, and the phrasing of his words indicated that he knew his conclusions may be wrong. Even more compelling was that his words dovetailed with her recent experiences with Jane.
“Are you well, Elizabeth—I mean, Miss Elizabeth?” Mr Darcy’s voice communicated care, and Elizabeth felt buoyed by his concern.
“Yes, sir. I have been wondering if I even know Jane….”
“I had to learn how to see past Wickham’s charm. The falsity I see in her reminds me of that I see in him.”
Elizabeth gasped. “But?—”
She stopped. She wanted to say a thousand things about Jane beingnothinglike Mr Wickham, but she had a hunch that Mr Darcy knew that well. She stared into his eyes, trying to see what he had seen, to feel what he had felt. But he continued, saying, “I do not mean to say that I believe that your sister has done the terrible things that Wickham has done, nor that she would be remotely capable of those sorts of actions. I am speaking of a very skilled sort of false persona that some people can don. It may be that you have seen Wickham’s charisma; he can be very charming when he wishes to be. He has charmed me, in the past, and even now I can see it—but I now see it as a false front.”
“I know what you mean, Mr Darcy. He was trying to charm the bookshop owner, Mr Martin, and I could see his charisma as a kind of force that he can wield to get his way. But I did not, myself, feel charmed by it—instead, I rememberedhim staggering towards us, quite drunk, when we were so very young.”
Mr Darcy smiled. It was just a small quirk of his lips, but even that small smile lit up his eyes to a warmer shade of dark, and Elizabeth reacted to his smiling eyes deep in her being.
He said, after a thoughtful pause, “Again, I am not saying that being skilful at donning a false persona is, in itself, wrong. But my hunch is that Miss Bennet uses her facade to influence people. I do not know if I am correct. She could just be shy, as my sister and I are.”
“You, shy?” Elizabeth was surprised at the notion. “You seem very confident, sir.”
“I am very, very confident in some situations. Moderately so in others. Shy, and reluctant to engage, in some situations. Extremely uncomfortable at other times. But I was very shy as a small child. As I grew, I became more and more confident in most of the arenas that are important to me, but even now, as an adult, I am much more reticent than people like Bingley…and Wickham.”
“You seem to be uncomfortable in crowds.”
“Yes, and I know that the defence against such discomfort that I came up with as a youth is similar to the false front I complained of in Miss Bennet and Wickham. I try not to show my feelings of unease, and I try to school my features into a neutral expression. But I have been informed that I seem to don a mask, one that some feel expresses arrogance.”
Elizabeth put her hand on his in an attempt to comfort. “I have seen you become expressionless, but I do not put it down to contempt for others.”
“Thank you. But…perhaps you should return to the particulars of your interactions with Wickham, including today’s encounter.”
“I will,” she said. “But first, I want to backtrack to nine years ago….” She related to Mr Darcy absolutely everything, including Jane’s surprising willingness to overlook Mr Wickham’s drunken approach to a girl of thirteen, apparently on the basis of his handsome appearance. Then she described every Wickham sighting in Meryton, including her possibly ridiculous feeling that the man leaving the Netherfield stableyard had been Wickham. She finished by relating every word that passed between her and Wickham just a couple of hours before.
“What I am wondering,” Elizabeth said, “is why Mr Wickham bothered to try to speak with me at all. My attitude towards him has not been ambivalent, and I am certain that he knows from Jane that I have spoken against him to my father.”
Mr Darcy looked so long into her eyes, before responding, Elizabeth decided he did not know how to answer. But then he said, “I imagine that Wickham has many motivations to try to charm you, Miss Elizabeth. You are certainly the most beautiful woman in the region, perhaps the country; and since Wickham rarely experiences rejection from women, I think he might be intrigued by your attitude. But I also gather, from what you have said, that he knows we are friends; and Wickham is even more driven to seek revenge against me than he is to seek money or the favours of ladies.”
Elizabeth found it hard to focus on Mr Darcy’s multiple points, because he had begun with such a ludicrous statement. She was far from being the most beautiful woman in herfamily, let alone the region or nation!
She kept her eyes locked with Mr Darcy’s, and she sensed honesty, as she always did. She decided to put aside his claim about her beauty, and she considered the idea that Mr Wickham could relish the challenge of gaining approval from the rare lady who does not respond to his beauty. That seemed likely. Theappeal of revenge as a sort of bonus was even more likely. “I agree with some of your points, Mr Darcy.”
Still thinking deeply, Elizabeth said, “I am afraid that Jane does not seem to feel very kindly towards you, sir. I was quite shocked, at first, because she rarely criticises anyone, and her dislike of you seemed implacable from the first night we all met. I have often thought that she held you in disfavour because you dared to criticise a man she found fascinating, and since I was the one who informed her of your knowledge about Mr Wickham, I considered it to be my fault that she thought poorly of you. But then I recalled that she spoke vigorously against youbeforeI informed her about your history with the man.”
“You are not to blame for Miss Bennet’s antipathy towards me, Miss Elizabeth.”
“Well, actually, I might be. Because all those years ago, when I chastised Jane for her preference for Mr Wickham, I did contrast his bad behaviour to your gentlemanly actions and apologetic eyes.”
Mr Darcy said again, “The blame is not yours, Miss Elizabeth. Miss Bennet—well…I believe I upset her the night of the assembly.”
He blushed as he finished his statement, and she felt certain that he had been about to say something more but had decided not to. “What are you not saying, sir?”
Dropping his eyes, then raising them up to hers again, Mr Darcy was the picture of reluctance as he said, “After the dance in which you and I partnered, I had gone to the card room, and a short while later, Miss Bennet came looking for me. She was pretending to be concerned for Bingley, saying that he was very upset with me because I was not meeting and dancing with members of the community. She was clever, more skilled in her machinations than any fortune hunter or marriage-hungry mama I have ever met, but I saw the falsity. Instead of agreeing,I merely said that Bingley is a good friend, and if he were upset with me, he would come and say so, and we would work it out.
“I was fairly certain that your sister wished to dance with me, but to what end I know not. But with that vision of her words and expression being a false front, I did not feel or show any interest in her, and I certainly did not ask her to dance with me. I am convinced that I thus engendered her disapprobation.”
Elizabeth thought,Jane has never before been in a situation in which a man sought me out, danced with me, but ignored her.It seemed silly to consider her elder sister being jealous of her, but…maybe?
At that moment, the subject of their discussion put her head out of the front door and called, “Lizzy! Mama wishes you to come in.”
Jane gave no invitation to Mr Darcy, but Elizabeth took his arm, anyway, and gently tugged on him as she stepped towards the house. He looked down with his enigmatic smile, which barely lifted his lips but lit up his eyes, and she felt very glad that he had come back.
