“Bingley, I hate to say this, but you are a fool. I have it from a reliable source that she was in love with you and would have welcomed an offer from you. In fact, she was in London in January and February and came here to visit your sisters. They told her you were still in Scarborough, when you were, in fact, here. They waited three weeks to return her visit, were apparently quite rude, and continued to insist you were not in town. I am rather certain she came to see why you had left so abruptly. She probably wondered what she had done wrong.”
“You are telling me she was in town while I was here, my sisters visited her, and they did not tell me she was here?”
“That is correct, and I have that information from two different, reliable sources.”
An obviously angry Bingley arose and headed for the door. Darcy jumped up, grabbed his shoulder, and stopped him. “Before you go in there and berate them as you should, we need to talk a little more.”
Bingley, being the type of man who, whenever he decided he wanted to do something, always wanted to do it immediately, was reluctant to delay his chastisement of his sisters, but Darcy’s firm grip convinced him he should. Therefore, he reluctantly sat down again. “What more is it you want to talk about?”
“Your reaction tells me that you still have feelings for Miss Bennet. My sources tell me she may still have feelings for you. I think you need to return to Netherfield as soon as possible, visit Miss Bennet, and apologize to her on bended knee. She is a very forgiving woman, and I believe, if you explain how you feel, there may be a very happy ending to this situation.”
Bingley stared at Darcy for a moment, trying to comprehend what he was saying. Finally showing a big smile, he said, “You are telling me you think I should court her? I thought you did not approve of her or her family.”
“I have not changed my opinion of her family, but I believe Miss Bennet to be a very fine woman. If you love her, you must accept her family, no matter how unacceptable they are, but be aware that it will lessen your chances for acceptance in the ton. If her mother becomes too obnoxious, remember, you are only leasing Netherfield. If you find you cannot stand living near them, I am sure we can find you an estate in some distant county, perhaps even Derbyshire.”
Bingley knitted his brows as he looked at Darcy. “This is not the Darcy I remember. You were always so insistent that you and I marry women of appropriate status. What has happened to you?”
“Bingley, I am going to tell you a secret that you must not tell anyone until something comes of it. You will lose my trust forever if you disclose what I am about to tell you. Do I have your promise?”
“This must be something very serious. Because it must have something to do with Miss Bennet, I will promise.”
“I am in love with Miss Elizabeth Bennet and would like to marry her.”
The expression on Bingley’s face almost caused a Darcy to laugh. “You want to marry Miss Elizabeth?” He paused, shaking his head. “I find that hard to believe. Miss Bennet told me Miss Elizabeth disliked you and thought you disliked her. How did this come about?”
“It is a long story, which I am willing to share with you. However, I would prefer to do it after we return to Netherfield. I arrived just yesterday and am in the process of having my lawyers draw up a settlement to show Elizabeth’s father, should she, by some miracle, decide to accept my proposal. It should be ready in two days. Therefore, within the next week or so, I want to return to Hertfordshire with Georgiana, and I would like to be able to stay at Netherfield for a week or two. Do you think you can get things started so that you can reopen Netherfield soon?”
“The way I feel right now, I would do my best to open it the day after tomorrow. I will send an express to Mrs. North tomorrow morning telling her to prepare the house. I should think they could easily have it ready in three or four days.”
“My second suggestion is that you either not take Miss Bingley with you or if you do, not make her your hostess. She has purposely deceived you, she does not like Miss Bennet or Miss Elizabeth, and she acts inappropriately with me and Georgiana. I have said nothing to you about it before, but in deference to my sister, I must do so now. She treats Georgiana like a younger sister, when in fact my sister is of considerably higher status than your sister. Furthermore, she takes completely unacceptable liberties with me. I believe you need to make it clear to her that she has no chance with me. Do not tell her I am interested in Miss Elizabeth but assure her I would never marry her. Finally, for deceiving you, I believe you should punish her by some means: possibly curtail her allowance and if you do not take her to Netherfield with you, send her to live with one of your relatives. I believe Mrs. Hurst, or your widowed Aunt Ida, would be a more acceptable hostess for you.”
Bingley thought for a few minutes. “You are correct, of course. I should control Caroline more, but it so much easier to ignore her and avoid conflicts with her. I have never taken the time to look at her from your perspective, as I should have.” He thought a while and shook his head. “I guess it is true that her treatment of you and Georgiana is not appropriate. Before this, I have never been angry enough at her to do what must be done, but this revelation about how she deceived me has given me new resolve. She will be told after you leave. Is there anything else?”
“Yes. Elizabeth visited us last week at Pemberley. She had been touring the lakes with her aunt and uncle and on the return trip they stopped by Lambton to visit her aunt’s mother and father. I happened to see them in town and invited them to Pemberley. While she was there, I told her I would like to marry her. It was not a proposal, just a statement of fact. She told me I was insane, that for several reasons she was not qualified to be my bride, not the least of which is that her social class so far below mine. Is not it ironic, when I left Netherfield last year, I considered her too far below me to marry, and now that I have decided our class difference is not important, she has decided it is. She has told me she will not even consider marrying me unless she can be convinced that she might be acceptable in the circles in which I move.”
“She refused you? That is difficult to believe, Darcy. It certainly shows she is not mercenary, which makes me unhappy that I could have thought her sister might be mercenary. Either she dislikes you or she has strong feelings for you and is willing to give up what you offer her because it might reflect poorly on your name and lead to an unhappy marriage.”
“I have the same feeling. I know she felt the connection between us I felt when we were together at Pemberley. If it were not for her parents, whose unhappy marriage she has observed most of her life, she might be more willing to take a chance. However, having observed that marriage and believing it was their disparity in station that was the primary cause of their unhappy marriage, she is determined not to make the same mistake. She believes our disparity in station is even greater than that of her parents was. I do not expect to propose to her when we go to Netherfield, but I do want her to know me better and to give her more time with Georgiana.”
Bingley shook his head. “Who of our acquaintances would believe our situation? We are supposedly highly eligible bachelors whom many women would love to marry and here we are, facing uncertainty as to whether two country gentlewomen of low estate will accept us.”
“I had much the same thought as I came over here. I have searched for years among the women of high society and found none that attracted me. Suddenly, I meet the perfect young woman in this out of the way place, except she does not belong to what I considered the proper social sphere, and my world was turned upside down. I tell you, Bingley, I don’t know what I will do if I lose her.”
“This is a side of you I have never seen, Darcy. You have it even worse than I do. I have been unhappy that I did not continue to pursue Miss Bennet, but I was starting to recover from my loss. I go back to Netherfield to try again, not because I think I could not live happily without her, but because I have not found her equal and believe we would be a very felicitous couple. However, I suspect the mom
ent I see her, all the feelings I had for her will return.”
Bingley arose, came over to Darcy, and stuck out his hand. “Thank you for coming and telling me. I will be good to spend time with you again.”
Darcy had also arisen and he gratefully accepted Bingley’s hand. As they shook hands, he said, “Thank you, you have been a good friend. I hope I can look forward to having you as a brother.”
“Now can we go into the other room?” When Darcy smiled and nodded, Bingley asked, “May I tell them who your sources are?”
“I am sure you know one of them is Elizabeth. The other one is her Aunt Gardiner, who knew of Miss Bennet’s visit to your sisters and was there when your sisters visited her.”
Bingley nodded his head. Those are, indeed, two reliable sources. Come, let me confront my sisters.”
******
The Gardiners carriage pulled into the drive at Longbourn Thursday noon. It was Mr. Gardiner’s intention that they would eat lunch and then be on their way to London. The Gardiners had rarely been away from their businesses for such an extended period and each was anxious to return to see how the managers had managed during their absence – Mr. Gardiner for his import/export business and Mrs. Gardiner for the combined bookstore and wine and tea parlor.
There was a joyous reunion between the Gardiners and their three children who had been staying at Longbourn under Jane and Kitty’s care, and then they went immediately to lunch. During lunch much of the conversation revolved around what they had seen at the Lakes until toward the end of lunch the visit to Lambton and subsequent visit to Pemberley was mentioned
“Mr. Darcy invited you to stay overnight at Pemberley,” said Mr. Bennet, “and provided you fishing equipment and companions. I find that difficult to imagine. He did not seem the type who would mix socially with someone of the merchant class. Besides, he and Lizzy were hardly friends. What motivated him to do that?”
“As I told you,” said Mrs. Gardiner, “we met him on the road to Pemberley, and he discovered that he knew me when he was a youngster. That and the fact that he wanted his sister to meet Lizzy led to the first invitation. The overnight invitation was a result of Edward informing him how much he enjoyed fishing and the fact that Miss Darcy took a liking to Lizzy and wanted her back, so they could talk more. Miss Darcy has no one her age in the vicinity with whom to mix socially, so I believe she is delighted when someone like Lizzy visits. I believe she is very taken with you, is she not, Lizzy?”
“As I am with her. She is not at all as Mr. Wickham described her. She is quiet, a little shy, and very pleasant. She has an amazing talent on the piano and is very well read. Papa, they have the most amazing library. You would love it. Uncle Edward says it is the biggest private library he has ever seen. I could have stayed there for weeks and not even begun to plumb its depths.”
“Is it as beautiful as the Hursts and Miss Bingley said it was?” asked Jane.
“They hardly did it justice. I have never seen a more tastefully decorated manor in a setting as gorgeous as any I can imagine. They have landscaped it so that the natural vegetation is seamlessly integrated with the formal gardens. There is a view of it just off the drive that is breathtaking.”
“But how could you stand to be with that terrible Mr. Darcy?” said Lydia. “I do not think that being able to see the most beautiful estate in all England could convince me to be forced to be mix socially with him.”
“In fact,” said Mr. Gardiner, looking disapprovingly at Lydia, “Mr. Darcy was the perfect host – pleasant, not at all condescending, and very hospitable. One would think from the way he treated us that we were some of his upper-class friends. I believe you developed a very wrong impression of him when he was here. He is neither haughty nor overly prideful; he is just very uncomfortable among groups of people he does not know.”
Lydia looked at Elizabeth. “I do not suppose you found him so pleasant, Lizzy.”
“You are wrong. By the time we left, I believed him to be one of the best young men I know, despite his being far above us in status. I had a long talk with him and was convinced that Mr. Wickham was untruthful about Mr. Darcy and his supposed mistreatment of Mr. Wickham. It is, in fact, Mr. Wickham who has injured the Darcy family, a fact of which I was given ample proof. I would suggest, Lydia and Kitty, you stay away from Mr. Wickham and his friends if they return. They are not gentlemen.”
“Pooh. I do not believe you. Everyone in Meryton thinks Mr. Wickham is a fine gentleman and would not believe he was a liar. I think your Mr. Darcy is a liar.”
“Enough about Mr. Wickham,” said Mr. Bennet in a steely voice. “We will deal with that situation if and when it arises again. I believe Mr. Darcy left in a hurry last November because of a fire at Pemberley. Was there much evidence of it? Did it do a great amount of damage?”
“The answer to your first question is no, Thomas,” said Mrs. Gardiner. “Mr. Darcy and his staff have been working hard for months to fix it and one could see almost no evidence of the fire, even though the answer to your second question is yes. Pemberley is very large, and it was only a small part of the house that was damaged, but that small part is almost as large as Longbourn. To him it was not a great amount of damage. To me, it was significant.”
“Was he pleasant to you, Lizzy?”
“He was, Papa. He apologized for what he called an unintentional slight at the assembly and explained it to my satisfaction. Once he and I were able to put aside our misunderstandings about each other, we had some rather pleasant discussion on several topics, not the least of which was his library. I now know why Bingley considers him such a good man and friend.”
“Oh my,” said Mrs. Bennet, “Do you think….”
“No, mother, do not start thinking about me marrying him. He is a man of the first circles of England, and such men do not marry poor country ladies. We just became more friendly acquaintances, and I am happy we did, because I intend to correspond with his sister and visit her when we are both in town. He apparently sees nothing amiss in his sister having a friend from a lower social class.”
That night, after they had prepared for bed, Jane went to Elizabeth’s room for their usual late-night talk. “Now, Lizzy, you must tell me what you did not tell mother. I could tell you were holding back, and I think that Papa knows it also. I suspect he will be calling you into his study tomorrow morning.”
Elizabeth had been anxious to speak with Jane. They were as close as two such different sisters of different personalities could be, and neither could imagine what life would be in the future when they would no longer be together. Neither ever kept secrets from the other unless they were specifically told to do it.
“I already told everyone that Mr. Wickham is a liar, and not only that, he is dishonest and licentious.” She then went on to tell Jane all that Darcy had told her about his immoral life and the truth about his treatment by Darcy. “This is information I believe I must tell father, because I fear for Lydia and Kitty if the militia returns this fall. I worry about the merchants of the area, should he exceed his income, although now that he is in the military, Mr. Darcy assures me he will need to be careful about debts, because the merchants will always know where to find him.”
“It is difficult to believe that amiable, well-spoken young man is such a rake. Surely he cannot be as bad as you portray him.”
“I am afraid it will be difficult for you to find any good in him at all, once you truly know him, Jane. It could well be that he will be in prison soon, if he continues in his profligate ways. Darcy now owns enough of his promissory notes to put him in debtor’s prison and says he will do so if Mr. Wickham strays again.”
Jane shook her head, trying to imagine that congenial young man being so bad. But she then asked the question about which she was most interested. “Now, tell me about Mr. Darcy. Mr. Bingley and I always thought you and he would be a perfect couple and, of course, neither of us believed that he was a bad as you portrayed him. Did anything romantic happen while you w
ere there?”
Elizabeth smiled. “It depends what you call romantic. He did tell me that he would like to marry me.”
Jane’s eyes got big. “He what? You are teasing me.”
“No, in our last significant conversation, he told me he would like to marry me.”
“I take it you did not accept.”
“He did not state it as a proposal. He just stated it as a fact; I suppose to see how I would react.”
“How did you react?”
“I told him he was insane. A gentleman of his sphere does not marry a woman of ours. He may be fascinated by my unconventionality now, but in the long run, I believe he would require that I change, and I do not want to do that. I am the way I am because it is the way I prefer. Furthermore, I have no connections and no knowledge of how to mingle with those in his sphere. I have never even met a man of the nobility such as his aunts and uncles, let alone associated with them socially. I was also very impressed with Pemberley, but I fear I am not qualified to be mistress of not only Pemberley, but also Darcy House, which is his mansion in town, his estate in Scotland, and his estate in Ireland, should he ever decide to go there. I will admit I have developed more than a little affection for him, but it can never go anywhere.”
Jane thought for a moment. “You surprise me, Lizzy. I thought you were up to any challenge. I thought the idea of having to become a lady of high degree would be a challenge you would savor. What is this sudden hesitation to even try?”
The Lady of the Mount and Patience Rewarded: Two Stories of Darcy and Elizabeth Page 25
