When Mr. Darcy Met Lizzy

by Mary-Anne Seaton

  It was quite easy to turn the tables on a thought; given the right prod in the desired direction.

  So was the case with Fitzwilliam Darcy upon the arrival of the Bingley party at the assembly. They were all rightly attended to and fawned over by all the foremost people at the assembly; Mr. Bingley doubly so in an attempt to lure him into securing Netherfield on a permanent basis and into choosing one of their daughters. Special attention was also accorded Mr. Darcy for his wealth and fine figure such that he was decided to be a better catch than their rightful neighbour. When the gentleman refused to remove his nose from the air the entire evening however, the benevolent thoughts in the minds of all about him flew out of the room to be replaced by one of contempt and outright disdain. His greatest transgression and perhaps the most unforgivable was his unwillingness to dance with any of their girls; for that alone, he had earned their eternal dislike.

  The genteel people of Netherfield decided him to be proud and uncaring for them and so, they left him to wander about the room, as he was wont to do.

  Bingley in the middle of a dance with the handsomest girl in the room, observed some of the talks about his friend. After the dance, he took a reluctant leave of the lady and walked up to Fitzwilliam in a bid to endeavour a correction to the impressions of the people about him. "Come, Darcy," he said when he read him standing alone at their table, "I must have you dance. I hate to see you standing about by yourself in this stupid manner. You had much better dance."

  Fitzwilliam raised one black brow at his friend. He could not discern the nonsense about dancing in the least and he set about setting him straight and on his way. "I certainly shall not," he disagreed spiritedly. "You know how I detest it, unless I am particularly acquainted with my partner. At such an assembly as this, it would be insupportable. Your sisters are engaged, and there is not another woman in the room whom it would not be a punishment to me to stand up with."

  "I would not be so fastidious as you are," his friend cried in opposition, "for a kingdom! Upon my honour, I never met with so many pleasant girls in my life as I have this evening; and there are several of them you see that are uncommonly pretty."

  Fitzwilliam sighed. Whoever was only remotely acquainted with Bingley knew that he was not hard to please. The man treated everyone as though they were long term friends which Darcy found particularly unacceptable. Acquaintances should be chosen on some merit and not just allowed to waltz into one's life as they pleased. At times such as this, Darcy wondered how his friends and his sisters could ever be related.

  "You are dancing with the only handsome girl in the room," he settled to say instead of all the distaste on his mind.

  At this, his friend brightened like the sky at dawn and he himself looked in the direction of the girl whom he had just left her company for his. "Oh! She is the most beautiful creature I ever beheld!" Charles agreed keenly as if he was singularly responsible for the deed of nature. "But there is one of her sisters sitting down just behind you, who is very pretty, and I dare say very agreeable. Do let me ask my partner to introduce you."

  "Which do you mean?" Turning around, he looked for a moment at Elizabeth, till catching her eye, he withdrew his own and coldly said: "She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me; I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men. You had better return to your partner and enjoy her smiles, for you are wasting your time with me."

  His cold words must have sent the needed message to his friend because he took his leave of him and ran back to his dancing partner for a second dance.

  No doubt, Fitzwilliam thought, tongues would soon start wagging about the new gentleman in the neighbourhood dancing twice with one of the girls. However, the dance was the least of the preoccupations of his mind at the moment.

  The young girl that Charles had pointed out to him was no other than the paramour he had met in the tavern last night. As a consequence of his wandering about the room and refusal to be introduced, he hadn't happened upon her and her family. One glance in her direction and he knew it was she. It was a shame that she could not however, recognize him. Something must have informed her about him because she had also stared at him wonderingly before dismissing him and looking upon the dance floor again.

  It was she whom Charles wanted him to dance with.

  Fitzwilliam was tempted to roar out an amused laughter at his friend's ill choice but he could not; lest the people decided that he was now more amenable and besiege him with their unwanted company. His remark about slighted ladies had been deliberately said out loud, just so she could hear and perhaps remember his voice but she gave no indication that he was familiar to her even though she must have heard him. She would have to be thoroughly pained in the ears not to.

  He surreptitiously watched her and her family as the evening progressed and he deemed himself in possession about all there was to know about her.

  She was Elizabeth Bennet. Her family was not one that was particularly well to do; she was the second of five girls in her family and less pretty than the first who Charles apparently had taken a liking to. In that wise, her prospects at securing a husband was slim and she must have taken to engaging married men in her favour. The act was quite despicable of her and he found himself thoroughly disgusted with her. There was absolutely no way he would deem to dance with one of such ill ilk as herself even if she was as pretty as the moon and with the largest dowry in the room.

  With the exception of her older sister, Fitzwilliam observed that her family were most loud, especially the mother and the two last sisters. Elizabeth Bennet on her part was quite lively and smiled way too much- it was no wonder too, given that she was free of her favours with the men. She must be delighted that nobody knew of her secret affairs and he would not be sorry to disappoint her. If he hadn't experienced firsthand the difference between Charles Bingley and his sisters, Fitzwilliam would have wondered how the most handsome girl in the room could be related to the lot.

  Fitzwilliam decided to warn his friend about her in the eventuality that she might set his cap for his brother-in-law.

  Chapter Two

  Longbourn village was where the Bennet family lived. It was some miles away from Meryton, the closest town the village could lay claim to but easily covered by horse or chaise.

  Mr. Bennet, the father to all five girls- Jane, the oldest and most beautiful; Elizabeth, the wittiest and her father's favourite; Mary who was more concerned about books and music than about any other thing else; Kitty and Lydia, who were still so young as to care for any other thing but inspiring the attention of men. He was also the husband to Mrs. Bennet who he found after the effects of love had worn off to be something of a loudmouth with little understanding, and little ambition in life. The centre of her existence was her daughters and her principal affair was to see them married and married well.

  The Bennets ladies came upon their father still up when they arrived home at Longbourn. It was nigh midnight but the man was still ensconced in a book as they made their way into the house. Expecting to be fed with the happenings at the assembly, he watched his family enter the house with great sense of forbearance for he was a man who sought not to be disturbed with the trivialities of the world. Alas, fate had decreed him a noisy wife and five daughters such that he was constantly plagued by that which he disliked the most.

  On the occasion of this assembly and any for that matter, he took it upon himself to see to it that they arrived home safely before he turned in for the night. Sometimes, he wished that he wouldn't as he viewed the look of excitement upon the face of his wife, most especially.

  In resignation at his fate, he set aside his book and looked upon them as they made a beeline for him.

  "Oh! My dear Mr. Bennet," Mrs. Bennet addressed him as soon as she entered the room; "We have had a most delightful evening, a most excellent ball. I wish you had been there."

  With that introduction, she proceeded to fill his ears with the events of the eve
ning, barely taking a breath to fill her lungs with air. "Jane was so admired, nothing could be like it. Everybody said how well she looked; and Mr. Bingley thought her quite beautiful, and danced with her twice! Only think of that, my dear; he actually danced with her twice! And she was the only creature in the room that he asked a second time. First of all, he asked Miss Lucas. I was so vexed to see him stand up with her! But, however, he did not admire her at all; indeed, nobody can, you know; and he seemed quite struck with Jane as she was going down the dance. So he inquired who she was, and got introduced, and asked her for the two next. Then the two third he danced with Miss King, and the two fourth with Maria Lucas, and the two fifth with Jane again, and the two sixth with Lizzy, and the Boulanger—"

  Mr. Bennet hadn't attended the assembly for a purpose and he was in no mood to be apprised of all the dances as if he had been there.

  "If he had had any compassion for me," cried her husband impatiently, "he would not have danced half so much! For God's sake, say no more of his partners. O that he had sprained his ankle in the first dance!"

  Mrs. Bennet was only just starting and she had plenty other things to say outside the confines of the dances of the man, Mr. Bingley and his admiration for her daughter. "Oh! My dear, I am quite delighted with him. He is so excessively handsome! And his sisters are charming women. I never in my life saw anything more elegant than their dresses. I daresay the lace upon Mrs. Hurst's gown..."

  Mr. Bennet heaved a great sigh. He was afraid that his wife would begin to sing a poem in dedication to Mrs. Hurst's dress if he did not interrupt her. This time however, he needed to be more firm in his protest. "Pray my dear woman, I am in no mood to listen to the description of finery or the people who wore them for that matter," he said with candour. "If there is naught to say about the assembly anymore, I would bid us all go to bed."

  There was no liking for this short interruption of his in Mrs. Bennet. Her excited babble died a painful death but regrettably, she was no woman to give up; especially not in the event of such barefaced rebuttal. Her next obligation was to therefore speak about the most despicable of the Bingley party with exaggerated contempt which stemmed from bitterness at being cut short in her relation of the night's event.

  "I do not know what that man, Mr. Darcy thinks of himself certainly!" she began.

  Mr. Bennet's ears perked at this as he was well acquainted with his wife's ways. Whenever she found something wrong with a human, then it was most likely that the person under her dislike was an upright individual who would not take to her silly whims.

  "Why, Lizzy heard him insult her person even though he knew that she was certainly within hearing distance of him!" continued his wife. "Lizzy, tell your dear father what you told us all that the dreadful Mr. Darcy said at the ball."

  The girls had been seated huddled up together on the longest sofa in the living room and listening to the recount of the evening by their mother. In the process, they had gotten around to removing their mittens, socks and hats. All of which now either rested at their feet or on their bodies.

  "Yes mother," Lizzy piped up, mischief in her very eyes. "You see, I deem the man the silliest of all men I have ever encountered- though the conversation I heard from could barely count as an encounter, I suppose. Mr. Bingley, the kind man took it upon himself to cheer his friend into a dance with me and I heard it all from where I sat. However, Mr. Darcy remarked rather unkindly that he could not be bothered by a slighted woman such as me who couldn't garner a dancing partner for herself."

  If the incident hadn't been told from Lizzy's own mouth, Mr. Bennet was prone to discard the revelation as irrelevant as soon as it was told. However, he found that he agreed with Mrs. Bennet in her estimation of the man's character; how can there be a man who would not want to avail himself of Elizabeth's person?

  "I do not know how you can recount the conversation with such calm," Lydia spoke up in an affronted manner, "Were it myself in those shoes, I would have walked up to him to demand an apology for the slight!"

  Kitty was nodding in agreement with her twin along with Mrs. Bennet; Jane was looking concerned that the entire Bingley party would be declared unfit for future acquaintances while Mary appeared bored with them all.

  "And a pity it really is that you weren't the one in such situation?" Mr. Bennet declared most sarcastically. It was common enough knowledge that the girl was the most like her mother and with a penchant to allow herself to be carried away by slights and irrelevances.

  "I was in no way offended at his remark- and why should I?" Elizabeth announced with a dainty shrug. "The man barely knows of me as I, him. I have no contribution or care towards whatever opinion he forms of me; a reason I find him most ridiculous and unmanly. Such can only provoke mirth in me and nothing else."

  It was speeches such as this from Elizabeth that duly compensated for being saddled with the responsibility of housing five girls along with his wife, Mr. Bennet thought proudly. He decided that the man Mr. Darcy could truly be unworthy of his ever so clever daughter.

  "But I can assure you," Mrs. Bennet resumed, "that Lizzy does not lose much by not suiting his fancy; for he is a most disagreeable, horrid man, not at all worth pleasing. So high and so conceited that there was no enduring him! He walked here, and he walked there, fancying himself so very great! Not handsome enough to dance with! I wish you had been there, my dear, to have given him one of your set-downs. I quite detest the man."

  Since Mr. Bennet quite agreed with his wife's view and didn't want to tell her that he did, he kept his silence until the ladies decided that there was nothing left to say of the evening they just had. They each began to rise and seek their beds as did he and Mrs. Bennet when all was finally quiet.

  Mr. Bennet hoped to sleep till noon; just enough and above to prepare him for another day with his family. He had no doubts that he had not heard the last of the Bingley-Darcy episode.

  Chapter Three

  The friendship between the two gentlemen, Mr. Charles Bingley and Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, was one that Bingley held in utmost regard. In spite or perhaps, because of the great difference in the character of the two men, they found themselves inordinately drawn to each other's personality and in turn, held a deep affection towards each other like brothers.

  It did not matter that Darcy was twenty and eight years of age while Bingley was younger by four years, or that Darcy was more well-to-do than his young friend. Both men knew perfectly well their ages and circumstance before engaging in such enduring friendship. Bingley was most attracted to Darcy's ease of carriage, flexible temperament, and frankness in all matters, regardless of who was involved. As a result, he heavily relied on his friend's good sense of judgement and never passed the opportunity to avail himself of his pronouncement on matters he found too consuming to deliberate upon on his own- a reason he invited him to Netherfield Park.

  He had come upon his inheritance barely two years ago when he heard about Netherfield Park. He had not tarried to rush over to see the place for himself; one look through the rooms and he liked it enough to lease it and stay in the house while he tried to see if he could make the place his home with the help of his friend and his sisters. It wasn't that he, Bingley, was a man without some cleverness in his head, but he was of the opinion that two heads were certainly better than one and Fitzwilliam indeed had a good head on his fine shoulders.

  He would dearly like his friend's candid opinion about the place and its people. He also knew that he would take his friend's counsel without another thought whenever it was pronounced.

  They were in the moment, seated in the breakfast room after breakfast the noon after the party. Fitzwilliam had since had his breakfast having woken before them all, despite the late night they all had but he had bestowed them with his presence nonetheless.

  The manner in which Fitzwilliam spoke of the Meryton assembly was, however, not one that agreed with the opinions that he, Bingley, had surmised and he found that he could not disagree with his friend
more.

  "They are a bunch of ignorant people with little beauty and sense of fashion," Fitzwilliam declared quite callously.

  In all honesty and with lack of pretence, Bingley pronounced that never had he met with more enjoyable company than the lot of people he encountered in the room at the assembly. There, he had received a warm welcome that made him feel at home and most pleased. Gone was the stiffness he had been so accustomed with living the town life and he appreciated the evident lack of pretention in the countenance of most at the assembly.

  There also, he had the delightful opportunity to meet with Miss Bennet.

  "I declare; what of Miss Bennet?" he argued with his friend. "You certainly can find no fault with her as she is the fairest of them all in handsomeness and grace."

  "I daresay, that Miss Bennet is indeed pretty," he acknowledged "but she smiled too much."

  Charles couldn't fathom how anyone could find fault with Jane Bennet and he turned to his sisters for support.

  Mrs. Hurst and her sister supported their brother, but only with regarding to Jane Bennet.

  "I certainly would like to know more about her—she is such a sweet girl of easy temperament," Caroline permitted cautiously for she took great care not to go against anything that Fitzwilliam declared. Her liking for the Bennet girl was quite natural but increased upon seeing Fitzwilliam's obvious disregard for her one way or the other.

  And as such, Charles based his decision on this, totally ignoring the look of displeasure on his friend's face. It was decided by him than Miss Bennet was a good girl and he would not hesitate to call on her and her family subsequently.

  He whistled away at the breakfast table, thinking about the beautiful smiles of the sweet lady in question. The same smile that his friend had found to be a point of discontentment was a source of pleasure for him.