At Last: A Pride and Prejudice Variation

by Anne Morris

  Caroline and Louisa had begun to work on Bingley then, about the outrageous behavior of the family, the poor connections of Mrs. Bennet's family, the shameful conduct of some of the sisters. They spoke of that young brother, an embarrassing late-in-life child, and of Jane Bennet's paltry dowry, but all to no avail. Darcy had then pointed out her quiet demeanor, and asked if Jane Bennet returned his affection. It had sowed the seeds of doubt in Bingley's mind. Bingley, who relied on Darcy's advice, had hesitated then; enough that his friend vowed to remain in London longer while he assessed his feelings, both about Jane Bennet and marriage.

  Darcy had not said outright that Jane Bennet did not care for Charles; he knew she did. He had observed them, and could tell she admired his friend. But her general demeanor—the one she showed when out in society—was that of a placid, cheerful, but rather disengaged young lady. Her nature seemed to be such that she was happy everywhere, so it was difficult to tell, unless one was looking for it, that she was particularly happy; and that she admired someone specific—that she admired Charles Bingley.

  Darcy considered that he would need to find the correct way to tell Bingley that Jane Bennet did care for him. She was not even in Hertfordshire currently, though as Elizabeth had indicated, she was to return soon. Such a discussion was a task best done in person, to allow his friend to get all the grumbling, blustering, and even yelling done that could then allow Darcy to speak sensibly about Bingley's next steps. He thought his young friend was still in love with the lady, despite over two months of separation.

  • • •

  Darcy had been sitting in his study, considering both what to wear for dinner, and the ever-present dilemma of Miss Elizabeth Bennet. He looked forward to talking to her each morning. He had deliberately set out for a walk each day, and to his delight discovered her in almost the exact same place at the exact same time each morning.

  Partridge knocked and announced a visitor, and Darcy told the footman to escort the captain into the study. Captain Gage strode in purposefully and though he shook hands and took a proferred seat he had the air of a man with a purpose. After greetings were over, he came straight to the point of his visit.

  "Mr. Darcy, I felt I should let you know I came across your sister, Miss Darcy, and Miss Lydia Bennet this morning. That they were walking along the Foreshore Road above where the men's bathing beach is. I believe their intention was to view the men bathing down on the beach."

  Darcy stared at the captain, then nodded, and made a small gesture with his hand. The captain continued.

  "I gave them a good talking to about the inappropriateness of such behavior for young ladies, and then I escorted them back into town. I hope you do not mind my stepping in, sir, but I felt that since they were unescorted this morning, they needed someone to take them under their wing and set them to rights."

  "I appreciate your doing so," replied Darcy. "I had thought them to always be out with Miss Darcy's companion or Miss Lydia Bennet's governess, so this tale of their outing shocks me a great deal." He took in a breath and let it out. "Again, captain, I appreciate that you were on-hand to step in and prevent any embarrassment for my sister and her friend."

  The captain rose, and Darcy shook his hand vigorously before seeing him out the door.

  Darcu knew he was supposed to be changing for dinner, but he sat in his study as the light of the day failed, and he considered the news that Captain Gage had brought him. He had often had misgivings about Lydia Bennet, even from the first day that they had encountered the Bennet family. He had been intrigued by Elizabeth Bennet's damp skirts, and he had not seen the way his sister had singled out a new acquaintance, as if a dog sent in to sort out a particular sheep from the flock. But he had seen the way that this Bennet girl had acted back in Hertfordshire; he knew that he should have discouraged the alliance.

  Darcy had introduced Georgiana to other young women. Mrs. Peterson had been so kind as to invite them frequently to tea, and introduced other friends, more appropriate acquaintance, but he could not separate Georgiana from Lydia after their first meeting. These other young ladies had a more appropriate background; he did not understand why Georgiana did not prefer them. They were so like the young ladies she would have met at school, but Georgiana had not taken to them at all.

  • • •

  Darcy set out in the morning, as he had for the past week, to encounter Elizabeth fully intending to discuss her sister's behavior, and to lay the bulk of the blame at Lydia Bennet's feet, for it would not have occurred had the two of them not met. He could not ever have perceived Georgiana acting in such a manner as going to spy on men bathing if Lydia Bennet had not encouraged his sister.

  He walked the streets and the area where he normally ran into Elizabeth Bennet without encountering her at their usual time, and was surprised and frustrated that he did not see her. He wondered if she knew about the events of the day before and had, therefore, decided to stay at home and to avoid their walk that morning. Then he realized that they had no formal agreement to meet at such and such a place and at such and such a time each morning; he had to admit that it was he who had sought her out. It was he who had the chance encounter with her that one day, and it was he who had kept it up every day since, this last week.

  He walked down the street, turned a corner, and was brought up short because he saw Elizabeth with her arm through that of a gentleman, walking away from him, and he could not immediately tell who it was that had secured her arm and secured her attentions away from him. It should have been him striding beside her. He glanced again at the gentleman; she had not ever mentioned the attentions of any particular gentleman—but would she do so to him anyway? She had discussed that the schoolmaster came to tea occasionally, but Darcy put that down to a man who was attempting to woo Mrs. Bennet into sending her son to him. In fact, Elizabeth had made a jest of it, saying how Mr. Spencer had come calling on her mother as if he were courting Mrs. Bennet when, in fact, the decision lay entirely with her father. Darcy did not know if any other gentleman had come to call on her, either Mr. Peterson's secretary or the clergyman, but he guessed, given the clothes, that it was the secretary.

  The pair continued walking, and seemed oblivious to his eyes upon them, so he followed a few paces behind, and he watched them as they walked down Friar's Way and turned a corner. It was then that Darcy quickened his pace to see where they were going, and was surprised when he did turn the corner to see Mr. Wolton-Fane handing Elizabeth up into a curricle. Her eyes sparkled only upon him, at the gentleman who had just handed her up, as she stood on the board of the carriage and smiled in a manner that made a part of Darcy's insides turn over. Her attention was focused entirely on this man and nowhere else. This then, was not a chance encounter, and they must have been a planned outing between them that the man had a curricle waiting, and that she came to him so readily to ride out with him. Darcy wondered about their relationship.

  He watched them leaving, driving off and away from where he stood on the corner. The curricle turned into a different street, and was gone from his view.

  He walked back to find himself in front of the post office and inquired after letters. There was one from Mr. Peterson, a note really, "Old Chap, won't you consider Wolton-Fane for the dinner as well. Can't really get on without him. Peterson."

  The secretary had not been invited to the dinner on Tuesday night. Darcy stared at the note, and felt like his entire world was falling apart, Georgiana, Elizabeth, and now this request to invite the very man he had seen riding away with Elizabeth. He almost wished to not return home lest he encounter more bad news there, as it was to be his unluckiest day.

  • • •

  "I missed talking with you yesterday," said Mr. Wolton-Fane. "I must admit that I walked back to Peterson's study at the slowest pace possible in the hopes you would appear." He looked down at her half frowning, half smiling.

  "My mother came out walking with me yesterday," began Elizabeth," I was not certain whether to bring
her with me to the post office or not, though it is not as if we are meeting in secret, is it not?"

  He shook his head, "no, we are not." A smile was on his face, as he offered her his arm. "I have news," he said, and she looked up at him as such a statement usually implied bad news.

  "Yes," she prompted.

  "Mr. and Mrs. Peterson have a family obligation today, so I have a day off. I wonder if you should like to go for a ride in my curricle with me?" His face was a little more expectant than she would have anticipated, given what she knew of his character.

  "Yes, I should like that. I believe we should inform my family before we go," she said.

  "Quite right," he answered, as they walked down the street and turned the corner to where his groom held the reins to his curricle. "I was thinking that rather than simply driving around town, we might make a little day trip, and drive up north to the village of Burniston which has a nice little pub, and have a little something to eat, before we turn around and come home."

  Elizabeth had never attempted such a trip—and never with a gentleman—was delighted with the idea and let Mr. Wolton-Fane know her pleasure in his suggestion.

  Elizabeth could not have anticipated the fuss her mother would make when she showed up at the door to Silver House with a gentleman in tow, and one who proposed such a trip. If only yesterday, Mrs. Bennet was considering Mr. Darcy as a potential suitor for her oldest daughter, she gave him over entirely now in favor of Mr. Wolton-Fane, who seemed to have emerged from nowhere.

  "Really, Lizzy, what have you been getting up to with your walks in the morning!" Mrs. Bennet had whispered when her host had stepped outside to speak to his groom. A chaperone was needed, and a maid, a reluctant one, was summoned, who eyed the minuscule seat reserved for the groom up behind the carriage body with distaste. The poor groom would be required to ride astride one of the horses, but the party soon set out with many well wishes from Mrs. Bennet, and stares from Lydia, who seemed to have increased her opinion of her older sister. Her little brother had even wider eyes at the sight of the curricle and the pair of horses.

  They did not speak much while Mr. Wolton-Fane negotiated the curricle through the streets of Scarborough, and Elizabeth enjoyed watching his expertise in driving, and in watching the people looking up at the pair of them in his smart equipage, and at the pair of handsome white geldings he had pulling his curricle.

  They drove through town, past St. Mary's Church, keeping the sea on their right, until they left the houses behind.

  "It is a beautiful day for a drive," he said at last, breaking the silence.

  She was buttoned up with a pelisse, and her mother had made a show of tying her bonnet strings on extra tight, but the breeze from the drive whipped at her face, though she did not think it unpleasant.

  "Yes, it is beautiful," answered Elizabeth looking out at the countryside. With a pang, she realized how much she missed her long walks in the Hertfordshire countryside. "The area here is different from home."

  "Are you missing home?" he asked.

  "A little, I miss my father," she answered. "And I am not so used to walking city streets; I am more inclined to seeking my exercise on country lanes."

  "Perhaps we might find a country lane or two for you after our meal?" he suggested.

  "Thank you. Did you grow up hereabouts?" she asked, "so this territory is familiar to you?" he described his boyhood then, in an area west of the city of York. How he had loved it then, and loved it still. Elizabeth thoughth that in all things he did, he attempted them with passion and with fidelity, and she admired him for it.

  He spoke of his estate, Bramham, which had an income of about four thousand a year. She had been surprised when he shared that piece of information,; he had so often mentioned that it was 'small,' that she imagined it on the same scale as Longbourn. He had many plans for improving it, and hoped to even expand it.

  "I shall need to marry well," he said. "There are two nearby estates that have fallen on difficult times and which I might purchase and add to Bramham to make it into truly a great estate." He glanced over at her, and then back at the road.

  She wondered that he would share such a statement with her, was he under some mistaken notion of her fortune. "And what is your expectation of such a wife? I should not expect you to wish for a wife of less than twenty thousand pounds a year," she laughed, and he joined in.

  Behind her jest, she considered 'is this meant for me—as a warning—is he, in some way giving me a hint as to his intentions? Then why has he invited me on this drive today!' She thought back to some of their morning discussions. She recalled mentioning her own paltry dowry, and her own intentions to not marry, that her portion might be used to enhance her sister's dowries.

  She did not believe Mr. Wolton-Fane was under some misapprehension as to the amount of her fortune. He knew that her father was a gentleman; they had jested about the age of their family estates, with his being older, but that Longbourn had been peopled by Bennets for quite a number of years, and the Bennet name was not to be sneered at. There had been gentlemen Bennets for quite a long time though they had, perhaps, not done well with the Longbourn estate—and sold off portions as they had been able—activities her father had wished his predecessors had not carried out. Perhaps Simon would be able to hang on to it now that it was not to be entailed away to that cousin, Mr. Collins, with whom she knew her father had had many a quarrel.

  They continued admiring the countryside as it passed by. She entirely forgot that the maid was sitting in that seat behind them and potentially listening to them speak; but they did not share anything that could not truly be overheard. In about an hour and a half, they reached the village of Burniston. The road had moved inland, away from the sea, though they could still smell the salty air. It was the most pleasant day she had had since coming to Scarborough; she thought of Simon and his bathing day with the soldiers, but Elizabeth considered this her best day.

  The village was quite small, just a collection of houses, but there was a public house, The Three Jolly Sailors, that served a decent lunch, and they sampled its fare. Her maid, Sally, was quite happy to be down from her seat; she had not enjoyed the ride, nor had the groom on his post sitting astride the back of a horse. The two sat a little ways apart, and it allowed Elizabeth and Mr. Wolton-Fane a chance at a little more intimate conversation.

  He spoke then of his tentative plans of leaving Mr. Peterson's service, and of standing for office in his home constituency of Wetherby. There was another landowner who had held the position for over thirty years, was past sixty, and Wolton-Fane was certain he would be ready to give it up, if such a man could be said to retire from such a position. Mr. Wolton-Fane would try and see how he did.

  "I should like to, it would mean that I would be stuck in my little parish for many years except for the annual opening of Parliament and the assizes," said Wolton-Fane. "I was considering one last Season this spring in London. Will you be there?"

  "No, I have no plans to be in London this spring," she answered. "I have one sister, Catherine, who would dearly love to go and have her come-out."

  "And have all of you been to London?" he asked.

  "We have an uncle and aunt in Town whom we have been fortunate to visit, but it is only I who had any formal come-out," she said. "My father is not fond of Town."

  "I had hoped to have the pleasure of your company to look forward to while I was there," he said in an almost formal manner.

  "We have today," she replied, "and our family has not yet made plans to return to Hertfordshire, though my sisters who have been away in Christchurch are to return soon. We are here for a week or two more."

  "I am glad," he said, and they finished their meal.

  Despite a promise to find some country lanes to ramble in, there proved nothing appealing that caught either of their eyes as they drove back to Scarborough. He dutifully dropped her off at Silver House. Simon came rushing outside to speak to Mr. Wolton-Fane about his horseflesh and
to admire the carriage. Simon was thrilled when he was permitted to climb into the curricle to stand and look down at his sister in triumph at standing above her. She thanked her friend for her lovely day, collected her energetic brother, and her maid, and went inside.

  Mrs. Bennet and Lydia had much to say or to question her about that day, the trip to Burniston, and the company of such a gentleman. Her mother was sure that Mr. Wolton-Fane would propose any day, and Lydia was inclined to agree with her. Elizabeth steadfastly argued against such an occurrence, saying that he, like Mr. Darcy, did not consider her an appropriate bride—she had neither money nor connections.

  Mrs. Bennet finally cried out in frustration, her tea cup clattering in the saucer, "how is it, Lizzy, that you attract such great men to you, but men who are not interested in marriage? It is a waste of your time—you should be considering Mr. Spencer, he obviously admires you and, you know, could inherit property!"

  She had no answer for her mother. After Richard Goulding had taken his interest elsewhere, Mrs. Bennet had given up on getting Elizabeth married, concentrating on her other daughters. It was only this trip to Scarborough which had brought Elizabeth back under Mrs. Bennet's gaze—and with the attentions of so many gentlemen in their society as well. Obviously, Mrs. Bennet thought there was some benefit to coming away to a watering hole to meet potential suitors.