Mr Darcy to the Rescue: A Pride and Prejudice Regency Variation

by Diana Enright

  Lizzy squinted ahead and her heart started to thump. It was true, the gentleman was an awful lot like Darcy—he had the same hair colour; the same proud walk.

  How can it be? She thought. They told us he was not coming! She glanced to her right and saw that Miss Bingley’s expression was now dark with fury. That was all the confirmation she needed.

  Within a couple of minutes, they were close enough to greet the man. There was no question of it now—it was Fitzwilliam Darcy, returned to Hertfordshire even though none of the Bennets had expected him.

  “Mr. Darcy!” Kitty cried. She had not had much time for him during his previous visit to the county, but her social privations had made her far less discerning about the gentlemen she chatted with.

  He stopped and looked at them all, nodding.

  Lizzy stared at him, stunned into silence for once. She cleared her throat, aware that the others were watching her. “Mr. Darcy! We thought you were not coming!”

  He looked perplexed. “It was always my intention to follow Charles here; I simply wanted to go to Pemberley first to see my sister. It had been a long time since I last saw Georgiana, owning to my business in London.”

  Lizzy flushed. The first thing that had entered her mind was his proposal at Gracechurch-street. “Oh. Miss Bingley was under the impression that—”

  “Whatever are you accusing me of?” Miss Bingley cried, her smiling expression a world away from the angry one she had worn just moments before. “Oh, dear Eliza. Sometimes I think you are a most peculiar creature.”

  Lizzy might have been offended if she had paid any attention at all to her companion’s words. She didn’t, though: she was too transfixed by the new arrival to their group.

  “Are you well, Mr. Darcy?”

  “Quite well,” he said curtly. “And you, Miss Elizabeth?”

  She smiled. “Yes.” Better now that you are here, she thought. All of a sudden it seemed like there was hope for her again.

  “Darcy! There you are!” Bingley said, hurrying to join them, with Jane following close behind.

  This is perfect, Lizzy thought. Simply perfect.

  From that point onwards, their daily walks were anything but solitary for Lizzy. Miss Bingley made a habit of joining them now, but her slower pace meant she usually lagged behind them and was left with Kitty, who was also not much of a walker. There in the relaxed, secluded environment of the park, Darcy seemed quite content to wander alone with her. Lizzy wondered why he had relaxed his views. She made no mention of it: why would she call attention to something she had no wish to change?

  “This is such a pleasant way of passing the time,” Darcy remarked, as they emerged from a cluster of trees into a clearing and the vibrant afternoon light all but took their breaths away.

  “Isn’t it,” Lizzy said happily. “Though it surprises me that you do not derive similar pleasure at Pemberley.”

  “I do,” he mused. “You will like it I think, when you see it.”

  Lizzy’s heart pounded. “It sounds like a wonderful place, from what you have said.”

  “It is.” He stopped and smiled. “Miss Elizabeth, I made a decision weeks ago that I would not seek to embarrass you—”

  They spun around in response to a terrible shriek somewhere behind them. Lizzy broke into a run at the sight of Miss Bingley lying sprawled on the ground. Kitty stood over her, waving her hands and panicking.

  “What happened?”

  Kitty shook her head. “I don’t know, Lizzy. I don’t know. Oh, I think she’s hurt.”

  “It’s my ankle,” Miss Bingley wailed. “It caught on some uneven ground.”

  They tried to help her to her feet, but she winced every time she was forced to put weight on her foot.

  “We shall have to carry her,” Darcy muttered to Bingley, who had just hurried up to them.

  “Oh, Caroline,” Charles said. “How clumsy of you. Come on, then.”

  “No,” Miss Bingley sobbed. “It will be too painful. And tiring for you two. Please—can you get the carriage? There is a path not twenty feet away. I will wait here.”

  “Of course,” Bingley said. He and Darcy sprinted off in the direction of Netherfield without uttering another word.

  Miss Bingley hopped elegantly for a few paces before she found a patch of grass that was clean and not muddied from the walking track. She eased herself down on it and stared up at them, already seeming in much better health.

  “We should take off your shoe, just in case there is swelling,” Lizzy said, remembering when Mary had suffered a similar injury.

  “It is quite alright,” Miss Bingley said. “I don’t expect it to swell too badly.”

  Lizzy turned and stared in the direction of Netherfield, with a growing sense of dread.

  “I must say, Eliza,” Miss Bingley said. “I am surprised at your affection for Mr. Darcy. I thought you might have resented him for convincing my brother to leave Netherfield last year.”

  Chapter 31

  Darcy raced across the grass at such a rapid clip that Bingley had trouble keeping up with him. He was not an athlete by any means, but the task that lay ahead of him made him push his body harder than he was usually wont to do.

  He had been about to propose marriage to Miss Bennet when Miss Bingley was injured. The timing was most unfortunate. He wondered if Elizabeth suspected what he was about to do. When he reflected on it, he concluded that there had been nothing subtle about his approach.

  He reached the stables, lungs gasping for air. His first thought was to take one of the stallions, but Bingley scotched that plan.

  “No,” Charles called, as short of breath as Darcy was. “Remember she didn’t want us to carry her and horseback would be just as uncomfortable. We’ll take the carriage.”

  Darcy waited impatiently as the horses were harnessed. He might have walked back to join the ladies in the park if it wouldn’t have left Bingley alone. He stamped his feet, not wanting to seem impatient, but unable to stop. He thought about discussing his plan with Bingley, but pride made him hesitate. What would happen if she rejected his hand a second time?

  He had sworn he would not bother her again, but seeing her again had made it impossible. By now he had concluded that the timing of his proposal may not have been optimum. After all, what woman would think of marriage when she was desperately trying to settle a marriage for her younger sister?

  “Let’s go,” Bingley said, climbing into the carriage at a leisurely pace.

  “I’ll drive.” Darcy hopped up and took the seat Bingley had been about to sit in.

  “My goodness,” Bingley laughed. “You’re rather concerned about Caroline!”

  Darcy forced a smile. To think that he had once thought of marrying that woman . or Miss de Bourgh! He must have been quite out of his mind, he knew now. He had decided against either course of action.

  He had come to understand that there were only two choices for him: marry Elizabeth Bennet or remain alone. There was no other acceptable course for him. Perhaps that was why he was willing to sacrifice his pride and put the question to her a second time.

  Miss Bingley’s condition appeared far less acute when they returned to the ladies. Darcy jumped down and hurried towards her. His expediency was a result of his eagerness to get her back to Netherfield so he could resume his walk with Miss Elizabeth.

  It felt like an eternity passed before they left Netherfield and strode across the park to find the Bennet ladies. Miss Bingley had protested, urging them to remain at the house with her, but it was too pleasant a day and Darcy really had no time for such nonsense. Even good manners could not persuade him to stay—for he had a task at hand.

  “Miss Bingley is quite comfortably set up in the drawing-room at Netherfield,” Darcy announced as they caught up with Lizzy and her sisters.

  “Oh good,” Jane smiled. “Are you sure you ought to have left her?”

  “My sister is perfectly fine. I fancy it will aid her recovery if she is left to her
own devices and forced to recuperate in order to find amusement.”

  “You are cruel!” Jane teased.

  “I am not.” His voice was mild and still imbued with the adoration that was evident whenever he spoke to or about Jane. “You will learn that for yourself soon enough. There is a way to manage Caroline.”

  “Is there indeed,” Elizabeth pondered drily.

  Darcy watched her, noting something different about her demeanour. “Are you cold, Miss Elizabeth?”

  She shook her head. “The air has sufficient warmth for my continued good health, at any rate.”

  “Whatever do you mean?” he laughed but stopped when he saw the serious look on her face.

  They resumed their walking and it was not long before Bingley and Jane broke off from the group, meandering at such a slow pace that it was not possible to slow and keep step with them. He fancied it was entirely deliberate and he did not begrudge them for it. Rather he welcomed it as an opportunity to spend time in private with Miss Elizabeth.

  It was strange. It was as if she was slowing her pace so as not to walk faster than her younger sister. They spoke in hushed tones and Lizzy seemed rapt by every utterance that Kitty made. It was most unlike her: certainly, Darcy had never seen her act in such a way.

  He walked alongside them for almost an hour, wondering how he might find Elizabeth alone for long enough to ask the question of her. But it was not to be.

  No sooner had they returned to Longbourn than she stood and hurried from the drawing-room with no explanation. She did not return for hours, leaving Darcy most perplexed and forced to console himself with the company of the others.

  Chapter 32

  Elizabeth sat on a bench in the garden, staring into the distance. Darcy, Bingley and her sisters had only departed for their walk ten minutes before, so she knew she needed to give them more of a head start before she ventured out on her own.

  She had some important matters to attend to. She had felt terribly rude as she turned down Jane’s repeated entreaties to join them, but there was no way she could think straight in Darcy’s presence.

  She bit her lip and stared at the ground. Walking helped her to think and right then she needed all the help she could get. She had not mentioned a word of it to Jane. So far as she could tell, Kitty had not been paying attention when Miss Bingley made her terrible claim about Darcy’s hand in Bingley’s departure.

  “Miss Bingley,” Lizzy muttered now, staying as quiet as possible. It was remarkable how easily scurrilous words carried on the country air. Their servants might have been loyal, but Lizzy was realistic enough to know that they gossiped almost as a sport when they socialised with the servants from other houses in the area.

  Why should I believe a word she says? Did she not trick us into believing that Darcy was not coming? I don’t know what she hoped to achieve by that, but it is clear to me that she will do anything to rid herself of competition for Darcy’s heart. So why then…

  “Miss Elizabeth.”

  Lizzy glanced up in a state of fright. She had been so deep in thought that she hadn’t heard him approach. Darcy stood a little behind her, staring out at the same vista as she had been staring at without noticing.

  “Darcy. I thought you had all gone off on your walk.”

  “Well, I thought you were not feeling well. Shouldn’t you rest inside?”

  She smiled and shook her head. How could she believe that woman’s words about him? Why, she had a far higher regard for Darcy than she did Miss Bingley and she knew that woman was willing to do just about anything to further her own circumstances.

  “Is something troubling you, Miss Elizabeth?”

  She sighed. “I heard something that troubles me greatly.”

  “Really, Miss Elizabeth?”

  There was such concern and irritation in his voice that she looked back at him in surprise. Was he really so affected by the idea that something was bothering her? She shivered as she remembered his declaration of love at Gracechurch-street. Was it…

  She swallowed and blurted out her question before she could change her mind. “Was it you who urged Mr. Bingley to leave Netherfield last year?”

  His eyes widened as he sighed and sat down heavily on the bench beside her. She urged him to deny it; to laugh and tell her it was the most ludicrous fiction he had ever heard tell of.

  But he did not, just as a small part of her had suspected he wouldn’t.

  “Yes.”

  “Yes?” she repeated incredulously. “You admit it?”

  He nodded. “What else can I do? It is the truth, after all.”

  She sucked in a breath, struggling to comprehend it. It was one thing hearing it from a source such as Miss Bingley, but now Darcy himself had admitted the truth of it!

  “Why, Mr. Darcy? Surely you knew how he felt about my sister.”

  “That is correct,” he said, staring ahead. “I was all too aware of Bingley’s fondness.”

  “Why, then?” It was a struggle to keep her voice calm. The peace in the garden, which had been so soothing just moments before, now irritated her beyond belief. The slowness and warmth of it seemed to mock her.

  He turned and looked at her with something akin to pleading in his eyes. “There are a few reasons. Miss Elizabeth, I must…” he shook his head looking utterly anguished. “We discussed your sister’s feelings in London, if you recall. That was the first I knew of her affection for my friend. You must believe me—at the time I worried that his regard for her far outweighed her feelings for him.”

  “So you urged him to leave. And he was happy to comply.”

  “I prevailed on him to consider it, yes. He is a clever man, but I must own that he is somewhat reliant on my judgement of things.”

  “But she was extremely fond of him! How could you claim to know her feelings when you scarcely knew her?”

  He hung his head. “At the time I believed my assessment to be accurate.”

  Lizzy jumped to her feet, unable to stay still any longer. It was a struggle to keep her voice low when all she wanted to do was shout her questions at him so that she might know the truth as quickly as possible.

  “But it was all wrong! You sent him away when all along she pined for him!”

  “That was not the only reason,” he said hollowly.

  She stood, waiting for him to elaborate. Something told her that she would like this other reason even less.

  He did not disappoint that expectation. “Some characteristics of your family gave me cause for concern. I worried that your mother’s chief occupation was securing his wealth for her family.”

  She gasped, turned and hurried to the crumbling stone wall that overlooked the orchard. To hear it said so plainly, it was like a knife to the gut. And to think he had claimed to love her!

  “Miss Elizabeth,” he muttered, following her to the wall. “I did not mean to offend you, but neither did I wish to lie. It is true. You must know it.”

  She could think of no response for a moment. Pain seared through her. How many times had she dreamt about their union now that the problem of Lydia had been neatly legitimised and painted with a veneer of respectability? She felt a fool: had she not known all along that his prejudice was deeply rooted? No, she had been too quick to cast aside all of Wickham’s accusations, but what if some of them were true? After all, had she not witnessed it herself?

  “Miss Elizabeth!” he cried.

  “Keep your voice down,” she hissed. “Or have you no care for propriety on this occasion? It strikes me as hypocritical. Why, you…” she stopped short of questioning him about his reasons for proposing to her: it was too painful to raise the topic.

  “Miss Elizabeth,” he said, even louder still. “Please; I implore you to listen. While it is true that I convinced Bingley to leave, I also pleaded with him to return.”

  “What happened?” she asked drily. “Did my family suddenly become more tolerable? I struggle to see how when you have not seen them.”

 
; “No,” he muttered. “It was not that.”

  “What then?”

  He turned and leant against the wall. He looked down at her. There was a sadness in his expression that tugged at every part of her being and made her realise how much she loved him. “I suppose I did not understand love. Not until… not until… Once your aunt made reference to your sister’s pain, I realised I had made an error in judgement. I admit it freely. And I hope I have now remedied the situation.”

  Lizzy didn’t know what to think. She stared up into his eyes, entranced by him. “You caused so much pain. I…”

  “I apologise. But I have sought to fix the damage I have done.”

  She shook her head. “And you have succeeded. They are engaged, after all.” She sucked in a breath. Jane and Bingley were happier than anyone she had ever known. He was right, wasn’t he? He may have torn them apart, but it appeared he had brought them together.

  “How did you convince him?” she asked, thawing somewhat.

  He smiled awkwardly. “I approached Bingley.”

  “And told him what? That you’d urged him to flee in error and that you’d been wrong?”

  She laughed; he did not.

  “Yes,” he said simply. “There was no sense in trying to justify my actions.”

  She couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh, Mr. Darcy. Everything is so straightforward for you, isn’t it?”

  “No,” he said, looking away. “Well, perhaps it used to be, but it is not anymore.”

  They fell silent, and Lizzy’s spirits rose immensely. It felt like no time had passed since those precious words spilt from his lips. She found herself watching him, wondering if he might seek her hand again. With no barrier in the way, they might even…

  “Are you expecting guests?”

  It took a moment for his words to sink in: they were not the ones Lizzy had been expecting.

  “Um.” She cleared her throat and looked in the direction Darcy was pointing. A small carriage appeared before immediately being swallowed up by the trees on the approach. She caught a brief glimpse of it again. “Ah, of course. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it immediately. My sister Lydia was recently wed. She and her new husband, Mr. Wickham, were due to visit on their way north. I expect it is them, come early.”