The older Misses Bennet turned and wandered to their father’s library. It was immediately clear that he had heard the news.
“It is settled,” he said, a dreamy look on his face.
“At last,” Lizzy said, taking the seat in front of his desk, which she often sat in when they chatted on rainy, uneventful afternoons. “I must say, I doubted this day would come.”
They lapsed into a companionable silence; finally relaxing in a way that none of them had since news reached them of Lydia’s departure from Brighton. They might have stayed like that for some time, if it was not for the arrival at the door of another messenger.
This time, it was a servant with a note. Mrs. Bennet must have been watching from upstairs, because she was at the door before any of the rest of them, despite their being closer. She tore the note away from the servant before anyone else could reach it.
“He is from Netherfield,” she cried, before slamming the door closed.
There followed a wild chase through the house. By now, Jane had gone from calm to frantic. Lizzy hated to see the hope that filled her eyes and confirmed her suspicion that her sister’s feelings for Mr. Bingley had never really weakened.
“Mama, you must tell us what it says!”
Unfortunately, whatever information was contained in that letter had the effect of rendering their mother speechless. They could gather from her rictus grin that there was something positive contained within it, but that was all. She appeared to be trying to explain, but she made no sense. Lizzy reached over and pulled the paper from her fingers.
“What does it say, Lizzy?” Jane asked, anxiously hovering at her shoulder.
Lizzy’s eyes scanned over the words; they widened as she began to understand what was happening. She could scarcely believe it.
“Well?”
“Jane, I do not know what to say. It is Bingley. He has returned. This note was addressed to Father, though of course when has that ever mattered to our mother? He shall call on father this evening and looks forward to renewing his acquaintance with our family.”
Jane looked as though she might faint. Lizzy hurried closer to catch her just in case she did. That thought sparked a memory and she experienced a most unusual emotion: regret. She remembered that time in London when Darcy had picked her up and brought her to safety. If only the timing had been different and they had met at a different point in their lives!
The news of Bingley’s return had planted a new question in her mind: was Darcy with him? There was no mention of it in the letter, but that did not mean anything. After all, it was a simple short note to let Mr. Bennet know Bingley would be calling. Indeed, it would have been unusual for him to go into great detail about his plans in such a communication.
Lizzy was also curious to know the reasons behind Bingley’s return. After all, it had been almost a year since he left, and in such a hurry at that! She did not voice that thought. To do so might have affected Jane’s happiness, though on scrutinising her sister she realised that that would be difficult. Jane glowed with such good humour and delight as Lizzy had ever seen.
“He said he would be here this evening,” Lizzy whispered. “We should go and prepare.”
She followed Jane up the stairs. She too would prepare, just in case Bingley did not turn up to their home unescorted.
Chapter 28
Kitty was not the only one of the Bennet sisters glued to an upstairs window that evening. Lizzy found herself drawn there repeatedly, praying silently that Darcy had accompanied his friend to Hertfordshire.
If I could just explain, she thought desperately.
She frowned. How could she explain anything to him without revealing the real reason she had rejected his proposal? There was no way she could do that; not without revealing her shame and drawing scorn from Darcy.
After what felt like several hours, Kitty was the first to spot the carriage. Lizzy sat forward, her forehead pressing against the glass.
“Jane, he’s coming!” she cried, hurrying back to the bedroom she shared with her sister.
“Is he alone?”
“I couldn’t tell.”
Jane sighed. “I wonder if his sisters have accompanied him this time. Perhaps Caroline shall have an explanation for the cooling of our friendship when I was in London.”
Lizzy shrugged. “I haven’t seen her since she left Hertfordshire. She was at Darcy’s townhouse in London, but she and Bingley were called away while I was there so I never saw her. Not that I was disappointed—”
“Lizzy!” Jane cried. “You were at Mr. Darcy’s house in London? When did this happen? And why didn’t you tell me?”
Lizzy shook her head. She had not told Jane anything of Darcy’s proposal and she had sworn her aunt to secrecy. The truth was it was too painful a topic for her to dwell on for any length of time.
“It was nothing. Aunt Gardiner was taken ill in the city and Darcy happened upon us and insisted that we return with him so we could rest and be seen by an apothecary.”
Jane did not seem to accept this explanation. “Lizzy! He is a single man with ten thousand a year!”
“Hush, Jane. It is possible he is approaching now with Bingley.”
“But Lizzy…”
“Come,” Lizzy said, with a heavy heart. “Let us go to the drawing-room and put on a convincing show that we have not just spent the past hour staring out the window and awaiting his arrival.”
“Oh Lizzy,” her sister laughed, hurrying down the stair. “I would be simply mortified if he knew. As I am sure you would be if Darcy learnt that you had been eagerly awaiting his arrival.”
Lizzy winced. “I have not.” She tried to fake a laugh but that faculty failed her entirely. “Whatever gave you that impression? I was waiting for Bingley.”
“You were not! I know you better than that.”
They entered the drawing-room. Jane picked up her needlework and Lizzy selected a volume from one of the bookcases. She opened it in the middle and stared at the words. It was a book of stories that had always interested her greatly, but she found now that her eyes would not settle on the words. She could not concentrate. Even talking of him niggled at the huge void that had existed within her ever since she had been forced to reject his proposal. If anything, she thought, it might have been preferable never to have experienced the love she felt for him. She still felt some modicum of hope, though. Wasn’t it likely he was now back in Hertfordshire? After all, he and Bingley were such dear friends.
The doorbell rang and suddenly Lizzy could barely stand the suspense. She held her breath, ears pricked to pick up any trace of that familiar, gruff voice.
Chapter 29
“Perhaps he stayed behind at Netherfield,” Jane muttered.
They had heard Bingley’s warm voice and even the condescending laughter of Miss Bingley as she accepted some compliment from Mrs. Bennet. But there was no trace of Mr. Darcy.
Maybe he is being his usual quiet self, Lizzy reasoned with herself, but it was a pointless exercise. She did not believe he had come.
Presently, Miss Bingley was shown into the drawing-room while Bingley went to the library with Mr. Bennet. The ladies greeted each other cordially, and then a strange sort of awkwardness descended over them. Miss Bingley did not even condescend to start a conversation and Lizzy found she was loath to make an effort with that young lady after her awful treatment of Jane in London.
It was Jane, typically, who tried to initiate conversation. “Did you have a pleasant journey here, Miss Bingley?”
Caroline shuddered. “It was as pleasant as it could be, I suppose.”
“How lovely,” Lizzy said drily. She wondered at Miss Bingley’s presence. It was hard to understand without first knowing the intentions of the brother. Lizzy supposed all would become clear in good time. She sat back and observed the conversation between Jane and Miss Bingley, glad that it was Jane and not her who might soon be related to the woman.
If she had not known Jane, she would
never have suspected that anything had happened between the two women. Only Lizzy could see the slight reserve in her sister’s demeanour. Lizzy fell back into her thoughts again, musing on whether she might ever see Fitzwilliam Darcy again. She vowed to find some way to ask Bingley about his friend’s plans. She would certainly not ask this woman, for she felt sure she would only receive scorn in response.
She stared at her book. Perhaps there would be opportunities to see Darcy again if Jane married Bingley. She comforted herself with this thought as she skimmed the pages.
Miss Bingley tittered quite suddenly and Lizzy looked up, alarmed to see that both women were watching on her.
“What is it?”
“Why, you are lost in your own thoughts, Miss Eliza!” Caroline Bingley cried. “I asked you if you had a pleasant time in town. Don’t you remember? You stayed at Darcy’s townhouse. He prevailed on my brother to stay away so you might be alone.”
Lizzy baulked. “He did no such thing. Your memory is flawed, my dear. Darcy simply asked that you both stay elsewhere based on what the apothecary recommended. My aunt had fainted in the street and he very kindly escorted us back to his home to tend to us.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Caroline said hesitantly. “Fancy that. Where was your uncle in this hour of need?”
Lizzy didn’t like the direction their conversation was taking. “Presumably he was carrying on his business. Though I don’t think it odd that he did not escort us. After all, my aunt is a married woman. Is it unusual where you come from for two women, one married, to walk in broad daylight escorted by a male servant?”
Miss Bingley smiled and it made Lizzy tense. It was clear that she had given the other woman exactly what she needed.
“Well, Miss Eliza, that rather depends on where the women are walking, does it not?”
Lizzy flushed. She could tell Jane’s focus was on her but she did not dare look at her sister. She focussed on regaining her composure. After all, Lydia was married now. They had avoided the worst possible outcome. But she couldn’t escape the feeling that Miss Bingley knew more than she should. But how?
“Of course it does, Miss Bingley. Well, in any case we had a footman with us. But Mr. Darcy did rather insist we accompany him back to Mayfair. He was so adamant that it would have been rude to refuse. I do apologise if our presence there caused your room to become unavailable. Mr. Darcy was quite insistent.”
This time, Miss Bingley could not hide her annoyance. She sighed and changed the subject to something completely different—and thoroughly inane.
“It is wonderful to have you back here, Mr. Bingley,” Lizzy said as they took their seats around the dining table.
As they had expected, Mrs. Bennet had prevailed on Mr. Bingley to stay and dine with them. It had not been at all difficult to convince him and consequently there was a great panic to source enough fine food at short notice.
“It is wonderful to be back,” Charles Bingley smiled. “I have missed you all terribly. As for Netherfield House, well it is just as wonderful as I remembered.”
Lizzy frowned before quickly rearranging her features. How strange that he should leave if he had been so enamoured by the place and its people. For Jane’s sake, she kept her confusion to herself.
“It is a beautiful house,” Mrs. Bennet mused. “It is such a pity to see it empty for such vast periods of time.”
“Shall you have a ball this time?” Lizzy asked, before her mother could think of an even more pointed remark.
“That is a very good question,” Bingley smiled. “And yes, I do intend to throw a ball soon, you shall be pleased to know.”
Silence descended over them and the question Lizzy wished to ask reverberated around in her mind so loudly that she was almost convinced they could all hear it. She knew it was rather direct, but she had reached a point where she no longer cared.
“Mr. Darcy did not join you this time,” she said, working hard to sound as if it was something she had just then noticed.
“He was detained by an important matter, unfortunately. It could not be helped.”
“Yes,” Miss Bingley interrupted. “He could not come. It is no surprise: he is an important man with a busy estate. I am sure he has vastly more important things to do than join us here.”
“Caroline,” Mr. Bingley said. “What a thing to say!”
Miss Bingley smiled. “Oh, I was making a joke at our expense, Charles. Nothing more.” She looked up, catching Lizzy’s eye for a fraction of a second longer than was comfortable. “I seem to recall you had five daughters, Mrs. Bennet. Was I wrong?”
Lizzy watched her face closely, looking for any tell-tale sign of her intentions. Bingley was deep in conversation with Jane and he appeared not to have heard his sister’s apparently innocent question. Nor did Mrs. Bennet seem rattled by it.
Lizzy, on the other hand, was most suspicious.
“Why, yes, that is correct, Miss Bingley. My other daughter Lydia has just been married.”
“Oh, how lovely,” Caroline gushed. “You must tell me all about the ceremony. I expect it was simply delightful.”
Mrs. Bennet faltered for a moment and Lizzy glanced at Jane, whose conversation with Bingley had fallen into a natural lull moments before.
“Well, luckily for you, Miss Bingley, you’ll be able to ask her yourself soon. The newly-weds are coming back this way within the week. Wouldn’t that be better? Jane? Lydia is a far superior storyteller than any of us. Why, she has the ability to entrance a whole room with her words.”
Miss Bingley glowered and fell silent as her brother enthusiastically told them about a hunting party he had recently been a part of. Jane relaxed and watched Bingley with undisguised adoration, but Lizzy remained alert. She had been able to ward off Miss Bingley’s pointed questions on that occasion, but she knew that young lady well enough to know that she would not be put off by a half-hearted attempt to silence her. Lizzy wondered with dread what was yet to come. What lengths would Caroline go to in order to keep Jane from her brother?
Chapter 30
Despite Lizzy’s misgivings, it appeared there was nothing Miss Bingley could do to dampen her brother’s enthusiasm for a marriage to Jane. He proposed less than a week after his arrival in Hertfordshire and Jane barely hesitated before joyfully agreeing to marry him.
The mood in the Bennet household was now unrecognisable from how it had been the month before. Mrs. Bennet was rarely to be found in her home, preferring to spend as much time in Meryton as possible. They preferred that very much: when their mother was in attendance, it was as if she would not rest until they finalised all of the details for the wedding, no matter how minute.
After a few days of this, Jane and Bingley took to joining Lizzy on her daily walks. These were happy occasions, though Jane and her husband-to-be tended to linger behind Lizzy, lost in their own little world. On this particular day, both Kitty and Miss Bingley had decided to come along rather than subject themselves to Mrs. Bennet’s endless chatter about the wedding and her wonderful Jane.
It as if Lizzy was alone. Since the wedding was announced, Miss Bingley appeared to have withdrawn into herself and seldom bothered to speak even when the opportunity to make a cruel remark arose. Kitty, too, was a changed young woman, having suffered the punishment for her absent sister’s transgressions. She was excited about the upcoming ball at Netherfield but felt sure she would be forbidden from attending.
Lizzy did not mind the silence. It was a chance to reflect.
“Who is that?” Kitty cried, hurrying forward and shattering her older sister’s peace.
Lizzy squinted off into the distance. There was a figure up ahead, but he or she was too far away to make out. She was intrigued. Her father had been holed up in his library when they set out from Longbourn House and it didn’t make sense for Sir William to approach from the direction of Netherfield. Now that Bingley’s engagement to Jane had been formalised, there was no reason for the Lucases to court Bingley on behalf o
f one their own unmarried daughters.
Yes, it was definitely a gentleman, Lizzy realised as they got closer. There was something familiar about his bearing too. She frowned. Who was it? She turned to see if either of her companions might shed some light and was alarmed at the sight of Miss Bingley’s face.
“What is it?” she cried.
The other woman’s elegant features were screwed up as if she had just seen a highwayman.
“Nothing,” Caroline muttered.
“Would you like me to walk you back to Netherfield? If you have taken ill you should rest.”
“Walk!” Miss Bingley cried. “Why it is much too far away. No, when I am ready I shall leave in the carriage with Charles.”
“I only meant if you wished to return there sooner.”
“Ah, I can see the real reason for your concern. You would like me out of the way!”
Lizzy shook her head and exhaled sharply, wondering what on earth was going on in the mind of that young woman. She felt confident she could successfully go the rest of her life without understanding Caroline Bingley: the woman seemed to alter her personality on an almost daily basis.
They walked on. By now, she could see the man’s overcoat. She realised that it was Darcy he reminded her of, and she smiled to herself. How often she had walked in this very park and imagined him striding towards her, bent on proposing again and this time refusing to accept no for an answer.
She shook her head. It was remarkable to her that Lydia’s transgressions, which she felt should have made her more cynical and wary of love, had turned her into a hopeless romantic.
“Look, Lizzy! It’s Mr. Darcy!”
She glanced at Kitty, her first instinct being to tell her silly sister not to tell stories. “I don’t think so, my dear. Didn’t the Bingleys say he would not be joining them?”
Kitty, though, would not be dissuaded. “Well it is him, so I don’t know why they would have said that.”
Mr Darcy to the Rescue: A Pride and Prejudice Regency Variation Page 10