“Your enthusiasm does you justice,” responded Mr. Bennet drolly. He turned his attention to his wife, who was busy dishing up a plate of biscuits. “My dear Mrs. Bennet, I do hope your nerves are feeling up to par this morning for I have reason to expect a guest this afternoon.”
“A guest?!” Mrs. Bennet’s nerves were not sure whether they should be elated or dismayed by the sudden announcement. “What sort of guest?”
“He is a gentleman who was once a student of mine and who has come to gain some experience under my tutelage.”
“A gentleman!” Mrs. Bennet’s nerves were almost overcome by the good news. There was only one question to be asked that could ensure her complete happiness. “Is he single?”
“I believe he is.”
Mrs. Bennet shrieked, “Another single gentleman! It is too much! Too much, I tell you! God has finally answered my prayers!”
Lizzy decided this might be the opportune moment to slip away from the table unnoticed. She really did not want to get caught in the middle of what she knew was coming. Exchanging a glance with Jane, they both began edging off their seats.
Mrs. Bennet stopped her with one sentence. “Lizzy, you must make sure you are home in time for dinner.”
“I cannot, Mamma. I have too much work to do.” It was an excuse, and they both knew it. But it was a good one. Lizzy held her breath, hoping her mother would buy it.
Mrs. Bennet frowned. “Lizzy, I desire your presence at dinner this evening. You must know you are not getting any younger and there aren’t many young men who would tolerate your impertinence. I had high hopes that you might attract Mr. Darcy’s attention, but unlike Jane with Mr. Bingley, you have failed to ensnare him. We must keep our options open. You would do well to entertain this guest of your father’s as a likely candidate for your hand. You both like buildings, after all.”
Lizzy opened her mouth to speak. Since when had her mother become so old-fashioned in her sensibilities?
Mr. Bennet broke in, “Please, Lizzy. I should like to have you at the dinner table tonight. I have seen so little of you since you have taken on Netherfield Park.” His eyes twinkled as if they held a secret only he knew. “And I promise that Mr. Collins shall be a most diverting dinner companion.”
Lizzy could deny her father nothing, especially when he turned those pleading eyes on her. She capitulated. “Very well. I shall see what I can do.”
Mrs. Bennet clapped her hands together and squealed. “Splendid!”
Lizzy raised her voice to be heard over the resulting din. “But I make no promises!”
Mrs. Bennet patted her hand reassuringly, but Lizzy could tell she was not really listening. “Yes, dear.”
She met her father’s twinkling eyes across the table as Mrs. Bennet and her sisters started speaking simultaneously, riddling their father with questions about their guest, one right after the other.
“Is he handsome?”
“How much money does he make?”
“How old is he?”
“You shall find out in due time,” said Mr. Bennet with humor. “I expect Mr. Collins to arrive at four o’clock.”
“Four o’clock!” cried Mrs. Bennet, although why she was surprised, Lizzy knew not. “We must begin preparations at once!” She shooed her girls from the table. “Come, girls! There is work to be done!” She dropped a wink at Mr. Bennet as she swung around the table. “And I do not mean just housework!”
Mr. Bennet chuckled and unfolded the paper that was beside his plate. He might have just turned the rest of the house into a whirlwind of activity, but here in the kitchen at least it was still peaceful.
In all the tumult, Mrs. Bennet lost track of the direction each of her daughters had taken. As her mother followed Lydia and Kitty upstairs, Lizzy took the opportunity to slip out to her car unmolested. Jane followed suit, sliding into the passenger’s side as Lizzy started the engine.
“That was a near thing,” Jane said as they pulled out of the drive. “I expected Mamma to insist you take a trip to the salon downtown and see yourself made over before Mr. Collins arrives.”
“I know,” replied Lizzy with emphasis. “How is it that you escaped her attention? She made no mention of you attending dinner!”
Jane smiled sweetly. “She has high hopes that I will make a match with Mr. Bingley, so she would rather see me spend my time with him. And to be perfectly honest, I would, too. He is such a pleasant gentleman, Lizzy.”
Lizzy glanced at her sister and the softness that overcame her features at the mention of Charles. “I am pleased to see you so happy, Jane. I wish you both the best.”
Jane returned her smile. “I wish I could see you so happy, dearest.”
Lizzy heaved a longsuffering sigh. “I shall have to make do with Mr. Collins, I suppose.” She grinned as her sister dissolved into a fit of giggles.
“Do you really think he will be that bad?” asked Jane.
“Undoubtedly,” responded Lizzy. “Pappa promised I shall be thoroughly entertained and you know that can only mean one thing. I shall not be able to take him seriously.”
“Is Darcy looking better in comparison?” teased Jane.
Lizzy was silent as she contemplated her sister’s words and then answered with uncharacteristic seriousness. “Darcy is difficult. I think I could like him very much if not for his pride. We are a lot alike, he and I. But in the end, it does not matter. He would no more have me than I would have him. So, no. Mr. Collins certainly has a leg up on Mr. Darcy if for no other reason than he has yet to offend me and I have yet to embarrass myself in front of him.”
Jane was surprised. “Even if he is utterly ridiculous?”
“Even if he is utterly ridiculous. At least then I shall have something to laugh about.” The smile she bestowed on Jane was too wobbly for her sister’s tastes.
She frowned and started to speak just as Lizzy pulled into a parking spot at Netherfield Park and killed the engine. Lizzy silenced her with a glance.
“Jane, I know you are happy and practically in love and that means you want everyone around you to feel the same way you do. I get it, I really do. But sometimes it just isn’t possible. And I’m okay with that. I have a job I love, a great, if exuberant, family, and a lifetime of possibilities. I don’t need any more than that right now.”
Jane had no reply, and Lizzy would not have given her the chance to respond anyway. She pushed open the car door and collected her things from the backseat. “I’ll talk to you later, Jane. The inspector is supposed to be here in half an hour and I still have to check with my guys to see where we stand.”
At Jane’s nod and understanding smile, she strode off, trying to shake off the melancholy that still clung to her like the aroma of stale cigarette smoke.
As luck would have it, she ran into Darcy on her way to the east wing.
He could immediately tell that something was wrong. Her smile was gone. In its place was a troubled, brooding expression that would have been far more at home on his face.
He had been on his way to meet Charles in the lobby and go over their hiring plan, but something made him stop in his tracks and snag Lizzy’s arm as she tried to pass him in the hall.
She drew to a halt beside him with a frown. “Yes?” She looked down at the hand around her arm pointedly, but Darcy ignored the broad hint.
“What’s wrong?”
A brief flash of pain lit her eyes, followed promptly by astonishment, and trailed by a sardonic gleam. “Since when do you care about my feelings, Darcy?”
Her smile was brittle, and he could tell she was barely hanging on to the emotions she was trying so hard to hide from him. Her snap of sarcasm made him think twice about stopping her in the hall. He had sworn off Elizabeth Bennet, and it was obvious from her reaction she had no desire to share whatever was bothering her with him. There was no love lost between them. And yet… he couldn’t seem to help himself. Where Lizzy was concerned, he had to try to make things better.
He i
gnored the glare she was giving him. “We may not exactly be friends, Lizzy, but that does not mean I don’t care.”
Her look turned guarded. She tried, unsuccessfully, to pull her arm from his grasp. He tried, just as unsuccessfully, to ignore the tingle that was spreading up his arm from the spot where his fingers met her skin. The woman did things to his equilibrium he didn’t even want to think about.
He softened his tone. “Lizzy.”
Without warning, tears flooded her eyes and spilled over, rendering him speechless. He watched in horror as she swiped at them with her free hand.
“Couldn’t you just have left well enough alone, Darcy?”
Darcy had little experience with female tears, and none whatsoever with Lizzy’s. His stomach clenched. The last thing he had expected when he had stopped her in the hall was that he would be standing here with a crying Lizzy Bennet on his hands.
What did one do with a crying woman? Was he supposed to try and comfort her? Would she even want him to?
While he was rendered useless by his indecision, Lizzy managed to pull her arm from his grasp. She laughed a little at the dismay on his face and wiped the tears from her cheeks, looking a little more like the Lizzy he knew.
“Don’t worry, Darcy. I’ll be fine.” She forced a cheerful smile to her face and walked off, but it was hard for Darcy to see past the stain of her tears on her cheeks. Everything in him told him to go after her, but the seed of doubt in his mind held him back.
He might want to be the one she turned to for comfort, but he had to remember their lives were headed in two different directions. He couldn’t start something that would only lead to them both getting hurt.
Seeing her tears had been bad enough. Knowing he had caused them- he didn’t even want to contemplate that scenario.
He watched her go, but she never looked back.
*****
Mr. William Collins was punctual to his time, arriving at precisely four o’clock. Lizzy, on the other hand, was not. She barely made it home in time for dinner, rushing in at the last moment with a handful of apologies.
Her mother was not pleased with her late arrival, but nonetheless graciously invited her to dine with them. They had already started without her since Mrs. Bennet had despaired of her ever joining them.
Mrs. Bennet gestured for her to take the seat that had been left empty beside Mr. Collins. Lizzy did not know whether that had been by design or by circumstance, and she tried not to think about it too much.
Mr. Bennet was so kind as to perform the introductions, and Lizzy did not miss the gleeful glint in his eyes as Mr. Collins, or William, as he desired her to call him, shook her hand.
He was a tall, heavy-looking man of twenty-five, with a very grave and stately air that did not prevent him from keeping up a lively conversation with little encouragement from his companions. Lizzy had not long been seated before he complimented Mrs. Bennet on having a fine family of daughters; he said he had heard much of their beauty, but that in this instance fame had fallen short of the truth. He remarked upon Jane’s absence, as her beauty was legendary of itself and far surpassed that of her sisters, but was told that she was at Netherfield Park and could not be spared from her duties there.
The prospect of the young lady having such a full workload seemed to discomfit him and he remarked upon the oddity that a beautiful woman should have such a career. “It seems to me she would be much better off settled, with a family to raise and a household to run.”
Lizzy was rendered quite speechless by this statement, but Mrs. Bennet only responded dolefully. “You are quite right, William. If only I could make my girls see the wisdom of your suggestion.” She heaved a sigh as Mr. Collins nodded sagely.
“I am pleased to find we are of one mind, Mrs. Bennet. Perhaps together we might convince your daughters of the wisdom of our suggestion.” He turned a coy smile on the girls seated around the table. Lizzy nearly gagged on the revulsion that choked her as his gaze settled on her.
He could not be serious, could he? No man in this century could be so backwards. The satisfied glint in his eye told a different story, one that horrified Lizzy. He did believe it, and he had every intention of converting them.
She pushed her chair back from the table in a hurry, almost tripping over the leg of her chair as she tried to get up. “Well, I must be going. Thanks for the lovely dinner, Mamma. It was nice to meet you, William.”
“You are not going so soon, are you, Lizzy? We have not even had dessert. I made your favorite. White chocolate raspberry cheesecake.”
Lizzy paused with one foot out the dining room door and slowly did an about face. She said weakly, “White chocolate raspberry cheesecake?”
Her father was regarding her with laughing eyes, but Mrs. Bennet’s voice held a note of victory. Her mother did not play fair. She knew Lizzy’s weakness for the dessert.
Lizzy hesitated, waffling between her desire to be rid of Mr. Collins and his ridiculous ideas, and the temptation of cheesecake. Who could say no to cheesecake, especially white chocolate raspberry cheesecake? Lizzy had never been able to, and her mother was counting on that.
Lizzy looked between her mother and William Collins. A few more minutes couldn’t hurt. It wasn’t like her mother could have her married off to the man by the time dinner was over. She could stay for a slice and then leave. Jane wasn’t expecting her to be back for a couple more hours anyway.
She sat. “I guess I could stay for dessert.”
Mrs. Bennet smiled beatifically. “I’m glad.”
Mr. Bennet piped up from the head of the table, “William, I am told you have recently acquired a benefactor for your work.”
William, who had only been waiting for the subject to be brought up, began a lengthy monologue on the topic. He warmed to his subject quickly and waxed poetic about Lady Catherine, heaping eloquent praise upon her head. His already solemn and important visage was only elevated by the length of his discourse. “Lady Catherine has been reckoned proud by many people, but I have never seen anything but kind condescension in her. She speaks to me as she would to any gentleman, and has even been most generous in her advisement.”
“Pray tell, what advice has she given you?” asked Mr. Bennet, with the breathless anticipation of one assured it would be amusing.
“She has advised me to marry as soon as possible, provided I chose with discretion.”
“To marry?” Mrs. Bennet’s eyes turned luminous with hope. He was looking to marry! And her daughters were right before him for his choosing!
“Indeed, Mrs. Bennet, she has quite extolled the virtues of the state upon me. She has even paid my humble home a visit and perfectly approved of all the alterations I am making, even suggesting some herself- some shelves in the closet upstairs. She reminded me, of course, that a wife would want some say in the matter and thus beseeched me not to make too many improvements before I take on the state of matrimony.”
Mrs. Bennet said, “She sounds like a very agreeable woman. Does she live near you?”
“The garden in which my home stands is separated only by a lane from Rosings Park, which is her ladyship’s residence.”
“I think you said she was a widow. Has she any family?” Hoping she had none, Mrs. Bennet held her breath. She did not want any competition for her daughters when it came to William Collins’ matrimonial prospects.
“She has only one daughter, who is unfortunately of a sickly constitution, which has prevented her from making progress in many accomplishments. But she is perfectly amiable, and often rides by on her bicycle for a turn around the gardens.”
“Oh, the poor dear,” said Mrs. Bennet without any real sincerity. “It is too bad for her. It must be very difficult to find a husband with such uncertain health.”
“It is true that her indifferent state of health unfortunately prevents her from being in town and quite limits her society. As I told Lady Catherine myself one day, it has deprived London of its brightest ornament. Her ladyship se
emed pleased with the idea; and you may imagine that I am happy on every occasion to offer these little delicate compliments which are always acceptable to the ladies.”
“How thoughtful of you,” demurred Mrs. Bennet.
“It is happy for you that you possess the talent of flattering with delicacy,” said Mr. Bennet. “May I ask whether these pleasing attentions proceed from the impulse of the moment, or are the result of previous study?”
Lizzy tried to cover her giggle with a cough but was not entirely successful. She took a swallow of water from her glass to hide her grin, sharing an amused glance with her father over its rim.
“Mostly they arise from what is passing at the time. I do sometimes amuse myself with suggesting and arranging elegant compliments that can be adapted to ordinary circumstances, but I always try to give them as unstudied an air as possible.”
“Quite right,” said Mr. Bennet seriously, only his dancing eyes giving away his humor.
“I believe it is time for dessert,” interrupted Mrs. Bennet, sending her husband a warning glance. “Lizzy, please assist me in the kitchen.”
Lizzy rose to follow her mother, half afraid of what might happen on the other side of the door. Her father had been right in promising her an entertaining night. She wasn’t sure if it was good entertainment or not, but it was certainly fascinating in an ‘I can’t look away’ type of way.
Mrs. Bennet crossed to the fridge to pull out the cheesecake and set it on the middle of the kitchen island to slice and plate. She gestured at Lizzy with the knife she was using to slice. “Now, Lizzy, I want you to treat our guest with deference and respect. He is an important colleague of your father’s and he will be here for several weeks at least. We cannot afford to alienate him, and you especially cannot. This might be your only chance at a nice man to take care of you. I don’t want any of your sarcasm or witty remarks.” She dished up cheesecake as she spoke.
Lizzy was taken aback. “Mamma, you cannot be serious! William, as err…interesting…as he is, is not at all someone who I would be interested in as a husband, even if I wanted to get married. Which I don’t. We would not suit, Mamma.”
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