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“It is a splendid estate.”
“But is it too close to Longbourn?” he asked, and Darcy wondered if he too had been regaled with Mrs. Parry’s gossip.
“Are you asking me if I think so or if Jack Bennet is likely to think so?” Darcy asked.
Bingley shrugged. “Both.”
“Then yes to both questions!”
Charles turned and grinned. “Had I a mother like Mrs. Bennet I am not convinced I would want to live quite so close. Indeed, I might use my marriage as an opportunity to get some much needed distance!”
“I wonder if Louis Bennet is thinking the very same thing.”
Charles’ grin disappeared. “I know we did the right thing there, Darcy, the only thing we could do, but I fear that Louis Bennet is going to be in for a hard time of it with Wickham.”
“Yes,” Darcy agreed. “But I was quite clear with Wickham before they left what would occur should any harm come to the youngest Bennet.”
“Not harm,” Charles said. “Wickham is too dependent on your purse now to allow that to happen! But Louis will not be happy.”
“I have a feeling Louis Bennet will find a way to make his own happiness,” Darcy said. “One way or the other. Now, come,” he added, “let us ready ourselves for a visit, Charles.”
Charles knew where that visit was to be. “This afternoon?”
Darcy nodded. “We have been here long enough that the whole of Meryton and beyond is probably gossiping over your arrival and wondering what the purpose of it is.”
“Can there be any doubt?” Charles asked.
“Until the deed is done, yes.”
Charles frowned at that and left the library. He was unusually quiet and pensive as they made the walk through to the other side of the house. He had been that way since they had journeyed from London, just the two of them this time as Caroline Bingley and the Hursts had remained at Pemberley with Georgiana. They’d sent word ahead of course so that Netherfield could be opened up for them, and Darcy did not doubt that by now word would also have reached the Bennets that they had arrived.
Reached Elliot.
Darcy wondered if the other man had missed him.
He wondered too if he was awaiting his address…and whether he would respond positively to it.
“I find myself quite nervous, Darcy,” Charles eventually said.
“I am sure there is no need to be,” Darcy replied even as he reflected that he himself felt the same way.
Charles shrugged. “I haven’t seen Jack in some months.”
“He will be just as you left him.”
“You think so?”
“Yes.”
“But you do not know that,” Charles added.
“And neither will you,” Darcy replied. “Not until you see him yourself.”
“When I think of how he has suffered!” Charles shook his head. “And I the cause of it!”
“Not just you,” Darcy said quietly.
“You accompanied me back here.”
