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Elliot ignored her entirely, remaining where he was with his book—the one he had been gifted on the specimens of Derbyshire—determined to support Jack as much as possible through what was going to be a very difficult visit.
“Ah!” Christian said after a moment. “It looks just like that man that used to be with him before. Mr. What’s-his-name. The one who insulted Elliot, called him tolerable.”
Elliot shot up, the book falling from his grasp.
“Good gracious! Mr. Darcy!” Mrs. Bennet said as she scuttled over to the window. “Well, any friend of Mr. Bingley’s will always be welcome here, to be sure, but else I must say that I hate the very sight of him. You all recall that! He said barely tolerable, Christian, let us remember!”
Jack looked across at Elliot with surprise and concern at the exact same moment that Elliot looked at him in the same way.
The men they loved.
Arrived at Longbourn.
Anticipation and expectation.
They both were unsure what to make of it.
Elliot especially was conflicted. He bent down to pick up his book, his mind filled with the words from Mr. Gardiner’s letter. Darcy stepping in to save the family. Darcy arranging everything to ensure the scandal was properly hushed up. Darcy doing it for…who…for why…
Why was he here? It could not simply be to accompany Mr. Bingley, could it? Surely not. He is here for you, a voice whispered in Elliot’s mind and felt himself flush at the very thought.
“Sit down. Sit down!” Mrs. Bennet snapped as she began to bustle around the room again. She didn’t have very long to continue in her actions though because a few moments later the door opened, and the gentleman were announced.
They all stood back up. Elliot looked first at Mr. Bingley. He was flush faced and cheerful as always and he had eyes only for Jack. He had his hat in his hand twirling it around over and over. He was nervous. That much was clear. Elliot thought it was probably right that he should be given what had happened these past months.
Elliot then looked across at Mr. Darcy. He looked serious, as usual, and Elliot thought, more as he had been used to look in Hertfordshire, than as he had seen him at Pemberley where he had been much more relaxed and friendly. But perhaps that was due to Mrs. Bennet’s presence. She received Bingley with a great degree of pleasure, but her greeting to Darcy was civil at best. He gave her a nod and looked away immediately and out of the window.
Elliot was…hurt by his mother’s treatment of Darcy, which was an odd feeling to experience and yet not entirely unexpected. But her partiality to Bingley was obvious and yet had she any knowledge of anything at all that had occurred in recent months she should have been overjoyed to see Darcy.
Had he not rescued her youngest son and ensured him respectably married?
Was he not responsible for Bingley’s return as Elliot did not doubt that he had said or done something to bring this turn of events to fruition.
Was he, in fact, not the saviour of her very family!
Frustration filled Elliot and with it a sense of real injustice on Darcy’s behalf. He gritted his teeth together to stop from saying anything which he knew would simply embarrass the other man and instead gripped his book a bit tighter and took a deep breath. They were all seated. Darcy on the very edge of the room. He was absolutely silent as greetings and pleasantries were exchanged. He did not look at Elliot once. Elliot knew it because he kept his eyes fixed firmly on the alpha waiting…waiting...
“It is a long time, Mr. Bingley, since you went away,” Mrs. Bennet said as tea was ordered.
Bingley opened his mouth to agree to that, but Mrs. Bennet did not provide him an opportunity.
“I began to be afraid you would never come back again. People did say you meant to quit the place entirely, but I hope it is not true!”
“I—”
“A great many changes have happened in the neighbourhood since you went away,” she continued. “Charlie Lucas is married and settled with our cousin, Mr. Collins. And one of my own sons settled also. I suppose you have heard of it. Indeed, you must have seen it in the papers.” She sighed and spent a few moments complaining on the nature of the announcement. “Did you see it?”
Bingley replied that he did and made his congratulations.
Elliot lowered his gaze. He dared not look at Darcy now.
“It is a delightful thing, to be sure, to have a son well married,” continued Mrs. Bennet. “But at the same time, Mr. Bingley, it is very hard to have him taken away from me. They are gone to Newcastle, a place quite northward it seems, and there they are to stay I do not know for how long. His regiment is there where I am sure he has some friends, though perhaps not so many as he deserves.”
Elliot, who knew this to be levelled at Mr. Darcy, was in such immediate misery of shame, that he could hardly keep his seat. His fingers ached from his grip on the now abused pages of the Derbyshire book and he spoke quickly before he could think otherwise.
“How long do you stay for, Mr. Bingley?” he asked.
“A few weeks,” Bingley replied with a smile, clearly relieved to have the conversation turned in another direction. “To enjoy the country pursuits. We are here for hunting and fishing.”
