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“Of a fine, stout, healthy love it may,” Elliot said, trying to keep his voice steady as he gestured for his brothers to ready themselves to leave as well. “Everything nourishes what is strong already. But if it be only a slight, thin sort of inclination, I am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely away!”
Mr. Darcy only smiled and the general pause which ensued made Elliot’s stomach lurch, lest his mother say something inappropriate again. Jack was clearly thinking along the same lines because he began thanking Mr. Bingley for his kindness, his voice little more than a soft whisper. Bingley was warm and cheerful with Jack, and unaffectedly civil in his response to Mrs. Bennet. He forced his younger sister to be civil also and say what the occasion required. She performed her part, indeed, without much graciousness, but Mrs. Bennet was satisfied, and soon afterwards ordered her carriage.
Upon this signal, Louis put himself forwards and Elliot feared the day would soon get much worse. But Louis simply enquired after the Netherfield ball to which Bingley replied, “I am perfectly ready, I assure you, to keep my engagement, and, when your brother is quite recovered, you shall, if you please, name the very day of the ball.”
Louis was well satisfied with that answer and grinned as Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy accompanied them to the carriage. The younger boys were installed first before Jack was bundled in, still wrapped against the cold.
“You are welcome to be sick here whenever you like,” Mr. Bingley said by way of goodbye before helping Jack into the carriage. Mrs. Bennet followed. Elliot was last in, and it was a tight squeeze—it always was when it was the six of them. He lifted himself up but before he had a chance to settle inside a hand took his and helped him into place. Elliot only just contained a gasp when he realised the hand belonged to Mr. Darcy.
It was warm.
It was firm.
It made Elliot feel something and that feeling was not dislike. He realised then that it never had been.
Their eyes locked.
A specific curiosity—strange and suspenseful—passed between them.
Darcy held on for just a moment too long before letting go. Elliot shivered slightly in response. It felt like the touch had lasted for many minutes but, in reality, mere seconds had passed. Elliot was shocked to realise that no one else in the carriage had noticed.
He settled into his seat, heart racing, a riot of emotions running through him as the carriage moved away. Darcy watched it for only a moment before turning in the opposite direction, and as he did so Elliot’s mind filled with a tumble of thoughts.
Chief amongst them was the realisation that Darcy had touched him, had aided him. And even as he did so, he was probably thinking just how vulgar the Bennet family were, because what else could he be thinking after that display in the drawing room? By the time Elliot found himself back in Longbourn he had begun to understand why that realisation bothered him quite so much.
A Minister and a Militia
Sixteen
“Ihope, my dear,” said Mr. Bennet to his wife, as they were at breakfast later that month, “that you have ordered a good dinner today, because I have reason to expect an addition to our family party.”
“Who do you mean, my dear?” Mrs. Bennet asked. “I am not aware of anyone arriving. Unless Charlie Lucas should happen to call in and I would hope my dinners are good enough for him!”
“The person of whom I speak is a gentleman and a stranger.”
Mrs. Bennet’s eyes sparkled. “A gentleman and a stranger! Is it Mr. Bingley?” She turned and gave Jack a loving smile. “You never dropped a word of this, you sly thing! Well, I am sure I shall be extremely glad to see Mr. Bingley, and so soon after Jack’s stay. It seems he has missed you, my love! But good Lord, how unlucky! There is not a bit of fish to be had today. Louis, my love, ring the bell. I must speak to Hill this moment.”
“It is not Mr. Bingley,” said Mr. Bennet at the same time Jack said with a voice still hoarse and croaky, “Mr. Bingley is hardly a stranger anymore.”
“We have never met this man, though we know of him,” Mr. Bennet continued, rousing a good degree of astonishment, and giving Mr. Bennet the pleasure of being eagerly questioned by his wife and sons. After amusing himself some time with their curiosity, he finally said, “I received this letter about a month ago and replied to it a fortnight past for I thought it a case of some delicacy and requiring early attention.” He paused, watching their eager faces. “It is from my cousin, Mr. Collins, who, when I am dead, may turn you all out of this house as soon as he pleases.”
Elliot and Jack looked at one another, both of the opinion that their father could have worded that with somewhat more delicacy. Mrs. Bennet scowled, confirming their view.
“Oh, my dear. I cannot bear to hear him mentioned. Pray do not talk of that odious man. I do think it is the hardest thing in the world that your estate should be entailed away from your own children, and I am sure, if I had been you, I should have tried long ago to do something or other about it.”
“Mama, you know it is out of papa’s hands,” Jack said.
Both he and Elliot had attempted to explain to her the nature of the entail on numerous occasions, but it was a subject on which Mrs. Bennet was beyond the reach of reason and she continued to rail bitterly against the cruelty of settling an estate away from a family of five healthy and capable sons, in favour of a man whom nobody cared anything about simply because he happened to be a beta.
“It certainly is a most iniquitous affair,” Mr. Bennet said. “But I am cheered by his letter. It seems our Mr. Collins is suffering a substantial bout of guilt at the prospect of inheriting Longbourn. I confess, I was a little softened by his manner of expressing himself.”
Mrs. Bennet’s scowl deepened. “I think it was very impertinent of him to write to you at all, and very hypocritical. I hate such false friends. His father was an loathsome man and quarrelled with you continually when you inherited Longbourn if I remember correctly.”
“As a distant relative he may have had expectations of it also,” Mr. Bennet said, “especially given my status.”
“A situation easily dealt with by my own papa,” Mrs. Bennet replied fondly.
“This is by the by,” Mr. Bennet said. “Unless there is a change in our situation,” and here Mrs. Bennet gave Jack a pointed look, “then Mr. Collins will inherit Longbourn and everything within it.”
