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“A mating between Mr. Bingley and Miss Darcy?” Elliot shook his head. “That does not seem possible, Jack.”
“My brother admires her greatly already,” Jack continued, reading the words aloud again. “He will have frequent opportunity now of seeing her on the most intimate footing.”
“He would already have spent significant time with her, surely?” Elliot asked, his mind racing as he tried to work out exactly what manner of deviousness Caroline Bingley was plotting. Because something murky was afoot! And coming so soon on the heels of the disastrous Netherfield ball. It was possible that Jack had not realised just how embarrassing the whole thing had been, not least because the proposal had entirely derailed Elliot from discussing it. “You said that Mr. Bingley spent many weeks in Pemberley,” he said slowly. “If that is so then he would already have had ample opportunity to see Miss Darcy on an intimate footing?”
“This is true,” Jack conceded. “But look here,” he added, pointing to the words where Caroline Bingley expressed her heartfelt hopes of a connection. “Is that not clear enough? Does it not expressly declare that Caroline neither expects nor wishes me to be her brother, that she is perfectly convinced of her brother’s indifference, and that if she suspects the nature of my feelings for him, she means—most kindly—to put me on my guard? Can there be any other opinion on the subject?”
“Kind? Caroline Bingley?” Elliot scowled. “I doubt those words have ever been applied to her before now, Jack. My interpretation of this letter is much different. Miss Bingley sees that her brother is in love with you and wants him to mate with Miss Darcy. She follows him to town in hope of keeping him there and tries to persuade you that he does not care about you.”
“I don’t think?—”
“You need to start thinking on her behaviours towards you,” Elliot said. “And that of her sisters. You have not seen it, Jack, and I have not wished to make you aware of it, not when you have been so deep in your affections for Mr. Bingley, but her manner is often false.”
It was the first time that Elliot had acknowledged his brother’s regard for Mr. Bingley and Jack looked up at him quickly. What Elliot saw there in Jack’s eyes would have chased away any doubts of his feelings being a mere infatuation.
Fated mates?
Elliot did not know.
He did know that the words of this letter were hurting Jack.
“No one who has ever seen you together can doubt his affection,” Elliot continued softly, his mind filled with image after image of the two of them dancing, talking, secret smiles a mirror of one another, their bodies naturally leaning in for an intimacy that society would not yet allow. “It has been obvious to all. Miss Bingley, I am sure, cannot doubt it either. She is not such a simpleton, far from it. But the case is this.” He paused and took a deep breath, the words as much for himself as for Jack. “We are not rich enough or grand enough for them, that is the fact of it.”
“Mr. Bingley does not care for such matters.”
“His sisters do.”
“But then…” Jack sat on the edge of the bed, letter fluttering onto it, Caroline Bingley’s words plain for all to see. “How could I possibly be happy, even supposing the best, in accepting a man whose sisters and friends are all wishing him to mate elsewhere?”
“You must decide for yourself,” Elliot said. “And if, upon mature deliberation, you find that the misery of disobliging his two sisters is more than equivalent to the happiness of being his husband and mate, I advise you by all means to refuse him.”
“How can you talk so?” said Jack, faintly smiling. “You must know that I could not hesitate.”
“No,” Elliot agreed. “I did not think you would.”
“He is…he is meant for me, I think,” Jack said.
And Elliot’s heart clenched.
“But if he does not return for some months, my choice may never be required. A thousand things may arise during that time!”
“And a thousand things may not,” Elliot countered, and Jack seemed to take some comfort in that, and in the conversation that followed where they read the letter again and again, word by word, phrase by phrase.
It was only later that evening, as Mrs. Bennet insisted upon considering which courses she would eventually serve Mr. Bingley when he returned—because of course he must because her hopes could not be dashed a second time!—that Elliot allowed himself to consider what thousands of things might happen with Darcy before Elliot saw him again.
If he ever did.
Twenty-Seven
The Bennets were engaged to dine with the Lucases the following week, and Elliot found himself being grateful for the distraction, not just for Jack whose spirits were still low, but for himself also.
The Lucases were well known for putting on a good dinner and the festivities that evening were no exception. Elliot found himself seated next to Charlie Lucas, as was always the case given their close friendship. Mr. Collins, who had extended his stay for some weeks though they were not quite sure why, was on the other side. Elliot had not spoken to him at length since his aborted proposal but, and this was surprising to Elliot, there did not seem to be any ill feeling from Mr. Collins. He was in good spirits and spent the first part of the evening monopolising Charlie with conversation about the sermon he intended to deliver once back at his parsonage.
His good grace in finally accepting that Elliot was not going to consent to a marriage and a mating made Elliot see him in a new light and he wished again that the proposal had been made to Marc perhaps. For surely his younger, slightly dourer brother would have accepted! They would have to wait now to see who Mr. Collins eventually mated with and who would therefore become the master of Longbourn. Unless Jack and Bingley…
Elliot looked across the table to where Jack was sat next to Sir William Lucas who treated the oldest Bennet as a firm favourite. They were discussing some text that Sir William was planning to share with Mr. Bennet, and it was the most animated that Elliot had seen his brother for some days. Elliot was cheered by that for he had read Caroline Bingley’s letter several more times since its arrival and on each new reading Elliot began to fear that Jack’s first impressions might well be true.
Oh, not that Mr. Bingley was indifferent to Jack. Elliot could not see how that could be the case given the time they had spent together and the obviousness of their affections. But, instead, that Caroline Bingley might succeed in keeping the two men apart long enough that those feelings might change.
