“I do not wish to argue upon this matter with you. I merely wish you to see that I am behaving reasonably. The management of my sister’s education and character is a heavy responsibility on me.”
Elizabeth made no reply, but after a minute she frowningly squeezed his hand back. So Darcy assumed all was well between them, and she accepted and acknowledged the justice of what he had said. He continued, “I shall need to go to London for business for a week — I’ll leave on Monday, and be back before the banns are to be said the next Sunday.”
“Oh.” Elizabeth smiled. “This is an opportunity, Mama has suggested several times that we ought to go to London to purchase my trousseau from the warehouses there.”
“No… no…” Darcy tapped a finger against his leg. “No. Best you stay in Hertfordshire until the wedding — all clothes can be managed from here. My business in London will not take more than a few days. I might return sooner than I planned.”
“You are an expert on what a woman requires for her trousseau,” Elizabeth replied. Though she smiled, he could tell that she was not wholly pleased with his answer.
“Am I wrong?”
“About being an expert — certainly.”
Darcy laughed merrily. “That is not a designation I ever claimed.Canyou manage from here?”
“The truth is, I would very much like to spend a week or two with my aunt and uncle before the wedding — especially as I shall not see them when they come to Longbourn for Christmas.” She paused, and then shyly looked at him, “You might call on us there a few times — I would dearly like you to meet them. I would wager that you shall like them much more than you expect.”
“It really is only a few days of business,” Darcy said. He was full of anxiety at being forced to endure more of Mrs. Bennet’s relations.
He had chosen to marryElizabeth, and Elizabeth would be a Darcy. And that would take her naturally away from her mother’s unwanted family. He did not wish to call on a family atGracechurchstreet.
“I see.” She pinched her lips together and sat stiffly, with her arms rigidly crossed over her chest, and she moved her knee away from his.
Elizabeth was unhappy.
He hated to see that. He wanted to always have her smiling, pleased with him, and pleased with the world.
But he knew enough about marriage that it was important to establish matters immediately upon the course he wished to keep — if he visited Elizabeth’s merchant relationsnow, it would become the expected thing for him to call on them every time he was in London. Then invitations to dine, and they would go on outings in public spaces together. He’d meet his uncle while with his new Cit family on a stroll in Hyde park, and he’d be forced to introduce the vulgar couple who Elizabeth liked due to an unfortunate combination of habit, connection, and blood.
An unacceptable disaster.
“About the clothes,” Darcy said. “Your loveliness shines forth when you wear what you have now — I honestly say there is no lovelier woman than you in all of England, or one who is better capable of appearing her best in any garb. In February we will return to London for the season, and there will be ample opportunity for you to purchase everything you might want then.”
“Ah, yes. Certainly.” Elizabeth looked at him with eyes that were rather too bright, and a voice that ran over itself. “The season then will be the opportunity also for me to see my aunt and uncle then. It is not too long till February. I shall be able to invite them to dine, and while that shall not be the same as staying a week with them in their house, the difference will not be an unpleasant one. I have been told that every lady longs to preside over her own table, and though I do notfeelit, that must be my own emotion as well.”
He wrinkled his nose in disgust at the image.
Begin as you mean to go on.
He certainly did not want to establish for himself a habit of not facing difficult matters between him and Elizabeth. She had made her preferences clear, and he would find a way to do something extra for her in some other area of their lives, in exchange for his refusal to attend to these preferences. But the vision that she painted with that speech was one which they both knew was uncongenial to him. “Elizabeth, well…”
“Yes?”
Elizabeth’s voice sounded odd.
“Well, I do not know that it will ever be a good idea to dine with your Cheapside relations.”
“Oh?”
“Ah… Well — you already know — I have already told you how your connections led me to hesitate before choosing to marry you. I am happy, and that happiness is worth more by far than the loss of opportunity to marry higher. And you are worth facing the disapproval of my family for — but my uncle, Lord Matlock, and my aunt, Lady Catherine have been… violently vocal in their disapproval of my choice.”
“Have they? Violently?”
Darcy winced.
No, Elizabeth was not happy.
“Yes — it is a bit of nonsense.” Darcy smiled. “The main point is that their support will help to establish you in society, but if I wish them to pretend happiness, I must go to some lengths. I believe you’d heard something of this. They wanted me to marry my cousin, Anne de Bourgh. A very fine fortune, but well — I never had that… want for her. And now that I have chosen a woman of a wholly inferior background, they seek only to criticize.”
