“Indeed?” Mr Bennet gestured to the chair with which Darcy had already become familiar. “Take a seat, Mr Darcy. I shall be eager to hear what I can do for you.”
Darcy took the seat, watching in some dismay as Elizabeth moved past him to exit the room. It was right and proper for her to go, of course, but he could not feel at all satisfied about addressing himself to a man in Mr Bennet’s condition. He suddenly wished that Elizabeth might make some plausible excuse for the conversation to be delayed a few more days.
“Lizzy, close the door, please,” Mr Bennet called. Elizabeth stepped outside and began to draw the door closed after herself when her father corrected her. “No, I meant for you to remain, Elizabeth! You are managing most of the household affairs just now, if I am not mistaken, and you ought to hear whatever this man’s concerns are.”
Elizabeth slid a cautious look to Darcy over her shoulder and did as her father asked. She moved by Darcy again to take the chair opposite him, near her father.
“Now, Mr Darcy, how may I be of service?”
Darcy clenched his fingers into a fist, then forcibly relaxed them. Best to have this over and done with! “Mr Bennet, I wish to marry your daughter.”
Mr Bennet merely gazed expectantly at him, as if Darcy had just announced he was about to go hunting but had not declared which field he intended to plunder.
Darcy blinked. Had the man not heard? “I… I love her, Mr Bennet, and I have the means to care for her extremely well. She shall want for nothing, I assure you. I can provide you with whatever assurance you require. I only ask your blessing, sir.”
Mr Bennet remained quiet, his face wearing a kindly puzzled look. Darcy could feel himself growing red. He looked to Elizabeth, who was narrowing her eyes slightly, then back to Mr Bennet’s face.
At last, the man spoke. “Mr Darcy, I have an abundance of daughters. Pray, which of them did you wish to claim? I had thought you a rather sensible man, so it cannot be Lydia. Though your purse is deep, I should think you would prefer a wife of some economy, so it cannot be Kitty. I expect you would not wish to compete with your friend, so it cannot be Jane. And Lizzy! No, far too stubborn for your taste, I declare. Mary, it is! She is rather more respectable but quite as silly as Kitty and Lydia in her way. Still, I do not think she will give you any trouble, so long as you curtail her playing in public. Of course, Mr Darcy, you may take her as soon as you please.”
Darcy’s face drained of all colour. Mr Bennet smiled, contented with the result of their discussion, and reached again for his glasses and book.
“Mr Bennet, there…” Darcy’s voice cracked. “There has been some sort of mistake! It is Miss Elizabeth I wish to marry!”
Mr Bennet’s eyebrows rose above the rim of his spectacles. “Lizzy? Surely not! She is tolerable, I daresay, but you will never have a moment’s peace, Mr Darcy! She will argue with every decision you make, steal all of the newest books from your library, use up an entire week’s allotment of candles in one night, and will ruin the hem on every gown you buy her. And her shoes! Oh, no, Mr Darcy, she will run you into the poorhouse.”
Elizabeth’s head bowed, but by the roundness of her cheeks, Darcy could tell she was chuckling rather than hiding in shame at her father’s remarks. Perhaps Mr Bennet was not so pitiable as he had been allowing himself to believe.
“All of these would be nothing, I assure you, Mr Bennet. I love Miss Elizabeth, and I shall marry no other.” Darcy’s voice still warbled, but by the end of his short statement, his voice had grown a precious little in firmness.
“Do I understand you correctly that you wouldshareyourlibrary? My good man, do be sensible! Surely there is some more handsome girl in London who would not cause you such worry and distress—one who might not thwart your authority at every turn! A man in your position clearly requires a much more docile wife!”
Darcy stared incredulously at Mr Bennet. The older gentleman smirked back at him. If his sudden intuition were correct, Mr Bennet had the most peculiar means of protecting his daughter that Darcy had ever seen. Intimidating hopeful men by insulting his daughter was not a tactic Darcy would have chosen, but it was effective in one regard—it crystallized his resolve. So devious was his method, in fact, that Darcy catalogued Mr Bennet’s pleasant perversity as a likely means of screening future suitors for Georgiana.
“Mr Bennet, sir,” Darcy cleared his throat and spoke in such terms as he might have used with his aunt. “I may have spoken carelessly and rather unwisely on a number of occasions, but I have long considered Miss Bennet to be the handsomest woman of my acquaintance. I greatly admire her lively intellect and her generous heart, as well as her independent nature. I quite look forward to sharing my library, along with any other meagre possession I might claim, because truly, sir,sheis my treasure. I should be content with no other woman, sir, and if it is your intention to refuse your blessing, I shall haunt Netherfield Hall until next spring when Miss Bennet reaches her majority. You would be most welcome to attend the wedding, should you be so inclined, but Miss Elizabeth and I will marry with or without your blessing, and not one day later than May the twenty-second.”
From the corner of his eye, he watched Elizabeth give a start. “You know my birthday, sir?”
He sidled a sly grin at her. “I paid very close attention to all of your conversations, Miss Elizabeth.” She treated him to a gentle laugh, and one of her bewitching smiles.
Mr Bennet was chuckling and began to wipe his spectacles on the bedsheet. “Quite so. Well, well, Mr Darcy, you may marry my Lizzy if you think you can handle her. I wondered what it would take to bring you to the point. If you defend my girl so ably before thetonas you just did to her cantankerous old Papa, I expect you shall do quite well together.”
Darcy took a great breath and shook his head in relieved confusion. “I hope you do not think, Mr Bennet, that I ever truly disdained your daughter.”
Mr Bennet replaced his glasses once more. “No! I believe that much was plain the other day. That was quite an interesting discussion we were having. Where did we leave off? Oh! Yes, I believe we were discussing that fabulous Berkshire boar you had recently acquired. Fascinating discipline, swine husbandry.”
Darcy narrowed his eyes suspiciously. He glanced quickly at Elizabeth, whose cheeks had suddenly flushed to a most becoming rosy hue. Mr Bennet’s head injury had been of such a nature that it was impossible for an observer to know what the man remembered and what he did not, but Darcy’s frame suddenly tingled with embarrassment. Evidently, Mr Bennet remembered quite a lot of what had taken place since their cold morning ride!
As if in confirmation, Mr Bennet’s cheeks pulled into a wide grin. “I anticipate, Mr Darcy, that you are planning to wed sooner rather than later.”
Darcy closed his eyes and swallowed. “Yes, soon, indeed, sir.” He pulled a document from his breast pocket and flinched a little when he saw Elizabeth’s eyes widen in shock. “If you will forgive me, sir, I had taken the liberty of having a special license drawn up.” He frowned, sorry to be confronting the injured father with such plans to quickly spirit his daughter away, but Mr Bennet deserved to know the entire truth. “I thought, sir, it might simplify matters, so that the wedding date could be chosen with respect to your recovery, and still...”
“And still be soon enough to suit the eager groom, you mean,” Mr Bennet finished with a calculating smile. “Do not forget, young man. I was once such a groom myself.” He fixed Darcy with an enigmatic stare which the younger man could not quite decipher.
Darcy looked down, folding and re-folding the document awkwardly. “I fear that, upon reflection, you may have cause to believe I sought to overrule your authority in your own household concerning more than one matter during these past several days. I assure you, sir, that was never my intention.”
Mr Bennet frowned, pulled at his spectacles, and gazed long at the earnest young man before him. “Mr Darcy, as you have been frank with me, so I will be with you. I have no desire to part with my daughter so quickly, and I was most surprised to discover her... revised opinion of you. I have, however, witnessed ample evidence to the proof of her affections, and I have faith in her good sense.
“Furthermore, I have not been wholly unaware of your actions to preserve the good names of my family as well as yours. I believe you to be an honourable fellow, sir, and you may come as near to deserving my Lizzy as I imagine any man might be able to. If, in addition to these things, you have also contrived a means to spare me months of agonizing shopping and dissertations on lace and satin, I shall suffer you to take her from me at your convenience. My one condition is that I be granted the right to visit her—and that marvellous library of which I have heard so much—whenever the fancy strikes me.”
