“She should. This is precisely the sort of laxness that saw you squander your opportunity to be mistress of Longbourn and nearly ruined us all.”
Was that part of Mary’s relentless bitterness of late? The knowledge that Elizabeth was Mr. Collins’ second choice for a wife, and Mary only his third?
“You require a chaperone.”
Elizabeth regarded her sister with newfound pity. She supposed it would be upsetting to know your husband ranked you as less desirable than your older sisters. “I have never required a chaperone to call on Charlotte.”
“As your married sister and future mistress of this household, it behooves me to attempt to instill more correctness into your behavior. I will chaperone you.”
“As your unmarried sister and a very quick walker, it behooves me to inform you that you may certainly join me in calling on Lucas Lodge, if you can catch up.” With that, Elizabeth pushed past Mary and hurried down the hallway.
Once in the kitchen, Elizabeth quickly donned her boots. She had no notion if Mary would follow, but she would need to collect her outerwear first. By that time, Elizabeth would be halfway to Lucas Lodge.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Elizabeth sat on a very comfortable sofa in Lucas Lodge’s large drawing room and waited until Lady Lucas was occupied with two of her younger children to turn to Charlotte and murmur, “I require your wisdom.”
“Regarding what am I to be your Athena today?” Charlotte asked quietly, her gaze on her mother and younger sisters, one of whom had tied knots into the hair of the other while they played at being a lady and her lady’s maid. The resulting tangle was causing a great many accusations and not a few tears.
“Mr. Darcy, the real Mr. Darcy, has asked to court me, but—”
“But nothing,” Charlotte interrupted. “He is wealthy, kind, brave, and a devoted brother, and he is asking to court you so you might come to know each other, not for an immediate promise to marry him. Whatever your objections, the correct answer is yes.”
“You say this without hearing my objections?”
“I can well guess at them.” Charlotte cast her an amused look. “He perpetuated a falsehood. You are uncertain if you can trust him. Perhaps, even, embarrassed to have been fooled.”
Elizabeth flushed. She had not considered the last until now. “I am not embarrassed. I am simply chagrined to learn that so many of my deductions as to the whys of various behaviors are so far off the mark, as they must be when the two gentlemen about whom they revolve are not who they said they were.”
“Chagrined, or embarrassed?”
“Chagrined,” Elizabeth said firmly. “And he did perpetuate a falsehood.” Though not about what to call him, for he was Fitzwilliam. But she did not dare tell Charlotte she had been addressing Mr. Darcy by his Christian name all this time. Such scandalous behavior almost gave credence to Mary’s accusations.
“Did he truly lie to you about so many things?”
Elizabeth contemplated that, happy to replay her conversations with Mr. Darcy in her mind. “In truth, I cannot recall a single lie that was not by omission.”
“Which sort of lies are still lies,” Charlotte allowed, taking up her teacup.
“Yes.” But not ones he gave. Somehow, permitting her to believe something did not seem as terrible to Elizabeth as if he had been able to look her in the eye and simply lie to her.
“We are all aware of the ruse the gentlemen played on our community.” Charlotte sipped her tea. “We know they did so to capture ill-doers and to protect Mr. Darcy, as Colonel Fitzwilliam, being a military man, was better equipped to withstand the criminal onslaught. Furthermore, they issued an apology to us all. Colonel Fitzwilliam even did so in person, to those who encountered him at Jane’s wedding breakfast. Which, more or less, is everyone hereabouts.”
“Yes,” Elizabeth repeated, for she knew all of this. What she did not know was, “Can I trust a man who so thoroughly deceived me?”
Setting her teacup down, Charlotte regarded Elizabeth with narrow, bright eyes. “Are we back to the harm done to your pride, then? Not to say that you are embarrassed. Simply chagrined.”
Elizabeth was certainly chagrined now. “You believe it is my pride that stands between me and a courtship by Mr. Darcy?”
“What else?”
“Fear? A man who lies so well might easily break my heart. Should I not be afraid of that?”
“Afraid? You?”
“Who is afraid?” Lady Lucas asked.
Elizabeth turned in time to see the youngest two Lucas daughters departing in the care of a maid and wondered at thefate of the tangled hair. “I am afraid Mr. Collins will never find a new position and that he and Mary will remain in Longbourn indefinitely.”
