With a completely straight face, she said, “They do teach us some things for the sole purpose of attracting a proper husband, but I admit that I pay little attention to those parts of the lessons as I have no intention of ever marrying. As for the rest of your question, I am puzzled as to how irritating someone would cause them to propose. Your question makes little sense to me.”
She had been looking at her plate while she spoke, but Stephen stared at her long enough that she looked up at him.Her eyes were wide and innocent, but he could detect just a hint of mischief within them.
He laughed. Loud and long. It was disruptive enough that he could feel his mother give him the evil eye, attempting to silently berate him for such rude behavior. He didn’t care. It felt good to laugh.
When all his mirth had leeched out of him, taking some of his simmering anger with it, he sighed. “Thank you, Miss Bennet,” he said quietly.
“You are most welcome,” she said. “It is good to know that you can laugh.” She smiled slightly then turned back to her food.
They didn’t speak much more during that meal, just a bit about the news from the paper. Later that evening, however, Stephen began to wonder why Miss Bennet had said she did not wish to marry. Such a concept was completely foreign to him.
Through the rest of his visit at Pemberley, Miss Bennet was only seated next to him one other time, but he could not bring himself to ask her the question he most wanted to know the answer to. After all, it was both too personal and of no importance to him. So, he contented himself with an entirely ordinary conversation with her.
In the middle of July, Stephen left Pemberley with a plan. He would divorce his wife and release her original dowry back into her control. If she wished, he would seek an adoptive family for her child, for he suspected she would not be willing to care for it properly, if at all. He knew the whole process could take a long time, possibly years, but he was determined to see it through.
In late November, Stephen’s plans, which were still in their infancy, were made pointless when Matilda went into labor two months early. Neither the mother nor the baby survived theordeal. Not wishing to be consoled on the loss of a wife that he did not mourn, Stephen isolated himself at his estate for the next year, only allowing his closest friends and family to visit him.
