Again, they walked in silence. All Jane knew about Darcy was what she remembered from the previous November and the little Elizabeth had told her after returning from Kent.
“Did you meet the gentleman again recently?” he asked at last, his tone both kind and persistent.
Elizabeth made no attempt to hide her agitation. The parasol rested upon her shoulder, leaving her face entirely visible.
“How is it that a gentleman takes such an interest in these stories?” she asked. “You even accompany Mama on her visits. Since we grew older, Jane and I have hidden ourselves whenever she wished to take us along. Lydia and Kitty still go willingly, but we cannot endure hearing the same stories repeated endlessly.”
“Well, my dear niece, for me they are all entirely new!” He spoke with such cheerful sincerity that Elizabeth smiled.
“But why?” she insisted.
The explanation was not difficult. During all his travels in Africa, and even before them, he had lived almost exclusively amongst men. In Africa, the separation between the lives of men and women was even greater. They lived almost entirely apart. A man summoned a woman to him for the night, and in many cases, that was the extent of the relationship. They neither ate together nor travelled together, and in the Islamic communities, a man often possessed more than one wife.
“I have spent most of my life with only men for company. For many years, I had scarcely any family at all, and then suddenly, about a year ago, I realised that I wished things to change again. Just as I did at twenty when I left for India in search of different experiences, and afterwards for Africa. But now, at my present age, I have decided I want this,” he said, gesturing towards the town and its people. “Someone to call me Uncle, as you do. I wished to experience family life in good old England, with dinners and gossip and even winter. Everything feels fresh to me. Not unknown, but fresh. I enjoyed hearing the little bit of gossip about Mrs Robertson returning from Scotland with jewellery her husband could not possibly afford. I had neverbefore considered what the price of a diamond necklace might reveal—”
He stopped abruptly, remembering that he was speaking to a young lady, but Elizabeth laughed and touched his arm lightly.
“Dear Uncle, we are not naïve girls any longer. I know something of the world, and I think my sisters do as well, in one way or another. Perhaps, excepting Mary, who knows a great deal but cannot always connect her knowledge to real life. Whilst Lydia…well, Lydia is perhaps too interested in such things.”
“I am relieved,” Thomas replied. “In your company, it is easy to forget that you are my great-niece. You possess every indication of becoming a remarkable lady. I have great expectations for you.”
“Thank you, Uncle. I have never been much impressed by compliments, but coming from you—”
“It is not a compliment, Elizabeth. It is the foundation of a plan regarding you, young ladies. I wish to know each of you properly, your natures and your expectations of life. So now you must tell me more about the gentleman you met again in Kent.”
“Apart from Aunt Gardiner, nobody knows what happened,” she whispered.
“A very good reason to suspect it was more than a simple acquaintance.”
Elizabeth remained silent, and he watched her carefully.
“It was more, was it not?”
“It belongs to the past.”
“Elizabeth, I met you only a month ago, yet I suspect your usual self is considerably more radiant. In Jane’s case, it was easy enough to perceive the suffering of a lost attachment: absent eyes, sudden sadness, no attempt to conceal her feelings. In your case, however, I believe you try very hard to hide.”
“How can you see things so clearly?”
“I am old, my dear, and throughout my life I have enjoyed observing human nature, particularly the signs most people ignore or dismiss as unimportant. A single revealing word in an otherwise meaningless conversation, sudden sadness at the mention of a certain subject, even a tear shed when nobody believes herself observed.”
“And you noticed all this in me?”
“Yes, whilst those around you remained unaware of your suffering. Why do you conceal what happened in Kent from your family?”
“Because it is mortifying,” she answered. “That gentleman, Fitzwilliam Darcy, comes from a wealthy family on his father’s side and a noble one on his mother’s. His maternal grandfather was an earl.”
“Not quite the royal family,” Thomas observed with mild indifference.
“No, but when we first met at Netherfield, he behaved as though it were.”
“I see. Though I imagine there must be many gentlemen less contemptuous waiting for you to notice them.”
“Yes and no. Still, he was the only one who truly challenged me instead of merely paying compliments.”
Thomas concealed his smile with some difficulty. His niece was plainly one of those women who desired something more than admiration.
“We disliked one another in the beginning, but then, when we met again in Kent unexpectedly, he proposed.”
