“I should think worse of you if you married her without honestly representing what your marriage would be like without the support of your family. How would you live?”
“I had thought of taking orders, if Elinor were willing to wait for me to be free. I cannot imagine Lucy as a parson’s wife.”
“Nor I,” Darcy said, subtly wrinkling his nose with distaste.
“It is a pity that Miss Bennet is Elinor’s cousin, else I might have thought it an ideal match. She has a fortune and shall inherit an estate, so she would satisfy my mother, and I think very well of her manners. She is soft where Lucy is sharp, and pliant where Lucy is demanding. I wonder if I ought not attempt it, after all – to bring her round, I mean. After all, it was her cousin who rejected me. If I had spurned Elinor, then certainly Miss Bennet would have the right to despise me, but I may appeal to her as the injured party.”
“The injured party?” Darcy grimaced. “If you attempted to woo the recently endowed heiress, the cousin of a lady whose heart you had broken through your own foolish decisions, Edward,thenI should indeed think you a cad. Miss Steele might consider such a betrayal, but I do not think it likely that Miss Bennet would be so heartless. I have lately come to know her better, and I should hardly call her soft or pliant. She is reserved and gentle, but the lady knows her own mind, and so does her sister.”
Edward frowned, eyeing Darcy warily. “You do not say so merely because your cousin had lately taken a fancy to the Bennet sisters? There are two, after all. Miss Elizabeth has the same fortune, and Phillip needs no estate.”
They were hardly interchangeable! Darcy shook his head emphatically and stood from his chair, wishing to hear no more. “Forgive me; I can advise you no further. My own bias on thematter quite prevents any interference, and I would do both the Miss Bennets a disservice by speculating on their preferences.”
Edward stood as well, looking frantic as he extended his hand. “I hope you will at least shake hands with me, Darcy. I deserve your severity for disregarding your advice years ago, and I will certainly heed your counsel in breaking with Miss Steele. I understand if you will not encourage me to pursue Miss Bennet, but I hope your strictures against interference will preclude you from discouraging my pursuit of Miss Bennet, or perhaps her sister. I like them very well, and I cannot imagine that I am likely to get on half so well with any other lady my mother deigns to grant her approbation. Even so, I would not wish there to be any ill will between us.”
Darcy repressed the urge to suggest pistols at dawn if Edward so much as complimented Elizabeth in his hearing; he knew it would be Miss Bennet whom Edward saw as the greater prize and easier conquest. Still, the notion made him feel sick to his stomach.
Phillip deserved a pleasant, uncomplicated romance, and Darcy could not like the prospect of his own dear friend becoming competition for his cousin. Even worse was the notion that, if he could not win Miss Bennet, Edward may yet turn to Elizabeth. She would certainly not entertain such fickle nonsense, but now that Darcy comprehended his own inability to resist her charms, he would let nothing stand in his way.
Still, he avoided conflict and confrontation such as this; he shook hands with his friend, even as he wished Miss Bingley on the poor fool. Perhaps there was something in the wicked notion, if abstaining from interference proved impossible. At present, his chief concern was in avoiding any repetition of the disagreement with Elizabeth that had shaded his happy evening at the ball.
“We will leave it, for now,” Darcy said. “I wish you well in breaking with Miss Steele – whatever you decide after that, we had better not speak of it. I shall certainly not mention it to Phillip.”
“May the best man win,” Edward muttered. “But before you go – the books….”
“Get as good a price as you can from the Hatchards – I daresay you shall need it.” Darcy nodded, and hastily departed for Matlock House, where he brooded for several hours before he was fit to show himself before his relations.
Chapter Eleven
Hertfordshire
Lady Rebecca Fitzwilliam was utterly in her element, for she adored intrigue and meddling in the affairs of her relations. Her brother-in-law Charles Bingley was in desperate need of her interference; Rebecca had a great deal to consider, between the two letters she had received from Darcy, and the shocking, vastly diverting events of the Twelfth Night ball.
She allowed Charles the following day to sulk over his romantic woes, and he certainly made the most of it; the man was truly a credit to himself. In the meanwhile, Rebecca pondered the advice from her cousin Darcy; it was something she had never done before, and the new sensation was a novelty indeed.
Darcy’s first letter entreated Rebecca to discourage Charles from pursuing Miss Bennet back to London, where she had undoubtedly gone in the hope of meeting with him. Darcy alleged that the lady’s relations were not entirely desirable connections – the mother was vulgar, indiscreet, and ill-bred, the younger sisters were forward and ungovernable, and the father was either content to laugh at their antics or disinclined toimprove them. After such censure as this, Rebecca was surprised that Darcy bothered to add that these deterrents may perhaps be overcome if the attachment could endure a period of separation while Bingley improved himself through his endeavors at Netherfield.
The second letter from Darcy was written and sent express that morning, only two days after the first. This missive contained more to interest and amuse Rebecca. Darcy revealed that he had met with Miss Bennet and her sister in London twice already. At a Twelfth Night ball, the intrepid Miss Elizabeth Bennet had taken quite a bite out of Darcy for refusing to inform Charles of Miss Jane Bennet’s presence in London. Rebecca could scarcely imagine any lady besides herself having the temerity to do such a thing, though she recollected that Miss Elizabeth was the cousin of Marianne Dashwood, who was decidedly outspoken in her opinions.
Darcy owned that he had actually heeded Miss Elizabeth’s admonishment – a sure sign he was in love with the lady, for he was always unassailably confident in his own righteousness. He spoke candidly with Miss Jane Bennet, who informed him that she had overcome her attachment to Charles after visiting Caroline and Louisa. The harpies misled Miss Bennet into believing that Charles had already left town, and they deliberately neglected to mention that he intended to return to Netherfield. Miss Bennet had subsequently received the attentions of two other gentlemen, and Darcy suspected that a third might attempt, in vain, to woo her.
That Miss Bennet had been put off her attachment by Charles’s horrid sisters proved that she had good sense, and she must be as beautiful and amiable as Charles had described her if the young lady already had other suitors courting her. It was a sad loss for Charles, but Rebecca pitied him only a little as she fretted over his foolishness. Perhaps this might finally teachhim to reign in his sisters, and not merely avoid them. Darcy might have found the Bennets mortifying, but if they had any affection at all for one another, Rebecca would consider them a vast improvement from such relations as Caroline and Louisa.
She sent a note to her brother, who took some time away from his duties to call at Netherfield within an hour. Charles remained sequestered, having refused every meal since the ball, and Rebecca received Richard in a sunny, comfortable parlor amidst a generous tea service. “Well, Brother, what are we going to do about Charles? I did not travel all this way for him to sulk and starve himself, nor for the neighborhood to shun me forhisfoolishness.”
Richard rolled his eyes. “You danced a fair amount at the ball, for a woman shunned. But nobody likes a wealthy widow, anyhow.”
She swatted at him. “I cannot depend merely onyourpopularity. I am keeping house for a man who was verbally tarred and feathered before the whole neighborhood, and he is presently weeping or drinking about it – both, probably.”
“Then I suppose we must take Darcy’s advice. I know enough about estate matters, despite a profound disinterest in my Scottish shambles of a manor; I could be of some use. Or if Darcy wishes to really be of help, he might come back to Netherfield himself.”
“He may, but I doubt it will be soon. He is in love with Miss Elizabeth Bennet, who is presently in London.” Rebecca grinned as she passed him Darcy’s second missive, and smiled knowingly as Richard read it and nodded his head, giving a low whistle.
“Heavens! Darcy taken to task by a plucky country miss! He must care a great deal for this lady’s opinion; it cannot have been all for Charles's benefit.”
“I know just how it was,” Rebecca declared. “He met her when he was here with Charles, fell in love with her delightful audacity, but fled the attachment because of her relations, of whom he has a great deal to say that would probably cause Miss Elizabeth Bennet to claw him into strips. So, he thought to forget her in London, but there she was again – and not in pursuit ofhim, if her first impulse was to challenge him. If I must abandon my cause with Charles, I should like very much to meet the young lady who would defy our cousin.”
Richard guffawed and slapped his knee. “Miss Marianne Dashwood must be very like her cousin. Poor Charles – poor Darcy!”
