“Well, yes, actually,” William said. If Bingley was resolved to be so cheerfully unashamed of himself, his friend would findhim equally so. He folded the notes and placed them on the tray beside the flowers, and the maid bobbed into a curtsey before taking the tray up to the ladies.
Bingley tutted and shook his head, but he wore a smile that irritated William immensely. “How you can appear so confident, Bingley, that all will be put right somehow, is as baffling as it is provoking. Either you have no sense of the severity of our predicament, or you are not as invested in the outcome favoring us.”
“Perhaps I am a secret, third thing,” Bingley said as he took an apple out of his pocket and bit into it as he threw himself down on the sofa.
“Well, if you are eating, I suppose it means you are sufficiently miserable.”
Bingley kicked his feet up onto the low table before him. “I am; it is not an enjoyable sensation, to rebuke one’s self so thoroughly. However, I know Kitty to be the sweetest and most gentle-hearted creature, and therefore I have chosen to believe that, after a little while, she shall hardly wish to be as cruel to me as I have been to myself. Really, old chap, you must think me devoid of every proper feeling, but I was up half the night in anguish.”
“What, only half?” William leaned against the mantle, but there was little need for a fire to be lit in the parlor on such a warm day. He directed his brooding out the window, instead.
“You ought to try some of my thinking, Will. You love Miss Elizabeth, do you not?”
“Of course I do – you know I do.”
“Well, for all your tender regard, do you not think her sensible and merciful?”
“She is a lady of great intelligence, among her other charming qualities. Mercy I should not rate highly amongstthem, not after nearly two months of Lady Rebecca Fitzwilliam’s influence.”
“Then groveling it is, I suppose. Best of luck to you.”
William gritted his teeth. “And what do you mean to do?”
Bingley laughed. “Oh, I shall be groveling, too. I thought I might go pick some wildflowers in the meadow.”
“What, in my meadow?”
“Oho, William Worthing owns all the flowers!” Bingley rolled his eyes, and then with exaggerated effort rose from his idle position. “It is only the first step in my plan, which I daresay is a very clever one. But I had best get to it.”
William followed Bingley to the garden door. “I forbid you to pick my wildflowers!”
“That is idiotic!”
“Well, I have already sent them both flowers.”
Bingley quickened his pace. “You have sent them eachaflower – and a note bidding them speak to you, which they cannot do if you are determined to pursue me!”
“Well, I am, and you cannot stop me – not if you wish my blessing in your supposed union with my ward. You had better think ofthatin your dealings with me,old chap.”
“Aye, if you will think of me. I suppose Lady Catherine does not know her daughter is here, and Rosings Park is only in Kent – word might reach her – and she might reach you – in a matter of hours.”
“Your threats are in the worst possible taste!” William huffed with indignation as he and Bingley stalked into the meadow and began competing for who could pluck the biggest handfuls of wildflowers.
“Must you be so serious? We are in a dreadful scrape, but we are in ittogether.”
William stopped and considered this; strangely, it wassomeconsolation. “Do you think we can really getoutof this dreadful scrape together? What exactly is your plan?”
Bingley grinned. “I am glad you asked. First, we must begin with allowing them to be very cross.”
William groaned and swatted all the flowers out of his friend’s hands. “I thought you had a real plan.”
“Itisa real plan! I have sisters, you know. Not a ward left to me after university, but two vicious creatures I grew up with and lived to tell the tale.”
William grumbled softly, but he was willing to hear the man out. He had never fully appreciated what a feat it was that Bingley could have such sisters as he was cursed with, and still be such an affable fellow. “Go on, then.”
“They are sure to reject our first overture. They will have made some pact between themselves. Happily, your first attempt was a feeble one, anyhow. They might not be pleased by these offerings, either.” Bingley returned to picking flowers, first collecting the ones William had tossed away. “The trick is to keep going. We must do something else, after this – something better. And so on. Eventually one of them will fold, and then, swiftly, the other. I daresay it will be Kitty who shall soften first, but then she will bring Miss Elizabeth around. Once they agree to speak to us, you are quite on your own.”
“Perhaps that is why your sisters are so…. Can we not just beg them to speak to us? I hardly wish to bribe them.”
