“For what?”
The boys gave him a look of disgust.
“You know for what,” Toby said.
Darcy’s voice came out lower than intended. “Has he asked Miss Elizabeth?”
“Not yet,” Thomas said. “But he will.”
“Soon,” Toby added, with the grim satisfaction of a physician delivering a terminal diagnosis.
Darcy glanced toward Mrs. Bennet. She was speaking calmly with Jane. Nothing in her demeanor betrayed concern.
“What did your mother say?”
“We do not know,” Thomas admitted.
“We tried to listen,” Toby said. “But Lydia sneezed.”
“On purpose?”
“No,” Thomas said bitterly. “She had pepper.”
Darcy closed his eyes briefly.
The conversation had become insane.
It also mattered.
Elizabeth returned then with the shawl. She crossed to Jane, draped it about her shoulders, and bent to say something that made Jane smile. Wilson watched her with open admiration. Not the loud, awkward admiration of his first days at Longbourn. Something more composed.
Darcy felt the floor tilt beneath him in a way no one else could see.
Thomas sighed beside him. “You really must hurry.”
For once Darcy had no answer.
A proposal from Wilson was no longer a possibility to be dismissed as comic interference. It had taken shape in the room before him, dressed in proper manners and sensible prospects and papers bearing the signature of Elizabeth’s father.
Elizabeth might refuse.
She might not.
Darcy looked at her again and found that hope, so pleasant in private, became a wretched companion when another man stood ready to act.
Wilson had moved.
Darcy had waited.
The difference disturbed him more than any rivalry had done so far.
An Opportunity Interrupted
An opportunity presented itself on a Tuesday afternoon. Elizabeth knew it was coming and ought to have recognized the signs sooner.
Mr. Wilson had been unusually attentive all morning, though not in the exuberant fashion that had first distinguished his visits. He spoke less and listened more. He remained near enough to be useful without becoming oppressive. At luncheon he asked Mary intelligent questions regarding her reading, discussed tenant rents with Mr. Bennet, and entertained the twins with a surprisingly vivid account of a runaway cart in Manchester. By every outward measure, he acquitted himself exceedingly well.
That, perhaps, was what unsettled Elizabeth most. A foolish man could be dismissed. A tiresome one could be endured.
