“But –“
“I must ask you to stop now, Mr. Collins. You do not know of what you speak.”
“But –“
Mr. Darcy turned to Elizabeth and said, tightly, “Miss Elizabeth, might we take a turn in the garden?”
She nodded, her eyes troubled. Mr. Darcy offered her his arm, but she pretended not to see it.
The Colonel immediately said, “Miss Bennet?”
Jane rose and took the Colonel’s arm.
The four left the house through a side door. The Colonel placed a gentle hand on Jane’s arm and whispered, “Let us give them some privacy.” He invited Jane to sit on the little bench near the roses.
“Mr. Darcy is not truly betrothed, is he?” Jane asked, worry in her voice.
“Not at all; my Aunt Catherine is not entirely sane.” His voice was cheerful.
Jane replied, “Oh! I am so relieved. Elizabeth would be disappointed.”
“She is coming to care for my cousin, I hope?”
“I think she is, though she says very little about it.”
“He is worthy of her regard.”
“And she of his, Colonel, I assure you.”
“The love shared by you and your sister is evident,” the Colonel said. He almost told her about Chestnut Creek and its proximity to Pemberley, but it seemed rather too soon for that.Instead, he said, “May I venture a rather personal comment, Miss Bennet?”
She gazed at him, blue eyes wide and open. “You may.”
“You and Mr. Bingley were not well-suited.”
Her eyes dropped to the ground.
He continued, “You are everything that is gentle and good, Miss Bennet. The difficulty lies in the fact that Mr. Bingley is much the same. It is not advantageous for husband and wife to be too much alike.”
“Truly? I would have thought similar personalities to be a good thing in a marriage.” Her eyes lifted back to the Colonel’s face.
“No. In an ideal marriage, there is opportunity for growth for the two individuals involved. That growth usually comes from some amount of conflict.”
“My parents are not at all alike and I am sorry to say that theirs is a marriage I would not like to emulate,” she protested. Then she flushed at having given such information to a stranger.
“Ah. Then I should amend that to say that there should be some conflict, but also a determination on both sides to resolve that conflict in a mutually beneficial manner.”
She smiled at his correction, and then said, thoughtfully, “And Mr. Bingley and I would never have had that conflict to start with.”
“No; I think it more likely that each of you would have been far too eager to simply let the other have their way.”
***
Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth walked several yards away before Elizabeth said, quietly, “You have told me a good deal about your family, but a betrothal was never mentioned.”
Mr. Darcy groaned. “My Aunt Catherine has insisted for years that she and my mother agreed, while we were yet in our cradles, that Anne and I would marry.”
Elizabeth’s forehead wrinkled. “Surely that is unenforceable, even if true.”
