“Well, perhaps you see now,” said Louisa, “you see what comes of your pretentiousness. He has shown you once and for all, and you must lower yourself.”
Elizabeth felt tears threatening, because this was not fair, not at all. It was Louisa and Caroline who had thought highly of themselves, they who had ridiculed her, not the other way around. She had…
Well, if she was honest with herself, she had not had a high opinion of either of the sisters. She had thought she concealed that from them, but they had likely thought they concealed their opinion of her as well. Perhaps she had done as poor a job at it as they had.
Louisa sighed. “I am sorry. Perhaps that was harsh. I am not pleased with all of this, you see. It seems to be your fault, and I am taking it out on you. But it is Caroline’s fault, surely. She has been the architect of all of this.”
Elizabeth spoke, her voice careful, because it was trembling. “I am sorry if I was not fair to either of you. I did not mean any of it, and if I did behave as if I thought too highly of myself, you are correct that I have been brought low.”
Louisa sighed. “Oh, don’t do that.”
Elizabeth looked away.
“I suppose we were rather awful to you as well,” said Louisa. “Whatever the case, Eliza, you and I are to be tied together after this. You will be the mother of my child. So, we might as well bury the past, what do you say?”
“I would like that,” said Elizabeth.
MR. DARCY WASsurprised to hear that Caroline Bingley had called at Pemberley, early in the morning, and that she was with Georgiana, even then, as Georgiana did scales on the piano.
He did not wish to see Caroline. Truly, the woman got on his nerves. He was too polite to say so, but he did not enjoy her company, and it was because she was insipid. An original thought never escaped her lips, though she always acted as ifshe had thought of whatever it was she said—indeed, seemed unaware that she had not thought of it herself, fresh, in that moment, which must mean that much of what she heard passed into her brain without any conscious knowledge, only to surface, later, as her own original thought.
Perhaps in this she was not unique. Perhaps many other people experienced something similar, in fact.
He did not know why it was always so annoying when Caroline did it.
Perhaps it was because she seemed to carry some sort of torch for him. She was not subtle about it. She fawned over him, agreeing with everything out of his mouth and complimenting him on absolutely ridiculous things. Once she had complimented him on how even his handwriting was.
He had to be kind to Caroline for several reasons.
One was that he was not, as a general rule, impolite to anyone. It was wrong. He did not enjoy it when people were cruel to him, and he tried not to be cruel to anyone else.
Another was that she was the brother of his friend, Mr. Bingley, and it was especially good to be kind to the sisters of one’s friends.
And a third was that he had probably encouraged her interest in him, once upon a time, when he had not realized how very annoying and insipid she was. At the beginning, he might have liked her company more.
He had never really been interested back, not truly. She was not the sort of woman that he could marry. But then, all of that was in ashes these days after that terrible proposal to Elizabeth Bennet. It had been six months ago at this point, or thereabouts, maybe more. Whatever the case, long enough ago that he shouldn’t still be thinking about it daily.
But he was.
In fact, he remembered that he’d had word that Caroline’s brother had married Elizabeth’s sister, so this was why he did go in to seek Caroline out. Also, he went because he knew that Georgiana disliked having her piano-playing interrupted in the mornings, so he was really on a mission to rescue his sister.
Caroline latched onto him immediately. “I’m so glad you came, sir. I actually would love to speak to you somewhere in private.”
He was astonished. “You and me, Miss Bingley? That hardly seems proper.”
“Right,” she said, sighing. “Well, just out of your sister’s earshot, then, I suppose.”
“Truly, it seems very odd that you are here alone,” he said, thinking this through. She was an unmarried woman, and coming to call here, in the morning, all by herself, it was not proper.
“Yes, yes, I am aware, but the situation is a bit dire, and we are truly in need of assistance, sir. I am here to throw myself at your feet, you see.”
He drew back, looking her over. Assistance? What sort of assistance could she require?
Whatever it is, you’ll have to provide it, because she’s your friend’s sister. Because you must follow the rules of polite society. Because decency requires it.
“My sister is with child,” said Caroline.
He raised his eyebrows. “Well, you must convey my congratulations, of course.”
