Page 52 of Near Pemberley

“Some time ago?” she repeated faintly.

“I believe I read it some time after I returned from London.”

Elizabeth stared at him in disbelief.

“That-that was a month ago.”

“So it is.”

“And… did you answer him?”

Mr. Bennet removed his spectacles with visible weariness. “My dear, I did not know what answer could reasonably be made. The business was already miserable enough without inviting half Derbyshire into it besides.”

Strained for weeks almost beyond endurance, her effort at composure broke at last.

“Half Derbyshire?” she repeated. “This was not idle curiosity!”

“No,” said he quietly. “Mr. Darcy behaved very properly.”

“Then why did you not answer?”

Mr. Bennet looked at her with faint surprise, as though the violence of her agitation genuinely puzzled him.

“What purpose would it have served?”

Elizabeth could not believe what she heard.

“What purpose?” she cried. “Good God, sir, he offered assistance!”

“And what assistance could he possibly provide?”

“He knows Wickham better than anyone… he would not have remained indifferent.”

“You think me indifferent?”

“Your daughter is out there. I doubt she is married. She could be alone, and you sit here…”

Mr. Bennet regarded her for a moment without speaking. Then he gave a tired shrug. “By that time, your uncle had already undertaken the search.”

Elizabeth stepped nearer.

“But Mr. Gardiner had neither Darcy’s fortune, nor his connections, nor his influence.”

“Perhaps.”

The calmness of the response rendered it almost unbearable.

Elizabeth’s colour rose violently. “You did not even thank him.”

Mr. Bennet’s expression altered slightly now. “My dear Lizzy, you appear remarkably interested in Mr. Darcy’s correspondence.”

The observation, under ordinary circumstances, might once have silenced her. Now it only wounded her further.

“Yes,” she answered with sudden firmness. “Because he behaved with more concern for this family than we had any right to expect.”

Mr. Bennet looked at her more attentively.

Elizabeth’s effort at calmness, already weakened by weeks of misery, deserted her entirely.