Page 19 of The Vanished Bennet Sister

"That is not the point. Mrs Bingley asks the kinds of enquiries that a person asks when they are compiling a picture, not making conversation. There is a difference in the intensity of her attention when an answer is useful to her."

Jane was quiet for a moment, seeming to be applying true consideration rather than preparing a counter-argument. This was one of the things Elizabeth valued most in her: she did not argue as a reflex. She thought.

"I grant you," Jane said, at last, "that she is thorough."

"Thorough." Elizabeth permitted herself a small smile. "That is a rather charitable word for it."

"I think it's the accurate one. She is a woman who likes to understand her situation fully. I cannot fault her for it."

"Nor can I, in principle. But there is a difference between understanding one's situation and deliberately scheming." Elizabeth sighed. "I believe she is very good at ensuring one does not think so while she is doing it."

"The timing in all of this might be coincidental."

"A woman who wishes to gather information about a family will find it considerably easier to do so if that family trusts her, and announcing a settled suitor for Caroline is an efficient way of producing trust in our mother."

Through the wall, Lydia's voice was audible in some project that involved Kitty and required, apparently, a great deal of immediate decision-making.

"She has been very kind to me," Jane raised as a relevant fact.

"I know. And I do not deny it." Elizabeth shifted. "But I wonder whether the kindness is what it appears, or it is an assessing one from a woman who is keeping her options open accordingly."

"That is an uncharitable reading, Lizzy."

"I know that too."

Jane looked at her hands in her lap, and then at Elizabeth. "You may be right that she is thorough, and that her thoroughness has a purpose. But you may also be giving the purpose a darker reason than it warrants. She is a mother. She has a son she loves. She wants to know who is likely to become his wife and what her family is like. That is not villainous. It’s maternal solicitude."

Elizabeth opened her mouth to object, but thought better of it.

"It may feel intrusive," Jane continued. "It may not be the method I would choose, or that you would. But I do not think it is malicious. I think she is a clever woman who protects her family as she knows how." A pause. "And I have never perceived any hostility from her, especially in relation to myself and Mr Bingley."

This was the argument Elizabeth could not totally dismantle, because it was true. Whatever plan Mrs Bingley was up to, she had been, in her conduct toward Jane directly, consistently welcoming. She had introduced her to three women of consequence at an orchestra. She had commended her to a hostess who had subsequently extended an invitation. She had said, within Jane's hearing, that Miss Bennet was exactly the sort of young woman one was glad to see in a room. These were not the actions of a woman in active opposition.

She thought of Mrs Bingley again and a persistent wave of suspicion rose to the surface. But she pushed the feeling down.

"Very well. I am perhaps allowing my suspicion to direct my interpretation. I shall endeavour to think better of her and stop paying such close notice."

"That seems wise."

"I am not altogether convinced it is."

"No," Jane agreed, with a candour that was, between them, the highest form of affection. "But you must try, Lizzy. Please."

Elizabeth conceded to this, because Jane had glanced at her with a look that communicated she was asking not for agreement but for latitude, and Elizabeth had never, in her recollection, been able to refuse Jane's requests.

She would try.

She would observe Mrs Bingley with less vigilance and more charity, and would permit their new relationship with the older woman to develop without the silent running commentary her mother would have called ungenerous and her father would have called, in his better moods, diverting.

The conversation moved on. They spoke of subsequent events to attend and of whether Lydia's latest fashion project was likely to produce the consequences she desired. Despite the conclusion of their earlier conversation, Elizabeth was glad of the company.

Later, after Jane had gone upstairs, she sat for a moment longer by the window with the darkening architectural square below her.

She had resolved to try being neutral.

She was not, however, wholly assured that trying and succeeding were, in this instance, the same conclusion.

Chapter Nine