Page 64 of Dear Friend

The answer was sufficiently simple that he resented Richard for requiring him to consider it.

Elizabeth knew that he sought her company. She could hardly have mistaken his preference after the assembly, his visits to Longbourn, and the increasing frequency with which they found themselves walking together. Even without the letter forwarded from Willowbrook only the previous day, Darcy might have allowed himself to hope that her feelings had begun, however cautiously, to answer his own.

But he had read Elizabeth's letter.

Her third from Hertfordshire had contained no declaration, nor anything Elizabeth herself would likely have called one. Yet Darcy had read enough of her words by now to recognise the alteration in them. She wrote of him in all her letters. She remembered their conversations, repeated things he had said, wondered at his opinions, and had admitted to Julia an anticipation of seeing him again which she had not yet admitted to Darcy himself.

The knowledge should not have belonged to him. That truth had done remarkably little to lessen the happiness it had given him.

And still Richard's question remained.

He had told Elizabeth nothing. Not that he loved her. Not that he had first come into Hertfordshire because of her. And certainly not that, long before she had begun to know him, he had been reading the thoughts she believed herself to be sending only to Julia.

Darcy folded Richard's letter with rather more precision than was necessary.

His cousin, unfortunately, had a point.

Chapter Twenty-Four

5th November 1811

Longbourn

Elizabeth

Early one blustery Tuesday morning, breakfast at Longbourn was proceeding amid a lively dispute between the two youngest Bennet girls when a note arrived from Netherfield for Jane.

Mrs. Bennet, delighted that any correspondence from Netherfield should be directed to her eldest daughter, insisted upon hearing it at once, and Jane, with a small smile at her mother's impatience, unfolded the note and read aloud.

Netherfield Park

My dear Miss Bennet,

The men of the house are engaged to dine with Colonel Forster and his officers today and are not expected to return before evening. I confess the prospect of passing the whole afternoon with only my sister for company is not sufficiently tempting to prevent me from seeking a more agreeable alternative.

Will you and Miss Elizabeth do us the very great favour of taking tea with us? Louisa and I should be excessively glad of your company, and I promise you a far more pleasant afternoon than either of us is likely to enjoy without it.

Yours affectionately,

Caroline Bingley

Mrs. Bennet's delight required no encouragement whatever. “There, you see! An invitation, and from Miss Bingley herself. I daresay she means to become very great friends with you, Jane, which is only what one would expect, considering how particularly Mr. Bingley has distinguished you these last weeks.”

Elizabeth made a small sound of disbelief at that. She had encountered Miss Bingley twice more since the assembly and was quite certain that friendship, at least where Elizabeth was concerned, had not occupied the lady's thoughts. At Lucas Lodge in particular, when Mr. Darcy had asked Elizabeth to dance, Miss Bingley had watched them with such severity that Elizabeth had half expected her to cross the room and separate them herself.

At Mr. Bennet's direction, the carriage was ordered to convey Jane and Elizabeth to Netherfield. Mrs. Bennet protested that they might very well go on horseback, but Elizabeth, who had never possessed any great fondness for riding, readily preferred her father's arrangement. The sky was already threatening rain, and she suspected her mother's enthusiasm for horseback had rather more to do with the possibility of a downpour than with any concern for their enjoyment of the journey.

“You will take the carriage,” said Mr. Bennet, without looking up from his breakfast. “I see no reason to sacrifice two daughters to the weather merely because your mother hopes to have them stranded somewhere advantageous.”

“Mr. Bennet!”

Elizabeth hid her smile behind her cup.

Thus deprived of what Elizabeth strongly suspected had been her plan all along, Mrs. Bennet was obliged to watch both daughters depart for Netherfield shortly after breakfast, comfortably enclosed against the approaching rain.

~

Netherfield