Page 6 of Most Truly the Gentleman

“Just so. The view from the top is delightful if you have any appreciation at all for the bucolic.”

“I do not know that I do, but then, I do not know that I do not,” he jested. “I shall visit it on your recommendation and report back as to the state of my own discernment.”

“And I shall judge you very harshly if you find anything at all lacking in it,” she assured him in a like tone. Just then, she noticed Mr Darcy moving down the line of the dance opposite Miss Bingley. On the verge of making a comment about it to her companion, she elected to refrain. Upon reflection, they both seemed quite unpleasant and it was fitting that, if they wished to dance, they not inflict themselves upon those who were capable of enjoying the set. Elizabeth did notice that Miss Bingley actually looked pleased for the first time that evening, however.

Colonel Fitzwilliam must have noted the direction of her gaze, for he said, with an apologetic air, “In complete understanding of how ironic it is to say this, I will mention that it would be abominably rude of Darcy not to dance with his host’s sister. He shared a set with Mrs Hurst earlier, as well.”

I do wonder if it is somehow less abominably rude to refuse to dance with anyone else. Perhaps this is one of the customs of the upper crust with which we peasants are unfamiliar, she thought, amused by the notion. “It could become quite uncomfortable were the ladies of the household upset with one of their brother’s guests,” she agreed.

“Just so.”

“I take it from your remark on irony that you are aware that Mr Darcy has not made the best impression upon those present?”

“Miss Lucas mentioned something of it,” he allowed. “And that my cousin had said something unfortunate about you in particular. I shall not apologise for him; it is not my place to correct the mistakes of a man of seven and twenty who has, I assure you, been taught how to behave. But for myself, I am truly sorry that you were made uncomfortable by someone so closely connected to me.”

“I had not known that you were related,” she remarked. “I thought you both simply friends of Mr Bingley. As to the other, I hope I should never blame anyone for the actions of another, no matter the family ties between them.” She inclined her head towards the dance, where Lydia was romping down the line in a hoydenish manner. “A courtesy I most devoutly wish that the world will extend to me. We all have relations for whom we must occasionally blush, do we not?”

“Miss Elizabeth, I believe I may honestly say that the only people I have ever met without at least one trying relation were foundlings.”

“Does one meet many foundlings in His Majesty’s Army?”

“More than you might think,” he replied amiably. “In my regiment there is a sergeant, an excellent fellow, who came to the army by way of the magistrate’s court. He came to that by way of having no family to support him and disliking the conditions in the foundling home enough to leave it at a shockingly early age. Once the army had taught him honesty and discipline, which it does not succeed in doing in all such cases, he became a fine soldier and one with whom I am proud to have served. I hope very much that we shall meet again when this blasted war at last comes to an end.”

“Will he not be under your command when you return?” she enquired.

“It is not at all likely that I shall. I am not fit at present, and it is probable that I shall not be again.”

“I am sorry to hear it.”

“Will you think less of me if I tell you there is some appeal in the notion of making a change?”

“Not at all, Colonel,” she replied sincerely. “It is a difficult, though noble, profession you have chosen. I must imagine that many a soldier thinks with anticipation of the presumably quieter days which will follow his time in the army.”

He chuckled. “His Majesty’s service is not without its quiet moments or its dull ones, but when it is loud and exciting, it is very, very loud and exciting.”

“I think I prefer this sort of noise and excitement,” she said with a smile.

“As you should, Miss Elizabeth,” he earnestly agreed.

4

TOWN AND COUNTRY

Mrs Bennet’s effusions upon the success of the evening carried all the Bennet ladies home at the conclusion of the assembly, and as Mr Bennet was still up with his book, they were retailed again for his edification. He heard of Jane’s having danced twice with Mr Bingley and Lizzy having danced with him once. He heard of Colonel Fitzwilliam, rumoured to be the son of an earl, befriending the whole neighbourhood, though he was unfortunately required to refrain from the dance. And when the master of Longbourn categorically refused to hear an account of the fine gowns worn by Mr Bingley’s sisters, he heard instead how the gentleman’s other friend had been shockingly rude to Lizzy.

“But,” Mrs Bennet added with a sniff worthy of a duchess, “Lizzy loses nothing by not suiting his fancy, for he is a most disagreeable, horrid man, not at all worth pleasing. It was apparent from the first moment that he is excessively conceited and fancies himself very great indeed. I only wish that you had been there to give him one of your set-downs. Goodness knows he deserved as much.”

“Well, if he has insulted my Lizzy, I must also wish that I had been there,” Mr Bennet replied. Elizabeth, with her intelligence and wit, was of all his daughters the most like him, and had long been acknowledged as his favourite, just as Jane and Lydia were his wife’s. “Perhaps I shall have an opportunity to contrive a little cutting jest whenever we do meet. You have not been made wretched by the man’s foolishness, I hope, Lizzy?”

“Not at all, Papa,” Elizabeth declared with unfeigned good cheer. “What care I for the opinion of such a churl? I had a splendid time tonight, as I believe we all did.” This opened the door for her youngest two sisters to brag of having got more dance partners than their elders, and closed it quite firmly on the subject of the hateful Mr Darcy.

The return journey to Netherfield was similarly dominated by a single voice, in this case, Miss Bingley’s. She seemed to feel it incumbent upon her to voice any number of strictures against those she had so recently met, relating in minute detail every perceived failure of fashion, elegance, manners, and worth, while her sister nodded along, looking for all the world like a plump little bird picking at seed.

“In short,” she declared as the carriage turned into the long drive at Netherfield, raising a quiet cough from Darcy’s cousin, “I saw nothing tonight of fashion, or taste, or real elegance. We shall have to rely upon ourselves for entertainment while we reside in the area, for there is quite obviously no one here who may provide the sort of company to which we are accustomed.”

“I hope, Miss Bingley,” said the colonel, “that when you marry, you may wed a gentleman who spends most of his time in London, for you will not find many country neighbourhoods different in essentials from this one. I should hate to see you confined to an estate for most of the year, and unhappy.”

“Everyone who is anyone spends most of the year in London,” the lady said dismissively.