Page 23 of Idle Gossip

“It happened long ago, during my one season in town.” Charlotte pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and dabbed at her eyes. “There was a gentleman who paid me great attention. I was shy, not unlike Jane. Though I took great pleasure in his calls, I was afraid to show what I felt until I knew he cared for me. Gradually, his calls dwindled and then ceased. My father and mother decided it was a waste of their resources to give me another season. I lost my chance at a future, Lizzy. I did not wish to see you and Jane lose the same.”

“Then you view your actions as altruistic?”

“Yes. For your own good. You would not listen—you and your lofty opinions, bestowed with great confidence and equal folly. But all is well. You are happy. I have seen it.”

“The outcome does not justify taking the choice from me!” Elizabeth’s anger returned in full force. “There is precious little I can control. Now there is nothing.”

“Do you not consider the freedom being married to a wealthy man can give?”

“I wanted love!”

Charlotte smiled sadly. “So did I. Eliza, is it not enough that Mr. Darcy loves you? At least for now? Can you not grow to love him as well?”

“You seek to assuage your conscience with my forgiveness,” she accused.

“Perhaps.” Charlotte stood. “I believed you were wasting an opportunity I myself desperately wanted. You are young. The fear of loneliness and spinsterhood has yet to touch your life. Should your father die, you would find both at your doorstep.”

“You treated the life you wanted as though I must also wish for it. I want more than security, Charlotte. You have ever been pragmatic.”

“I am not sorry for how things turned out,” Charlotte replied. “But I am sorry for deceiving you. Truly, I apologize for taking your choice. If I could undo that part, I would. I cannot wish Jane unengaged to Mr. Bingley. And I cannot wish Mr. Darcy had gone to London believing you beyond his reach. My actions were arrogant and presumptuous—possibly unforgiveable. But I cannot pretend I regret every consequence.”

Elizabeth remained stonily silent.

“Would you prefer that Mr. Darcy had never offered to court you, Eliza?” Charlotte asked.

Elizabeth opened her mouth, and then promptly closed it again.

She stepped forward. “Do you wish the courtship to end?”

Elizabeth’s reaction gave her away. Charlotte saw the panic her words induced. There was horror and dismay on her face.

“Think on it, my friend. It may not absolve me, but perhaps it will bring clarity.”

“At present, I do not particularly like you, Charlotte,” Elizabeth replied.

“I can accept that.” Charlotte kissed her cheek. “I shall see myself out.”

The rain began again while Charlotte walked back to Lucas Lodge. It was not a downpour, but there was enough to know she would need warm, dry clothes as soon as she entered the house. She would not wish to miss the Netherfield Ball in a few days.

Miss Long deserved her ruined gown, she mused as she sidestepped a puddle.

Lizzy did not deserve Charlotte’s betrayal, though.

It was amazing how casually words moved from one person to another until no one remembered where they began. Charlotte’s letter to Lady Carlisle had changed not one, not two, but four futures

I only meant to provide a little assistance.

She had not considered that assistance, once given, might easily become interference.

Lady Carlisle had not even replied to the letter.

How does one go from spilling tea in a neighbor’s lap to spilling a secret carried for weeks?

Of the two, the tea had made considerably less of a mess.

Chapter Nine

The rains eased days before the Netherfield Ball. The roads were impassable, so Darcy and Bingley mounted their horses and rode to see their ladies.