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He looked at me in understanding, and I told him why I was no longer either heartbroken or angry, though I had been both for some time.
“That is what Mr Bingley had… a slight, thin sort of inclination. It did not even take a sonnet, just the words of a friend and a pernicious sister or two.”
His head snapped up at that.
“I forgive you, Mr Darcy, as you did in fact act in service of a friend. After today, I can no longer think badly of you; but make no mistake! So long as you are in company with my sisters, you shall never again be on the same side of any dispute with Caroline Bingley. You know better, and I am not the girl I was.”
He nodded his understanding, while I tried my best to understand both why I was suddenly so aggressive with such a powerful man I hardly knew, and why exactly I was not worried by my complete lack of propriety and manners; but then I had one more important thing to say.
“Charlotte and Lizzy both told me I did not show enough of my feelings, so I must own my own share of culpability. Mr Bingley should have been in no doubt and impervious to argument. To fail to admit my part and blame everything on you and your friend would be as ill-informed as what you did; and I can honestly say I believe anyone trying to escape being shackled to my mother is just showing good sense. May we put the whole affair behind us?”
He looked at me with what I thought was probably a newfound sense of respect, and for the first time in possibly a year, I smiled at a man.
“I may learn slowly, but I do learn eventually. I believe your sister has taught me more of real value in six days than I learnt in a decade in society, and now you have offered the same. You may rightly consider me to be on your side in all future endeavours.”
Lizzy looked like she might or might not want to have some share of the conversation, so I forestalled her.
“Since this is my business, I now wish a permanent embargo on the subject, save one exception.”
Mr Darcy agreed immediately, and Lizzy reluctantly, so I laid down my terms.
“Should you wish to fully drop the load I suspect you may still be carrying, I give you leave to relay this entire conversation to Mr Bingley. All of it or none of it, if you please. Once you have done so, you may tell Mr Bingley that I am no longer a girl. If, and I must stress this condition, IF he is no longer a boy, he may cautiously approach me the next time I am at a ball, and he has my permission to ask for one dance. After that dance, I will either grant or deny him permission to ask for a second on another night. Should he not accept these conditions and we ever meet again, he must treat me as the most indifferent acquaintance he knows. Those are my terms.”
He nodded his understanding. “I owe him the same explanation I owed you, and I will give it as you have instructed.”
I looked at him carefully and saw a look of true contrition and understanding, and for perhaps the first time, I saw things in a different light. “You did this all in service of a friend, did you not?”
He nodded somewhat sadly. “I did.”
I gave him a look of calm understanding. “I agree you did, but there is one thing you may not comprehend.”
“Pray, enlighten me.”
I gave him perhaps the first true Jane Bennet smile to grace my face in some time, as I felt a burden had been lifted that I had not even known I was carrying.
“You could not have known at the time, but the friend you were in service of was me. Mr Bingley and I, as we were last year, would not have survived the test of time. Neither of us had the strength of character or fortitude for a long and felicitous marriage. You did not know it, but even then, you were acting as my friend. Should you feel so inclined, I would feel privileged if you would call me Jane when not in company.”
He nodded in understanding, gave the biggest and frankly handsomest smile I had ever seen on his face, and spoke his appreciation with his eyes. I could see how he and Lizzy managed to carry on whole conversations without a word. It was not difficult at all when he quit guarding his expressions.
At that very moment, I decided that I truly liked Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy, faults and all. I liked him very well indeed. In fact, he was my favourite man in the world. Yes! He would make a very-very fine brother. The best of brothers!
Breakfast
Elizabeth
On Friday morning, I learnt something interesting. Much to my surprise, it takes considerably less work to feed breakfast to eight than three. It made no sense, unless of course you reckoned that five of the eight were my sisters and Mrs Hewes, and they banned me from the kitchen and the coop at least until luncheon. They were not specific about which particular luncheon, but with Lady Catherine and her entire family coming to supper, I was hoping they meant luncheon today. Naturally, where Mrs Hewes went, Sergeant MacDonald soon followed, so that left me with only one lone companion to while away the time before my sisters most likely ruined both the meal and my stove.
I was not especially hungry, and politeness demanded some conversation, so I took it upon myself to start one. “Mr Darcy, with the ever-changing nature of your parsonage-visiting schedule, I imagine I will be making up the middle room upstairs for you soon.”
He simply grinned. “Be careful what you wish for, Elizabeth.”
What was said in jest was returned similarly, and we spent a few minutes exchanging pleasantries and witticisms, and it was not terrible.
At some point, he said, “Speaking of my visits to the parsonage, how is it you always know when I am about? The day your sisters arrived, I doubt very much that you saw or heard me, and I am absolutely certain I was never in your sight that first day.”
“What makes you so certain?”
He just laughed a bit. “Yesterday, before your sisters came, I was as silent and invisible as a ghost. After their arrival, you would not have noticed my aunt setting your dress afire.”
