Page 75

“While I would prefer that privacy, I feel that I need to apologise to her, and to the rest of your family, in public.”

Bennet nodded, this was going to be a humbling moment.

“Let us join the rest of the family in the parlour. Hill.”

The last was shouted and the butler arrived quickly, clearly having been loitering outside the study door.

“Have there been any other callers?”

“No Mr. Bennet. They family are on their own in the parlour.”

“Excellent. Follow me then Mr. Darcy.”

It was a walk of no more than 12 seconds, yet it felt many times longer. All eyes swung in his direction as he followed Mr. Bennet into the parlour. Miss Mary looked down into her lap, but Miss Bennet held his gaze, a cold blank stare across her face.

“Mr. Darcy has something to say to us.”

Best to get it over with.

“Miss Mary, I have come today to offer you the most abject of apologies. I spoke words in public about you that were not only untrue but should never have been uttered in the first place. I think of myself as a gentleman and yet I failed to meet even the most basic of standards of well-mannered behaviour. You were entirely innocent of blame. I apologise unreservedly.”

Mary Bennet managed to whisper her response, clearly uncomfortable.

“Thank you. I accept your apology Mr. Darcy.”

Darcy bowed before her.

“I also wish to apologise to the entire family. It should not have been necessary for Miss Bennet to cut short her trip to deal with this situation. I have disrupted the whole family and for that too I apologise.”

Mrs. Bennet accepted the apology on behalf of the family. But then he got to see the family dynamic.

“Mama, Mary and I are going to stroll in the garden. Perhaps Mr. Darcy will favour us with his company.”

Darcy was positive this was the last thing he wanted to do but he had little choice. Three minutes later, once the two Bennet daughters had donned their spencers, they were walking the paths of the gardens of Longbourn.

“Will you answer some questions for me Mr. Darcy?”

“If I can Miss Bennet, then yes.”

“Why are you here?”

“I came to apologise.”

“No, I understand what you did when you got here. But why are you here, barely 12 hours after our confrontation at Lucas Lodge? Which will be known throughout the district by the start of the church service tomorrow morning.”

Darcy suspected the question was really rhetorical and that Miss Bennet knew full well why he had come to apologise. He also could see that she was going to make him say it out loud. He sighed deeply but looked her in the eye.

“I was rude. And rude in a manner I never would have been at a similar occasion in London. When you tore a strip off me last night, it was a needed wake up call. It was more than that, it felt like a kick to the head. But it was what I needed. I proudly proclaimed my descent from the previous Earl of Matlock, if such a connection should allow me to behave in the way I did with Miss Mary. You spectacularly, and effortlessly, trumped my connection with one of your own. It was this that I pondered as I wandered randomly around the lanes and tracks of Hertfordshire.”

The two ladies looked confused for a moment.

“In among everything else last night, my sense of direction failed me and it took me some time to orientate myself and actually walk towards Netherfield Park.”

He saw that Miss Bennet struggled to hide a grin. He did not blame her.

“Yes, it was one more ignominy to my evening. At least it was not raining. Regardless, what it did allow me was time to first calm down and second to actually consider my behaviour. I have behaved poorly since my arrival and I suspect this poor behaviour extends back several months. I will deal with those instances in due course. What I can do is fix my behaviour here in Meryton, and the surrounding area.”

He watched Miss Bennet nod in approval.

“Thank you for being honest, I know it cannot have been easy for you. I was unsure about accepting your apology to the family, whatever my mother said, but I can see that you do mean it. Welcome to the neighbourhood Mr. Darcy.”

When Miss Elizabeth Bennet smiled at him, for the first time he realised, Darcy had to hold himself under strict regulation. She was a striking woman.

--

The two months that followed settled into a familiar pattern. Bingley returned to London, his sister’s cries ringing in his ears the whole way. But he held firm. Hurst recognised that the freeloading days were over and opened the family townhouse. They were going to remain until the end of the season and then return to the family estate in Yorkshire. The only reason for these plans was because he and his wife knew that her sister, unliked by his parents, was not going to accompany them.

Bingley had sat with Darcy before the trip and taken his advice, and noted down some phrases, for dealing with his sister. At 23 she was already well on the way to being considered on the shelf. Bingley had told her to her face that Darcy was never going to offer for her. When she did not believe him at first, Caroline Bingley was nothing if not insensible to anything that did not conform to her dreams, he had simply asked the Netherfield Park butler to send for Mr. Darcy. This final act had not been necessary as Caroline had no desire to be humiliated to her face. She had left with ill grace.

A pretty face, when not scowling, and a handsome dowry were exactly what a minor gentleman from Dorset was looking for. She was betrothed within a month and would be married immediately after Twelfth Night. Bingley would at last be free to return to Netherfield Park.

Where he would find Fitzwilliam Darcy. Who had thoroughly redeemed his reputation. His acceptance of Miss Bennet’s rebuke had gone a long way in that redemption. And the sly and snide comments of Darcy being nothing but a mouse had also not lasted. He treated Netherfield Park like Pemberley, both in the way he dealt with the Steward, but also the tenants. And he treated the inhabitants of Meryton and its environs in the same manner as he did those of Lambton and Kympton, the two villages closest to the Pemberley estate.

The mutual attraction between Mr. Bingley and Kitty Bennet had been noted by the young lady’s mother. She was despondent that the gentleman was not going to be present through the autumn. But it worked out for all concerned. Bingley rid himself of leeching relatives, and got his interfering sister married, while Kitty used his absence, and an invitation from Lady Carruthers, to escape Longbourn. With Elizabeth back, she managed her parents and Kitty was able to leave for Itchenor, much to Lydia’s disgust. A younger version of Caroline Bingley, but equally vociferous, she made her displeasure known to anyone who would listen. Which turned out to be just her mother.

And it was here Kitty was rescued by Elizabeth. Without Elizabeth being present Kitty would have been forbidden to visit, or been forced to have Lydia accompany her. Elizabeth and Lady Carruthers were having none of that, and so Kitty spent more than two months with Jane in West Sussex. As Sir David was away she stayed through the entire Christmas period, only returning after Twelfth Night.

It was in no way a coincidence as Elizabeth had let her know when Charles Bingley was returning to Netherfield Park. How did she know? Because to the surprise of all, especially after the incident at Lucas Lodge Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy spent a lot of time together.