Page 56 of Eavesdroppers Never Hear
Elizabeth wondered if Jane was nervous about making herself vulnerable to a weak man, whether she was giving him enough rope to hang himself, or she was simply not over her anger.
A stray thought occurred to her, followed by the shocking realization that the first thing she wanted to do was discuss it with Darcy. Unlike using his given name for the first time, which was a deliberate ploy to make herself easier with it; the desire to discuss her private thoughts was unexpected.
Once those thoughts occurred to her, she could hardly be bothered to make decent conversation. Fortunately, it all happened during dessert, so after taking some time to refresh themselves, they were off to the drawing room for the afternoon.
~~~~~
Mary and Georgiana abandoned their elders in favour of the pianoforte, and ten minutes later there was a surprising amount of giggling, fine music, and god-awful noise, much to the approval of their elders.
Jane went to aid Mrs Ashford and Bingley for some ball-related tasks that Elizabeth did not even want to know about, so she was left with her beau.
Elizabeth smiled. “William, something surprising happened during luncheon. Are you curious?”
“Dying to know,” he said, and gave her his full attention (which naturally required him to slide half a hand closer).
“It is about Jane. She has given Mr Bingley another chance, but she does not seem comfortable with him.”
Darcy thought a moment. “I wonder if his doing his other tasks is to his favour or detriment. On the one hand, as I understand it, she wants things to be slower than last time,and she probably wants him to show some industriousness—but perhaps she feels neglected?”
“No, I think not… at least not overtly.”
“What then?”
She thought a bit more, and finally said, “Before we speak of Jane, allow me to digress. I had a disquieting thought about Jane and very much to my surprise, I discovered the first thing I wanted to do was share it with you.”
Darcy gave her a smile that would challenge Jane’s in its radiance. “That makes me happy.”
Elizabeth thought about it a moment, and finally whispered, “Me as well.”
They sat in thought for some time, and he finally said, “Perhaps we should discuss it.”
“Of course.” She laughed. “Here is my odd little thought: All Jane’s life, she has been denied the luxury of anger, let alone rage. She was always Jane the beautiful, Jane the steady, Jane the smiler, Jane the peacemaker. I used to try to shake her out of her shell of complaisance, but her habits are as steady as the tides.”
“I suppose that makes sense. It reminds me of the ride back from that blasted assembly…” then he caught himself and looked to Elizabeth apologetically.
“You will have to curse worse than that to bother me. You should hear my uncle Philips,” she said with a laugh.
He nodded and smiled. “Bingley was carrying on at great length about what an angel your sister was, and I said she smiled too much.”
Elizabeth chuckled. “Well, about that—the incident in this very room may have given her a justification for true anger that nobody could deny. For good or ill, I quite readily absolved the gentleman of offenses against myself, just so he could get onwith making a proper apology to Jane—which he did, according to her.”
“He told me as much, but also that she wished things to proceed much more slowly and subtly this time.”
“Here is my thought:Maybe Jane is enjoying her anger too much to let it go easily.”
Darcy thought about it for quite some time. “Did he shoot himself in the foot by returning to London?”
“I think not. I am not certain I approve of how he is handling his sisters, nor have Jane and I canvassed the subject. In fact, she is tight-lipped about the man at present.”
“That is not necessarily bad.”
“It is not, but to answer your question, I suppose Jane is trying to work out what kind of man he is, and more importantly, what kind he will be.”
“Yes… Bingley told her we had opposite problems. He needs to grow up and I need to reclaim my childhood.”
Elizabeth laughed. “Yes, Jane said you were very much like a middle-aged man before your twentieth birthday.”
“That sounds like something Bingley would say.”
