Page 51 of Eavesdroppers Never Hear
The dinner was a raucous affair. The Bennet table was a noisy place at the best of times and adding a colonel in uniform to the younger sisters’ usual antics was like putting out a fire with lamp oil. The colonel took the younger sisters’ flirting with aplomb, which Elizabeth took to mean it was better than cannon fire. He related some war stories that she believed were paradoxically both sanitised and exaggerated. That end of the table had never been so entertained.
By Mrs Bennet’s design, Miss Darcy was seated between Jane and Mary so Elizabeth could sit by Darcy—a plan nobody objected to.
Elizabeth remembered all the hundreds of questions that had run through her mind at her aunt’s house, such as how they would dine at Pemberley, how any children might be raised, and the like. Nobody was really paying attention, and she would have had to stand on the table and shout to be heard anyway, so she gave Darcy a lengthy list of her thoughts and questions.
Darcy was more than happy to see that her thinking was moving towards what their life might be. He reckoned they were beyond questioning whether they might be compatible to questioning whether their life together might be to her taste.
He asked for a few clarifications, then replied. “Most of your questions have a similar answer. We will dine wherever the mistress tells the servants to send our meals. Our children will mind their mother, so what boys or girls do will be mostly up to you. Of course, our sons will have to learn to be gentlemen and our daughters to be ladies. The former will be more my purview as they get older, but not when they are young. We have obligations in town for a couple of months per year, but otherwise we will divide our time in a way upon which we mutually agree. I envision a partnership, Elizabeth. If I wanted a docile wife who just did what I said, do you really think I would have had any trouble obtaining one a decade ago?”
To that, she had almost nothing to reply. The very concept of having a say in the life she was joining was something she had never expected, particularly when she was moving up so far in society.
Darcy could see her distress. “Chin up, Elizabeth. We will work it out together,” he whispered, and boldly reached across under the table to squeeze her hand.
She smiled. “You say that with some confidence.”
“Hardly… it is all bluster,” he said with a rueful smile, and they went back to their desserts.
The rest of the evening went apace. After dinner, Miss Darcy lost the protection of the elder Bennet sisters and was thrust headlong into the world of Lydia and Kitty, who were shocked and dismayed beyond measure to learn the heiress simply bought all her bonnets and never remade them. After enough protestation about the basic unfairness of her upbringing, they convinced her to bring a few of her best bonnets the nextday so she could learn all the important points of bonnet reconstruction.
Elizabeth suspected Lydia’s motives were hardly altruistic, and Miss Darcy would return to Netherfield carrying fewer than she arrived with; but she thought it might be good training for the girl. She needed some adversity in her life, and an afternoon with Lydia Bennet seemed much like learning to swim by being tossed unceremoniously into the deep end of a pond.
The Netherfield party left in good time, with everyone satisfied with the meeting. The courting couple were both happy and relieved that one more obstacle to coming to some sort of agreement on their future was behind them.
~~~~~
As they walked to the carriage, Elizabeth and Jane pulled Darcy aside for a moment.
Jane said, “I understand Mr Bingley asked to speak with me.”
“He has,” Darcy said, still not particularly comfortable with being in the middle.
“Has he made any grand pronouncements?” she asked, obviously aware of what Darcy had said when they returned to Netherfield.
“Not to me.”
“All right. I will hear him out… but not alone.”
“Naturally. Would Elizabeth and I as chaperones suffice?”
“We can be as attentive or as hard of hearing as you like,” Elizabeth offered, and was struck by how comfortable she sounded standing next to Darcy with her hand in the crook of his arm making commitments for his future deportment.
“Bring him in the morning,” Jane said, then curtsied and scurried away.
Darcy gave Elizabeth another proper kiss on the hand, and the party returned to Netherfield full of the day’s news.
22.Clarification
“Welcome to Longbourn,” Mr Bennet said with a grin. He had been dragged kicking and screaming from his bookroom by Elizabeth to at least pretend to be polite to the new visitors. While he kicked up quite a fuss, he was hopeful there would be some silliness to amuse him. With Mr Collins, Lydia, and the Netherfield residents in one room, something was bound to go amiss.
“Thank you, sir. May I introduce my companions.”
“Naturally.”
Mr Bennet had missed the introductions the previous day, as had Mrs Bennet and the youngest sisters, so Darcy methodically introduced Georgiana and Fitzwilliam to the rest of the family.
Everyone sat down in the parlour. While Bennet assumed his wife would fire the first volley for his own amusement, she simply sat and made inconsequential small talk.
Miss Darcy was still a bit shy, but she had brought along several bonnets with her brother’s permission. She went to sit with Lydia and Kitty, and the three of them set about speaking together in surprisingly quiet (almost decorous) whispers. Bennet was not entirely certain he approved. On the one hand, having his daughters be less hoydenish might make it easier to marry them off, but if they became too well-mannered the place would become dull as a tomb.
