Page 55 of Eavesdroppers Never Hear
“Not especially,” Jane said curiously.
“Darcy knows he is on thin ice, so he sat at the proper distance. Now look at them!”
Jane carefully regarded her sister, and then a smile graced her face. Lizzy was not sitting on Darcy’s lap, but she was at least a handspan closer than she had been when they sat down. Darcy and Lizzy were there to chaperone the most important conversation of their sister and best friend but looked to all the world like they could care less what was happening so long as no open flames were involved.
Bingley said, “Darcy has hope… dare I emulate him?”
Jane sighed resignedly. “Is your house in order?”
Feeling great relief, Bingley outlined what had changed in the past week. “I decided I need to grow up, as do my sisters. I have cut Caroline and the Hursts from my life entirely. I will not give them a public cut if they behave, but I will no longer support any of them. Caroline will live with Louisa through this next season, and if she is not married by then, I will release her dowry and cut her loose.”
“You may as well declare her a spinster,” she said in some alarm.
Bingley shrugged. “She is a beautiful woman with a good dowry, a lady’s education, and a lot of expensive clothes and jewellery. The only thing holding her back is her sharp tongue and her propensity to reach too high. Like me, Caroline suffers mostly from self-inflicted wounds, and like me, she will have to work out how to move forward. She has a few months to recognize the limits of her reach, but she is her own problem. It is time for all the Bingleys to grow up.”
Jane sat in thought for a few moments, while Bingley waited patiently (more or less).
She finally said, “I learnt something interesting in this experience. I believe Elizabeth and I both were overly enamoured with first impressions, and we have learnt to be more… measured. As part of that, I am trying to avoid overcompensating.”
Bingley was thoroughly confused, which she noticed. “All my life, I equated good manners and amiability with good character. Elizabeth did the same, which is part of why Mr Darcy was so thoroughly in her brown books, even though what he said was barely different from what we get from our father regularly.”
Bingley just raised a sceptical eyebrow, and she smiled in return.
She blushed and then stuttered and stammered the next. “I hope you appreciate the sort of pinch I am in. I liked you at one point… quite a lot… and might again. That said, I have my approaching spinsterhood squeezing me from one side, and the risks of too fast of an attachment pushing me into a bad match on the other. Both frighten me.”
Bingley nodded several times in thought. “Suppose we take things slow. I strongly suspect your worries about spinsterhood will disappear once your sister is well settled. No sister of Fitzwilliam Darcy will ever lack suitors, but I would hope to be first in line. If you allow it, I will simply call but without alarming frequency. I will dance and converse with you but will not neglect your neighbours. When you wish for more, or less, simply give me a hint… but not an overly subtle one. Let us begin anew and see where it leads us.”
“I should like that,” Jane said, and returned the first smile approaching her previous countenance.
Both feeling exhausted, they stood up and Bingley took a chance to grasp her hands and kiss the knuckles.
They wondered if they would have to throw something at Darcy, but the couple on the other side of the room stood at once, showing they were not as indifferent in their duty as it seemed.
They all came together and spent a quarter-hour discussing what had occurred.
Feeling slightly overwhelmed, they returned to the rest of the family just in time for Darcy to take another beating at backgammon from Mary while Jane and Elizabeth played whist with Mr Bingley and Mrs Bennet.
After dinner, the party returned to Netherfield. They all felt much lighter than upon their entry. Bingley felt like a condemned man who had gotten a temporary reprieve. Darcy felt lighter just as he always did after an hour or more withElizabeth. The Colonel felt lighter by six shillings after gambling with Mr Bennet. Georgiana was lighter by three bonnets.
23.Precipitation
During the four days between Friday and the Netherfield ball, there was such a succession of rain as to prevent the Longbourn ladies from walking to Meryton once. Fortunately for said ladies, any Derbyshire coachman worth his salt considered the Hertfordshire rain as unworthy of his concern (barely sprinkling), and the difference between the Darcy coach and the Bennet coach was as a mouse to an elephant. Granted, none of the Bennet ladies had seen an elephant, but all doubted it could be any more impressive than the Darcy coach.
Friday morning found Darcy and Georgiana venturing to Longbourn to return the Bennet ladies to Netherfield for luncheon. Naturally, since a Derbyshire gentleman was not as hardy as a Derbyshire coachman, they chose to dine with only the three eldest. Since Netherfield only had one officer and he was away for the day; the two youngest Bennet sisters vastly preferred to spend the time with their Aunt Philips, where many officers were bound to show up eventually. Darcy dropped them in Meryton, and the rest returned to Netherfield.
Bingley was busy with Mrs Ashford on ball preparations until luncheon, so the three elder Bennet sisters spent the next hour or two conversing quietly with the Darcy siblings. Having survived an afternoon with Lydia and Kitty, Georgiana was gradually losing her shyness and found she quite liked all the Bennet sisters (though some in moderation).
Mr Bingley dropped by occasionally for a few minutes at a time, but there was still much to do. He was gradually discovering that Caroline, while annoying in the extreme, was at least competent. She had only been organizing for a couple of days before returning to London (preceded by days of trying to talk her brother out of it), but most of the bigger tasks were complete.
Mrs Ashford would act as hostess as a favour. While she was happy to do it, she did not want to work herself to death, nor deprive her nephew of a good opportunity to improve his character. She believed most men needed to improve their characters, so such a chance was not to be wasted.
Lunch was an interesting affair. It was not as boisterous as the Bennet table, but still livelier than one would expect with the Darcy siblings present. Elizabeth was starting to feel comfortable with both, which she still found slightly unnerving. A week had yet to pass since Darcy’s apology, yet she could barely remember the time before. She was still full of misgivings and nervousness, but found comfort in the fact that her beau seemed inclined to give her all the time she needed.
Miss Darcy turned out to have a subtle sense of humour that meshed very well with Mary’s. Elizabeth was thrilled with the relationship, not least because she suspected that Mary would end up in Derbyshire with her if she accepted Mr Darcy.
Jane was another matter entirely. The informal seating allowed both gentlemen to sit next to their objects of affection, but Elizabeth was far less anxious than her sister. Jane had given the man a chance, but Elizabeth thought it might take some time to regain their ease.
She was slightly puzzled by the whole affair. The fact of the matter was that Mr Bingley had not actually committed any grave offence against Jane, apart from conversational neglect. He did not correct his sister, but Elizabeth had not tried to correct her mother when she set about disparaging Mr Darcy often enough. She had mostly given up on her younger sisters, and they said far worse things than the Bingley sisters ever did on a regular basis. To be honest, Elizabeth also had to admit that any conversation involved two people, both capable of speaking; so, if Mr Bingley knew nothing about Jane, it was not necessarilyhis fault. Even constrained by propriety, Jane could have given himsomething.It was all most perplexing.
