Page 37

“Jane? Charles? What is it? What has happened?” asked Elizabeth even as Darcy paused to instruct a footman to keep anyone from disturbing them and then carefully shut the door.

Bingley rose from his seat but kept Jane’s hand secure in his own.

With an apologetic smile, he gestured to the sofa across from them.

“Elizabeth, Darcy. Thank you for coming so quickly. I received some disturbing news in the post this morning from Louisa. He glanced at Jane who nodded faintly and held the papers out. “It might be best if you read the letters themselves. They explain some of the Hursts’ manner over this past year, as well as some more recent… events that I’m afraid you must be made aware of. ”

Bingley passed them Louisa’s first letter and then returned to his place by his wife, stretching his arm around her shoulders and pulling her close.

Jane’s head was still spinning over this fresh evidence of Caroline’s spite.

Comforted by Charles’ solidity and the sound of his beating heart, she reached to squeeze his hand in reassurance.

Together, the Bingleys sat and watched the range of emotions passing across the faces of the couple opposite.

After a minute, Elizabeth glanced up with a look of sadness. “I had no idea that the Hursts had lost a child. I cannot even imagine the pain they have been through.”

“And so soon after the loss of both her parents and elder brother,” added Mr. Darcy quietly.

“My own father never recovered from the death of my mother; he could barely look at Georgiana or myself for months. In hindsight, I understand that we must have reminded him of all that he had lost. He seemed to bury himself in work, but when I took over and reviewed the books, it was clear that he did little more than muddle through.”

Oddly, Jane had brightened a little at their words.

“Yes, it explains a great deal of Mr. and Mrs. Hurst’s behavior since I met them.

” She turned to her husband and added, “I look forward to spending more time with my new sister when we return to London—she has endured so much pain. Caroline…” Jane trailed off.

Charles smiled grimly and patted his wife’s hand.

“Yes, angel. I look forward to seeing Louisa and Gil again, too. I fear I was entirely wrapped up in my own affairs and gave no particular thought to what they were going through. However, even the loss of her parents does not excuse Caroline’s recent activities.

” At the Darcys’ curious looks, he nodded toward the paper still in their hands.

“Read on. Read it aloud,” he added, “for I hardly know myself what it is about.”

The other couple returned to the letter and continued to the end, by which time Elizabeth’s eyes were flashing with anger and a veritable storm cloud had built on Darcy’s brow.

“I am grieved, indeed,” cried Darcy; “grieved—shocked. But is it certain, absolutely certain?”

Bingley nodded disgustedly, handing across the express he had received earlier.

“After sending the letter you have just read, Louisa was able to call upon an old friend, a Mrs. Nesbitt. They’ve been acquainted since school and Mrs. Nesbitt’s younger sister was at seminary with Caroline.

Because this sister recently married a cousin of Lady Jersey’s and is becoming quite the popular hostess in Bath, Louisa and Gil suspected that she might be just the sort of acquaintance to whom Caro would write with such nonsense. ”

Bingley sighed. “I’m sorry to say it, but they guessed rightly.

Fortunately, Lady Bettencourt remembered Caroline and had enough sense to laugh off her letter as the bitter ramblings of a jealous, disappointed spinster.

She gave the letter to Louisa, who has forwarded it to me express, believing that it would be better to confront Caroline with her own words rather than secondhand reports of gossip. ”

Charles slumped back and ran his hand through his hair. “I would never have thought her capable of writing with such malice if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.” Jane just nodded and patted his hand, taking comfort in this, their new family circle.

The moment Darcy finished Caroline’s vitriolic letter, he sprang up and began paced around the room, eventually moving to the fireplace and using a convenient poker to take out some of his anger on the coals.

“Bloody hell, Bingley! I know this isn’t your fault but …

by God! She is a guest in our home and yet she spreads these malicious slurs!

This is beyond the pale, even for Caroline.

” He turned back to the fire and began to break the coals into even smaller pieces while seriously considering how best to use the Darcy connections to squash Miss Caroline Bingley like a bug; his only hesitation being how such an action would harm his sister and brother-in-law.

Having rarely heard his friend curse so openly and never in mixed company, Bingley could do little but slump further down into the cushions. Jane tried to think of something encouraging to say, but for once, she could not.

Into this tense atmosphere intruded the oddest sound.

Darcy spun around and studied his wife carefully.

Lizzy had returned to the first page of Miss Bingley’s letter; the sound came again and he observed that, although his wife was attempting to cover her mouth with one hand, she was most definitely biting her lip…

which was certainly a sign that… “Elizabeth, are you actually able to laugh at that poisonous tripe?” he demanded in disbelief.

The eyes of both Bingleys opened as wide as their mouths.

Glancing from her husband to the cartoonish expressions on the couple across from her, Lizzy could no longer control her giggles and dissolved into hearty laughter.

When she finally was able to take a breath, she exclaimed to her astonished husband, “Oh, come now, Will! Surely you see that she has succeeded only in making herself ridiculous? Anyone with any sense at all shall see it for what it is… I’m sorry, Charles, but Mrs. Hurst phrased it very well—the bitter ramblings of a jealous, disappointed spinster.

“Forgive my vanity, but I find it difficult to believe that anyone who meets us,” she motioned among the four of them, “would take much of this seriously. And if some of the less intelligent among Society should do so, I am certain that we have enough friends,” she looked pointedly at Darcy, reminding him of the Earl and Countess of Matlock’s clear and public approbation of their nephew’s bride, not to mention the dowager Countess of Trowbridge, “to set them straight.”

Darcy stared at her for a moment before cautiously replacing the poker and moving back to his seat. Glancing toward his friend as he plucked the letter from his wife’s hand, he muttered, “Do shut your mouth, Bingley, or you will surely catch a fly.”

Elizabeth collapsed into giggles again, and even Jane recovered enough to manage a small smile when her husband snapped his jaw shut.

When the Mistress of Pemberley was finally able to catch her breath again, she gestured to the letter.

“But really, don’t you see how all the accusations are really just versions of what Caroline herself desired?

Control of the Darcy and Bingley wealth?

Running you all like marionettes with herself positioned as the puppeteer?

Oh, and the redecorating! Jane, surely you remember just yesterday, Georgiana was telling us of how Miss Bingley had counseled her to redecorate her private sitting room in shades of orange because she had heard it to be to be the newest style?

And Caroline just happened to have brought fabric swatches with her…

Poor Georgiana described it as a pattern of the most brilliant orange with green and purple vines of some sort.

I hesitate to speak ill of our sex, but it was truly dreadful. ”

Jane had finally relaxed enough to respond to her sister’s light-hearted words. “It might have done for trimming a pillow…”

“A very small pillow…”

Jane couldn’t help but giggle. “A very small pillow, indeed. But she was pressing Georgiana to use it as wall coverings and matching fabric for drapes and upholstery…”

“For a quiet, shy seventeen-year-old with nothing but pastels in her closet!”

“She really could not have been thinking clearly.” Jane paused and chewed her lip in a manner reminiscent of her sister. “Charles, do you think that Caroline is quite well? I mean, might some sort of illness make her act in such an… odd manner?”

Bingley began shaking his head even before his wife finished her question.

“Angel, on any other occasion I would tell you to believe that if it brings you comfort, but this time I fear we must face the truth, ugly as it is. We have evidence of my sister’s actions right here in her own hand, and Louisa says that she traced at least two other such epistles. ”

Mr. Darcy stood suddenly and went to the door, speaking quietly to the footman outside before returning to his place.

Bingley glanced at his friend curiously but when he said nothing, Charles continued, “In this, I must agree with Louisa. After Caroline’s actions last year, I made it absolutely clear that her continued place in my household was dependent on, first, her apologizing to myself and Jane, and second, on her behaving in a respectful manner to Jane, Lizzy, and all the Bennet family. ”

Seeing Darcy shift uncomfortably and look down toward his feet, Jane added gently, “Mr. Darcy, you have no cause to feel guilty. You made an honest mistake and tried to protect your friend; we have both forgiven you.”

Although Fitzwilliam murmured his thanks, Elizabeth reached out to squeeze his hand, knowing better than any that her husband still harbored a great deal of guilt over the part he had played in separating her sister from his friend.