Page 6 of Darcy’s Guarded Heart
Elizabeth
E lizabeth was fuming inside. How dare this haughty man speak of her sister as though she were a calculating wench looking to snare a husband? Jane was good and kind, and while it was true she needed a husband, the same could be said of any young lady.
That didn’t make her calculating or wrong.
It was Mr Darcy and that horrid Miss Bingley who evidently thought the worst of everyone.
How dare her second cousin, Mrs Melinda Morton speak of family business to strangers?
It was true, the Bennets and Mortons were not close and avoided one another whenever possible, but to speak so ill of her mother, it was unconscionable.
She threw open the door and stepped outside, shaking her head as the warm air hit her face.
“You look positively enraged, Lizzy,” Thomas said from the darkness and stepped out as he finished a glass of what likely contained brandy—his preferred beverage.
“I am. Have you been out here a while?”
Thomas shrugged, his dark brown hair looking almost black in the dark of night.
“A few minutes. I felt rather uncomfortable inside after Mr Darcy drew attention to our misunderstanding regarding my standing. One might think he had exposed some great fraud upon the nation, the way he carried on,” he shook his head but didn’t appear terribly upset.
“He sets himself at such a height that it is a wonder he does not faint from the want of air,” she said and crossed her arms. “I overheard him speaking to his sister. He thinks our entire family beneath his notice and suspected that Jane only wished to dance with Mr Bingley for his money.”
“Jane? Calculating?” Thomas chuckled and stepped beside her. The two leaned against the railing, the moon high above them in the sky. “Our Jane could never wish to trap a man into marriage if she tried. Not that it would occur to her. Now your mother—”
She raised a hand. “You need not remind me. I know she wants us all to catch a husband. Before tonight I would have thought she’d have liked us to bring both Mr Bingley and Mr Darcy home before long as future husbands.”
“Ah yes, but no more. Now her focus is solely on Mr Bingley as she finds Mr Darcy as impolite and rude as you do. He has rather wounded her pride when he refused to dance with you,” he said and raised an eyebrow as he waited for her reply.
“He has quite wounded my pride as well, but that is not my concern. He will attempt to get between Jane and Mr Bingley, if there is to be something between them,” she said.
“Of course there will be. It is evident how much they care for one another already. Even while he was dancing with Miss King he had eyes only for Jane,” Thomas reported.
“I am pleased to hear it for her, but what shall we do about his insufferable friend?”
“I do not think he is quite as bad as you make him out to be, Lizzy,” Thomas said, taking Elizabeth entirely by surprise.
“You would speak up for him when he acted so rudely towards you?”
“Do not mistake me, Lizzy, I do not claim Mr Darcy was in the right. But I have seen how men will defend their pride when they fear they have erred. I suspect he is not half so sure of himself as he would like us to believe,” Thomas said and easily pushed himself onto the railing while Elizabeth stood and leaned against it.
“Besides, Mr Bingley appears very fond of him and we can agree that he is an affable sort of fellow, much similar in character to our Jane, at least from what I have experienced of him on the two occasions I’ve now met him.”
“He does appear that way, yes,” Elizabeth conceded.
“Would Jane ever be friends with someone insufferably rude, without any redeeming qualities? Would she become so close to them as to invite them on a month’s long stay in the country where she’d have to be around that person night and day?”
Reluctantly, Elizabeth shook her head. “I believe not.”
“Well then, we must give Mr Bingley the benefit of the doubt, and in turn, Mr Darcy. I am certain we can charm him still and show him how mistaken he is about Meryton and all of us,” Thomas said with a smile.
Elizabeth took a deep breath as music continued to spill from the ballroom. “I only wish Cousin Morton had not worsened matters.”
“Mr Phillips’s sister, you say? Why, what has she done?”
Elizabeth drew in a deep breath and recounted all she had overheard from Mr Darcy and Miss Bennet’s conversation. Thomas rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to speak but closed it again when the door opened, and two young ladies walked out. He lifted his hat and nodded once.
“She dislikes me and by extension, the entire family.”
“That is not the reason why she and Mother fell out; you know it.”
“It did not aid the situation,” he said, and Elizabeth could not deny it.
While her aunt and uncle Gardiner, as well as her aunt Phillips and her husband, Clark, had been supportive when Thomas first arrived in the family, Mr Phillips’s family had been less enthusiastic.
The idea of having a child born out of wedlock, brought up by a gentleman’s family, struck them as wrong, as it did not uphold the family in the eyes of society.
If Thomas had been an orphan, entirely unrelated to the family, it might have been one thing, but for him to be a true Bennet, and one born under such shameful circumstances, was deemed unacceptable.
A child out of wedlock with the same name?
The Phillips family had been most upset.
But that had not caused the rift. No, it was a progression quite natural, as both Mrs Morton and Mrs Bennet were headstrong characters who found it difficult to accept no for an answer.
That the dislike ran so deep as to cause Mrs Morton to speak so out of turn still shocked Elizabeth.
“I do worry at times that my presence in your family causes more harm than good,” Thomas said then, drawing her from her reverie.
“Do not say such things. You are adored by the entire family. Father sees you as the son he never had, and Mother does the same.”
“And yet, I remind them that they never truly had a son. I am a burden, I feel. I…”
Elizabeth stepped forward and looked at Thomas with concern. Was it Mr Darcy’s comment that had made him so suddenly sullen, despite his vows that it had not bothered him?
“Thomas, you are a blessing upon this family, and you know it. Lydia and Kitty will listen to nobody as well as you. Even Mary is more amiable with you than she is with most others.”
“I know it, but I do worry at times. Nights like tonight make me acutely aware that I am not a desirable husband for any of the ladies who are here fretting over the Bingleys and Darcys of this world. I am almost one and twenty now; I must soon settle upon a course for my life. Mr Bennet and I just spoke of it the other day.”
“Oh?” she replied, for she had been unaware of such a conversation.
She knew that Thomas had to find a profession that would provide him with a stable income and a respectable position, but so far, he had not settled on anything.
The law had been considered, as had trade.
In fact, he had gone into London in the summer and worked with Mr Gardiner for several months, but that arrangement had come to an end when Mr Gardiner’s partner had chosen his own nephew for the position intended for Thomas.
It had not been said aloud, but the implication had been clear—Thomas hadn’t been suitable, given his upbringing.
“Are you still considering the law?”
Thomas nodded. “I am. It is what I feel I would be most suited for. I enjoy reading and studying, and I know a great deal about estate law thanks to your father, but I am a bastard. Will anyone take me seriously? I suppose I could join the military. Or the militia. They seem to take anyone if Mr Wickham is any indication.”
Mr George Wickham, a member of the militia, had come into town some weeks ago and had caused much upheaval.
“I wish you would not measure yourself against Mr Wickham. He is a scoundrel; we know this. You saw through him before anyone else. You would do well as a barrister or solicitor, I am sure. And Mr Phillips would gladly take you on.”
He shrugged. “Perhaps. I must make a decision soon, for if I do not, I shall forever be a burden on your father’s purse, and once he is no more, I shall not be able to assist any of you, as we know what Mr Collins thinks of me.”
Elizabeth wanted to roll her eyes but had, of late, attempted to train herself out of such unladylike habits.
Their cousin and heir to Longbourn had always been an insufferable man for as long as Elizabeth could remember, and his visits—which were mercifully rare—always managed to strain her mother’s already fragile nerves further.
Her father, likewise, would disappear into his study for hours on end both during and after Mr Collins’s visits, and lamentations about Thomas’s status as ward rather than rightful son could be heard coming from both her parents’ mouths for days after.
Recently, Thomas had taken to calling on friends in Meryton or town when Mr Collins announced a visit, as it was easier for all involved.
“You are no burden, you know it. It is Mr Collins who prevails upon our hospitality time and again, and who stretches our goodwill. Not you. Do not think of what will happen. One day soon, you will find your calling, and you will have a wife and a family, and your beginnings will be behind you.”
Thomas sighed. “I wish it were as simple, Lizzy. Sometimes I wish I knew who my father was. It may make a difference if he were a foreign diplomat of some sort, or an Italian Count, or a Scottish Laird. I may still be a bastard, but one with an interesting twist. As it stands, I shall never know who my father was and shall forever be burdened by that lack of knowledge.”
“Well, you could always move to town and reinvent yourself as such. Thomas Bennet, son of the Viceroy of—”
“If I am to make up a tale, then I might as well claim to be the son of a duke. Let us make it worth the lie. Indeed, as a duke’s bastard son, I would have ladies lining up from here to Netherfield Park wishing to dance with me.”
Elizabeth held out her arm until he offered hers.
“Do not be so dramatic. There are a number of ladies who made eyes at you; I saw it. And I shall show them to you. Come, let us brush aside these dark thoughts of the future, and ill-mannered northern gentlemen and enjoy ourselves while we can.”
Thomas nodded, and together, they re-entered the assembly. Yet, despite her brave words, Elizabeth could not deny that when they entered, her eyes immediately searched for Mr Darcy, for something about that man had vexed her like no other ever had.