Page 14 of Friendship and Forgiveness (Mr. Underwood’s Elizabeth & Darcy Stories #7)

The next day Charlie arrived at Longbourn early in the afternoon.

He looked tired.

Jane had sat near the window the whole of the morning, and upon seeing his horse coming up, she went down to greet him. Elizabeth thought of following, but it seemed an affectation to go down to greet Charlie, when he was about to come up himself to the drawing room.

In any case she had little motivation.

Had the previous night really happened?

Mr. Darcy’s offer of marriage.

Those intent eyes, the way they filled briefly with tears. She had said, I cannot marry you, because of the feelings of another .

Did she now regret refusing him for Caroline’s sake?

Elizabeth did not believe so.

At least she hadn’t had to make a second refusal. Mr. Collins had announced to her that morning that he was convinced that she had been too close to the sinful woman, and as such he was not entirely certain if Lady Catherine would accept her as the partner of his future life, and as a result he was incapable of making an offer of his hand until such time as he had spoken to his patroness.

Elizabeth had nearly screamed at him over the coffee and rolls.

She did not believe that she regretted her refusal of Mr. Darcy… merely she regretted the opportunity to have learned if she might have wanted to marry him.

There was a very intimate look to the way Charlie took Jane’s hand when she ran out to him, and in the way they smiled at each other. The two of them stood and talked for several minutes, ignoring the blowsy wind that tried to catch and drag away Bingley’s black beaver hat and Jane’s blue silk bonnet.

The two of them after a while came in and up to the drawing room.

Elizabeth had wrapped her arms around her legs, and she looked at them, sick in her stomach. “Charlie, is Caroline — what has she said? Is she terribly angry with me? What is—”

“I have no more notion of what she is thinking than the devil. I want no notion of what she is thinking. And I will gain no notion of what she is thinking — I saw her off by post carriage, packaged with her maid and a manservant shortly after dawn. I have sent her to Aunt Matilda, for her to have the control of that… woman. For my part I cannot bear the sight of her, nor the sound of her voice. Caro has likely ruined forever the dearest friendship I had. Though it was in part my own failing — I should never have believed her over Darcy for an instant. I know both their characters, and I know whose character is superior.”

“But… you simply sent her off?”

“It was better than she deserved. Another three months and it will be her majority, and none of us will have any obligation to her at all. I eagerly await that .”

“Charlie.”

He shook his head. “Lizzy, she acted wrongly.”

And that was that. Charlie would say nothing else about Caroline, no matter how much Elizabeth asked.

It seemed that he really was done with the matter.

Elizabeth sighed.

As soon as Papa came to the room, Charlie said to him, in a quite serious voice — very unlike his usual light tone, “Mr. Bennet, there is a matter I meant to speak about to you last night, but… events intervened.”

“They did. But I am certainly at liberty to discuss any matter of business with you at present.” He smiled warmly at Charlie. “I certainly am.”

Jane’s eyes followed them eagerly as they left, and Elizabeth, even though she still thought it was absurd, thought she also knew what business Mr. Bingley wished to speak with Papa about.

After fifteen minutes, Charlie returned to the room, and warmly smiled at Jane who stood and went over to embrace him. She then turned to all of them and said, “Mama, Lizzy, everyone, Charlie and I have determined to marry!”

So Caroline had been right. Elizabeth suddenly felt rather like a fool to not have noticed the clear attraction between the two earlier — in no way had it been hidden.

At least this was something to be happy about for them even if Elizabeth really could not imagine Charlie as anything but a slightly obnoxious, teasing brother.

The next morning when Charlie came to call on Jane — and the rest of them, of course, but Elizabeth was not too offended by her firm conviction that Jane was a stronger incentive than she was — Colonel Fitzwilliam provided him accompaniment, as the officer wished to say his farewells.

“Eh, don’t want to overstay my welcome,” he said to them all. “Even if I can’t feel the sensation others describe of being in a place they ought not be — I always feel as though I belong, especially on the battlefield — I am fully aware that at a certain point in time one ought to remove oneself from a situation.”

“Nonsense,” Charlie replied. “Only because… well. I confess it is odd. After all, the two of us never were as close as Darcy and I. But you still are a Fitzwilliam . So—”

“No, no, no — I cannot replace the Christian named Fitzwilliam with my family named variant.” Colonel Fitzwilliam smiled at Elizabeth. “Miss Elizabeth. A hopeless situation. Hopeless. Besides I’ve achieved the tasks that the general gave me to help Colonel Forster with. It is time for me to set off for other corners of the country.”

“We shall be sorry to see you leave.”

“Parting is such sweet sorrow. But I tell you, we shall meet again — at least if the French do not do for me. But I think they’ll not succeed at that.” He turned to Jane and bowed. “Miss Bennet, congratulations. Real congratulations to you. The two of you seem well matched, and Mr. Bingley is an exceptionally lucky man.”

“Thank you,” Jane replied with her soft sweet way.

“Have you heard from Mr. Darcy?” Elizabeth asked.

“No. Nothing — I would not expect to have heard from him. He is no doubt quite annoyed with me.” Colonel Fitzwilliam laughed. “Capital cousin, but Pemberley has gone to his head. Ordering me to leave a place? I’d dare say he’s more than a little annoyed with me for damaging the dramatic exit. But I was not offended in the way he was.”

Elizabeth grimaced.

Charlie hung his head and said, “You do not think he shall… no. No. He will not forgive me. Nor ought he.”

“Eh,” Colonel Fitzwilliam said, “I wouldn’t say that.”

“Oh?” Charlie’s head shot up. “You think he will forgive me?”

With a small shake of his head, Colonel Fitzwilliam dispelled that enthusiasm.

“Oh.”

“I suppose it won’t make you feel better that I consider my cousin to be quite unreasonable in this matter. But, eh. So it is—” He clapped his hands together twice. “Miss Elizabeth, might I speak with you a little?”

Elizabeth paled suddenly with a fear that Mr. Darcy’s belief that the colonel admired her was correct.

As much as she liked and respected him, she was certain that she did not love him. But she also would be quite surprised if he made her a sudden offer, since he admired Caroline, at least a little.

When they went out together into the windswept little wilderness adjacent to Longbourn, Elizabeth shivered. The gravel crackled as they walked over it.

They did not speak for more than a minute, and Elizabeth felt a tension grow in her stomach with each step.

At last Colonel Fitzwilliam shrugged. “ You haven’t had any further communication with Miss Bingley?”

“No.” Elizabeth shook her head sadly — though she felt a little relief when he opened the private conversation with reference to Caroline, since it probably meant that she would not be forced to refuse a second Fitzwilliam in three days.

“I thought not.” He looked up at the bare branches of one of the trees. “Your friend has now displayed what is inside of her — I was right. She is unusual for a girl of her age. The fact did not prove to her credit.”

“Caroline is not wholly bad!” Elizabeth replied hotly. “She only… made a mistake.”

“A serious one.” Colonel Fitzwilliam shook his head and waved his hands as though he wished to greet and farewell all the world at once. “I do not say she is wholly bad. Have I made such a suggestion? No, I think I did not.”

“How then do you consider her?”

Colonel Fitzwilliam sighed. “Poor creature — I’ve seen men with similar stunned looks. On a battlefield after they killed a man in close combat — a sort of looking at the hands, thus have I performed .”

“I thought of Lady Macbeth.”

“Yes, yes, precisely that — ‘ah but he looked so much like my father.’”

“She was sincerely attached to Mr. Darcy.”

“Poor Darcy — and this follows upon the other struggles he has faced this year. He depended very much upon your soon to be brother. I have never seen him so down as he was the next morning in the yard of the inn. Gloomy, stiff, hand in coat. Another holding the hat down. Gloomy, gloomy, gloomy — I confess that even after the events of the night I was shocked to see him in such a state. But he was a dear friend to Bingley.”

“Oh, if only they might reconcile!”

Colonel Fitzwilliam shook his head and grimaced greatly. “I know my cousin. I know he’ll not forgive this. He is resentful of those who he thinks have wronged him.”

“None of this was Bingley’s fault.”

Colonel Fitzwilliam shrugged.

“I do not approve of that tendency in him,” Elizabeth said with some asperity.

“I am certain that he shall modify his usual habits of mind if only he knows of your disapproval.”

Elizabeth wondered if he would.

But unfortunately she would never be able to make a trial of the question.

The two continued in their paces around the Longbourn bushes, hedges, and trees. A calico cat who lived in the stables ran across the cold ground in front of them to hide in a new hedge.

“And Mr. Bingley is to marry your sister. They always appeared on the verge of such a declaration.”

With a laugh, Elizabeth said, “I always thought of Mr. Bingley as my brother — my judgement of likelihood wholly failed in this case. I was convinced that nothing could be further from possibility than them forming an attachment. I had great difficulty imagining that Jane could think of him in a different manner than I do.”

“Even though you grew up so close together? He is a fine gentleman, a worthy partner for any woman — despite some weaknesses.”

Elizabeth shrugged. “We grew up too close together. Maybe that is the difference: Charlie has been there since my very early childhood, while Jane and he were a few years of age when we moved to the North.”

The two walked around quietly again. Elizabeth somehow knew from his expression that Colonel Fitzwilliam was thinking about Caroline again.

At last he grimaced and said, “Unfortunate, but there is nothing to be done about it. She made her choices, and they placed her in such a place. Poor girl! Poor, poor girl!”

After a few more minutes of conversation the two finished their discussion, and the blowing wind and unpromising looking clouds led them to return to the house. Elizabeth and Colonel Fitzwilliam shook hands and parted, and Elizabeth was sad to see him go.