Page 57 of Great Uncle Henry (Pride & Prejudice Vagary)
B ingley saw his friends and de Bourgh making their way out of the house. “W-where are you going?” He asked. If the men were not there to admire Caroline when she deigned to descend the stairs, there would be hell to pay.
“We are on our way to the assembly. Why are you not departing? Did you not tell us it begins at half after the hour of seven?” Richard asked nonchalantly.
“Yes, that was the time I mentioned, b-but you cannot leave yet.” Bingley looked at Darcy plaintively. “Darce, surely you will wait? I am sure Caroline will be ready in a few minutes.”
“No, Bingley, we will not be late to inflate your sister’s sense of worth.
Why should we be rude as guests in the neighbourhood and be late because your sister thinks she is royalty, and all must wait for her?
” Darcy responded. “Was there anything I said earlier which was unambiguous? I thought I was perfectly clear.”
“Ehrm, you have fallen out of favour with Caroline; she has now chosen de Bourgh…” Bingley stopped when a bark of laughter escaped from said man.
“Bingley, your younger sister is even more delusional than I already thought if she thinks I am interested in her at all. Let me be clear, I would not be interested in Miss Bingley if she and I were the last two left alive and the propagation of the human race depended on us marrying!” de Bourgh insisted firmly .
“How many times have I told you that it is past time for you to check your sister?” Darcy barked. “We are departing now ! Your needing us to remain to placate Miss Bingley does not change that. Grow up and take charge of your sister.”
The three men were helped into their greatcoats by the butler and two footmen, then they took the rest of their outerwear and exited the house.
Bingley stood in the entrance hall, his mouth hanging open.
“I see the footmen are ready.” Darcy inclined his head to the bench at the rear of the carriage where three men stood.
As soon as they were seated, Darcy struck the ceiling, and they were off.
With the finality of Darcy’s coach disappearing from view, Bingley realised that no matter how he wished it were not so, he would have to face Caroline’s displeasure on his own.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
As planned, the conveyances left the dower house at Netherfield Park as soon as Mr Darcy’s equipage arrived. The Taylors, minus Felix and Lil, had arrived ten minutes prior.
As they rode the mile to Meryton, it was the first time Henry truly lamented that he had lost his sight.
He could still see blurry colours but no more than that.
His reason on this night was simple—he wanted to see the looks on both Thomas’s and his stooge, Collins’s, faces.
Of course, Lizzy, Fee, and others would describe the events to him, but it did not replace seeing them for himself.
This was the first time Henry had accompanied the family to the assembly rooms since he had danced with Lizzy when she came out almost four years past. Life had been very good to him—better than to most—so Henry did not sit about bemoaning what he did not have.
Rather, he was very thankful for the gifts God in His wisdom had bestowed on him .
Fee was next to him; someone he had believed he would never see in the mortal world again. Lizzy was on his other side, and the executed documents were in his pocket.
Thomas had shot his last bolt, and it had not come close to the intended target. In a short amount of time, it would be over, and Thomas would receive his just desserts. He would never be in a position to harm his family for his own entertainment ever again.
Henry could not but smile when Lizzy described Sir William’s anger when he had been informed of what Thomas Bennet was attempting to do.
His sons, who would have gladly thrashed the master of Longbourn themselves, had needed to restrain their usually jovial and mild-mannered father.
Sir William had given up his desire to ride to Longbourn and take his former friend to task when the plan had been explained to him.
He had volunteered to play any part needed to be able to assist in what was to come.
By the time the large party from Netherfield Park arrived, other than the Bingleys, Hursts, Thomas Bennet, and William Collins, everyone else was there to learn their part in what would be done to teach the two men coming from Longbourn their well-deserved lesson.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Bennet had to stop himself from skipping with joy as he led his corpulent distant cousin to his carriage.
Since his coachman had left for parts unknown, and this was the first time he was using the conveyance since then, a groom would be the driver on this evening.
With only a mile to cover, Bennet left just before the start time, which was half past the hour of seven.
He intended that he and Collins would enter with the first set underway so his wife and daughters would not notice them.
As soon as there was the break between the first and second dance of the set, he would send Collins on his way to compromise Lizzy.
“Are you ready to gain a wife very soon?” Bennet asked as he smirked at the malodorous man with the oversized belly. He knew his cousin could not see his face in the dark interior of the equipage.
“It could not have come soon enough,” Collins asserted.
“What an honour for your daughter to be gaining one as her husband who was engaged to the granddaughter of an earl. My consequence will raise hers, as long as she behaves. I was concerned when you mentioned she can be impertinent. It is not a drawback for me, as I will be sure to educate her the same way my father did me.”
“Good. Now be prepared; we are slowing down and arriving at the assembly hall,” Bennet stated as he fought to curtail his glee. Not even Collins’s previous statement made him doubt his course for the night.
When they alighted, Bennet was concerned momentarily because he did not hear the strains of music he would expect with dancing in progress.
Almost as he had that thought, the sound of music was heard.
It was not unheard of for the first dance to start a few minutes late at a ball, private or public.
Bennet led Collins into the hall where a manservant relieved them of their outerwear as expected.
Hoping Collins would not attract too much attention yet, Bennet slipped into the hall where the dancing was held, Collins following behind him.
He took two steps into the room and froze, which caused Collins to bump into him.
There was no dancing, and on his entrance, the music ceased.
All of his neighbours were standing around the perimeter, his family in the centre opposite him, and every single person was glaring at him with unbridled anger.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
A young lad, perchance the same one Bennet had flicked a penny at the day he stormed into Phillips’s office, had been given three guineas by the kind Miss Lizzy on behalf of her old uncle to watch for the Bennet carriage while everyone organised themselves inside the hall.
While the lad, the son of a Longbourn tenant, kept watch outside, everyone took up their positions both inside and outside the hall.
Inside, the residents of the area stood along the walls, starting a few yards either side of the door.
Mrs Bennet, her three eldest daughters, Mr Henry Bennet, the Taylors, along with their friends, the Fitzwilliams, Miss and Mr de Bourgh, and Mr Darcy stood in the centre of the room facing the doors.
A few minutes after the time the dancing would have commenced, the lad ran in, nodding. The leader of the musicians had his ensemble begin playing the music for the dance, which would have been the first of the night.
There was no sound other than the music which, as planned, ceased as soon as Mr Bennet and his cousin entered the hall.
It was bad enough that his bumbling cousin almost knocked him off his feet, but Bennet felt terribly disconcerted with all of the not so friendly stares directed at him and Collins.
He had to seize the initiative back. He took a few steps towards his wife and daughters when those standing either side but closest to the door, began to cut him and turn their backs on him.
Bennet watched in horror as every single person there, up to the group around his family, gave him the cut direct.
Even the Lucases, who were next to those around his family whom he did not recognise, cut him.
This could not be happening! It was supposed to be him discomposing them, not the other way around. Bennet could hear his heart beating in his ears. It almost seemed like…they knew exactly what he planned to do. No, surely not.
“Which one of the pretty ladies is my intended?” Collins questioned.
Then, he froze when he saw his former patroness’s daughter.
“Miss de Bourgh! You came to your senses, and even though those men tried to stop us, you are here to marry me.” Collins froze when he identified the two men—Messrs Fitzwilliam and de Bourgh—who had come to the parsonage that day and been instrumental in evicting him.
As he did not see the huge brutes who had dragged him hither and yon, he felt somewhat brave.
“I trust the beneficent Lady Catherine put you in your places and ordered you to cease interfering with my betrothed…” Collins stopped talking when Miss de Bourgh interjected.
“The lady who bore me is where you should be, in an asylum for the insane. There never was a chance I would ever agree to marry a buffoon such as you. Even if you did not smell like a pig who has been rolling in his own excrement, I would have refused to have said my vows,” Anne bit out.