Page 28 of Knowing Mr. Darcy

On the other hand, he wondered about her assessment of Mr. Bingley. The truth was, Bingley could be changeable.Darcy had watched him with other women. He was a bit in love with being in love, sometimes. He did have a tendency to put women on unrealistic pedestals.

“What if he were going to do that?” said Mr. Darcy.

“What?” she said.

“If he were going to become disappointed in your lack of goddesshood?”

“Oh, he will be,” she said. “I assume it would be better if he saw it sooner rather than later, of course.”

“Yes,” he said, nodding. “Yes, indeed.”

She gave him a look. “You always see me just as I am, don’t you, Mr. Darcy?”

“I like to think so.”

“You see I’m not a goddess.”

His lips parted. “You can’t think I mean…” Damnation. “It’s not my intention to insult you, Miss Bennet.”

She laughed, throwing back her head. “Only tolerable, your lack of goddesshood, not my intention to insult you.”

He was hotly embarrassed.

“My sister is right when she says you have not been gifted with a way with words.” She was smiling still.

And he was right when he noted that this womanhatedhim. He fell entirely silent. Here he was, dancing with Bingley’s woman, plotting ways to take her from Bingley, and it was all so very entirely pointless. He was a fool.

“I think it’s your turn to talk now, Mr. Darcy.”

He glared at her.

“Conversations go this way, you see. I say something, and you say something, and then—”

“This is how you interact with others, by following rules?” He was sharp.

She scoffed. “You have just gotten done commenting on how lacking I am as a woman, Mr. Darcy, and all I said was that you don’t have a way with words, and I hardly think you should be so very offended. You cannot drink down what you pour out, I see.”

“I never said you were lacking as a woman, for heaven’s sake, Miss Bennet. You’reperfect.”

Her nostrils flared. “You’re awful.”

“I don’t mean—”

“If you’re going to be like this, and we’re going to quarrel anyway, why don’t you tell me about why you don’t like Mr. Wickham, if you please. Everyone noticed how you could hardly tip your hat to him—”

“I shan’t speak about that man,” he said, teeth gritted. How dare she? Also…everyonenoticed?

Damnation.

“Of course not. You say whatever you like, then, and don’t say whatever you like. The rest of us, of course, must follow other rules.”

He wanted to scream. She was the most exasperating woman in the entire world.

CHAPTER SEVEN

ELIZABETH SHOULD HAVErealized that Mr. Darcy would not speak to her about anything at all. He was the most frustrating man in the entire world.

She endeavored to get some information about Mr. Wickham out of Mr. Bingley, but Bingley knew nothing other than the fact that Mr. Wickham’s father had been the steward of Pemberley, something that Wickham had already told Jane.