Page 2 of Mission to Meryton (Pride and Prejudice Variation #25)
“What think you of Netherfield?” Darcy asked seriously of his friend. The two men had wandered to the edge of a cow pasture, well away from listening ears.
Charles Bingley leaned up against a fence post and looked around in approval, “I like it exceedingly well, Darcy. In fact, it is exactly the kind of place I hoped to lease, to the point that I feel rather guilty in allowing you to provide the funds.”
Darcy shook his head impatiently, “Nonsense, Bingley. You are doing me a great favor in putting your name on the lease. If I did so, there might well be questions since I already own an estate. In any case, I will be reimbursed if necessary.”
Bingley nodded, “I understand. What is my role, by the way?”
“Your role, Bingley, is to be your cheerful, gregarious, outgoing self. I have every confidence that within a few days, you will be acquainted with all those who are called gentry in this area, along with the ironmonger and the local shopkeepers.”
Bingley frowned worriedly. “I assume that this mission of yours, since you brought Miss Darcy, is not dangerous? My sisters are here along with Louisa’s husband, Mr. Hurst.”
His friend shrugged. “To be truthful, Bingley, I do not know what this mission involves. My superior is not yet in Hertfordshire as he is delayed with another vital task on the Continent; all I know is that there is something afoot here involving the French. My function is to learn all I can about the local inhabitants of the area.”
“It is hard to believe that anyone here is working for the Enemy. I have already been visited by a number of the local gentlemen, and all seem honest, decent Englishmen.”
“Indeed, they may all be honest, decent men,” Darcy replied.
“The reports are as yet undefined, I understand. Perhaps Meryton is merely a brief stop in a network of spies. As to safety, most certainly, Bingley. I would never allow Georgiana here if there were any danger. We will merely live our lives and attempt to learn more about the men and women and families in the area. I urge you to be yourself.”
“I presume Miss Darcy is not aware …”
“No, certainly not. No one else must know, Bingley.”
“As you wish. Now come, I have a new horse that I wish to show you …”
/
“Jane, Elizabeth!” Mrs. Bennet cried out, her shrill tones wafting up the stairs of the Bennet family home of Longbourn. “Make haste! Make haste! We must leave for the assembly within ten minutes, or we will be late!”
Elizabeth Bennet, the second of the five Bennet daughters, called down reassuringly, “We are almost ready, Mama!”
She turned to her elder sister and did an inspection, careful to keep her expression cheerful, “You look absolutely lovely, Jane. That gown sets off your eyes and hair beautifully.”
“Thank you, Lizzy,” Jane responded, fingering the pearl necklace around her neck and managing a brave smile. “I am ready.”
“How do I look?”
Jane lifted an affectionate hand to smooth a vagrant chestnut curl on her favorite sister’s head, “You look wonderful, of course. I have no doubt that Mr. Bingley will be quite smitten.”
“Oh, I daresay he will, along with the other five or six or ten or twenty gentlemen he is supposedly bringing with him to the assembly.”
Jane’s expression lightened, “The gossip mongers have been most active, have they not?”
“Very much so.”
/
The assembly room in Meryton was like many such establishments in the myriad little towns which spread across fair England. The dancing floor was sizable enough that some thirty couples could dance, and the structure itself, while architecturally uninspiring, was well-tended and solid.
Fitzwilliam Darcy of Pemberley stood against a wall and looked around carefully at the young couples swirling around the dance floor.
He had already danced with Miss Caroline Bingley and Mrs. Louisa Hurst, sisters of his nominal host, Charles Bingley.
Thus, his duty to dance was at an end, and he could focus on his work.
The problem was, of course, that his current goals were so opaque.
He had served three times before in the service of the Crown, but in the past, his missions had been well defined.
This time, he knew only that something unsavory was afoot in Meryton, and he needed to be on hand to help determine what the French cared about in this British backwater.
He knew himself to be but a cog in the wheel in the great battle against the Corsican tyrant and was pathetically grateful that a more senior agent would come to assist him in the future. For now, his task was to learn about the leading families of the area.
His eyes moved to Sir William Lucas, a cheerful, outgoing, unsophisticated man of some fifty years. The man was father to a large and hopeful family, including a daughter in her twenties.
Next was the Bennet family, composed of a vulgar matron and her five daughters.
Was there a Mr. Bennet? If so, was it possible that he was involved with French agents?
The women, he thought, he could discard as possible accomplices to the Enemy; Darcy was not so na?ve as to think that a woman could not be a spy, but these five girls appeared to be simple young ladies, and the mother seemed entirely incapable of artifice.
The eldest Miss Bennet, Darcy observed with wry amusement, had already been captured by Charles Bingley.
The girl was an exceptionally handsome blonde with seraphic blue eyes, and Bingley, who had a partiality for blondes, had immediately invited the girl for a dance.
Now, Darcy observed with disapproval, his friend was dancing with Miss Bennet a second time.
That was enough to cause the tongues to wag in this rural district!
Sitting in one of the dowager’s chairs was a .
.. a Mrs. Long, yes, that was it. Again, was there a Mr. Long?
Did the lady have sons? There was a shortage of young men in the room and many a young lady was forced to sit out for some of the dancing, but that was not in itself a great surprise.
This long war against Napoleon had pulled many young men into the army or navy.
A man was standing in the corner near a woman who was probably his wife. What was his name? Wyatt? Watts? Wright?
“Come, Darcy!” the familiar voice of Charles Bingley declared. Darcy looked down at his shorter friend irritably as all memory of the man’s name fled.
Bingley clapped a familiar hand on his arm and smiled. “I must have you dance! I hate to see you standing about by yourself in this stupid manner. You had much better dance.”
Darcy scowled and shook his head. “I certainly shall not. You know how I detest it, unless I am particularly acquainted with my partner. At such an assembly as this, it would be insupportable. Your sisters are engaged, and there is not another woman in the room, with whom it would not be a punishment for me to stand up.”
“I would not be so fastidious as you are,” cried Bingley, “for a kingdom! Upon my honor, I never met with so many pleasant girls in my life as I have this evening; and there are several of them you see uncommonly pretty.”
Darcy’s lips turned down and he tried to catch Bingley’s eyes. Charles should know that Darcy was working at the moment and thus had no interest in dancing, but then Bingley’s natural bonhomie meant that, surrounded as he was by pretty ladies, little else but dancing seemed of any importance.
“You are dancing with the only handsome girl in the room,” Darcy declared, seeking to distract his friend.
Bingley smiled even more broadly. “Oh, she is the most beautiful creature I ever beheld! But there is one of her sisters sitting down just behind you, who is very pretty, and I dare say, very agreeable. Do let me ask my partner to introduce you.”
Darcy gritted his teeth at his friend’s determination.
“Which do you mean?” Darcy inquired coldly, turning around to stare at the young woman sitting demurely on a chair against the wall.
She was dressed in a blue muslin gown and her hair was not blonde, but chestnut brown.
She was, he supposed, pretty enough, but not nearly as handsome as the eldest Miss Bennet.
“She is tolerable,” he said impatiently, “but not handsome enough to tempt me; and I am in no humor at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men. You had better return to your partner and enjoy her smiles, for you are wasting your time with me.”
Bingley shrugged at this and wandered off in search of another dance partner, leaving Darcy to discover whether there was a card room in which the older gentlemen were hiding.
If he could find a partner for piquet, he could listen carefully for more information on the leading families in the environs of Meryton.
He moved away from the wall toward a corridor which led to the back of the building.
/
“How was the assembly?” Mr. Bennet inquired, lowering his book to focus on his wife and daughters. He generally did his reading in the library, but he had settled in the drawing room for the evening, curious about the assembly and the introduction of Mr. Bingley and his party.
“It was nice enough,” Mrs. Bennet said abstractly. “Mary, my dear, please do remind me to check on the tulip seeds tomorrow morning. I believe there is a change in the weather coming, and I am concerned that they might overheat.”
“Yes, Mother,” Mary agreed, carefully laying aside her bonnet on a nearby table.
“It was quite wonderful, Father,” the youngest Miss Bennet, Lydia, exclaimed. “Kitty and I were never without partners, and Mr. Bingley seemed quite enchanted with Jane!”
“Was he indeed?” her father inquired, turning his attention on Jane, who blushed rosily.
“Mr. Bingley seems very agreeable,” she said quietly.
“And how about you, Lizzy?”