Page 40 of The Countess and Her Sister

“That is because they are decent people,” Lady Susan said with a sad shake of her head.

“They have often expressed curiosity about you since your marriage, especially since you have become a widow. Do not be surprised if your attachment to Mr. Bingley is scrutinized – and certainly they will have sons they wish to acquaint you with. The same goes for you, Miss Lizzy. Miss Bingley is not the only young lady so desperately rapacious. You will both need to put your best foot forward when making a first impression on the principal families of the area. I think it likely that you may both spend a great deal of time amongst them in the future.”

Over the next half hour Lady Susan instructed them in the history of each of the families they would meet, describing their tastes and dispositions, and often asking the maids who attended them to confirm her tidbits of gossip.

Several of the families had been connected with the Darcys and Fitzwilliams for generations, and a few shared distant family ties from the marriages of their ancestors.

She prepared them well for the large and stately dinner that followed.

The table was set formally, and neither Jane nor Elizabeth were seated near their beaux for the meal.

This was done not only due to the formal placement based on rank, but also to separate the couples and spare them the scrutiny of being observed together, as besotted as they were.

Elizabeth was content with the company of Mr. Bingley for the meal.

He was in high spirits as they spoke of the day’s many pleasures with their new acquaintance, who took interest in the new tenant of Cameron Court, and were as in awe of the Gardiners and their nieces as the good people of Lambton had been.

When a turn of the conversation afforded Mr. Bingley the chance to speak to Elizabeth with a modicum of privacy, he quietly asked, “How am I doing?”

“I hope you are feeling well. You are behaving very well, though the two things rarely go together,” Elizabeth teased him. “But I think I know what you mean to ask. You have acquitted yourself wonderfully today, and I am sure Jane is sensible of your effort as much as your charm.”

“I have been vastly content in the country, but I am not unaware of what is expected of me. I am being tested, and not only in matters of estate business, though my friends have put me through my paces in that aspect. But I believe there is more encompassed in what I must prove of myself – surely you must know it.”

“Your steadfast attachment may be proven in time,” she said cautiously, not entirely sure what he was asking her.

“Yes, of course – what I feel for Jane is far beyond anything else before… those ladies that Lady Catherine invited to dinner. But there is still more. I have been granted the privilege of meeting young Thomas, and I hope I have done well – he is a capital little fellow, and I think it would be a fine thing to be a father to him, and other children – I had never thought so much of it before, but it is yet another notion to be delighted by!”

Mr. Bingley gave a nervous laugh, and Elizabeth nodded her encouragement as he continued. “I hope I acquitted myself well in handling Mrs. Bennet in accordance with Lady Jane’s wishes – I might have acted sooner, but I thought it may prove worse to cause a scene… which happened anyhow….”

He frowned, idly moving his fork about his plate.

“I met your younger sisters and liked them, and I shall be there when Jane speaks to them of their future a few days hence. Tonight, it is the local society I must impress – I must be a credit to her, and not a degradation. I must be a promising new neighbor who can command their respect as she does.”

Elizabeth nodded appreciatively. “I shall admit, Mr. Bingley, you have given the matter a great deal of thought – such insight speaks well of you. I should say you are doing very well!”

“Darcy and Richard and even Lady Rebecca have badgered me relentlessly,” he laughed. “Nobody can accuse me of not taking my future seriously, which has previously Caroline’s favorite complaint.”

“And what shall you do with your sister?” The words came out before Elizabeth could suppress the urge to speak them aloud.

Mr. Bingley blanched as he glanced down at the table, where Miss Bingley was flirting with two of the local gentlemen who had come dressed in their finest for Jane’s sake.

“I hoped for years that Richard would take her off my hands,” he whispered with a playful wink.

“If I tried to promote the match now, I fear Lady Susan might poison my tea.”

“She is perfectly civil to Jane – in that aspect she requires no correction. But Jane has perceived on many occasions that you appeared displeased with your sister, and yet took no action. As you know, she takes a hard stance on relations who defiantly disoblige her.” She followed his gaze and Miss Bingley looked over with a syrupy smile and malice in her eyes.

Elizabeth cheerfully imagined Mr. Bingley packing his sister up in a crate and shipping her off to Kamchatka.

Elizabeth would press him no further, for she could see in his countenance that Mr. Bingley was already considering her advice. Instead she turned the subject, for he had raised her curiosity. “Jane has asked you to join her in speaking with our sisters?”

Mr. Bingley looked at her as if she were simple. “Well, they cannot remain with your mother.”

“Of course – I did not know Jane had come to some other decision.” Elizabeth’s head had grown too full of Mr. Darcy.

Mr. Bingley looked chagrined to realize she was not aware of the scheme.

“We only thought the plan up this morning in Lambton. It occurred to me that your sisters seemed so happy amongst us all – they do not share whatever grudge their mother holds, and are rather less prone to instigate conflict than my own sister. Lady Jane is out of mourning and moving amongst society again – or rather, for the first time, I think. She can do for them now what she was unable to before, if they are amenable to it.”

Elizabeth was inexplicably delighted that Jane had chosen Mr. Bingley as her confidant, and told him so with a smile.

Proud as she was of the man she hoped to soon call brother, Elizabeth was even more in awe of Mr. Darcy that night.

To see him in his own home, amongst his neighbors and relations, so confident in his natural environs was a thing of wonder.

Just as her sisters had understood the magnitude of the Gardiners’ importance, Elizabeth was struck with a fuller comprehension of Mr. Darcy’s prominence.

Amongst such a large party, Elizabeth had little opportunity to speak with Mr. Darcy. She retired for the night content to see her friends and sisters happy, expecting she would meet with Mr. Darcy for breakfast before her family returned to Matlock Hall.

To her surprise, there was a knock on the door to one side of her large and beautifully appointed chamber. She answered the door, supposing her room must connect to Jane’s, but instead found Mr. Darcy standing in a snug and elegant parlor. Like her, he was in his bedclothes.

“Mr. Darcy! I might have been undressed!”

He grinned as if the prospect intrigued him. “My valet said your maid left you a quarter hour ago. Forgive me, but… I missed you.”

“I missed you, too,” she said. She suddenly felt self-conscious despite the darkness of the room. “I just snuffed the candle out….”

“Would you like to come and sit with me?”

Elizabeth took his hand and he led her into the parlor, a small but cozy room with a blazing fire and a sofa positioned for enjoying the blaze.

There was a bottle of wine on a little table and two glasses beside it.

Elizabeth sat beside him, her heart beating wildly at the awareness of her thin chemise and robe, and her loose hair.

“Mr. Darcy, does your chamber connect to this room, too?”

He poured two glasses of wine and offered her one. “Yes.”

“I see. Am I – was I put in the mistress’s bedroom?”

“Yes.”

Elizabeth gasped. “What will people say?”

Mr. Darcy gave her a suggestive look, and then smiled. “For all your sister’s talk of redecorating, I thought you ought to see that room – and this one.”

“Because I shall be spending time in these rooms, in the future?”

He reached up and softly caressed her cheek, then began to run his fingers through her hair. Elizabeth’s eyes slid closed as she sipped at her wine and then let out a hum of contentment.

She opened her eyes when he withdrew his hand and reached for a book. “Georgiana and I have been reading a new novel together. We have read so many, and it seems to me that young ladies are quite enraptured by the notion of secret engagements.”

“Novels of romance might find their way into more gentlemen’s libraries if they were promoted, quite honestly, as guidebooks for how a man might woo any lady he chooses with remarkable success.” She giggled as he placed a gentle kiss on her neck, just below her ear.

“Then might I tempt you?” Mr. Darcy took her hand in his, his gaze earnest and hopeful. “If your only cause for delay is consideration for Lady Jane – if you have no other objection – would you consider a secret understanding?”

Never had a heroine in her novels ever declined such an offer, amidst such a romantic scene, sipping wine in her bedclothes before a roaring fire with a man who could inspire envy in Adonis himself – Elizabeth would not be the first to resist such temptation.

“I suppose we understand each other perfectly already. I have no other reason to wait but that I wish Jane to find her own happiness.”

He smiled brilliantly at her as he raised her hand to his lips. “Then you accept? Elizabeth, will you be my wife, and when the time is right, announce it to all the world?”

“Of course – yes – very much yes! You are the last man in the world I could ever be prevailed upon to refuse!” Elizabeth laughed with joy until his lips met hers, and kissed him until she was fully in his lap, when her last shred of good sense prevailed and she bid him a breathless goodnight.