Page 29

“You wanted to see me, Papa?”

“Yes, I did. I have missed you these last few days. Yesterday, with your mother fluttering around because you two came home early, I did not have much time to talk with you. Although now, I need to see you now on an entirely different matter.”

She was puzzled but sat after he indicated the chair across from his desk. He looked at her and tapped his chin. He looked rather intense, and she began to worry. She wanted to ask what was wrong but held off.

“I am really not sure how to approach this with you.”

“Is something wrong? Are you ill?” She asked, unable to contain her apprehension.

“I am perfectly hale. Your mother has no worries at the moment of finding herself in the hedgerows.”

Elizabeth wanted to laugh, but his countenance had not taken on a jovial appearance when he made a jest. While he meant to poke fun at her mother’s fear, his face remained unreadable. She then focused on the folded paper in his hand, which he casually tapped against the desk. He stopped tapping when he began to speak.

“Mr Harbinger came to me this morning…”

While it was not unusual for one of the tenant farmers to visit, it was usually at planting or harvest time unless some disaster befell the family and came asking for help.

“If you did not already know, his daughter Mary works in the kitchen at Netherfield.” She shook her head to indicate that she had not known. “She visited him yesterday and told him about a bit of gossip that is circulating there. As you are familiar with the gossip chain of servants, it will begin to filter itself to the top. It is only a matter of time before it spills out of Netherfield, and then all of Meryton will hear of it.”

She went cold, and her heart felt like it had missed a beat or two. She began to shake her head slowly. This could not be happening. She cleared her throat as it closed up.

“He admonished her for spreading such nonsense and told her to do the same to the other servants. Many of them know you, even if in passing, but I am afraid that only buys you time.” Looking at her panicked look, he wondered if there was some truth to the gossip. He continued with what he had planned to say in the first place, even though a sliver of doubt crept into his thoughts. “Naturally, I told him it was nonsense. I know you would never compromise yourself. And do not think I have not noticed your long conversations with Mr Darcy. Yet, I still believe you would not do anything wanton.”

Her eyes widened in shock. “Father! Nothing happened between us. It is all a misunderstanding.”

“So there is at least a nugget of truth to this?”

Elizabeth looked down at her hands. She heard her father sigh heavily. She wanted to burst into tears from frustration and a touch of shame.

“Nothing happened,” she said quietly.

He asked her to explain what did. She relayed to him all the innocent details of the night during the most difficult conversation she had ever had with him. He sat quiet, unmoving, as the tale unfolded until she finished. It was several uncomfortable minutes before he spoke.

“It will only be a matter of time before your mother catches wind of this. Then we shall not have a day of peace until it is resolved.”

“Papa?” she cried, the last syllable trailing off quietly.

He raised his bushy eyebrows to her, indicating that he was expecting her to finish what was on her mind. Elizabeth closed her eyes for a moment to gather her thoughts and her courage.

“Please tell me you are not expecting me to marry Mr Darcy over some trivial misunderstanding.”

“It is not as trivial as you believe. You were seen, even if it was as innocent as you claim.”

“As I claim? You do not believe me?”

“I do, but I will be one of the few, most likely the only one. If Mr Darcy is a man of honor, which I believe he is just from what little time I have spent talking with him, I am sure I can expect a visit. It is only a matter of time before he hears of it.”

“While I have enjoyed his company…” She flushed with color. “Our conversations. I have no desire to be his wife.”

“If he arrives at my doorstep desiring to remedy this, what am I to do? Even before becoming titled, I would have been hard pressed to deny a man of his stature anything he requested of me, even a beloved daughter, if I thought it best.”

Elizabeth’s heart sank even as its beat sped up in despair. She could not believe this was happening because she felt compelled to console a grieving man. Her mind went through all that had brought her to this point. Such small things in life could bring about potentially enormous changes.

“Papa… there is something else you should know,” she said nervously.

“Yes?”

“The truth is…”

“You want to confess what really happened?”

She shook her head. “I was truthful. I did not leave anything out about that night. You see, this morning, Mr Darcy suggested that we marry.”

Mr Bennet sat back in his chair with a look of relief. “Thank god. That is good to know. When can I expect his visit?”

“I said no,” she blurted out before looking down at her hands to avoid what she knew would be a look of anger or disappointment.

“Elizabeth Bennet,” he yelled. Something he rarely did. “What on earth were you thinking?”

She gathered her courage and looked at him directly. With a wavering voice, she answered, “I do not love him, and he does not love me.”

“What has love got to do with it?”

“Everything, Papa.”

“Bah, most young lovers do not know love. They believe the infatuation they are feeling is love. Oftentimes, it is plain lust. Love comes from spending time with a person, getting to know their habits and faults that you did not know they had when you first met. Do you like Mr Darcy?”

“I… I enjoy talking with him.”

“As well as I know you, if you found fault with him, you would not have spent so much time with him. You would find ways to avoid him, as you have several suitors.”

“It still does not mean I want to marry him.”

“You do not find him good-looking?” He chuckled as she blushed. “Now, you cannot deny it.”

“I admit it, but it still does not change my feelings.”

He sighed heavily. He did not know what to make of his daughter. The one he thought intelligent and had the most common sense. He picked up the paper he had previously been tapping on the desk. One corner was crumpled from the abuse it had endured.

“All right, Lizzy,” he began. She sat up a little straighter as hope returned. “There is another option you might explore.” She could now see that the paper was, in fact, a letter and thought that perhaps it was from her uncle. She had, at times, spent time with his family to help out with the children.

“Tell me,” she said hurriedly. “Send me off to London to stay with Uncle Gardiner?” She would not mind that at all, she thought.

“Oh no, my darling child. Packing you off to stay with them would only exacerbate the gossip as they might think…”

Elizabeth colored deeply and felt flushed with heat at the implication. She took a moment to recover her composer. “What then?” She managed to ask in a quiet voice. Her father waved the letter at her.

“My cousin, whom we have never met, desires to end our estrangement. As it is a continual conversation topic with your mother, on the day I pass from this earth, he will be the new master of Longbourn. I was going to inform the family that he is to arrive tomorrow with an offer of an olive branch with which he means to heal the wound of the family breach.”

“What has this to do with my predicament?”

“Come now, Lizzy. Is your mind in such turmoil over the prospect of an unwanted marriage that you cannot see what he means by extending an olive branch?” He stood and leaned over the desk, holding the letter for her to read. “Perhaps this will stir your mind,” he said as she took the letter from his grasp.

Elizabeth unfolded the paper and began to read. “From his words, I cannot believe him to be a sensible man as he rambles about in what he tries to convey,” Elizabeth said.

Her father shrugged. “Perhaps he is a better orator than a writer. He is a parson, after all, and must spend a great deal of time talking. The point is, he is eager to make amends for the entail to my daughters by choosing one of you as his bride and save your mother from the hedgerows.”

Elizabeth paled. “Marry a stranger I barely know, or marry a stranger I know not at all. Both options are unappealing.”

“If you can find another to propose, I shall render myself open to that option as well. It is most fortunate with the bevy of officers we find ourselves suddenly inundated with at this opportune moment.”

Her shoulders sagged in defeat. One way or another, her father appeared intent on seeing her before the altar as a sacrifice for the family name.