Page 15 of Why I Kissed You (Pride and Prejudice Variation)

“Darcy!” Bingley cried cheerfully as the two approached. “It’s good to see you—when did you get back to town?”

“Just this afternoon,” Darcy replied.

“Mr. Darcy, Colonel Fitzwilliam,” simpered Miss Bingley with a coquettish smile. “What an unexpected but pleasant surprise! Do come and join the party, won’t you?”

“No thank you, Miss Bingley,” said Darcy. To her brother he said, “Bingley, is there somewhere we might speak in private? I’ve some news I learned in Kent that I must share with you.”

Bingley was instantly curious, and his sister no less so. “Really? Something about an estate there, perhaps?”

Darcy shook his head. “No, nothing of that nature. Please, it really is a private matter.”

Bingley nodded. “Of course. Caroline, do tell the others I shall return in a few moments.”

“Mr. Darcy, do Louisa and I need to join you for this conversation?” said Miss Bingley, ignoring her brother’s direction.

Darcy was not remiss to the implication in her tone. Affecting an air of nonchalance, he replied. “Not at all. It is a matter between gentlemen, Miss Bingley. ”

“This way, Darcy, Colonel…” said Bingley then, gesturing for them to follow him. They went, leaving a no doubt perplexed and possibly concerned Miss Bingley behind.

The three came to the Hursts’ little-used library.

Darcy had often wondered since meeting Reginald Hurst why he did not give it over to some other use, perhaps as a private parlor for himself or his wife.

Certainly, neither of them spent much—if any—time in this room, as Mrs. Hurst didn’t particularly care for reading and Hurst cared not at all.

What was the point in having a private library in one’s home if not to fill it with books that were read, and read regularly?

There was just light enough from the lowering sun for Bingley to make quick work of lighting several candles as Fitzwilliam closed the door behind them.

When he had finished, Bingley turned a curious gaze to Darcy.

“What can I do for you, Darcy? What is this ‘private’ business you wished to discuss?”

Darcy drew another fortifying breath. “You know I’ve been at my aunt’s in Kent these last three weeks. You may also recall that the Hunsford vicar, Mr. Collins, is a relation of the Bennets.”

Bingley’s expression flickered. “I recall the gentleman, yes,” he said, and it was not lost on Darcy that his voice had suddenly lost all its cheerfulness. “What of him?”

“Miss Elizabeth Bennet was visiting at Hunsford, as her friend Miss Lucas married Mr. Collins,” Darcy went on. “We were much in each other’s company and… Well, I’ve asked Miss Elizabeth to marry me.”

The color drained from Bingley’s face and his eyes widened. He swallowed, and then, “You… you asked her to marry you? You asked Miss Elizabeth to marry you?”

“Yes.”

Bingley turned away from his visitors and began to pace.

He ran a hand through his hair. “I… I don’t understand you, Darcy.

You told me five months ago that marrying into that family would be unwise—that you were certain I’d regret it though the connexion would not be so much an evil to me as it would be to someone like yourself. ”

“I did, and truthfully, the connexion is still not entirely desirable,” said Darcy.

“However, I… I fell in love with her, Bingley. I tried to deny my feelings, for the very same reasons I told you the alliance was unwise. But being in such close company with Miss Elizabeth, in so much more intimate a setting… I found I could no longer resist my heart’s desire. ”

Bingley paused his pacing before the fireplace. He lifted his hands to his hips and drew a deep breath, then blew it out in a rush. “I suppose I should congratulate you. I assume she said yes?”

Darcy scoffed, recalling just what it was Elizabeth had said, and how angrily she said it.

“Actually, she refused me,” he confessed, causing Bingley to lift his head and look at him with amazement.

“Miss Elizabeth had discovered that I was complicit in convincing you to give up her sister, for which she heartily resented me because… because I was wrong about her, Charles. I was wrong about Miss Bennet’s degree of affection for you.

Elizabeth assured me in no uncertain terms that her sister was and still is in love with you. ”

Bingley’s eyes now widened, and his mouth dropped open; it closed and opened and closed again before he finally managed, “Jane loves me?”

Almost at a jog, he crossed the distance between them and grabbed Darcy by the arms, a wide smile and bright eyes changing his moroseness to utter joy. “You are sure of it? She loves me?”

“Elizabeth swears it is so. I believe her,” Darcy said.

“Oh. Oh!” cried Bingley, running a hand through his hair again. “Then I must pack! I must away to Netherfield at once—I must call at Longbourn and beg her to forgive my foolishness!”

“You don’t…” Darcy hesitated only a heartbeat. “You don’t need to go to Longbourn. Miss Bennet is here in town, at her uncle’s in Gracechurch Street. She has been there since … since after Christmas.”

Bingley blanched and stepped back as though he’d been struck. “She… Jane is here? In London? She has been in London for… You said since after Christmas… That’s almost four months! When did you learn this? Have you…”

He swallowed and hesitated as though not wanting to say the words but needing to know the answer. “Have you known this whole time?” Bingley asked.

Darcy could only nod at first, then said slowly, “I have, and your sisters also. Miss Bingley told me that Miss Bennet wrote to her after our removal from Netherfield, first to inform her she would be coming to town, and then after to inform her she was here; she later shared that Miss Bennet had also called on one occasion. Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley asked me to help them keep you from learning of her being in Gracechurch Street. I agreed that was the wisest course, as I knew you still harbored feelings for her which you would surely act upon if you met, regardless of her being, as I believed, indifferent to you. ”

Bingley’s devastation on hearing that his best friend and both his sisters had deceived and manipulated him was clear in the crestfallen expression that overcame his features.

“How could you?” said he, before he suddenly drew back and threw a punch at Darcy’s jaw.

The force of the blow caused Darcy to stumble backward; Fitzwilliam caught him by the arm to keep him from falling.

“ How could you?! ” Bingley yelled as Darcy was pulling a handkerchief from his pocket to dab at the blood now seeping from a split lip.

At the same moment, the library door burst open, and Bingley’s sisters came in.

Mrs. Hurst gasped, and Miss Bingley ran to Darcy’s side. “My dear Mr. Darcy! Charles, what have you done?”

Darcy was shrugging her off as Bingley turned his furious gaze on her. “What have I done? What have I done?!”

He stalked over to her and stepped so close that she was forced to take a step back.

“How about we discuss what you did. What Louisa did. What my good friend Darcy did. Let’s discuss how first you all colluded to convince me that Jane Bennet was indifferent to me, and how it would be pointless to return to Hertfordshire and torment myself by pining for a woman who—and I quote—‘clearly cares no more for you than she does any other common acquaintance’. ”

The sisters now turned astonished gazes to Darcy. “Darcy, darling, what have you done?” Miss Bingley whispered.

Darcy scowled. “Do not address me so informally, madam,” he said tersely. “What I have done is no more than tell your brother the truth. I could not in good conscience marry one Bennet sister when I had so strongly argued against your brother marrying another.”

Until that moment, when he had spoken them aloud, Darcy hadn’t realized how very true the words were.

Even had Elizabeth not asked him to make things right with Bingley—had she accepted him from the start—he knew he’d eventually have done it anyway.

His character would not have allowed him to ignore his scruples against a match with such unsuitable connexions to secure his own happiness, when with those same scruples he had convinced Bingley not to make a match in the same family.

“Marry one Bennet sister?” Mrs. Hurst echoed.

“Marry one…” began Miss Bingley. “Oh, Darcy, tell me it isn’t so! ”

Darcy’s scowl deepened. “The proper address is Mr. Darcy, Miss Bingley,” he said. “And it is so. Miss Elizabeth Bennet agreed to be my wife just this morning.”

Bingley blinked. “I thought you said she refused you. You know what? It doesn’t matter,” he said, waving his hand dismissively before returning his attention to his sisters.

“Let us also discuss, Miss Bingley, how a woman you had named as a friend wrote to you twice and you did not mention either letter to me—how you, in fact, lied to me when I asked if you had heard from her. How she called on you, in this very house, and I have just today heard of it. I might as well inquire as to why, if Miss Bennet was so very indifferent to me, the three of you put so much effort into ensuring I did not discover that she had been in town for nearly four months .”

Darcy noted tears pooling in the eyes of both sisters.

He could hardly believe they were genuine, though if they were it was likely due to being caught out than as a result of regretting their actions.

They had too little regard for the feelings of others to be genuinely remorseful for having wronged their brother and Jane, and in coming to that conclusion, he could not but feel his own shame all the more.

Elizabeth had said very nearly the same of him.

“Charles, please, please understand,” Miss Bingley pleaded.

“We are noticed in society, yes, but if we are to have any real hope of rising higher, we must make the best connexions we possibly can! The Bennets are good in themselves, I am sure, but they are too vulgar and unrefined for the first circles! Miss Bennet’s uncles are an attorney and a tradesman! ”

“Our father was a tradesman, Caroline!” Bingley snapped.

“Oh, he had little to do with the business his grandfather had built by the time of his death, but he was still considered a tradesman. We come from trade—our fortunes come from trade, however much you like to pretend that isn’t so!

You and Louisa can ignore our origins as much as you like but it does not make the fact any less true.

I am not ashamed of where we come from, because our father and grandfather and uncles worked hard at their trade to earn all that money that sits in the bank under the Bingley name. ”

“Charles, surely you know that you could have almost any young woman you want—you could marry Miss Darcy—”

“No, he couldn’t,” said Darcy and Fitzwilliam in unison, with the latter adding, “My cousin is far too young and inexperienced in the world to marry anyone. ”

“All due respect to Miss Darcy, but I don’t even want her—I’ve only met her three times, and not once did I think of her in that way,” said Bingley. “I do want Jane Bennet.”

Angrily brushing past his sisters, Bingley stalked from the library. The two women followed, as did Darcy and Fitzwilliam.

“You!” Bingley yelled at a footman who was then crossing the hall. “Go out to the mews and tell the grooms to prepare my carriage.”

“Y-yes, sir!” the footman replied with a nod before hurrying away.

“Charles, where are you going?” Miss Bingley asked.

“Away from here!” Bingley snapped. “I’ll not stay a minute longer than necessary in a house where I have been so ill-used.”

He stopped and whirled back to face them, his indignation still clearly etched into his features. “You manipulated me, and you concealed from me the presence of the woman I love. I’m leaving.”

Bingley turned away again and continued toward the stairs.

“Charles, please! Let’s talk about this!” Mrs. Hurst called after her brother.

“There’s nothing to talk about, Louisa!”

“Bingley, where will you go?” Fitzwilliam asked in a quieter tone.

Bingley had started up the stairs; he paused. “I don’t know. A hotel, I imagine.”

“Charles,” said Darcy; he walked past the weeping sisters to stand at the foot of the stairs.

“I know that I have wronged you as much as your sisters have done. For that, I am truly, deeply sorry. I still consider you as a friend and hope one day very soon to call you my brother … if you can ever forgive me.”