Page 39 of A Most Favourable Match

“Still,” Elizabeth sighed. “Mother should have been more civil to him, and Lydia and Kitty ought to be disciplined after such an ill-mannered display as that. There was no need to mock Mr Collins, even if he is a most unfortunate marital prospect. I hope he does not take my refusal in the same spirit as our sisters’. His offer was simply quite impossible.”

“It was very badly done by Lydia,” said Jane soberly. “No, I’m sure you were more respectful, Lizzy.”

“I am not thinking of marriage at all, and I certainly could not marry Mr Collins,” added Elizabeth, feeling obscurely that she must defend herself. “There cannot be that many women in the world who would. He is very trying.”

“I do see that,” Jane soothed her. “You would be far better marrying Mr Bingley, I think.”

Elizabeth laughed at the idea, especially when recalling Mr Bingley’s quiet admiration for Jane herself.

“Because he is rich and handsome?” she suggested. “Fie, Jane. I thought you higher minded than that, whatever mistaken path our mother might be set upon.”

“Not only that,” Jane replied with warmth. “Mr Bingley is also of vastly more amiable and estimable character than Mr Collins, don’t you think? He is rich and handsome too, but that would not stand him in such good stead if he did not possess greater virtues.”

“How lucky you are, Jane, to have fallen in love with a man who is rich, handsome, amiable, and estimable,” Elizabeth remarked. “We cannot all be so lucky, however. As I love neither Mr Collins nor Mr Bingley, and never could, I shall not be marrying either of them. Likely, I will marry no one and end an old maid.”

Jane gave a very long sigh.

“It seems a shame. I should like to see you happily married one day, Lizzy, and Mr Bingley deserves happiness too.”

Such a statement made Elizabeth uneasy on several fronts. It was all very well to feel kindly towards Mr Bingley, but her sister could not realise the way he gazed so adoringly upon her whenever they met. Any encouragement, however innocent, could only increase his estimation of Jane, and his inevitable pain at its non-fulfilment. Jane was to marry Lord Grantchester next year, and Mr Bingley could have no hopes.

Elizabeth hoped they would not meet Mr Bingley often in London, for his sake, as well as wishing to keep Jane from embarrassment. Never mind that seeing MrBingley seemed inextricably bound with seeing Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy, whose handsome, arrogant face seemed to haunt her own imagination.

“Oh, never mind marriage and men,” Elizabeth said hastily. “Let us leave worrying over these things to our mother, and think instead of what we will do with ourselves in London.”

“I cannot wait to see all our dear little cousins again,” Jane said immediately. “That is always my favourite thing in any visit to London.”

“I was thinking more of the social events we will be attending, and your seeing Lord Grantchester again,” Elizabeth protested lightly, puzzled once more over Jane’s way of thinking. “Aren’t you looking forward to that, too?”

“I suppose I am,” Jane agreed.

Elizabeth looked at her sister sharply. Something, she hardly knew what, was not entirely convincing in the words. But her sister’s face wore a gentle smile that communicated nothing, and though Jane had not told her what she most wanted to know, she had at least said that she wished to see her fiance.

However lacking the words felt, they were all Jane was going to say, and Elizabeth had to be content with them.

Chapter 14

“Why are we going this way?” Georgiana asked Darcy as he steered her down a side path in St. James’s Park. “I thought we were going around the lake first and then meeting Mrs Annesley for an ice when she returns from walking with her friend.”

His sister was not objecting to their new course, only puzzling over the unannounced change in plans. Darcy was not generally an indecisive or vacillating man, and some part of himself was as bewildered as Georgiana. He had fully intended to take them straight to the lake, but at the sight of two particular young ladies on the path ahead, his heart had leapt and his body swerved in reaction.

“Let us go and have our ice now, and then we can bring Mrs Annesley to walk around the lake too,” Darcy suggested. “She might like to see the pelicans.”

“Oh,” Georgiana responded doubtfully to his rather weakly reasoned semi-explanation. “I suppose so.”

Mrs Annesley, Georgiana’s companion, was a respectable and well-educated widow of around fifty years. She had no special interest in birds and,having lived in London for many years, had doubtless already seen as much of the St. James’s Park pelicans as she wished. Georgiana’s head turned and glanced at the path they would have taken, a small frown on her dark brows.

For a moment, Darcy held his breath, thinking that Georgiana had spotted the women he wished to avoid and would ask him about them. However, she did not, and he exhaled slowly as they moved away. Maybe it had not even been the Bennet sisters, but only two young ladies who resembled them in height, colouring, and style. They had been at some distance away.

“You are in a strange mood this week, Fitzwilliam,” Georgiana remarked after they had proceeded a little further.

“Am I?” Darcy enquired. “I had not thought so, but I suppose you are a better judge than I.”

“Yes, you are not your usual self,” his sister doubled down with more certainty after a few more moments of reflection. “First, you make us change our seats at Tuesday’s Scarlatti and Telemann concert…”

“We had a better view of the musicians from our new seats,” Darcy pointed out with a small cough, his mouth running dry as he remembered that first sight of Elizabeth Bennet across the aisle from where they would have sat, her pert face and energetic form seeming to command his attention and the very beating of his heart.

“You do not normally care to see the musicians any more than I do,” Georgiana replied with a smile. “Then, the next day, you insisted on sitting in the darkest corner of the buffet tent for most of Lord and Lady Harpenden’s garden party, even though you barely ate or drank.”