Page 59 of A Most Favourable Match

Leaning on the gate, Darcy gazed towards the Bennets’ home, easily visible at three miles’ distance, although partly shaded by trees. Elizabeth would be back there soon enough, although not before Darcy had gone to Pemberley. After that, as he had promised her in the Gracechurch Street drawing room, they need never see one another again.

The thought was a melancholy one, and Darcy knew he ought not to dwell on it. All the same, a stream of memories of Elizabeth Bennet rushed across Darcy’s mind, reminding him of her smile, her quick wit, and the sprightliness of her step.

Would he marry Elizabeth if he could, regardless of everything? Yes, without a shadow of a doubt.

But she had made it very clear that she would not have him. There could be no hope.

It was in this place and mood that Georgiana found her brother a few minutes later, walking quietly up to him and laying her head affectionally against his arm.

“I would never abandon you when you were sad, as Caroline Bingley has done with her brother,” she told him.

Darcy smiled and put an arm around Georgiana’s shoulders. “I shall remind you of that when I am sad and poor company for you,” he told her.

“You are sad now,” his sister replied very certainly, “although you will not tell me why. You are, aren’t you?”

Unable to deny the charge and unwilling to admit it, or to interrogate himself too deeply as to its causes, Darcy sighed and looked again towards Longbourn. Unwillingly, he thought of Elizabeth and all that he would be leaving behind when they departed for Pemberley.

“I would be sadder yet without you,” he told Georgiana, giving her his arm and turning towards the house.

Chapter 21

“Jane!” Elizabeth exclaimed, jumping down from the carriage and rushing to embrace her sister at the front door of Longbourn. “How well you look! Although your letters said how much your health had improved in these last few weeks, I feared you wrote only to spare me from worrying and discourage my leaving London too early.”

“No, I really am quite, quite well now,” Jane assured her, with a sparkling smile. “I have even been out walking with our sisters most days this week, at least for a mile or two. I believe Dr Groves’ advice was right, and I am glad I listened. Everyone here has been so good to me, too. Mother, Father, Mr Bingley —”

“Mr Bingley?” Elizabeth asked, wondering what their lovelorn neighbour could have been doing and whether his attentions could really be helpful. Still, there seemed to be no cause for concern in Jane’s shining eyes and clear complexion.

Before Jane could answer, Mrs Bennet came bustling out of the house and joined them, wrapping a lacy shawl about herself and fussing with her hair.

“You are come too early, Lizzy,” their mother said rather crossly. “I was lying down when Hill came running in to say that the carriage was back already. How dusty you look! You must go and wash quickly. Mr Bingley often calls for tea, and he cannot see you like this. Your younger sisters are all in Meryton, and there is no one to distract him but Jane.”

Briefly, Elizabeth thought of George Wickham and hoped that Lydia and Kitty were not furthering their acquaintance with that bold deceiver. Mary’s presence must surely prove a deterrent, she decided. It would be quite impossible to conduct even a mild flirtation under Mary’s nose without provoking an outpouring of Fordyce’s Sermons.

There was no need for immediate action, but Elizabeth must discuss what she had learned with Jane and decide what to do. They really ought not to have Wickham in the house again, but how could he be excluded if his brother officers came for tea? It was an important question, but one for later consideration.

“As a visitor, Mr Bingley must take us as he finds us, surely,” she replied to her mother, with a laughing glance to Jane and glad at least to find that nothing had really changed at Longbourn in her absence. “As to being early, I wonder if you mean late. You are the one who has been urging me to come home for weeks, Mother.”

“How you remind me of your father, Miss Lizzy,” retorted Mrs Bennet, shaking her head with displeasure. “Always joking about serious things and then getting upset about the most trivial matters, like Lydia beingtoo often at the punch bowl in the assembly rooms. As though anyone had a care for that!”

“I’ll tell you later,” Jane told her sister in a low voice, taking her arm and steering them both into the house. “According to Charlotte, it was not so bad as it might have been, but Father has said that Lydia may only drink lemonade or tea until Christmas.”

“Do not talk of Charlotte Lucas before me, Jane! You know how it upsets my nerves to think of her taking my place here at Longbourn. I have not had a full night’s sleep since she accepted Mr Collins’ proposal. To think that she has been scheming and plotting under our very noses all this time…”

Mrs Bennet followed after her elder daughters, keeping up an unceasing and slightly nonsensical stream of chatter and criticism as she went, and neither expecting nor wanting any input from their side.

“…Furthermore, you are very late back indeed, even if you are early, Lizzy. Mr Bingley has been back at Netherfield Park over a month and calls here most days, hoping to see you or hear of you, I imagine, for there is no other reason to do it.”

“Mother, Mr Bingley must have been lonely at Netherfield Park without his sisters,” Jane demurred gently. “Is it not natural that he comes here for our company? He is a kind neighbour too, and I believe he really wishes to be helpful when he brings things from Meryton for us.”

“Lonely? Maybe he is, even with that stern-faced, sulky friend of his back again. I can’t imagine he’s muchcompany, although his sister is a fine young lady and her companion very superior indeed for the type.”

“What friend?” Elizabeth asked abruptly, turning to face her mother. Her heart was in her mouth, for she suspected she already knew the answer to her question.

“Why, Mr Darcy, of course, although what Mr Bingley sees in him, I don’t know. Still, it’s little enough trouble to nod one’s head on the Meryton High Street occasionally, and Mr Darcy does not merit our further attention. More importantly, you should have been home weeks ago for Mr Bingley, Lizzy, and Jane ought to have stayed in London near Lord Grantchester.”

“That is not what the physician recommended, Mother,” Elizabeth reminded Mrs Bennet patiently. “You cannot deny how well Jane is looking now. I do not like to think what might have happened had she stayed in London.”

“Jane might still be set to marry Lord Grantchester,” Mrs Bennet said mournfully. “That’s what might have happened. You might both have been engaged if you would only follow my advice, but no one listens to me. No one!”