Page 78 of A Most Favourable Match

“Miss Bingley is to marry Lord Grantchester, Mother, not George Wickham,” Jane said. “Charles tells me that Lord Grantchester proposed to her this afternoon, and she has accepted him. I believe they will suit one another well, and I wish them joy.”

At this further thunderclap of news, Mrs Bennet was overcome and had to sit down in an armchair.

For her part, Elizabeth clapped her hands happily and congratulated Mr Bingley all over again. One day, it might be interesting to learn if he realised the initiative had originally been hers, but for the moment, she neither knew nor cared. A thwarted Wickham, a rescued Caroline Bingley, and a happy ending for Jane and Mr Bingley was reward enough.

“Dear me,” Mrs Bennet moaned, pulling out her lace handkerchief and dabbing at her eyes. “I do not know whether to laugh or cry. Jane to marry Mr Bingley! Miss Bingley to be Countess of Grantchester and Jane happy for it! I am sure it is wonderful, but it all seems upside down to me.”

“Can we have new dresses for both of the weddings, Mother?” Lydia inquired. “I shall certainly need at least one, for I have grown again and am taller than all my sisters.”

“If Lydia has new dresses, then I ought to have them too,” Kitty put in petulantly.

“I require no new dresses, for I take good care ofthe ones I have and do not prostrate myself to my own vanity,” added Mary for good measure, only causing her younger sisters to pull faces at her.

Elizabeth hushed them all and patted her mother’s shoulder. It certainly was a great deal to take in all at once. Then, too, now that matters were settled so well for the Bingleys, it seemed likely that Mr Darcy and his sister would be able to leave for Pemberley tomorrow after all.

After this morning’s crisis, it had occurred to Elizabeth that he would have likely stayed at least a few days longer in support of his friend. Now there would be no need, and she sighed for it.

“Will you be at home this evening, Elizabeth?” Mr Bingley asked then, breaking in on her thoughts.

She nodded, wondering why he should ask this of her so specifically. Their whole family would be at home.

“Darcy asked me to tell you that he intends to call at Longbourn as soon as he returns from Meryton,” Jane’s newly betrothed went on to explain himself. “I believe he wishes to speak with you and would be sorry not to find you here.”

At this news, Elizabeth’s mouth ran dry, and she found she could make no reply beyond a nod. But as Mr Bingley and Jane had both slipped out towards the library without further ado, none was required.

“Why is Mr Darcy coming to Longbourn?” asked Mrs Bennet rather plaintively of her remaining daughters. “It is not as though any of us likes him.”

“I shall be glad to see him,” said Elizabeth quietly.

She could not answer her mother’s question, but in her heart, she felt she knew.

Chapter 30

“Back again, like a bad penny,” George Wickham laughed unpleasantly to Darcy as he opened the door of his lodgings. “I assume you come as Bingley’s proxy with a message regarding the marriage contract.”

In marked contrast to Darcy’s last visit, Wickham opened the door wide and made an exaggerated welcoming gesture to bring him into the room. He was at least dressed this time, including boots and combed hair, although his eyes and breath told of a day spent drinking, gaming and anticipating his future fortune rather than on any regimental business.

“I come here on behalf of Charles Bingley and Caroline Bingley, but also for my own satisfaction,” Darcy told Wickham, and was pleased to see a first flicker of uncertainty in his over-confident expression. “I am pleased to inform you that Miss Bingley has accepted a proposal of marriage this afternoon, from John Tellington, Earl of Grantchester. They will be married as soon as the formalities are completed.”

For several seconds, George Wickham stood there stunned. Then he turned and hurled a wooden chair at the wall with a yell of thwarted rage as he realised hehad been outmanoeuvred and cheated of his winnings yet again.

“You bastard, Darcy!” he shouted, followed by a string of even less savoury invective.

Darcy listened with folded arms until Wickham’s flow of insults slowed. They had fought often enough in their youth that he hoped Wickham would think better of any physical attack, knowing that he would usually lose.

“I cannot take all the credit, Wickham,” Darcy said coolly, thinking of the roles played by both Elizabeth Bennet and Lord Grantchester, “much as I would happily be the sole instrument of your destruction.”

“You’ve won, I’ve lost,” Wickham spat back moodily. “There is no need to stand here and gloat over all you have that I do not.”

“Honour, dignity, and respect, you mean?” Darcy suggested. “They are free to the poorest man amongst us, but you have disdained them. You deserve to be outcast.”

“It is easy for rich men to speak like that,” Wickham retorted. “Why don’t you just get out?”

“I haven’t finished with you yet,” Darcy replied. “There’s a letter I want you to write, resigning your commission and committing to leaving Hertfordshire for good.”

“So, you drive me first from Derbyshire and now from Hertfordshire. Am I to have no refuge?”

Wickham’s tone was melodramatic and self-pitying.It drew no sympathy from Darcy, who had heard it all a hundred times before. Everything was someone else’s fault, and Wickham was always entitled to more…