Page 68 of Fortuitous Encounters

Elizabeth gasped in surprise, though not shock. It had been obvious that Miss Bingley was dangling after him, and she would not go out of her way to become the mistress of an estate like Netherfield, given that she could barely tolerate the place.

“I assume you are a member of the first circles?”

“I have that dubious distinction. People joke I own half of Derbyshire, which is not true in any but the euphemistic sense—it is two or three percent at best. My mother is the daughter of an earl, and my cousin a viscount. If I am honest, your clever ruse to hide my status, coupled with your advice to keep my friend and his sisters silent; is what allowed us to get to know each other. If Miss Bingley had been on time, I doubt I would have accepted any but the most minimal introductions, nor danced a single set aside from my duty dances.”

Elizabeth sighed, not entirely certain she liked the news, but not cast down either.

“I assume your life has been full of Miss Bingleys for a decade or more.”

“It has.”

“I try to empathise, but I suspect it is like trying to picture your cousin going into battle. We think we can see it, but the experience must be so much worse than our imaginations can conjure.”

“Probably. I have been the fox in the hunt for so long I remember little else. I had a credible compromise attempt during my first month in society.”

“May I presume you have participated in the marriage mart enough to discard the idea of marrying for wealth and status.”

He frowned grimly. “I was taught to do that, and only recently gave up on the idea.”

“How recently?”

“Over the last fortnight, if I am honest.”

She smiled, as it was not all that difficult to work out the cause of his transformation.

“Are you convinced I can manage your estate and not embarrass you in society.”

He laughed jovially at that, though she was not at all certain what was so funny.

“Your concerns are misplaced. It is you who should be worried about being embarrassed by your spouse in society. You will take to society like a duck to water, while I take to it more like a rock.”

She joined his laughter, but they both knew that a man married to a lively wife would be far better off socially than his history suggested. Just being married to anybody would be a boon, and someone lively like Elizabeth even better.

“All right, let us just say that I am sufficiently accomplished for the task.”

He chuckled, and said, “Your sister has hidden depths. I thought her analysis of accomplishments was on point.”

“Most underestimate Jane. She is so well known for her beauty and kindness, most assume that is the sum total of her character.”

“The two of you have taught me a valuable lesson. I doubt it shall be the last.”

That statement gave her as much of a glow as a declaration of love would. It was a declaration of respect, which was in her opinion the most important aspect of love, and the thing most lacking in her parent’s marriage.

“They say marry in haste and repent at leisure. My father married beneath him, both in stature and intelligence. He did not train his new wife in her duties and has repented ever since. I always feared repeating my parents’ marriage, but I cannot see that happening with you—though I can honestly say you are the first man I have met where that is the case.”

“I consider myself fortunate to have stumbled upon you before you met another,” he said with a smile, which she returned with a blush. “Had I arrived a month after your sister married Bingley, I would have been too late.”

She stared at him a minute, then plucked up her courage.

“I suppose we must now discuss the disagreeable state of my family. My mother is a woman of mean understanding and uncertain temper. She is a loud, crass, matchmaker, who speaks every thought that appears in her head, with little regard for propriety, politeness, or kindness. She will make a misery of our courtship.”

“Are you speaking of your mother or my aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh,” he asked insouciantly. “We all have relatives that put us to the blush. I will not even start on my cousin the viscount, or my uncle the earl. I will find your mother a hardship, but not an insurmountable one—and the hundred fifty miles to Pemberley will mitigate things.”

Elizabeth smiled at that, then sighed resignedly.

“The last impediment is my two youngest sisters. They are loud, obnoxious, greedy, flirts, with not a thought in their head save bonnets and red coats. I am deathly afraid one of them will run off with an officer and ruin the whole family.”

“You cannot imagine I have any room to criticise?” he asked in a sardonic tone that reminded her slightly of her father, though without his bite.