Page 6 of Mr. Darcy’s Fiery Passion

The door opened, and Bingley came in, smeared with soot to the elbows. His coat was gone and his shirtsleeves were soaked. "It is out," he said. "Thank God, it is out."

"The house?" said Miss Elizabeth.

Bingley hesitated. He looked at Darcy, and then at her. "The east end is gone upstairs. Miss Bennet's room, and the one beside it, and most of the roof over them. The rest is standing. But the water has got everywhere, and the smoke." He rubbed his face. "The floor of Miss Bennet's room came down. Into the room below."

Miss Elizabeth went white. "The library," she said.

Darcy found Mr. Bennet there a few minutes later.

He stood in what had been the doorway with a lantern in his hand. Water dripped from the ceiling joists. Half the floor above had fallen in and lay in a black heap across the carpet. The shelves on that side were a mass of charred leather and wet ash.

The far wall still stood. The books on it were soaked but whole.

Mr. Bennet was looking at the other wall. "My grandfather's," he said, without turning around. "Every one of them. He spent forty years collecting them. I have spent twenty neglecting them." He lifted the lantern. "The Milton was on the end. Just there. You would have liked it."

"I am sorry, sir."

"I dropped the taper, you know. I saw my girl burning, and I dropped it." Mr. Bennet was quiet a moment. "I have been economical with the sweep, and economical with the rockets, and economical with my attention for most of my life. It seems the bill has come in all at once."

Darcy had no answer. He could not so much as lift a fallen shelf. He stood beside Mr. Bennet in the dripping dark, with his hands wrapped in linen, and was useless.

"You saved my Lizzy," said Mr. Bennet. "I shall not forget it."

He turned then and looked at Darcy for the first time. His eyes were wet. His voice was perfectly dry. "Go and sit down, Mr. Darcy, before you fall down. I have lost enough tonight without adding a guest."

Mrs. Bennet had been wailing in the hall for an hour. By the time Darcy came back, she had moved on from the house to her daughter. "In her shift, Mr. Bennet! In front of the Longs! In front of Colonel Forster! She will never hold up her head in Meryton again."

"Half of Meryton saw my house on fire, my dear," said Mr. Bennet. "I doubt a single soul was looking at Lizzy's petticoat."

Darcy had been looking at it. He said nothing.

Bingley found them all in the hall a little before one. He went straight to Mr. Bennet. "Sir, you cannot sleep here. None of you can. The smoke is in every room, and half the ceilings are wet through." He took a breath. "You must all come to Netherfield. Tonight. I insist on it."

Mr. Bennet looked at him for a long moment. "That is very handsome of you, Mr. Bingley. But there are seven of us, and a houseful of servants besides. It is a great deal to ask."

"You did not ask," said Bingley. "I offered. There are twenty bedrooms at Netherfield and nobody in most of them. Caroline, tell them."

Miss Bingley told them, with a stiff smile.

Sir William Lucas pushed forward. "Lucas Lodge is only a mile off, Bennet. We will make room somehow. The boys can go up to the attics."

"And Lizzy?" said Mrs. Bennet. "Up your attic stairs, Sir William, on that ankle?"

Mr. Jones settled it. He had come out of the kitchen drying his hands. "Miss Elizabeth must not climb stairs for three weeks. Mr. Darcy must not use his hands for the same. Netherfield has rooms on the ground floor, and it is on my way home." He looked at Mr. Bennet over his spectacles. "Two patients under one roof will save my horse a great deal of trouble."

Mrs. Bennet accepted before her husband could draw breath. "Oh, Mr. Bingley! You are too good. Jane, thank Mr. Bingley. Mr. Bennet, say yes at once."

"It seems I have already said it," said Mr. Bennet. He bowed to Bingley. "We are in your debt, sir. I hope you will not come to regret it."

It was decided in a quarter of an hour. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet would go to Netherfield, and Jane to nurse her sister, and Elizabeth. The three younger girls would go to their aunt Phillips in Meryton. Lydia declared it the best thing to come of the whole evening. Hill and Sarah would stay to see to the house.

Bingley sent a groom galloping ahead to wake Netherfield.

Darcy stood at the edge of it all and said nothing. Miss Elizabeth Bennet would be under the same roof. For three weeks, she would sleep under the same roof. And he could not so much as open a door for her.

It might be the best news of his life or the worst.

The Netherfield carriages came up the drive at half past one.