Page 3 of Such Low Connections

“Well, on the strength of that recommendation of her charms, do be sure to introduce me to Miss Bingley on my return from the Continent,” the colonel chuckled.

“If Bingley finds a suitable house, she will likely play mistress to it while he is unmarried, and you may meet her there as my cousin. Miss Bingley is particularly keen that I accompany her brother in his search,” Darcy remarked.

“Is he not to be trusted?” his cousin enquired.

“Charles Bingley is most trustworthy in his intentions,” Darcy answered slowly. “Nor is he deficient in good sense. However, he is a man of more amiability than caution and would admit this freely himself. His sisters would not like to see him make any regrettable mistakes in Hertfordshire, whether with local houses or local ladies. Nor would I.”

“Well, it sounds to me as though you must go with him,” Colonel Fitzwilliam declared after another mouthful of claret. “You are growing peevish in London, and a visit to the countryside and a useful occupation are just what you need. Your presence seems to be much welcomed by all involved. Does this Miss Bingley have an eye on Pemberley, perhaps?”

“Pemberley has no eye on Miss Bingley,” Darcy retorted immediately. “Nor on any other lady. Marriage is not on my mind, Richard.”

“Good, then my own future introduction to rich Miss Bingley is not such a long shot. Still, is Pemberley never to have a mistress of its own?”

“I have not yet met the woman worthy to be Pemberley’s mistress,” Darcy said plainly, without doubt or reservation.

Richard Fitzwilliam laughed again at this pronouncement, although its humour was lost on Darcy, who had intended it only as a simple statement of fact.

“How high-handed you can be, Cousin!” The colonel chuckled. “I suppose the master of Pemberley can afford such an attitude. Mere second sons can only aspire to monetary value in their future wives, with a pretty face and compatibility of character if we are lucky. I could not afford worthiness of the kind you likely mean.”

“I mean that my wife must be worthy of the Darcy name before every other consideration, in her rank, her fortune, her character and her accomplishments.”

Even to Darcy himself, this sounded a little pompous, and he was not surprised that Richard’s pale blue eyes continued to twinkle with amusement.

“Is that so? Dear me. Some would say that a man with such a view might benefit from being brought down a peg or two by love. I would question whether you might also have to prove yourself worthy of your wife.”

Darcy shook his head, partly in incomprehension and partly in disagreement. His rank and fortune were obvious to all, and his name well known in both Derbyshire and London. He lived by his principles, and no one who knew him could say otherwise. What was there left to be proved?

“Unless I were foolhardy enough to seek the hand of royalty, I fail to see how I could be in an unfavourable position,” he said rather blankly.

“Oh, the future can take care of itself,” Colonel Fitzwilliam told him with a smile. “Do not be cross again. I shall tease you no more until I return. Let us go back to our immediate obligations instead. Lord Hamforth over there knows both of us and would serve perfectly as a witness. Do you have the documents to hand?”

Glancing across the room and seeing the mutual acquaintance his cousin had mentioned entering the dining room, Darcy nodded and tapped on the case beside his chair. It contained documents drawn up by his solicitors earlier that week.

“It would save us a visit to my agent or solicitor after luncheon, wouldn’t it?” Darcy agreed with his cousin’s idea. “I shall go over and ask him before he sits down.”

An hour later in the club’s library, full of roast beef and fine claret, and with Lord Hamforth as witness, the requisite legal documents were signed to temporarily cede Colonel Fitzwilliam’s co-guardianship of Georgiana to his older brother, Ludlow.

At the front doors of the club shortly afterwards, Fitzwilliam Darcy and Richard Fitzwilliam shook hands and then embraced briefly.

“Au revoir, Darcy. Enjoy the countryside!” said the colonel cheerfully.

“Bonne chance, Richard. Come to Pemberley when you return. Georgiana and I will be waiting for you.”

The cousins parted there on St James’s Street to walk in opposite directions, one heading for certain dangers in France and beyond, and the other for adventures yet unknown in the presumably less perilous country of Hertfordshire.

Chapter 1

“Mr Bingley has £5000 a year!” Mrs Bennet exclaimed in the full parlour of the family home of Longbourn, her cheeks flushed with her recent hurry back from their neighbours at Lucas Lodge and excitement over the news she carried.

“So you have informed us twice already while relating this remarkable intelligence from Lady Lucas, my dear,” sighed Mr Bennet, slipping a silver bookmark into his book and looking up at his wife with pretended seriousness. “I gather that a young man has rented a house for himself in this neighbourhood. Tell me, is this £5000 a year Mr Bingley’s principal virtue, or is there more to him?”

“Do not be so vexatious, Mr Bennet! You know perfectly well that £5000 a year is not to be sniffed at, especially when your estate is entailed away to a distant cousin and we may all be thrown out into the streets to starve when you die!”

“There, there, Mrs Bennet,” he soothed her, standing and patting her arm. “Things are not so bad as all that. You may put all the girls to work as seamstresses, or maybe milliners. Lizzy, I fancy, might make a good lady novelist, and Jane an artist’s model, but there is little else to be recommended for the others beyond the dressmaker or hat shop.”

As was likely Mr Bennet’s plan, his wife shrieked with indignation at such an insult to her five daughters. Wiser or less sensitive than their mother, the daughters themselves either rolled their eyes or ignored their father’s jesting.

“Father is only teasing you, Mother,” said Elizabeth Bennet. The second eldest daughter, she possessed her father’s lively hazel eyes, quick wit and mischievous spirit, but preferred to use them to excite laughter rather than upset.