Page 61 of A Most Favourable Match

“Your mother bids me tell you that Mr Bingley isarrived and you must hurry downstairs,” she panted. “Especially Miss Elizabeth.”

“Is Mr Bingley alone?” Elizabeth asked immediately. Her heart was jumping, and yet why should the answer to her question feel so important?

“Yes, Miss.”

“Thank you, Hill. Tell her we are on our way.”

Elizabeth’s heart calmed as her mind caught up. Mr Darcy was not here, and there was no reason why he should be. As their busy housekeeper left the room, she laughed again with her sister.

“Oh, Jane, poor Mr Bingley. He thinks he has only called for tea, and now he has to endure an hour of Mother’s matchmaking. I wish I could convince her that there is no power in the world that could make us fall in love.”

“Charles Bingley seems to me all that a young man should be,” remarked Jane with a sigh. “But I should not have you marry without love, Lizzy.”

“You must help me by diverting Mr Bingley while I distract mother,” Elizabeth urged her.

“I would be very happy to talk to Mr Bingley as much as you wish,” Jane agreed, smiling. “Come, let us go downstairs before poor Hill is sent back up all those stairs to fetch us again.”

Though Elizabeth did not care to share her musings aloud, she thought Jane would find the task of diverting Mr Bingley very easy if he were still so besotted with her as he had been. She wondered whether hisaffections might have faded in the weeks that Jane had been ill, or if he had only been careful to hide them at Longbourn.

The ease with which her sister agreed to distract Mr Bingley suggested she saw nothing in his manner to disturb her. Indeed, Jane seemed almost to welcome his company and Elizabeth’s request. It was all most puzzling.

∞∞∞

The following day, Jane was well enough to join her sisters at Mrs Philips’ open house for tea, cards, and dancing. Seeing her at Longbourn with Mr Bingley yesterday, Elizabeth thought she seemed almost entirely her old self now, or perhaps even stronger and happier than before. Jane might no longer have the prospect of becoming Countess of Grantchester, but there was much to be thankful for.

Once the carpet was rolled back, neither Jane nor Elizabeth were inclined to spend any time on the dance floor. They were both far too busy in watching their younger sisters as Lydia and Kitty moved merrily and with blissful ignorance through the crowd of red coated young militia officers. One officer in particular, both Elizabeth and Jane watched like hawks.

“Perhaps I ought to have danced with him, if only to keep him from Lydia,” Elizabeth muttered as she saw her youngest sister partnered by George Wickham for a reel, having herself declined his invitation.

“At least Lydia and Kitty have no fortunes and should be of less interest to him,” Jane whispered back, “but I do not like it either. We should leave early, even if Lydia throws a fit.”

“Mr Darcy said that Mr Wickham ruined local girls in Derbyshire as well as pursuing heiresses,” Elizabeth reminded Jane and received a troubled nod in reply.

“I shall ask Lydia if she wishes to buy a new ribbon on the way home,” Jane suggested. “That ought to get her out of here easily, and Kitty will follow as always.”

It was a relief when the reel ended and Jane intercepted Lydia before she could consider dancing with Mr Wickham again. The relief was short-lived, however, when Mr Wickham reappeared at Elizabeth’s side instead.

“I am beginning to think that you are avoiding me, Miss Elizabeth,” he put to her with a disingenuously boyish smile. “I wonder if I can also guess why.”

“Not at all, Mr Wickham,” Elizabeth returned politely but coolly. “We are all friends here at Mrs Philips’ house. I know my aunt would not hear of anything else between her guests. Do take more tea and some of those ginger biscuits. I would not keep you from the refreshments.”

Instead of going away to take his tea as Elizabeth wished, George Wickham lingered. With some shame, Elizabeth reflected that she would have welcomed his conversational overtures not so very long ago.

“I cannot leave you without some answer to myquestion, Miss Elizabeth. I thought we understood one another before you went back to London, but now you are changed.”

His smiles, his manners, and his confidences all seemed false to her now that she knew his true character. Elizabeth wished that she could denounce him to the whole room.

“I should not think that any of us are very much changed in so short a space of time,” she responded lightly, beginning to turn away towards the card tables as though thinking of joining a game. “You are far too serious for a party this afternoon, Mr Wickham.”

“I didn’t care for her one jot, you know,” he told Elizabeth in low but steady tones that made her pause.

“What?” Turning back, Elizabeth frowned at him, wondering who he was talking about and why he was telling her.

“Ah, that’s it, isn’t it? I can see from the anger on your pretty face. You thought I’d fallen for Miss Mary King and neglected your family’s friendship on that account. I tell you that I had no feelings for Miss King personally at all, despite the… other undeniable attractions. Her relatives… Well, anyway, it is over now and you and I must be friends again, like before.”

Elizabeth’s nose wrinkled at this gross misconstruction of her behaviour. Confirmation of Mr Darcy’s picture of the man’s character was perfectly demonstrated in his own shameless words.

“Mr Wickham, it is not for me to order your life, your friendships, or your attentions to young ladies. Iam not your sister or your mother.”