Page 24 of Timing Is Everything

She felt a little guilty that she had never offered to return them to him, but was relieved that he had told her to keep them. She had not thought of them as tokens of his affection, and did not think that was the right description. Instead of affection, they were tokens of his care and support. Holding them did not make her think of his love, but of his strength. It was his strength that she needed and would rely on as she grew to care for him. She still did not think that she loved him, but she was becoming excessively fond of him. She had come to rely on his quiet strength.

As she gently folded the handkerchiefs and put them away she came to the realization that if she was not going to return them to him, she should at least replace them. She went to sleep that night determined to work on replacement handkerchiefs in the morning.

Chapter 14

The morning dawned with a drizzle. It was not enough to keep Mr. Darcy away from Longbourn, but it was enough to keep the other residents of Netherfield Park from venturing out of doors. Bingley would have accompanied him to Longbourn, but first wanted to plan out how he would determine Miss Bennet’s current feelings. If she still cared for him, he would not abandon her, but if she wished him gone, he would leave.

Charles Bingley had never before felt a need to be subtle, but knew that he could not just ask Miss Bennet whether or not she wished him to stay at Netherfield Park. After spending what felt like several hours (but was in reality approximately forty-five minutes) trying to think of a way to ingeniously ask her opinion on the subject, he decided to enlist some help. He found Caroline pounding away on the pianoforte.

“Caroline, I need your advice.”

Caroline, preening at finally being recognized as a fount of information, turned from the pianoforte.

“How do I determine whether or not a young lady would prefer to live in Hertfordshire or closer to Derbyshire?”

“Any lady with sense would vastly prefer Derbyshire,” Caroline responded. “Are you thinking of letting Netherfield go?”

“Not as of yet,” Bingley answered. “But, certainly there must be some young ladies that would rather live in Hertfordshire.”

“That is ridiculous,” Caroline retorted. “If Hertfordshire were such a desirable place to live, would Miss Lucas have wed Mr. Collins, knowing she would move away? I am almost certain that the main reason Miss Eliza pursued Mr. Darcy was in an attempt to leave this dismal place.”

“I would prefer to think that Mrs. Collins and Miss Elizabeth made their choices based on affection and inclination, rather than the location of their groom’s residence. Besides, Mrs. Collins will soon be back in the neighborhood. If her main goal in matrimony was to leave Hertfordshire, she would not have married the heir to a local estate.”

“Yes, but when she married there was no indication that Mr. Bennet would pass away so soon. I am certain she thought she would have the opportunity to escape this neighborhood for a much lengthier amount of time. It may be a perfectly reasonable place to reside when you are in your dotage, but there are not so many entertainments to be had for those that are young.”

“If you disdain the place so much, why did you decide to join me? I fully expected you to stay in town.”

“The decision to join you was made before we learned some very vital information. I can assure you that if we had possessed all the facts, we would still be in London.”

“Then why do you not return?” Bingley asked. “If you dislike the location to such an extent, I will not be affronted if you were to decide to depart.”

“I would gladly do so, if only Louisa and Hurst could be convinced to leave. They do not want to return to London so soon after leaving,” Caroline huffed.

“Then go somewhere else,” Bingley suggested. “You could travel to the north, or there are any number of seaside locations you could visit.”

“That is an excellent idea,” Caroline agreed. “I will make just that suggestion to Louisa. She has expressed a desire to go sea bathing. That just may be enough of an inducement to lure her away from here.”

As Caroline quickly left the room, Bingley realized that he still had no idea how to subtly approach Miss Bennet.

Elizabeth sat, silently contemplating the profile of Mr. Darcy as his carriage carried them, along with Mr. Gardiner and Mr. Morris, to the Great House at Stoke. Earlier that morning she had settled into the drawing room, intending to begin stitching the handkerchiefs she would gift to Darcy, as a replacement for those she had kept. She was pleasantly amazed when Mr. Darcy requested that she join them on their venture. The three gentlemen had made many excursions throughout the preceding week but had never requested her opinion.

Mr. Darcy turned from the carriage window. Upon catching Elizabeth’s eye, the edges of his mouth rose ever so slightly. She did not think she would have noticed a difference if she had not been studying his face. It was not many minutes longer before the carriage was pulling to a stop in front of the Great House at Stoke.

After the stairs had been let down, and the gentlemen descended, Elizabeth found herself being handed out of the carriage by Mr. Darcy. Taking his offered arm, she allowed him to lead her into the house.

Before they left Longbourn, Darcy had explained that the purpose of this visit was to determine how many changes needed to be made to the house so that it would suit the needs of the remaining Bennet ladies. Elizabeth had to concede that, in addition to the drawing rooms being dreadfully small, the other main rooms were not very large either.

“I do not understand why the house was built with so many tiny rooms to begin with,” Darcy stated.

As no one else had an answer, the mostly silent Mr. Morris expounded on the history of the house. “From what I understand, Mr. Dunsworth, the original owner, was very concerned about appearances. He had heard that all the great houses had at least three drawing rooms. Wanting to ensure that his house would be considered great, he had it built with four drawing rooms. I believe that is even the reason people started calling it the Great House at Stoke.”

“Four drawing rooms?” Darcy questioned. “Do you mean that tiny room on the south side of the house is supposed to be a drawing room?”

“Yes, but I don’t believe it has ever actually been used as one,” Mr. Morris continued. “It was much more for show. Mr. Dunsworth always left the door slightly ajar, thus allowing people to only get a glimpse of the room as they were led further into the house. It wasn’t until he passed away that anyone outside the family entered the room. The first tenants immediately changed it to a small parlor, where the lady of the house could entertain one or two of her close friends at a time.”

“I think my mother would greatly enjoy a small parlor, as long as there was a larger drawing room somewhere else in order to entertain,” Elizabeth commented.

“Would it be possible to open up the wall between the east drawing room and the music room?” Darcy asked.