Page 29 of The Fee Entail

“Yes, you had ample time during all the idle chatter we engaged in.”

She said that with a bit of a grin, but also a look of some nervousness. Whatever the two of them had discussed sounded like it was of some import, but I was not going to pry. If he had something to say to both of us, I assumed it could only have one subject.

He looked carefully at me and seemed to be gathering his courage for something unpleasant, so I forestalled him. “Are you going to tell me you had something to do with Mr Bingley’s abandonment?”

His head snapped up to stare directly at me, and he simply nodded. “Yes, I am afraid I did. I conspired with his sisters to convince him to leave. It was… it was… it was badly done. Miss Bingley would have had no chance of convincing him without me. He looked up to me in many things, and he did in this matter as well. I thought I was doing it in service of a friend, but I was wrong in so many ways.”

He looked like he was about to cry, and Lizzy looked like she was going to murder him. Neither outcome suited me. Mr Darcy showed there was more to him than any of us supposed, and Lizzy looked like she had just lost her only friend in the whole world.

“If I may ask,” I replied more calmly than I felt, “what were the objections? Was it our fortune? Our lack of position in society? Perhaps the abhorrent behaviour of my mother and sisters? Did you think me unaffected but mercenary?”

His attention was focusing on Lizzy, as I truly believed it should, but it snapped back to engage me fully.

Before he had a chance to say anything, I met his eyes and stared him down enough to show I was not the meek lamb I was a year earlier, despite my propensity to let Lydia speak for me. “Wait a moment, Mr Darcy.”

I turned my attention fully on my sister. “Lizzy, before I go any further, I wish you to abandon any thoughts of mayhem against this man this instant. He is obviously your friend now—” At the surprise in her eyes, I added, “You can fool yourself, Elizabeth, but you cannot fool me. Now, you will forgive your friend right here, right now, and then I will finish my discussion! This is not your business!”

Elizabeth was as surprised by my unaccustomed bout of aggressiveness as I was with myself, but she stared at me for what seemed a very long time, then stared at Mr Darcy, and nodded.

The man looked like she had just saved him from an execution, and I was no longer in doubt about what Mr Darcy was doing here. As usual, Lizzy had not the slightest idea, but he did not seem a man that would walk away a second time.

When Lizzy put her daggers away, I turned back to Mr Darcy. “Pray continue, sir. This may be your one chance to say your piece without upsetting Elizabeth, so please be comprehensive.”

Over the next several minutes, he related the sorriest tale of confused affections ever told, and eventually concluded that he believed he was saving his friend from a loveless marriage to a woman who did not truly esteem him but would do her duty as a daughter.

I stared at my hands on my lap long enough to truly think through everything he said, and everything that happened in those six weeks the previous year, and eventually came to a conclusion, while he and Lizzy sat waiting patiently as if they were accustomed to heavy thoughts that took some time.

At long last, I glanced back at Lizzy to make sure she was still calm, then looked steadily at the gentleman. “May I ask for some clarification?”

“Of course, Miss Bennet! You may ask anything of me you desire.”

“How is it that, while you have all these responsibilities at Pemberley, you have time to manage Mr Bingley’s fortune, and his servants, and his coachman, and his grooms, and his horse, and the stage line between London and Meryton?”

He looked confused, then looked at Lizzy, which I took to mean either that he thought she would help his confusion, or that he was accustomed to her leaving him befuddled. It could have been either one.

At last, he said, “I do not understand. I control none of those things.”

“Exactly my point. You did not prevent Mr Bingley from returning. He prevented himself.”

He looked unsure of the answer, and I asked another seemingly disconnected question. “Do you remember the very first conversation you had with Lizzy, last winter at that first assembly in Meryton?”

He looked pained. “I have recently been trying to make amends for that. It was very badly done.”

I was puzzled for a moment before I finally worked out what he meant.

“Oh dear! You are thinking of your slight about Lizzy’s handsomeness. That is hardly a conversation, and considering you have all your fingers, toes, and hair still in place, I assume you already profusely apologised for that debacle.”

He nodded and surreptitiously seemed to be checking his fingers while running his hand through his hair; then he smiled at the reference.

“I mean the very first words exchanged. I remind you; they were about poetry.”

I saw him searching his memory for some time, and like any good governess, I allowed him the time to work it out for himself. That was before Lizzy really attracted his attention, so it required some effort, but his efforts were eventually rewarded, as he managed at length to quote her verbatim.

“—I wonder who first discovered the efficacy of poetry in driving away love!”

“I have been used to consider poetry as the food of love.”

“Of a fine, stout, healthy love it may. Everything nourishes what is strong already. But if it be only a slight, thin sort of inclination, I am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely away.”