Chapter 10

Guest Wing

Pemberley

“Thank you, Mrs. Reynolds,” Mrs. Hurst said courteously. “It looks very comfortable.”

“Oh, more than that,” Caroline exclaimed, looking around at her sister’s bedchamber. “Everything at Pemberley is utterly charming!”

Mrs. Reynolds smiled slightly and said, “Miss Bingley, if you would care to follow me, I will show you your room, which is adjacent to the other young unmarried lady in residence.”

Caroline obediently followed the housekeeper deeper into the guest wing, leaving her sister to change out of her traveling attire.

“The other young lady?” she asked, idly curious.

“Yes, Miss Bennet accompanied the master’s cousins here, and her chamber is next to your own.”

Caroline stopped, and her blood seemed to freeze her in veins.

“Miss Jane Bennet?” she asked shrilly.

To her ecstatic relief, the housekeeper said sedately, “No, Miss Elizabeth Bennet. She met Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam in Kent last year and accompanied them north.”

Caroline sagged in relief. “Oh, Miss Elizabeth, yes, that is … thank you, Mrs. Reynolds.”

“I have put you in the Pink Room,” the woman replied as she opened a door, majestically ignoring Caroline’s obvious confusion.

Caroline walked into the room and looked around, though with far less attention than usual when she was contemplating the glories of Pemberley. She was incredibly relieved that Jane Bennet was not here, as Charles would almost certainly fall back into her orbit. But Elizabeth Bennet? The woman was pert, and blowsy, and totally annoying.

Worse than that, Mr. Darcy had expressed his admiration of her fine eyes a year previously.

This visit at Pemberley, which she had looked forward to so much, now seemed fraught with potential land mines.

/

Drawing Room

Almost an Hour Later

The door opened, and Darcy stepped into the room, followed by Bingley. Those already present rose to their feet, and Darcy made his deliberate way into the middle of the room and said, “Anne, Richard, may I please introduce you to my friend, Mr. Bingley. Bingley, you already know Miss Bennet, of course, but may I please introduce you to my cousins, Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam.”

Bingley bowed and Richard bowed and the ladies curtsied, and Bingley, after straightening, turned to Elizabeth and said, with what he hoped was an easy smile. “Miss Bennet, it is good to see you again.”

“Mr. Bingley, it is good to see you as well,” the lady replied with a nod.

Bingley took a deep breath and said, “I understand that congratulations are in order? Your elder sister was recently married?”

“That is correct. She married Mr. Russell, a tradesman in London, some weeks ago.”

“Jane is married!?”

Everyone in the room turned toward the door, where Caroline Bingley was staring at Elizabeth with an expression of joy.

“Miss Bingley,” Elizabeth said coolly. “Good morning.”

Caroline stepped further into the room and, after a moment of cogitation, turned a bright smile on Darcy. “Sir, will you not introduce me to your friends?”

Darcy made the necessary introductions and then suggested that everyone sit down. All obeyed, with Caroline choosing a seat near Elizabeth Bennet.

“My dear Miss Bennet,” she said as soon as her rump had settled onto the cushion. “I am delighted to hear that your sister is married. Many congratulations.”

“Thank you,” Miss Bennet said calmly. “Mr. Russell is a very fine man.”

“A tradesman, I believe you said?” Caroline asked, casting a brief glance at her brother, who was struggling to keep his expression neutral. Oh, how he wished that his sister would not talk about this right now, when his own heart was bruised and battered at learning that his love had married another.

“He is a tradesman, yes,” Miss Bennet agreed.

“But an entirely gentleman-like and charming young man,” Richard Fitzwilliam remarked.

Miss Bingley turned startled eyes on the earl’s son and said, “Surely you have not met Mr. Russell, Mr. Fitzwilliam?”

“I surely have,” the former colonel said jovially. “I enjoyed a dinner party at the home of Mr. Gardiner, the Bennets’ uncle in Cheapside, including the former Miss Jane Bennet and Mr. Russell, before their marriage. I am confident that your elder sister will be very happy, Miss Bennet. Mr. Russell seems an intelligent and pleasant young man.”

“He is,” Miss Bennet agreed.

“Mr. Fitzwilliam,” Caroline said, elegantly arching one eyebrow, “as a friend to the former Jane Bennet, I think it appropriate to thank you for your kindness in visiting what was surely not the sort of establishment which you, as the son of an earl, are accustomed to.”

“Not at all,” Richard Fitzwilliam replied. “As you know, I was until recently an army officer and spent many days in tents, with donkeys braying outside and thin stews for meals. In any case, the Gardiners’ house, while modest, is elegantly furnished. But then, you know that, certainly, given that you visited the Miss Bennet’s elder sister there at the beginning of the year.”

Time seemed to stall, and Charles turned a bewildered look on his younger sister. What?

Caroline shot a guilty glance at him and then aimed her insincere smile at Mr. Fitzwilliam. “I fear I do not know what you are speaking of, sir. I have never visited the Gardiners.”

“Oh, Miss Bingley,” Miss Bennet said, her forehead wrinkled. “I do hope … are you entirely well today? You visited my sister on 5 th February, which was, if memory serves, a full three weeks after she called on you at the Hursts’ house in London. It was rather a surprising delay in your visit, but then I well know that even outside the Season, you have a very robust social calendar. I can hardly fault you for waiting so long to return her call.”

Bingley found himself staring in wonder at Elizabeth Bennet. While her tone was courteous, her words were aggressive. It was obvious that she was angry at his sister. Very angry. Truly, to wait several weeks to return a call was rude indeed. But that was not the most important issue.

Could it be that Jane Bennet had been in Town the previous winter?

“Your sister was in Town, Miss Bennet?” he asked.

Elizabeth turned to face him and arched one elegant eyebrow. “Yes, she spent most of the year in Town with my aunt and uncle Gardiner. She met her husband at my uncle’s table.”

Bingley turned a disbelieving stare on his sister and, noting her flushed skin and darting eyes, said, “You…”

He broke off, aware that this discussion was entirely inappropriate given the presence of the Fitzwilliams.

“Richard!” Anne said, rising to her feet. “Georgiana promised to play the pianoforte for me this morning, and I expect that she must be in the Music Room by now. Will you not escort me?”

“Of course,” her husband said with aplomb. “If you will excuse us?”

Bingley nodded and waited until the Fitzwilliams had left the room and closed the door before he rose to his feet and stalked over to loom over his younger sister.

“You knew that Miss Bennet was in London last winter, and you did not tell me?” he demanded.

Caroline leaped to her feet and glowered into her brother’s face. “I did indeed, Brother, but I did it for your own good. You know perfectly well that Miss Bennet did not care for you, not in the least, but was only desirous of marrying a wealthy man. It is obvious that this is true, since she married another man only a few weeks ago!”

“ Excuse me ?”

The voice was sufficiently outraged that both Bingleys turned to stare at Elizabeth Bennet, who was now on her feet, her skin flushed a pleasing pink.

“How dare you say such a thing?” she continued, her brown eyes blazing with such fervor that Bingley found himself taking a cautious step backwards.

“My sister loved Mr. Bingley to the very depths of her being,” the lady continued, and then pointed one slim finger at his chest. “She adored you! She wished to marry you. But then you left without a word of goodbye, and Miss Bingley sent a condescending letter informing Jane that you were all decamping for London, and anyway you were intending to wed Miss Darcy, and…”

“ What!? ” both remaining gentlemen demanded, turning outraged eyes on Caroline Bingley.

“I did not,” she began feebly.

“ I really do not think Georgiana Darcy has her equal for beauty and accomplishments,” Elizabeth quoted. “And the affection she inspires in Louisa and myself is heightened into something still more interesting from the hope we dare to entertain of her being hereafter our sister. My brother admires her greatly already; he will have frequent opportunity now of seeing her on the most intimate footing; her relations all wish the connection as much as his own; and a sister’s partiality is not misleading me, I think, when I call Charles most capable of engaging any woman’s heart.”

The other three individuals in the room were staring at her open-mouthed, and Elizabeth lifted her chin and said, “That is the gist of the letter you wrote to my sister Jane, though I do not pretend that I remember it word for word.”

“But if Miss Bennet,” Bingley began and then shook his head. “My apologies. If Mrs. Russell truly loved me, why did she marry another man? Surely...”

He trailed off as Miss Bennet’s eyes grew, if possible, even fierier.

“Are you seriously suggesting, Mr. Bingley,” the lady said icily, “that my sister, my beloved sister, should sit in her bedchamber at Longbourn, weeping over you, when you left her behind without so much as a goodbye, exposing her to the derision of her neighbors for disappointed hopes?”

“I ... I ... I...,” Bingley stuttered.

“My sister deserves better than a gentleman who paid her a great deal of attention, danced with her three times at the Netherfield ball, and then deserted her, apparently because his younger sister convinced him to stay away. Or, more likely, you were simply toying with Jane; she was a convenient flirt during your time in the country and…”

“I did not!” Bingley cried out. “I loved her! I love her still.”

“If that is so, Mr. Bingley, then I must pity you,” Elizabeth stated coldly. “My sister has married a far more honorable and devoted man, and I am confident she will be far happier with him than she would have been with a weak-willed gentleman like yourself.”

She turned on her heel and directed a chilly stare at Darcy, whose own expression was one of horror, and said, “Mr. Darcy, I do apologize for this dreadful scene. I will return to my bedchamber and will ask Anne if she can arrange for me to return to Longbourn.”

“No!” Bingley exclaimed, and then winced. “No, please, Miss Bennet, it is not your fault that … indeed, I am thankful that I am aware of the situation at hand. I … please, do not leave. I would hate…”

He was generally an eloquent man, but he was so stunned by the reality that his sister had lied to him, and the revelation that … that Miss Bennet had truly loved him.

“You will not, of course, leave immediately, Miss Bennet,” Darcy said, to his profound relief. “If you would feel more at ease, by all means, depart for your bedchamber, but please do not think of returning to Longbourn.”

Miss Bennet curtsied and silently stalked to the door and opened it, whereupon Mr. and Mrs. Hurst entered the room, while the younger woman passed outside and pulled the door shut behind her.

After observing the stunned silence, Louisa Hurst asked, “Is something the matter?”