Chapter 18

Darcy held out his arm and Elizabeth took it, and together they made their way onto the dance floor. Elizabeth noted with some concern that Mary and Mr. Collins were near the end of the line for the dance, and she hoped that the clergyman was a better dancer than she suspected.

"I trust you are enjoying the dance, Miss Elizabeth," Mr. Darcy said during a pause in their figures.

"I am, thank you," Elizabeth said distractedly. She had been keeping an eye on her younger sister and was unhappy to realize that their mutual cousin was a truly dreadful dancer. Poor Mary!

"Do you and your sisters often walk into Meryton together?" Darcy asked.

"We do, yes," Elizabeth confirmed, forcing herself to focus on her partner. There was nothing she could do for Mary, after all. "My Aunt and Uncle Phillips live in Meryton, and we visit them frequently. We also enjoy the circulating library and the shops."

"I was surprised how large the bookstore was," Darcy commented.

"Yes..."

The conversation continued through the rest of the dance, and then Mr. Darcy escorted Elizabeth into the dining room and over to a table where Miss Lucas and one of the militia officers, Lieutenant Pratt, were already sitting. Elizabeth performed the appropriate introductions, and the couple sat down and served themselves.

The food was exquisite, and Elizabeth wondered if Miss Bingley had hired a French chef for the evening. There were roasts and vegetables gleaming with butter and creamy white soup and pies and cheeses and tarts and pastries and fish. Elizabeth savored a bite of soup, listening to the gentlemen converse. Mr. Pratt hailed from the Lake Country, a locale Mr. Darcy had visited many times. Charlotte encouraged both men to describe the lakes and the rolling hills, and Elizabeth listened with considerable enjoyment as she ate a slice of roast beef.

Jane and Bingley sat one table over, neither of them paying much attention to their tablemates as they conversed, heads together and both smiling. Across the room, Mary was seated close beside Mr. Collins, who was, unsurprisingly, speaking at great length. Mary showed no signs of annoyance or boredom, but instead was wreathed in smiles, her cheeks rosy with a becoming flush, and Elizabeth concluded with relief that Mary was not suffering unduly from Mr. Collins's clumsiness during the dances.

/

Dining Room

Netherfield Park

"May I escort you to your next partner?" Bingley asked as he and Miss Bennet rose from the dinner table and guided her back into the ball room.

"I am sitting the coming set out," Jane replied as they entered the ball room, where most of the guests were already milling around in anticipation of the next dance. "As usual, there are not enough gentlemen for all the ladies in attendance, and my sisters and I make a point of sitting out to give other women an opportunity to partake."

Bingley could only regard the lady in awe. "That is very generous of you."

"Oh, I do not mind at all," Jane said cheerfully.

Bingley, staring at her, was suddenly certain of one thing. This woman was the most glorious woman in all of England, in all of the earth, and he wanted her as his bride.

"It is rather warm in here, is it not?" he suggested.

"It is, yes," Jane said. "It is not surprising, given how many people are here. You are to be congratulated on a most successful and enjoyable ball."

"Thank you. Do you think that it would be beneficial for the servants to open the doors and let in a breeze?"

Jane studied the doors and nodded. "Yes, that would be advantageous."

"Please do accompany me," he suggested and guided her over to a couple of manservants, who straightened to attention. Upon hearing their master's orders, they marched over to the doors in question and opened them wide, with Bingley, with Jane on his arm, in their wake. Once the doors were propped fully open, Bingley nodded to the men and thanked them, and then stepped out onto the small bricked terrace which led into the shrubbery behind the manse.

Bingley, having achieved his goal of removing Miss Bennet from the throng of attendees, took a brief time to gaze at the lady's lovely countenance, which was softly lit up by the nearly full moon riding overhead. Behind them, the music was striking up for the next dance, but he thought, in this moment, that there was no place he would rather be than here and now.

"This is marvelous," Jane said with pleasure, and Bingley found he could not wait any longer.

"Miss Bennet," he said, turning to take the lady's gloved hands in his own. "I know that we have not known one another for long, but I will confess that the very day we met, I fell in love. As the days and weeks have gone by, my love for you has only grown. I admire you, I adore you, and I love you; Miss Bennet, would you do me the great honor of becoming my wife?"

He waited with bated breath, his entire body rigid with excitement, which, as the seconds ticked by, shifted into dismay. The lady's expression was hard to read in the comparative darkness, but she did not look either ecstatic or delighted.

"Mr. Bingley," Miss Bennet finally said, "I am truly honored by your offer, and I thank you for your words. Moreover, I am confident you are a wonderful man and will be a kind and generous husband. However, I do not think we know one another quite well enough to marry yet. I do hope you understand – I apologize if..."

He shook his head, and she stopped speaking, and he smiled down at her tenderly. "Miss Bennet, I understand completely, and I grieve over distressing you in such a way. I entirely respect your concern and would not wish for you to enter an engagement without feeling certain of your feelings towards me. Perhaps instead of an engagement, we could enter a formal courtship?"

The lady's face seemed to stiffen in the light, and she shook her head. "I would be amenable to an informal courtship, but not a formal one."

He cocked his head in confusion. "May I inquire as to why? There is no commitment on either side, and I believe it is obvious to your neighbors that I am interested in pursuing you."

Miss Bennet hesitated before turning away to face the shrubbery again. "I need to be honest with you, sir, but I must beg you to keep what I tell you entirely private."

"Of course!"

"My father has not been well for many years, ever since he took a hard fall from a horse and badly broke his leg when Lydia was but a babe. He is, I am afraid, in constant pain, and is often unpleasant to those around him. For the last few years, he has been exceptionally eager for Lizzy and me to wed, and if you speak to him formally, he will pressure me to inveigle an offer from you as soon as possible. It would make life at Longbourn substantially more difficult for me."

Bingley stared at her in amazement. He had only spoken with Mr. Bennet a couple times and had found him a courteous, if eccentric, companion. He knew that Miss Bennet was a kindly and honorably woman, and for her to speak openly of her father in such a way meant that the situation at Longbourn was far more difficult than he had imagined.

"I understand, if not completely, at least well enough," he said softly. "I would be delighted with an informal courtship."

"Charles?" a feminine voice said sharply, and the couple turned to observe Caroline Bingley and Louisa Hurst marching toward the pair. "Whatever are you doing?"

"I was feeling rather overheated," Miss Bennet explained, coming to Bingley's rescue, "and Mr. Bingley was kind enough to take me out of doors. However, I daresay I had best return to the ball room to see if my mother needs me."

She bestowed a smile on the three siblings and made her hasty, graceful way back to the ball room. Bingley was about to follow her, only to be held back by his younger sister's talons. "Charles! Are you out of your mind? How could you walk away with Jane Bennet in such a way? If her mother or sisters had come out, or indeed anyone, they could very well have insisted it was a compromise and forced you to marry the girl!"

Bingley swallowed a sharp reply and said, "There was no fear of that. The doors were open, and we were hardly hidden from the rest of the guests."

"Given that Longbourn is entailed," Louisa said irritably, "I would not put it past the Bennet ladies to engineer a compromise. Do not be a fool, Brother!"

Bingley shook his head, though he did not speak. He had not thought much about the entail on Longbourn, but it was true enough that the Bennets would lose their home and their income when Mr. Bennet passed on. It made it even more incredible that Miss Bennet had refused his offer – incredible and admirable.

"I need to return to the ball room," Bingley said shortly and marched away from his fractious sisters.