Darcy grunted.
“I must be grateful to your aunt for having given Mr. Collins this advice. We all are much more comfortable in this way, even though there surely would be a carriage and additional footmen if he was resident.”
“Likely my aunt,” Darcy said sardonically, “chiefly wished to save herself the trouble of finding a new man to take the role. Especially after she had found a person she was fully pleased with — she wrote once that she had found a treasure in him.”
Elizabeth laughed. “The thought that her advice tended towards makingherlife the easiest had occurred to me as well, but I’ll not judge her for that.”
“No. You save your judgement for those who you are personally acquainted with.”
The two were quiet. Emily was fully engaged with the dirt.
“I like how you do not care how filthy her clothes become.”
Darcy laughed. It was a sound that gave her a glow in her heart. She really liked him very much indeed.
After a little Darcy said, looking at her with a deep frown, “It is fortunate that it was your sister’s place to marry that man. I cannot imagine you married to such an… excellent speaker. It would have been wrong.”
“I never would have married him.”
Darcy frowned to hear that, and he sat down on a tree stump. “Your family’s situation, as I understand it, is such that without his marriage to one of you, the situation would have become exceedingly difficult.”
“I would rather face the worst sort of dependency and difficulty than enter a marriage such as that, with no love, and where Iknew, beyond any doubt, that I could never love, nor even like, nor even respect the man I had married. Only a fool would enter such a marriage.”
His eyes studied her. “You mean that. I admire that.”
The statement of his admiration made Elizabeth’s heart feel light. “I told Jane, again and again, to not marry him. There was money enough for us, and… better a small income than…that. Do you see how he ignores her? She lost her stomach as soon as she arrived from the long carriage ride, and rather than comforting Jane, Mr. Collins stepped around cheerfully assuring us that it was of no importance.”
“You dislike him very much.”
“Perhaps… I can imagine myself, maybe when I was fifteen, and I hardly understood either myself, or those feelings that attraction to a man can cause, or what was meant by marriage… Perhaps then I could have convinced myself to make that sacrifice, but at my age… I do not like him, and my poor sister cannot like him, no matter how content she insists herself to be.”
“I feel for your sister. You are right, one ought not marry when the proper feelings are not there. But it is hard.” Darcybent down, picked up a stone, and tossed it to the side. “It is hard to know whether the considerations demanding such a marriage are of greater significance than the ones counselling against it.”
“No one should marry without love. I would prefer dependency, slender income, even employment and loss of station to such a marriage.”
“That is bravely said, but when I look at you, I believe that you are one who would stick to such a principle when put to the test.”
“I know I shall be fit for the test.” Elizabeth frowned, thinking of Mr. Collins’s friend who was to arrive the next day. “I only hope to avoid the unpleasantness that might follow.”
Mr. Darcy looked at her quizzically.
She suddenly wanted to explain a little to him. “Only it seems that Mr. Collins has invited a friend to visit, who will be a possible suitor for me. I know that if he does pursue such a suit, when I refuse him — I cannot imaginelikinga gentleman described byMr. Collinsas extremely charming and personable — Mama and Mr. Collins will be quite unhappy with me.”
There was a frown on his face. He studied her. “I see. But…” He took a long breath in and let it out. “Perhaps this will be a gentleman who catches your fancy. Or at least who you like a little.” Pause.
Darcy looked away from her, at his daughter. His lips were pressed together tightly. He made his hand into a tight fist, and he looked discomposed. “You ought, for your own sake, and your family’s, make an effort to see if you might like him.” Darcy looked up at her with a weak smile. “If he truly is a gentleman who you cannot like, then your choice is clear. But I think you might be unduly prejudiced against such a match, simply because it is favoured by your family.”
Elizabeth could not help but laugh uncomfortably. “I confess to being of a contrary nature.”
So much for any hope that she might arouse his jealousy by telling him that there would be a new suitor. That had not beenwhyshe spoke, but Elizabeth realized that she had hoped hewouldshow signs of jealousy, rather than the sort of advice Charlotte would give, but couched in a way that made it clear that he thought the key question was whether she liked the gentleman in the end, and not whether it would be beneficial to her to marry him.
The two watched Emily for another minute, not looking at each other.
There was a constriction in Elizabeth’s throat, and she knew where it had come from. But at least she did not think this would bring her to tears.
“Do you resent your father?” He’d spoken without looking at her, instead studying his happily playing child as she tore at the grass.
“Good heavens, no! Why would I ever?”
