“No, not at all.”
Darcy soon departed from the room. He made his apologies to Bingley and his hosts, saying that he required fresh air, and that as they had taken the horses out, it would be no difficulty to return to Netherfield by himself.
“Do be careful,” Mr. Phillips said. “Always be cautious when riding a horse at night. I never do.”
Elizabeth looked at him. And then pulling herself away from Mr. Sykes, who'd placed a familiar hand on her upper arm, she smiled at Darcy, and said, “I do thank you, very much, for your concern, and for having come tonight. I am glad I saw you.”
Her smile said she meant that.
It warmed Darcy’s heart, and it was that smile that was the vision before his eyes for the whole road to home.
Chapter Seven
The next morning began drizzly and grey, and proceeded to a full thunderstorm with rain pelting the windows, rattling gusts of wind, lightning threatening all the trees, and the housekeeper making dire pronouncements about flooding in the fields when she delivered steaming tea to the drawing room.
“From your early return,” Miss Bingley said to Darcy, not looking at him as she stirred the tea, “I see you did not find the company at Mrs. Phillips’s card party convivial. I warned you that you would not.”
Elizabeth had been justified in the annoyance that she had directed towards him.
When the conversation paused, Darcy realized that Miss Bingley studied him, waiting for a reply. “On the contrary, the company was all that was expected.”
Miss Bingley stared at him, and then she smiled at him, “All that was expected.” She laughed with a false tone to the sound. “That has never been our experience here. We had been informed that the Bennet sisters were all great beauties. But the report far outran the reality. Did it not? Miss Bennet especially, a great beauty? I would sooner call her mother a wit.”
“Mrs. Collins is an angel,” Bingley said. He had a quiet tone to his voice, rather than his usual jocularity. “I dare say she is the loveliest creature I have ever beheld.”
“Oh, Mrs. Collins!” Miss Bingley exclaimed. “I do not speak ofher. But Miss Bennet is no great beauty. She is too brown, too like a harridan, and too — there is something in her manner, in her tone of speaking, her air and way of expressing herself which cannot please a well-bred person.”
Darcy did not reply.
Emily slowly snacked her way through the biscuit which he’d given her, leaving crumbs over her clothes and the tablecloth.
“Mr. Darcy, I think you once found Miss Bennet handsome. But now that you have seen more of her, I cannot imagine you still think so.”
Darcy sharply pushed his chair back, the wood of its legs scratching loudly along the wood of the floor.
Emily looked up at him, surprised that he’d moved so fast, and after a second handed him her biscuit with a huge smile. “Pa-pa.”
“Yes, sweetling.” Darcy took the biscuit. “Do you wish me to eat it?” The girl pointed at Darcy’s mouth, and he replied, “I shall eat it.”
“Pa-pa!”
Darcy took a bite, and as he’d half expected, Emily squealed in frustration and grabbed the rest of the snack out of his hand, looking at him in a disappointed manner.
It made his heart feel lighter. He then looked once more at Miss Bingley, who still waited for his reply. “I do find Miss Bennet handsome,” Darcy said. “She is the handsomest woman of my acquaintance.”
Bingley looked up from his tea with a surprised expression. “Hear, hear. Darcy expressing appreciation for a woman?”
Darcy grimaced.
Miss Bingley had a sort of struck look to her eyes. She frowned down at her tea, and when Emily smiled happily and pushed the last crumbs from her biscuit into the leg of Miss Bingley’s dress, the woman stood up suddenly, pushing Emily away, and crying, “Oh, leave me be, you beastly creature.”
She fled the room, and Emily started sobbing.
Filled with a sense of anger at Bingley’s sister, Darcy scooped his child up and held her to his shoulder. “There, there, my sweet. There, there.”
Emily calmed immediately, while Darcy’s anger with his host’s sister did not.
What had she been about treating Emily in such a way?
