“It is like a new gown,” Elizabeth said happily, as she touched the narrow line of intricate lace that had been sewn along the neckline of the dress. “Thank you, Kerr. I shall offer you a report of how Miss Bingley responds to my fashionable attire.”
Kerr smiled prettily as she moved about the room collecting items and putting them away. “I would like that, Miss Bennet.”
Elizabeth made her way down the stairs and past the library. Her slippers whispered against the marble floors, the sound reminding her of last autumn when she had been here to tend Jane and traversing these halls alone. As she passed Mr. Bingley’s study a tendril of scent—bergamot, oranges, and brandy—wrapped itself around her comfortingly. She wondered whether her new brother wore a similar cologne as his friend. Probably. Another reminder of the man who had long confounded her.
The Bingleys were already waiting.
Her new brother bowed crisply. “My goodness, that is a very pretty gown. Good evening, Miss Bennet.”
Elizabeth returned the courtesy and smiled warmly. “I have always wanted a brother, but in my imagination, he has always called me Elizabeth or Lizzy, as Jane does.”
His smile was bright. “Then you must call me Charles, as my other sisters do.” He smiled at her and then at Jane, whose smile was smaller but no less pleased.
“Charles!”
With her back to the entry, Elizabeth flinched, unprepared for the shrillness in Miss Bingley’s cry.
Charles’s smile disappeared. “Caroline, we are standing but a few feet before you. Need you speak so loudly?”
“I fear I must, for you rarely listen. Perhaps your wife will be kinder to me.”
“What may I do for you, Caroline?” Jane inquired calmly.
“I am certain it was accidental, Jane dear, but you have given your sister my rooms. Would you kindly instruct the staff to remedy that oversight whilst we dine?”
Charles began to speak, but Jane placed one hand over his and spoke instead. “Caroline, you sent no word of your coming, and therefore the rooms were assigned to Elizabeth.”
“I forgive you,” Caroline said loftily, and Elizabeth squelched an urge to pinch the woman.
Jane’s expression was sympathetic, but her words were direct. “Caroline, you quite mistake me. I did not apologise.”
This brought Miss Bingley up short, and Elizabeth cheered silently for her sister. Miss Bingley had only ever seen the demure, quiet, eager to please Jane, the one who had been a guest in this house. She had never seen the Jane who had acted as a mother to four younger sisters and who would be a stalwart mistress of her household.
“I beg your pardon?” Miss Bingley said, shocked.
“Caroline, those rooms were yours very briefly and are now not yours at all. They belong to your brother and to me.” Jane angled her head to look at Elizabeth. “Lizzy, are you pleased with your rooms?”
“I am.”
“Excellent. We will leave things as they stand, then.”
“Dinner is served,” Carstairs announced, rather smugly, Elizabeth thought.
“Shall we go in?” Jane asked, taking her husband’s arm when he offered it.
Charles was not smiling, but the admiration in his eyes could not be mistaken. The Bingleys strolled away, entirely absorbed in one another. Elizabeth watched them go with an abidingaffection, but Miss Bingley made a sound Elizabeth was more used to hearing from the pigs.
“Nauseating,” Miss Bingley said with disgust. “They ought to at least pretend to propriety when in public.”
“They are in their own home, and we are their family, Miss Bingley,” Elizabeth reminded the shrewish woman. “Must we bow to such pretensions even here?”
Miss Bingley looked her up and down, and when she finished, her nose was in the air. “I would expect such an unfashionable sentiment from you, Miss Eliza.”
Elizabeth smiled. “Thank you,” she said.
Chapter Seven
Bingley spoke to his wife rather loudly as they passed the door of the study, no doubt to alert Darcy to their whereabouts, and he was sure that the sharp, shrewish complaints that came later—for the tone suggested they could be nothing else—belonged to Miss Bingley. He determined to wait another quarter of an hour until he could be certain they were all seated at dinner before making his way upstairs. He took the last drink of his brandy and set his empty glass down next to Bingley’s before extracting his watch.
