Darcy sat bolt upright. “I did nothing of the sort. Surely you cannot think that I would deliberately attack any woman’s virtue. I was lured to the library.”
“Whatever do you mean by that? You do not think that Miss Elizabeth Bennet had anything to do with it?” Bingley asked.
“I said nothing of the kind,” Darcy replied heatedly. “Like everyone else, you must have heard her say she does not wish to marry me. What reason could she have?”
Bingley eyed him dubiously. “You know very well, Darcy. Fortune and consequences such as yours might make a young lady lose her judgement. She might have figured that you would need someconvincing, shall we say?” Bingley took another sip, then replaced his glass on the side table.“I do not mean to be so callous, Darcy. You know I care deeply about your welfare. But what am I to think? It looked very bad.”
“You saw it?” Darcy asked.
“I did. Someone yelled that there had been an accident in the library and I came as soon as I could. I would never have been able to forgive myself if someone had lost their life, or been dangerously injured during a party I was hosting.”
“It was not your fault,” Darcy said.“And no one was seriously hurt — at least, not physically.” He could still remember the expression in Elizabeth’s eyes. She looked horrified when he had announced their engagement. He had been trying to do the right thing by her, even though they both knew the truth: that nothing untoward had happened between them. Convincing everyone else — that was what might prove impossible.
“I know. But then whose fault was it? You say you were lured to the library, but how?” Bingley asked.
“I was given a note by one of the footmen, calling me to the library. I thought it strange that Hurst would send a note instead of coming to speak with me himself. When I got to the bookshelf in front of Miss Elizabeth Bennet, something strange happened. One moment I was walking towards her, and then the next, I seemed to trip over thin air, and I was falling.”
Bingley shook his head and leaned back in his chair.“It is a puzzle, to be sure. Perhaps it is just as you said — an accident.”
Darcy nodded, though he was not convinced. It did not explain why Mr Hurst had written the note and then seemed to disappear for the rest of the evening. That must would suggest his guilt in the matter, if it were not so utterly impossible for him to have any motive. That might be an explanation, of sorts — perhaps Mr Hurst was not the author of the note at all.
But all that was merely wool-gathering.“Perhaps,” Darcy agreed. It was most disquieting to imagine that anyone might have hatched such a plan against him, might have intended to constrain his choices in such a way.
At the thought, guilt rose in his chest. His intentions had been nothing like forcing a compromise, but he could not deny that he had intended to influence his friend’s choices. The manipulation suddenly seemed much less justifiable.
Darcy straightened up in his chair.“Bingley, there is something I need to tell you.”
“Oh? What is that?” Bingley asked.
“Your — ” he stopped. He did not want to cause a rift between Miss Bingley and her brother. But it was she who had first asked him to separate Mr Bingley and Miss Bennet.“I know you are attracted to Miss Bennet. Yes?”
Bingley smirked.“I think it is safe to say that I am more than attracted to her. Really, Darcy, she is the most beautiful woman I have ever beheld. And not only in her person, but in the sweetness of her character. I really can not think of a woman more suited to be my future wife.” Bingley quieted as he said the last words as if he had not meant to say them aloud. His cheeks even took on a slight blush.
It only made Darcy feel worse about what he had been planning to do.“I have a confession, my friend. I hope you will not be too angry with me.”
Bingley’s face fell.“What is it, Darcy? You know you are my dearest and closest friend. Surely there is nothing you have done that is so terrible — ”
“It is not something I have done. It is something that I was about to do.” Darcy took a long, steadying breath.“I was planning to separate you and Miss Bennet.”
He let that sink in for a moment, and while Bingley worked himself into a frenzy, he tried to think of a way to keep Miss Bingley’s name out of the excuse.“How could you do this to me? I love her, Darcy!”
“I know. And I could see your attachment to her growing. However, I did not think that Miss Bennet’s attachment toward you was the same. I did not want to see you fall in love with her, only to find that she did not feel the same way about you. You are a catch of no uncommon degree for a young woman with so small a dowry. She would have been a fool to say no to you, even if your feelings were not shared. Indeed, I doubt her mother would allow her to do so. The risk was simply too great.”
“That should be for me to decide!” Bingley said. He rose from his chair and paced, his face gone pale with anger.“You had no right to interfere.”
“No, indeed I did not. It was very wrong of me to think of it. In my defence, I can say only that I have not yet interfered. Nor do I have any intention of doing so after tonight.”
“You have changed your mind?” Bingley asked.“Why?”
Darcy coughed. “To own the truth, it seems rather absurd for me to prevent you from marrying a Bennet sister you love when I have just promised to marry another.” That left the question of his feelings for Elizabeth unspoken, but Darcy would not have known how to represent them. She intrigued him, fascinated him. He respected her intelligence and her refinement, particularly when she had been shown such badly wrong behaviour by her parents. He was less horrified by the idea of marrying her than he ought to have been. He ought to have been frantic to find any means of escape, and instead, Darcy very much feared that his feelings could be called nothing so much as eager. But what that added up to, he hardly knew.
At last, Bingley’s anger seemed to run its course. He breathed out a long sigh and sat back down.“Well, I suppose I must forgive you. After all, not only did you give up your plan, you admitted what you were about to do. I suppose my family had a great deal to do with this scheme, hmm?”
Darcy could not deny it. Unfortunately, Miss Bingley had never tried to disguise her dislike of the Bennet family. He had assumed she simply wished her brother to make a more ambitious match. But could it be more? She seemed surprisingly vehement against Elizabeth — as though she had known of his growing infatuation even before he had.
“I cannot deny it. The idea was not initially my own.” Darcy sighed, stood, and began pacing back and forth in front of the blazing hearth.“I must confess, I am sorry for how things played out this evening.” He looked into the fire, resting a hand on the mantle.“It was not how I imagined it.”
He had dreamed of Elizabeth — he could not deny it. Not only of kissing those lovely lips, but of taking her to Pemberley, making her known to Georgiana. It had seemed nothing more than a dream. However magnificent Elizabeth would be as his wife and the mistress of Pemberley, he thought he must hold out against the temptation to ask for her hand. His family would not wish him to marry a woman without fortune or connections, no matter how sparkling her wit or how beautiful her eyes.
