“No! Miss Bennet.”
Miss Cotton’s amused smile vanished instantly. “Miss Bennet? But she was lovely. And Mr Dar—”
Mr Vaughan abruptly stood up. “Miss Cotton, we had better leave now if we are to be ready for the master and his sister.”
Mrs Reynolds watched them go. There were times she envied Mr Vaughan’s access to the master. It was far easier to look after someone when you were privy to all their secrets. She had done the best she could by Mr Darcy, but it was difficult, acting blindly. She could only pray that she had not erred in her methods.
“Miss Bennet seemed like a most agreeable young lady to me,” said Mr Matthis.
Mrs Reynolds looked at him in consternation. “Was it not you who complained of having to serve her at dinner?”
“I disliked that we were entertaining a tradesman at the same table as a baron, but Mr Gardiner conducted himself perfectly well in the end. He was certainly no bad reflection on his niece, who was very popular with the master’s other guests.”
“Have you forgotten that it was one of those very guests who was obliged to warn you of Miss Bennet’s snooping about in the library later that evening?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Who told you that?”
“Edna. And she heard it directly from William.”
The butler glanced darkly at William, who shrank slightly in his chair. “I only said what I saw, Mr Matthis.”
Mrs Reynolds was dismayed. When had she begun to pay heed to idle reports?
Mr Matthis was evidently just as displeased, for his lips were pursed and his colour heightened. “Miss Bingley took Miss Bennet into the library quite deliberately. She did not see me, for I was in the north stairwell, but I saw them go past and heard Miss Bennet say she thought it a poor idea. I was on an errand for Lord Garroway, but once I had seen to that, I went back to ask the ladies to leave—but Miss Bingley found me first. What William witnessed was her feigning alarm that Miss Bennet had wandered into the library unaccompanied.”
He paused and regarded her as though attempting to determine whether he was yet believed. “I do not know where she then went, but she only returned to the drawing room after I had escorted Miss Bennet back there, whereupon she claimed to have been looking all the while for her lost companion.”
“I see.” Mrs Reynolds felt her cheeks flaming.
Maintaining a severe expression, Mr Matthis stood and left, calling for James and William to go with him. William dawdled behind to say guiltily, “I am sorry, Mrs Reynolds. I hope I’ve not caused you any bother.”
“It is my own fault for listening to gossip.”
“I weren’t gossiping. I wouldn’t have the nerve to make up a story as unlikely as the truth, anyhow. Goes to show, even rich people get jealous, and they can be just as daft as the rest of us with it.”
“I sincerely doubt that Miss Bingley was motivated by jealousy. She had absolutely no reason to be envious of Miss Bennet.”
“You did not see them together. Mr Darcy and Miss Bennet, I mean. Always talking and laughing with each other, they were. And you should have seen how the master defended Miss Bennet this one time, in the morning room. Miss Bingley can only dream of the master liking her that well.”
Mrs Reynolds bristled. “Miss Bennet certainly did not like him so well when she first came to the house.”
She clamped her mouth closed when Mr Bingley’s manservant entered the hall. He walked slowly to the table and sat down, glancing between Mrs Reynolds and William in a way that made clear he was aware of his interruption. “William, is it? I think Mr Matthis is looking for you.” He waited for the footman to scamper away, then turned to Mrs Reynolds and said carefully, “Mr Darcy has not always been kind to Miss Bennet, you know.” He held up a hand to stay her angry retort. “Even Mr Bingley was exasperated by the way he behaved towards her in Hertfordshire.”
“And pray, what way was that?” she demanded indignantly.
“He argued with her—often. Other times he would simply ignore her. He refused to dance with her the first time they met. Said openly that she was not handsome enough for him. That really did embarrass Mr Bingley. Especially as he was attempting to woo the older sister.”
“Miss Bingley’s maid said it was the Miss Bennets who were doing the chasing. She said they were fortune hunters.”
He looked at her disbelievingly. “Yes, well, irony is as lost on Miss Bingley’s maid as on the lady herself.”
Mrs Reynolds felt as stupid as he must think her. It was well-known that Miss Bingley had been hankering after the master—and his house—for years. Why in heaven’s name had she paid attention to the whisperings of either woman?
Mr Bingley’s manservant began to unfold his newspaper. “I do not mean to speak ill of your master. I only think it unfair that Miss Bennet should be blamed when it was Mr Darcy who was the antagonist.”
“Well, she seemed to have grown on him by the time they met in Kent,” came a booming voice from the doorway. Sergeant Jeffers, the colonel’s batman, stalked into the hall with his customary halo of pipe smoke wreathed about his head. Mrs Reynolds watched him snatch the newspaper away from Bingley’s man and take it with him to sit in an opposing chair. “Shame he got to her first, because I think the colonel might have been tempted to offer for her if his cousin had not.”
Offer for her!“Are you suggesting that Mr Darcy proposed to Miss Bennet in Kent?”
