“They do not need either of us,” Mr Darcy replied with impossible equanimity. “Let us leave them to it.” With a startlingly winsome smile, he disappeared into the hall.
“Did I tell you, girls,” said Mrs Philips as she poured the tea, “that your uncle’s great-aunt Cicely was at his sister’s on Christmas Day? And all these years we thought her dead! Mind you, she looked it—all bones and liver spots and her every other word four shades of nonsense. Though that might have been on account of her new teeth, which I should not be surprised to discover belonged to a horse before they were hers—ten times too big for her mouth, and Lord knows her mouth is ten times bigger than most people’s…”
“Miss Bennet?”
Elizabeth glanced at Mr Darcy, who had leant close to address her quietly, but she could not long withstand his gaze. If her aunt continued in this manner, she felt she might wither so thoroughly with mortification that she would blink out of existence entirely. If only Mr Darcy had the courtesy to wait until she did, they would not be required to speak at all.
He was not that courteous, however. Indeed, he was positively persistent. “I beg you would forgive me for my ill-mannered words the first night we met.”
She winced. “Pray, pay no heed to what my aunt says.Anyof it.”
Mrs Philips obligingly gave him something to ignore by making a remark about fat old ladies that made Lydia snort with laughter. Elizabeth closed her eyes.
“Did I hear you say Mr Bingley was at Longbourn, Lizzy?” asked her aunt.
“Yes, so I understand.”
Mrs Philips nodded sagely. “That will cheer your mother.”
“Do you think he will propose to Jane soon?”
“Kitty!” Elizabeth hissed, but it was no good. Her aunt had taken up the baton.
“I should consider him a scoundrel if he did not. To abandon her twice would be criminal!”
It was like watching a carriage accident that one could do nothing to prevent. Over the top of another impolitic remark from Lydia, Elizabeth said loudly, “Mr Darcy, did you enjoy your time in Kent?”
“Not especially. My aunt is newly bereaved and was not on her best form.”
Mortification compounded mortification! “Oh, I am sorry to hear that.”
He began to reply, but Mr Philips talked directly over him to enquire whether he and Mr Bingley would be at Colonel Forster’s dinner that evening.
“We shall, sir,” he replied with an impatient edge to his voice.
“Do you think Wickham will be there?” asked Kitty. “He was not in the square just now. Does anyone know when he means to come back?”
From the corner of her eye, Elizabeth observed Mr Darcy shift in his seat, and a surreptitious glance showed him with a heightened complexion. “He is not coming back,” she said. “He has left the regiment.”
“Never mind, Kitty,” said Mrs Philips. “There is always Lieutenant Roberts.”
Kitty and Lydia took this as a cue to regale their company with an account of every one of that young officer’s virtues. Elizabeth sipped her tea, staring into her cup and wondering whether the leaves held any secrets as to how she might escape her present torment. If they did, she could not read them, thus she had not found a way out when Mr Darcy leant close to talk quietly to her a second time.
“I hope you will not think me too tiresome if I restate the warning I gave you about Mr Wickham during our dance at Netherfield. Should your paths ever cross again, it would be better if you and your sisters were not ignorant of the danger he presents.”
Elizabeth had not understood that itwasa warning at the time. She had been too blinded by prejudice to judge the matter properly. The thought made her grin, for she did enjoy a good bit of irony.
“It is not tiresome at all, and I thank you for your concern, but it is unnecessary. As you predicted, Mr Wickham has not managed to keep many of the friends he made here. Kitty is yet to be persuaded of his evils, but that will not take long, for she emulates Lydia inallthings, and Lydia has quite forgotten him.” Before she could think on it too long and decide against saying it, she added, “I was not so easily warned before. I owe you an apology for the way I harangued you about it at the time.” The look this earnt her made her exceedingly pleased shehadsaid it.
“No apology is necessary,” he assured her. “As haranguings go, yours was one of the more pleasurable I have received of late.”
“Do you mean that none of those other people who have dared to scold you danced an entire set with you while they did it? Nobody commits to anything properly these days, do they?”
He agreed they did not, and Elizabeth fancied he was amused despite his want of a smile, for there was something in his eyes that spoke of pleasure.
“I am in earnest about that other matter, too. I hope you can forgive me for what I said at the assembly. My behaviour that evening was abhorrent.”
She dipped her head, feeling a flurry of anticipation for the chance to admit something she had never thought would come to light since he was soon to be married.
