Mama
AS THOUGH NAUGHT HAD CHANGED
Thursday 30 April 1812, Hertfordshire
Their carriage had been caughtbehind a throng of cattle for twenty minutes before Elizabeth persuaded Jane to abandon it and go the rest of the way on foot. They were less than a mile from Meryton, the church spire already visible above the trees, and she was impatient to be home. She longed for familiar surroundings—the reflection in her own looking glass, the fire in her own hearth—anythingthat would return her to the simplicity of life before her visit to Kent.
“Slow down, Lizzy. You are as impatient as Mama.”
Elizabeth rather thought Jane deliberately delayed their return. She waited for her to catch up and then offered her arm. “And you are unnecessarily anxious.”
“Am I? I would dearly love for Mr Bingley to renew his addresses, but I have mistaken his intentions before. What if he does not come for me at all? What if he comes only to fish in his pond?”
To Elizabeth’s mind, there was no doubt Mr Bingley was returned for Jane. The coincidence of his arriving mere weeks after she informed his friend that her sister’s heart was still engaged was too great to overlook. The conclusion that it was Mr Darcy’s doing frustrated her attempts to dislikehimeven more. For in so graciouslyredressing his error, he had demonstrated a humility far removed from the conceit of which she had accused him.
“You may as well call it fishing,” said she. “The fact is he regrets throwing the best catch back in when he was here and has come to cast his net again in the hopes of recapturing you. But it will not do for me to try and persuade you of his affections. That would make his task entirely too easy.”
She lost all appetite for teasing upon turning into Bath Street and coming face to face with a group of officers, amongst them Mr Wickham.
“Miss Bennet—and Miss Elizabeth!” He seemed to linger over her name. “I cannot tell you how pleasant it is to see you. Meryton has been exceedingly dull since you went away.”
Elizabeth dipped a desultory curtsey, even angrier than she had expected to be upon seeing him. “You flatter us, sir, but I cannot imagine Miss King would be pleased to hear you dismiss her company as dull.”
He gave an affected wince. “It grieves me to report Miss King’s family did not look favourably on my attentions. They have taken her to Liverpool.”
Elizabeth pursed her lips against an uncivil remark. Jane was more sympathetic, lamenting the interference of third parties who presume, often mistakenly, to know the depth of two people’s attachment.
“He didtryto show her the depth of his attachment,” one of Mr Wickham’s fellow officers interjected, elbowing his companion. “’Tis that what got her sent away.”
Mr Wickham turned red and snarled at his friend to be quiet. His mortification and Mrs Gardiner’s education on the matter left Elizabeth in no doubt of the officer’s meaning. Poor,poorMr Darcy, to have almost lost his sister to this wretch!
“I pray your heart mends soon,” Jane said with an earnestness that exasperated Elizabeth, particularly when it appeared to convince Mr Wickham he was safe.
“I am sure it will,” he assured them.
His smile, the same by which Elizabeth had previously been utterly drawn in, made her cringe. “Come, Jane,” she said and grabbed her sister’s arm. “We had better make haste.”
Mr Wickham’s smile faltered. “May I have the honour of escorting you home?”
Elizabeth resolutely, and not very politely, declined and all but dragged her bewildered sister away. “Forgive me. I could not bear to be in his company a moment longer.”
“Why ever not? I thought you were friends.”
Elizabeth paused, still disinclined to burden her sister’s heart unnecessarily. Yet with Mr Bingley’s return, Jane’s heartbreak looked set to be imminently a thing of the past. Perhaps she might confide in her after all. “While I was in Kent, Mr Darcy revealed more to me of his dealings with Mr Wickham. We have been gravely misled. He was not denied a living. He was granted, at his own request, three thousand pounds in lieu of it—money he squandered in a matter of months and came asking for more. It wasthathe was denied.”
“Goodness, that is quite shocking. Can you be sure it is true?”
“Oh yes, there are witnesses, but that is not the worst of it. He also attempted to seduce Mr Darcy’s fifteen-year-old sister to gain her inheritance of thirty thousand pounds. And we need look no farther for proof of that than his recent dalliance with Miss King. He is a determined shark!”
“I see what you are thinking,” Jane said in a vaguely condescending tone. “But you ought to be careful.”
“What do you mean?”
“You are thinking that, if he had been motivated by greed, it would better excuse the abortion of his attentions to you in favour of Miss King.”
Elizabeth pulled her arm from Jane’s and stood gaping at her.
“I understand your disappointment,” Jane persevered, “but you must take care not to allow jealousy to overrule your judgement. If Mr Wickham’s regard for Miss King exceeded his regard for you, then you must accept it as gracefully as you can.”
