“Perhaps,” he had to admit. He’d considered the idea. Typically, he would never have Georgiana marry someone in trade. It made little sense. She had a decent dowry and she could marry into a titled and respectable family, secure the Darcys into the ancient web of the country’s peerage. But after the scandal with Wickham, Darcy had begun to consider other options.
Now, he realized he’d given little thought to his sister’s happiness in that scheme, however, and he was a little ashamed of himself.
“But not anymore?” said Caroline, giggling. “You went to such trouble to separate Charles and that Bingley girl, after all. What changed?”
“Oh, that wasn’t because I wished him to marry Georgiana!” he exclaimed, looking at her.
She raised her eyebrows. “No?” She leaned closer. “Other things changed as well. What was it that changed between us, sir?”
He drew back. “Us?”
“We have been close,” she said. “I thought we had similar ideas about it all. You and me, Charles and Miss Darcy. It would have been tidy, and you and I, we seem to be similar in many ways.”
He coughed, uncomfortable. “Miss Bingley, I think the drink has loosened your tongue.”
She laughed, and the laugh was stretched out in much the way her speech was. “Oh, yes, quite, Mr. Darcy. I shall wake up tomorrow in agonies over all of this, I think, but I also… I need to know. You are always and forever sending me strange and conflicting messages—”
“I don’t think I’m sending you any messages,” he said.
“When we were staying at Netherfield, you and I talked often, but as soon as those Bennet girls arrived, you ignored me—”
“No,” he said. “That’s not at all the way it was.”
“I was good enough for you, until they were around, and then you snubbed me,” she said, and she didn’t sound upset about it, just matter-of-fact. She even laughed and took a long drink of punch.
“I don’t think I snubbed you, Miss Bingley,” he said quietly. But he was ashamed to admit that there was some truth in what she said, only in the sense that when one has very little company to choose from, one takes the least objectionable, and when one has a varied array of company to choose from, one might choose differently. He didn’t mean to snub her, not truly, but perhaps it may have seemed that way to her. Certainly, he had found her more interesting, on occasion, than the dullness of the conversational skills of Mr. Hurst, and shewassharper thanher sister was. Sometimes, he may even have preferred her to Bingley himself, for Bingley could be frustratingly difficult to pin down, leaping from subject to subject and coming up with wild ideas seemingly out of nowhere. “Perhaps I… gave you reasons to think I… perhaps I see why you accuse me of it, however. I am sorry. Really and truly. It was not my intention to hurt you.”
“Oh, please.” She glared at him. “I am not damaged, sir.”
He could not win here, could he? She was determined to take everything out of his mouth as an insult.
“You never thought it, though?”
“Never thought what?”
“Never thought you would marry me?” And her voice broke on the word marry.
He lifted his gaze to hers. “Listen, it seems to me that we are having a very odd conversation that is being fueled by drink. By your own admission, you will regret this conversation in the future, so might we—”
“So, then youdidthink it at one point?”
“No.”
Her face fell.
“Oh, Christ, Miss Bingley, you have led me to this, and forced this from my lips, and I swear to you, I never meant to make you think—”
“I needed to know, Mr. Darcy,” she said. “Thank you for being plain.” She took another drink of her punch, meeting his gaze for so long that it became uncomfortable.
He flitted his gaze away, sighing heavily.
“Well, then,” she said, getting to her feet. She was unsteady. “I shall seek—”
“Miss Bingley, perhaps you should sit down and pour out that drink. Perhaps you should have some strong tea, in fact.”
She scoffed, waving him away, even as she stumbled a bit as she walked off. “Don’t be foolish, Mr. Darcy.”
He sighed, getting to his feet and going after her. She seemed to be very drunk, and he would be remiss if he let her go wandering off in this fashion. He should find her brother, really, have him escort her off to her bedchamber for a nap, since everyone was having one.
