Darcy could not pretend this revelation did not surprise him, and he admonished himself for underestimating his friend’s perceptiveness.
If it is any consolation, I have been thoroughly upbraided by Miss Elizabeth.
“Have you, indeed?” Bingley replied with evident amusement. “I should like to have seen that.”
Darcy smiled faintly but refrained from replying. He had received a great many reproofs from Elizabeth—and would gladly endure a good number more, if she would only condescend to see him long enough to deliver them.
“What a day this is turning out to be,” Bingley said, more amiably than Darcy deserved. “First you, then Miss Bennet—what am I to have returned to me next, the ten pounds I lost to Clarkson last Saturday?” His pleasure was impossible to mistake. Darcy tried in vain not to envy him the promise of such a felicitous outcome.
I understand Miss Bennet is also at her uncle's house.You would see her there, were you to call with my message for her sister.
Bingley required no further persuasion. With his assurances that he would pass on Darcy’s regrets to Elizabeth, as well as his promise to call as soon as he was able, he left, fair skipping out of the house in his eagerness to reignite his courtship with Miss Jane Bennet. Darcy was left to wallow in shame for not having recognised the misery in which he had involved his friend when he separated him from her in the first place. It was just deserts, he supposed, that he should suffer such misery himself, as he waited with very little hope, to discover what Elizabeth’s response would be.
Chapter 18
Utterly and Completely Speechless
“He should come to Rosings with me. Mr O’Neill would be delighted to oversee his recovery. He was invaluable when Sir Lewis was indisposed.”
“I should be far better persuaded by your recommendation had your husband survived his indisposition, Sister. There are plenty more reliable physicians here in town.”
“It is not the physicians to which I object, but the air. The pollution will do his airways no good in his present state. He would do much better nearer the sea.”
“I daresay the air at Pemberley would do just as well for him, and he would have his own staff?—”
“But at Rosings, Anne could keep him company.”
“If Anne were in any way concerned for him, she would be here, not cavorting around Rosings Park in her phaeton.”
Darcy closed his eyes and attempted not to hear any of them. His entire family had descended upon the house upon learning of his revival—excepting Anne, which was no great loss. How they all thought their incessant and clamorousbickering was in any way conducive to his recovery, he knew not, but they showed no sign of desisting, despite his every attempt to interject. None of them had the patience to read his lips or await his laboriously written notes. The conversation of so many people flowed too fast for him to keep pace, and though he would not usually tolerate the discourtesy of being ignored, he was presently too tired to object and had given up attempting to make himself understood, or indeed noticed at all, a good half an hour earlier.
He ought probably to have stayed abed, but he could no longer bear the unceasing whir of his thoughts as he envisaged, over and again, Elizabeth’s surprise when Bingley arrived at her door. Would she be grateful for news? Would she be unwelcoming? Would she even still be there? Thoughts of it consumed him. He had slept, bathed, shaved, eaten, and slept again, all with limited relief from the torment of suspense, before getting dressed and coming downstairs to seek a more effective distraction. He wished now that he had not, for it had in no way diminished his desperate wish to know all that was being said and felt at one particular address in Gracechurch Street—only now he must endure his relations’ quarrelling whilst he waited.
“I think we can all agree that he ought not to remain here.”
“If byall, you meanyou, then yes. And by the same token, we may celebrate never disagreeing about anything ever again.”
“You have grown too used to yours being the only opinion you ever hear down in Kent, Catherine. I rather think Darcy might have something to say on the matter.”
“Darcy is incapable ofsayinganything onanymatter at present.”
“That very obviously does not disqualify him from possessing opinions.”
“Aye. You betray a profound misunderstanding of my cousin if you mistake this silence for docility.”
Everybody looked in Darcy’s direction. He looked back at them all with ill-concealed distaste.
“Well, nephew? What is your wish?”
Assured that nobody would comprehend him, he mouthed, “That I had asked Miss Bennet for her hand two months ago and done more to earn it, thereby assuring myself of a positive answer and avoiding all this misery.”
It was almost comical to observe everybody’s utter bemusement.
“He cannot possibly stay here if he cannot be understood. How is anybody to know what he is saying?”
“I am perfectly capable of making myself understood,” he mouthed, knowing full well this was not the way. “Whether anybody is willing to take the time to understand me is less certain.”
“Darcy, you are not even trying, and it is not helping,” Fitzwilliam complained.
