Darcy suspected he was lying; there were not that many subscribers who fit that description. “Did that banker’s daughter with fifteen thousand pounds agree to write to you?”
Fitzwilliam looked at him with an air of affected indifference. “If you will not share what you write, why would you think I would discuss my letters? Dozens of women’s privacy would be impinged upon. Perhaps on this subject I should be silent.”
It was plain to him his cousin would not give a straight answer. “You, silent? I thought you would overflow with useless advice for me.”
“Do you need it? How is your charming lady? Has she given you her name yet? Plan to have the banns read?”
Darcy threw him a haughty glare, and his cousin laughed. He carefully sealed his letter, eager to put it in the post. “Why are you here when you could promenade with the other people wanting to be seen?”
“That is precisely what I intend to do, and you are coming with me.”
He shook his head. “I am going to see Georgiana.”
Fitzwilliam rose and put his hat on. “Then let us go to Upper Wimpole Street together, collect her and Mrs Annesley, and then we are all walking in The Green Park like the fashionable people we are.”
Darcy agreed and dressed for the bracing winter day. When they were outside, his cousin said, “I know you are a reserved man, but tell me one thing about your lady.”
“She is not my lady. She is an acquaintance.” L was his friend, if someone you only knew through letters could truly bea friend. She undeniably held sway over his behaviour by her fine example. Between her model and Elizabeth’s criticisms, it was vital that he change the way he behaved toward people, especially those outside of his circle. She was nothis, but was it too soon to wonder if she could be?
“What is her name?”
They were not supposed to exchange names until they agreed to meet with the understanding they were considering marriage. “I do not know her name. She signs her letters as L.”
They walked past Berkeley Square to Davies Street in silence, and Darcy wondered if Fitzwilliam had written to anyone with enough feeling to have learnt her name. Fitzwilliam was the sort to pester and question, but not him. However, he asked as lightly as he could, “Do you think you will find a wife through these means?”
His cousin shrugged. “Maybe.”
“Do you ever wonder if any of the ladies you write to have lied about their character, or appearance, or wealth?”
“You do not intend to get attached, so it does not matter. Right?” Fitzwilliam asked him with a pointed look. “Or were you really talking aboutmycorrespondents?”
He did not want to discuss his friend, or investigate yet if she might supplant Elizabeth in his heart. “Yours, certainly. I am only writing in good faith and friendliness. I am not planning to get attached.”
“Your lady L must not be enthralling you, then. What do you suppose L stands for?”
Darcy had never thought about it since he addressed the letters to “my dear friend.” “Louisa?” he guessed. “Laura, maybe?”
“Maybe she is a Lucille, and goes by Lucy? Or Letitia!” Fitzwilliam laughed a little. “What a pair. I can see it at the altar now: ‘I, Letty, take thee, Fitzwilliam, to my wedded husband.’”
He winced, laughing. “Letitia is an unfortunate name.”
“Your Christian name is hardly better.”
He conceded the point. “Speaking of L names, I am dining at Mrs Hurst’s tomorrow. She is hosting Bingley’s friend Miss Bennet, a woman I persuaded him to leave behind last autumn when she might have expected his proposal.”
“Why put him off?”
“The situation of her mother’s family partly, but that was nothing compared to the total want of propriety betrayed by her mother, sisters, and even her father.”
Fitzwilliam swore quietly. “That will be an awkward evening. You encouraged Bingley to jilt her, but he resumed the acquaintance despite your interference. What was wrong with the lady herself?”
“Miss Bennet was not like the obsequious women who frequently throw themselves upon my notice or upon men like me, and I assumed she did not love him. I encouraged Bingley in all the other reasons against the match, but it turns out shedidhave an affection for him. Miss Elizabeth, her sister, confirmed it when we spoke the other day, but I suspected it myself when I learnt she came to town for the winter. Miss Bennet may not be openly affectionate, but she is not indifferent to him. And Bingley will overlook her lack of fortune and connexions so long as she loves him.”
“So she has low connexions, and an embarrassing family, and you did not think the lady admired him,” Fitzwilliam said, nodding to himself. “That would do it, even aside from the other matter.”
Darcy turned to look at him. “What other matter?”
“That you want Bingley to marry your sister.”
