“If you had been a boy, that would have endeared you to your peers and solidified your reputation amongst them.”
“It was widely understood that no boy in the neighbourhood could be my friend until I beat him in a race and no girl if she refused to climb trees and be a tomboy.”
“That perhaps explains why your toll gate-climbing reputation has followed you for so long.”
They were now about to part, he for the apothecary shop and she for home, when Miss Bennet winced as two women emerged from a door near to them.
“Lizzy, what are you doing here? I thought you were at that disgraceful man’s house tending to his sister.”
“Mary!” Miss Bennet glared at Mrs Collins. Mrs Collins met his cold eye with a blank stare.
“No, Mary, not the sister. I still say she is his mis—” The final word faded from Mrs Bennet’s lips as she realised who was standing next to her daughter. The colour drained from her face.
“Mamma!”
Strict etiquette maintained that he remain where he was until he had taken leave of Miss Bennet, despite the offences thrown at him. He was, therefore, to suffer the presence of these singular people until they stopped insulting him long enough for him to excuse himself.
“You need not look at me that way, Lizzy. I did not expect to see that man here, and certainly not with you.” Mrs Bennet looked a little ashamed, Mrs Collins less so. “What are you doing here?”
“Yes, I thought you were doing your duty as a Christian and showing favour and kindness to a poor and sick girl. Mr Collins and I would not have permitted these visits had we known you would be often in company with?—”
“With a gentleman who attends church every Sunday, who is received at Lucas Lodge, and who has played whist with your husband? You have been in company together. Mr Darcy is my friend’s brother, and he is on his way to the apothecary for her sake. You remember Mr Darcy, do you not?” Miss Bennet linked an arm through his, trapping him as she made her point. They curtsied, and then proceeded to ignore him.
“I have just come from the Philipses’, and they are coming to my—to Mary’s ball. We shall be so full of company! Even without any officers, Lydia will have such fun. And you.”
“No, we will host a modest party, with eight families, and it will beheld only from the requirement of showing attention to our closest friends.”
Mrs Bennet turned pink but said nothing.Given Mrs Bennet’s beauty and youthful enthusiasm, and Mrs Collins’s sobriety, how many people mistake the mother for the daughter?After this dour pronouncement, Mrs Collins turned to her sister with a pointed look.
“My husband cannot give you any more money—you understand, Lizzy—so you may wear the gown Mr Cuthbert bought for you over the winter. One new day gown for this summer will be sufficient for your purposes; a new ballgown would be excessive for a spinster in your position.”
“Thank you, Mary. I would very much like to wear an opera gown trimmed in fur from February to a family ball in May.” Miss Bennet still had her arm linked through his; he could hear her breathing faster. His own blood was rising in indignation on her behalf.
“I am sorry, Lizzy, but I always told you I could not maintain you after your father died.” Mrs Bennet did genuinely look disappointed. “I admit, knowing three of my girls are settled does my nerves well. I have no extra money to give you, and you know how economising Mary and Mr Collins are.”
“Yet I suspect you will see that Lydia has a new gown?”
Mrs Bennet did not, apparently, hear the bitterness in Miss Bennet’s tone. “I cannot afford that, either, poor Lydia. Only new silk stockings for her, and combs, and maybe new pink shoes. We will spend the week working on her best gown, the neck and sleeves and shoulders at least. That reminds me, Mary, I must be sure to get Lydia some lace before we go home.”
Darcy could feel the tension in Miss Bennet’s arm. Such unequal treatment of one’s children surprised him.
“Why, Lizzy, you ought not to be tired and ashamed of your present stock of gowns.”Mrs Collins notices their mother’s unfair treatment, and she enjoys it.Darcy debated the rudeness of dropping Miss Bennet’s arm to get away from these awful people. “It is acceptable that a girl of sixteen enjoy a ball sinceshehas the hope of finding a husband. You need not take such care. Besides, as we both know,beauty is not as valued a virtue compared to modesty and utility in finding a husband.”
Miss Bennet began to bend and stretch her fingers, as though she could not feel them, and Darcy took the opportunity to remove his arm. That seemed to remind her of his presence, and although he began to bow to leave, she brought him to her family’s attention.
“Yes, a girl of sixteen does deserve a new gown and to attend a ball, such as Miss Darcy. You ought not to mention the ball before Mr Darcy without including him in your invitation. He and his sister are my particular friends.” Mother and daughter joined him in staring at Miss Bennet in amazement. “Miss Darcy might be healthy enough to attend an evening party if she does not dance. She is our neighbour and has no friend other than me.”
Had they not been considering his sister, Darcy would have left during the long silence that followed.
“I only invite to Longbourn those who can invite us again.” Mrs Collins did not so much as look at him. “Mr Collins expects you home.” She walked away, and Mrs Bennet scarcely bothered to curtsey before she followed her.
“Is that the true hospitality my mother taught us?” Miss Bennet called after her sister. Darcy was about to finally leave, but a close look at Miss Bennet’s face changed his mind. It was pinched in pain, she pressed a hand to her heart, and a sheen of sweat had broken out across her brow.
“My heart is racing,” she managed to gasp, as though she had trouble breathing. “I need to sit.”
She was not asking for assistance; she was thinking aloud and did not realise he was still there. He looked down Meryton’s main street and saw only the butcher with his tray, an old woman with her full basket, and a string of dawdling children round the baker’s bow window. Darcy considered pursuing her mother and sister, but instead supported Miss Bennet and led her to the circulating library.
She stumbled twice, as though she was faint or could not feel her toes. He saw her to a chair, and after the clerk gave him a questioning look, Darcy went to the counter and asked for the first volume of the first book that crossed his mind. Ladies talked nearby about a novel,and farther away a group of louder women rested after a day of shopping, and others here and there read magazines or waited for their books.
