“It would be a chaste union!” Miss Bennet burst in an agitated manner. She had entirely mistook the meaning of his stare. “I will not live long enough to have a child. In fact, it could strain my heart, I suspect.” She addressed the floor in front of his feet. “Even if I did live long enough, which Mr Jones doubts, I would not burden you with an unwanted, motherless child who could be neglected.”
He drew back, surprised. That was an offence he could not overlook. “I am the sort of man to protect my sister at all costs, and not likely to tyrannise you if you were my wife, yet I amnotthe sort of man to unconditionally love my own child?” That was the most insulting thing she had said in this strange proposal. “I wonder why you would want to align yourself with such a despicable creature. I thank you for explaining so fully just how narrow and limited my goodness is!”
Her astonishment was obvious, and she looked at him with an expression of mingled disbelief and mortification. He went on, “How sensibly you have considered the matter. Your requirements are meagre: no consummation and no children. It would be no problem on my part to meet them.”
“You need not be sarcastic; I am sorry to offend you. As far as I can see, you are not prone to excessive drinking, compulsive gambling, or manifest adultery. I can tolerate anything else until my heart gives out.” She investigated her own fingernails for a moment. “If youwereto accept, what... what would your requirements be of me?”
“Fidelity and respect.” His answer came quickly, firm and uncompromising. “IfI were to agree.”
Miss Bennet nodded and gave a small smile. “I suppose now would be the time during my formal address where I mention my fortune and what I can provide to you.”
This made Darcy so near laughing that he could not use her pause to stop her from embarrassing herself.
“My father gave Jane fifty pounds a year when she married, and my uncles and brothers-in-law provide fifty pounds to Kitty since she married Captain Redmond, and I may expect the same, or near to it. Certainly after my uncle Gardiner returns, he will see that you are paid whatever deficit Misters Cuthbert, Philips, and Collins might leave.”
“Fifty pounds. What shall I do with that?” That would pay a butler’s salary for a year; it was the minimum permitted stake at a horse race. It was nothing, and it was all Miss Bennet had to offer.
“What is the rent at Netherfield Lodge? Twenty-five pounds?”
“Twenty-three.”
“Then my fifty pounds pays your rent for two years, and I will only have use of it for a few months. Not a bad investment when all I ask in return is my board and a decent gown to bury me in.”
“No pocket allowance?”
“I am the one proposing marriage, Mr Darcy, so I must suppose that I am the one to prove that I can provide for you.”
Did she care nothing for money? She wanted only, for a time, a home of her own.Let us find out for certain.
“You are a Miss Bennet, the daughter of a man worth a few thousand a year, and you spend most of the season with relations in town.” Truly the city, but she did mix with people of fashion. “Do you relish the pleasure of being the wife of a man much poorer than your father was? Can you comprehend living on a few hundred a year until Michaelmas? Have you learnt to prefer the rumbling of a borrowed wagon to the pleasant-sounding rattling of your own coach and six? I fear you have not thought this through.”
“I am not mad. I do not seek a fortune to spend or a house in town. Regardless of your answer, I will no longer live to please my mother or brothers or sisters. I will findsomeway to see to my own satisfaction before I die. But Georgiana needs me. I want—I need to be needed by a worthy object.”
“Ihave no need of you.” A wife who brought no fortune, no connexions, who would not share his bed, who would be dead in a few months. Of what use could she be?
“I could be of use to you for your sister’s sake.” He blinked in surprise as she answered his unspoken question. “I can improve your standing in Meryton by stopping the rumours about Georgiana being your mistress, and if they stop gossiping aboutthat, it is less likely they might suspect what happened at Ramsgate. Our marriage and my death give you an excuse to mourn and avoid your family’s demands for you to marry your cousin. You may have little need of me, but I could be of great use to your sister.”
Georgiana would be in raptures if he married Miss Bennet, the rumours might be quelled, and her attention might prolong Georgiana’s life and make her happy. Miss Bennet would align herself with him because it suited her own ends, but she approved of him to some degree—and his wealth had nothing to do with that approval. He would never again have the certainty that a woman’s admiration—limited as hers was—was in no way based in his wealth, his reputation, or his connexions.
He could show her respect and small kindnesses before she died, something she would not have at Longbourn.And my care for Miss Bennet might tip the scales back in my favour on Judgement Day, for my wish for retribution against Wickham and my horrid thoughts toward my unborn nephew.
“If I agree, you must promise to ask me no questions, to not press me if I refuse to oblige you, and there is to be no announcement in the newspapers since I am supposed to be in Madeira.”
“No questions? That is an odd requirement.”
He could only tolerate her if she did not ask him about who he was or about what he thought when he first learnt his unmarried sister was to have a child. He stared at her in silence to wait.
“Very well, no questions.” Darcy bowed. “We are in accord then? Fidelity, respect, chastity”—she blushed, and covered her embarrassment by standing—“and united in our love for your sister?”
“Yes, madam.” They both stood in pensive meditation. “I suppose I should approach your mother and pretend that I had done the asking.”
“Yes, indeed.” She gave a nervous laugh. “Perhaps tomorrow, or the day after? I will prepare them as best I can. You are not opposed tothe appearance, in general, that we are marrying because our affections are engaged?”
“I cannot pretend that I am run away with by my feelings, but it would be worse if anyone learnt the truth behind our arrangement. Georgiana would want me to marry for my own happiness, not hers, and she would be devastated to know how ill you truly are.”
“Yes, I would not worry her, or my own family. Thank you, Mr Darcy. I am exceedingly grateful to you.”
He supposed an act of more than common friendliness was due on their parting after coming to such an arrangement. He took her hand—whether she had made the first motion, he could not say—and was considering carrying it to his lips, when he changed his mind and abruptly let it go. Miss Bennet seemed to feel the same scruple, and pulled away quickly to let her hand drop to her side.
