“Thank you!” Mary replied with evident gratitude.
“Now that I have concluded my remarks on Mr Collins and have sincerely apologised to Papa that we could not keep Longbourn in the family, I shall begin my tale. Mr Darcy asked for my hand in marriage, and I declined.”
The news was met with shock by Mary; she sprang from her chair to draw nearer to Elizabeth, who invited her to sit next to her on the sofa.
To her surprise, Mr Bennet remained suspiciously calm.
“Pray, Papa, do not tell me you suspected!” Elizabeth exclaimed.
“I guessed the gentleman harboured an interest in you,” Mr Bennet replied with that smile always on the border between affection and jesting.
“When and how?” Elizabeth asked. Then she looked at Jane, who seemed as bewildered as she was.
“As long as the Netherfield party were in residence, everyone spoke only about one couple,” Mr Bennet said, glancing at Jane, who blushed, and suddenly, tears welled in her eyes.
“Were there others?” asked Elizabeth with a rare touch of naivety; but she understood at once and blushed as well, a clear sign that her father’s words had struck her deeply. Could it be that Mr Darcy had liked her from the beginning, just as Lady Oakham had said? Yet her father was an important witness who noticed all subtlety—when it suited his purposes.
“But he had no intention of seeing me again,” Elizabeth lamented, her voice tinged with sorrow.
“Perhaps he resolved not to seek you out, but feelings are not so easily kept under control. And when you wrote that he had gone to Kent, having learnt that you were there from Lady Catherine, it became clear he had lost the battle with himself and had gone there to see you.”
“Papa!” Elizabeth exclaimed, deeply shaken. She came to sit on the arm of her father’s chair, just as she had in her childhood when she sought comfort. “Why did you not tell me sooner?”
“I was wrong,” Mr Bennet admitted, his voice heavy with regret. “And this is precisely why I must talk to you three more often. In the past, I avoided what I foolishly deemed women’s idle gossip. But you are now grown up, and we must address important matters regarding your future.”
“I should have realised he had affection for me,” Elizabeth mused.
“Yes, my dear, you should have seen the situation more clearly.”
“Why did you reject his proposal?” Mary interjected with burning curiosity. “He is not Mr Collins!”
“No, indeed. He is a wealthy, intelligent, and distinguished gentleman, though his conceit is at least as great as his qualities.”
“That might be true,” Jane murmured, a relatively unusual declaration for her, as she typically saw only the goodness in people.
“And both of you are mostly mistaken,” Mr Bennet countered. “He may take pride in his ancestry and family, but I believe he could be amiable in any circumstance and within any circle, under one condition—that he finds the company agreeable.”
“But he did not like us, our neighbours, our family, Mama, Jane…”
“He is one of the rare few who truly do not like me,” Jane gasped as she settled onto the sofa while Mary gently took her hand.
“I cannot remember anyone not liking you before,” Mary said comfortingly.
“Well…he could be the first,” Elizabeth said with newfound courage. “Jane’s timidity and reserve did not serve her well. Mr Darcy assumed she had no affection for Mr Bingley, and we must remember that Charlotte also reproached her for it.”
“So there must be some truth in it, must there not?” Mr Bennet spoke in a gentle and compassionate tone as Jane’s tears began to fall.
“It is merely how I am,” Jane whispered, her voice tremulous.
“Yet you encouraged me to change. Perhaps it is time for all of us to change!” Mary spoke with a sudden vivacity that had sprung from the intimate discussion she valued so much.
“I did show him my feelings,” Jane said defensively, as if she had not heard her sister. “I am sure he understood them, or at least sensed them.”
“Yet it was insufficient, for his sisters, at some point, turned against you, and then there was Mr Darcy.”
“Did Mr Darcy have something to do with Mr Bingley’s departure?” asked Mary, shocked.
“Unfortunately, yes. Mr Darcy was Mr Bingley’s best friend, and he wanted him to find a lady who loved him. But Jane seemed indifferent, and—”
