“I suppose the story he heard is that she and I left for Gretna Green, and then I brought her back and jilted her after she sprained her ankle,” I muttered.
“Quite,” said Bingley. “And you know the way of these things. Even if someone protests and tells him the correct story, he thinks they are lying to cover up the ignominy of the first.”
“Indeed,” I said with a sigh.
“So, you hadn’t thought of what that does to the Bennet family,” said Bingley. “You had not thought of it at all.”
“What does it do to them exactly?”
“Oh, Darcy, do not be daft, you know. I have been asked, more than once, if I intend to invite them to my ball, with the indication being that people with such loose morals should not be included. They all say it would be one thing if the Bennets would turn Elizabeth out from under their roof—”
“She cannot walk. Her ankle is badly sprained!” I broke in, horrified at the suggestion.
“Well, her reputation is now a stain on the entire family’s.”
“But she’s done nothing wrong,” I said. “That story is all nonsense.” I shook my head. “It’s awful what’s become of it, but the gossip is not my fault, not at all. You all leaped to conclusions and spread spurious tales about me, and I can’t see why you would have thought that about me in the first place.”
“Oh, so it’s my fault.”
“It’s no one’s fault,” I said. “But you are going on as if it is mine. You said I had done them a bad turn. I did nothing except try to keep a young woman from walking alone in the woods, that is all!”
Bingley was quiet.
I downed my brandy. “This has gotten us nowhere. I think there is still time if I set out on horseback—”
“Perhaps it’s not your fault, but you could do something about it.”
I was not certain that Bingley had ever interrupted me. If he had, he had not done it with such quiet conviction. I gazed at him, hardly recognizing him. “What could I do?”
“You could marry her,” said Bingley.
I set down the brandy glass and simply gaped at him in disbelief.
“Oh, come now, Darcy, you have compromised her. Not in truth, I suppose, but in effect. And you do like her. Everyone knows that. You made that no secret.”
“Now, see here, you must understand, the thing that I said to Caroline—”
“Oh, hang what you said to Caroline about the Elizabeth Room. I am talking about how you refused to dance with her and how you have been pointedly gruff with her, and—”
“None of those things mean I like her.”
Bingley glared at me. “You are going to deny it, then?”
I sighed. “No, all right. I have… she is pretty. She is spirited. She is…” I trailed off. “I cannot marry her. I’m betrothed.”
“You’re always saying that betrothal isn’t binding.”
“Yes, but it’s expected of me. I do what it is expected of me. I always have.”
“So, then, what becomes of the Bennets?” said Bingley.
“Well, I don’t know,” I said. “Perhaps I could give them some money.”
He laughed, a bitter sort of laugh. “That is exactly what you would say, I suppose.”
“Why is this your battle to fight?” I said to him. “What is the Bennet family to you?”
“I want to marry the eldest, obviously,” he said.
