I glared at them.
They both seemed very interested in their tea.
“Is it because of Elizabeth, though?” said Richard in a low voice.
“Is what?” I said.
“Georgiana refusing to stay here,” he said.
I only sighed.
“Apparently, I did myself no favors at that dinner,” said Elizabeth. “They thought it quite bad that I criticized you for not dancing at the ball, and they thought it quite bad that I made so many jokes. What did they say, Richard?” She was laughing. “That a lady ought not be quite so funny? Was it that?”
He smirked into his tea cup, nodding.
Then they were both laughing, but it was the kind of laughter wherein they were trying very hard not to laugh, and they couldn’t manage it, so the laughter was simply overtaking them, and they would get themselves under control and then snort it out at odd moments, and it was very disconcerting to watch.
I wanted to laugh.
When other people are laughing, one wants to join in. One sort of tries, even, but I could not find the thread of this, and they clearly thought it wasveryfunny, and I… did not.
Elizabeth set down her tea cup, wheezing. “Oh, I am ever so sorry, it is only that it is such a strange thing to say! How can I control how funny other people find me, you know?”
“You know,” Richard said, still smirking, “I think it is only that they are set on disliking you, and they do not know why. They are simply casting about for reasons.”
“Oh, but that is awful!” said Elizabeth, though she was still laughing a bit, and it did not sound as if she did find it all that awful, actually. “What have I done to make them dislike me, truly?”
“I was thinking you must rub certain women the wrong way,” I said in a thoughtful voice.
“What a thing to say, Darcy!” said Richard.
“Is it?” I looked between them. “I was thinking of the way the Bingley sisters talked of you when you weren’t around.”
“Oh,” said Elizabeth, sitting up straighter, her mirth draining away. “So, they did that, then? And with you? I don’t know why I did not suspect that. I came upon you and Caroline talking about me and that is what caused all of this. But what did they say?”
“It was as Richard is saying,” I said, sipping at my own tea. “Foolish things, as if they were casting about for things to criticize.”
“But what did they criticize?” said Elizabeth, who was not laughing at all anymore.
“I don’t know. Your hair being blowsy and your skirts in mud and walking alone—you know of all these things.”
She was touching her hair.
“I liked it,” I said pointedly. “That moment, when you appeared in the breakfast parlor and your hair was escaping, all wild curls, that was the moment you were breathtaking, and they knew it, and they were jealous.”
She turned to me, and she bit down on her bottom lip in that way of hers again. Our gazes caught and something passed between us.
Richard cleared his throat. “All right, you two, I happen to be sitting right exactly here.”
Elizabeth flushed crimson, going back to her tea.
“Jealous,” I said. “I wonder if it’s that.”
Richard cleared his throat again.
I looked at him, furrowing my brow. “They must see how it is that men respond to her, perhaps.”
“Men don’t respond to me any such way,” said Elizabeth, who was still blushing. “You were drawn to me, I suppose, Mr. Darcy, and Miss Bingley had designs on you and she was jealous. Perhaps her sister was inclined to dislike me in solidarity, I cannot say—”
