“The second thing is about Mr. Wickham.”
“Oh,” she said, drawing herself up. “Well, that’s quite a thing to say, because I have spoken to him about you at length.”
“Have you?” I said. “What did he say about me?” I let out a breath. “You didn’t indicate to him that I was… like Bingley.”
“No,” she said. “Do you think I go about announcing that to people?
“Well, you were quite free with me.”
“But I thought that you were one of them!”
“Well, I am not.”
“I certainly did not say that to him.”
That was good, not that I cared what he thought of me. Well, it was only that if Wickham thought he had ammunition against me, he would use it, and it would not be pleasant. I would rather he did not have any ammunition against me, even if it were false information.
“I only wish to say,” I said, “with regards to Wickham, that you might take care, for he has shown himself to be a fortune hunter with no scruples when it comes to his pursuit of women.”
She laughed, a very bright and spirited sort of laugh, as if I had said something positively ridiculous.
And another couple came between us, moving down the line of dancers.
“This is not a jest,” I said to her when I could. “I do not wish you to fall victim to his false charms. He may play at being quite in love, but when all is said and done, it is pretense.”
“It is funny, because I am never getting married,” said Miss Bennet. “So, you have no reason to worry, you see.”
“Never getting married?” I said. “It’s because of that stipulation of Lady Susannah’s?”
“Heavens, there is no stipulation on the part of Lady Susannah!” she said. “I don’t know why everyone thinks this. Where are they getting this idea?”
The dance parted us again. We each took a different partner and circled them thrice.
When we returned to each other, she said, “I simply don’t see the reason in marrying, not if I shall be a woman who will haveproperty in my own right. There isn’t any purpose in it, you see. So, I don’t wish to marry.”
“You don’t wish to marry,” I said. “Not anyone.”
“Not anyone,” she said with a very bright smile.
The second dance was a bit torturous, as we didn’t speak at all, and she actually made several attempts, but I was a sputtering mess and could not respond to her queries. I was happy enough when it was all over.
Part of me wished to argue with her, tell her that there were other reasons to get married besides financial security. For, after all, I was not marrying for the purpose of securing any wealth for myself, but for the purpose of companionship, primarily, and secondarily for duty and to continue the Darcy line and all of that. I wished to ask her if she really did not want to have children.
But I did not allow this part of me to speak, because I was aware that it sounded rather as if I wished her to marry me. And after I had just claimed her first two dances, it would seem even more as if I did.
Of course, I could not marry Elizabeth Bennet. She was not the sort of woman that I could marry. I would need a woman with a completely different sort of pedigree and one who was respectable and well connected. She was beneath me.
Not to mention, I wasn’t even considering getting married. I had no desire to do so at this juncture in my life. Certainly, someday, I was going to wish to be married, but it would not be for several years yet, and when it happened, it would never be with someone like her.
So, why I spent the entire second dance telling myself this, again and again, I could not say.
After that dance with her, I retired to a corner of the ballroom, and I was angry with myself for not ascertaining more information from her. If Lady Susannah was not making the stipulation, then where had that rumor come from? And what was it that Mr. Wickham had said to her about me? I had somehow forgotten to get that bit of information out of her.
I could seek her out again and attempt to engage her in conversation, but she would likely not welcome it. She did not seem to like me, and I supposed I had done little to recommend myself to her, in the end. I had insulted her, and then she had thought of me as a threat to her brother’s conquest of Bingley, and then tonight, when I had the chance to clear it all up, I had made a hash of it.
Perhaps it was a sign.
I was not meant to spend any more time with this woman or her family or the town she lived in.
