“That man is odd,” said Richard. “What private business, Darcy?”
“I would be breaking a vow I made to give that information to you,” I said. “But I must say, he brings it on himself, the way he speaks. He has little notion how to keep a secret. That man is too trusting, too naive. He could stand someone looking after him. I shall have to speak to Bingley about it, I think.”
“I am ever so confused,” said Richard. “I shall start guessing, shall I? If I am right, you will only need to blink twice. This way you will not have broken your vow.”
“Richard,” I said, shaking my head at him.
“Oh, Darcy, your propriety borders on priggishness, have I told you this before?”
“No,” I said sarcastically. “Never.”
CHAPTER SIX
Mr. Bennet called upon me that night, but it wasn’t truly a call, for he came to the servants’ entrance and had me summoned and then we went walking alone on the grounds together, and I told him this was not the way to do things, that this was the way to get people talking about him, talking about us both, and that if he came again, I should turn him away.
He was chagrined. “My apologies,” he said as we walked in the spring twilight. “Truly, I never thought that any of these things would really happen to me. I thought they were all vain and utter fantasies on my part. I had nothing but a dalliance with a farmhand before whatever it is with Bingley. I never thought to be with another gentleman in this fashion. It is difficult and there are a number of obstacles, and I am not very intelligent about people, I do not think.”
“Why are you here to see me?” I said.
“I want to get a number of things clear about you, I suppose,” he said. “I would have asked on the street, but I did not wish your cousin to overhear. I realized you had not told him about my secret.”
“I wish I never knew your secret,” I told him. “I wish I had never seen you coming out of Bingley’s bedchamber that morning. I wish I had remained in blissful ignorance of it all.”
He sighed, lifting his shoulders. “Perhaps I wish that, too. I like not the idea of your being out there knowing all about me, with the capacity to destroy me, destroy my entire family, right there in the palm of your hand.”
“I would not do that,” I said.
“Bingley trusts you,” said Mr. Bennet. “But I think Bingley’s trust is tied entirely too closely to how pleasing he finds the cut of a man’s shoulders.”
I grimaced. “Ugh. I dislike thinking about Bingley thinking about me in that way.”
“Apologies,” said Bennet as we walked. “I ask you, though, what of Mr. Wickham?”
“Well, what do you think of him?”
“Oh, I do not know,” said Bennet. “My sister and I, we have been ever so close, all our lives. We are but ten months apart, and we grew up together. When we were children, I don’t know that either of us quite understood there were differences between us. Furthermore, she is my father’s favorite, and he indulged her in anything and everything. She sat in on all my tutoring sessions. She was allowed to read anything that I was reading, to know anything and everything. My father treated her like a second son, only one he found quite adorable and sweet and his own little daughter, do you know what I mean?”
“I suppose,” I said. “Not that I have quite seen what you’re saying, but I can picture it.”
“Well, perhaps I thought of her that way, too, or perhaps it’s because of the both of us finding men pleasing or something, but we have always seemed equals in certain ways, and then… lately…” He drew in a breath. “Things are different now. This relationship I have with Bingley, it has changed things between us. I thought, for some time, that perhaps she was jealous, and that was why she was pursuing things with Wickham.”
“She is pursuing Wickham?”
“Oh, he is pursuing her? She is allowing herself to be pursued? I don’t know. It’s simply nothing like her.” Bennet stopped walking. He fixed me with a look. “She and I have a pact, you see? Neither of us are going to get married. We made it some time ago. When I went off to school, she went off to be Lady Susannah’s companion. When we came back together, it became clear that I was hopeless in whatever way I am made—I knew it after spending all that time in the company of other boys, you see.”
“Spare me this,” I said, grimacing.
He laughed. “It’s funny that I thought you were one of us.”
“Yes, it bothers me quite a bit, but let us move past that.”
His laughter deepened.
“Your pact?” I prompted.
“Right,” he said. “Well, Lady Susannah has no children of her own, and it has been her dearest wish to leave her property to a young lady, to give a woman the freedom not to be joined in marriage. So, my sister and I decided that she would not get married and I would not get married and we would combine the lands she inherited with Longbourn and live that way all our lives. It was perfect for both of us, because she should have access to some income from Trawlings—that’s Lady Susannah’s estate, you see—and we could use this to travel, the both of us. She would never need worry about needing an appropriate chaperone, for as her brother, I could accompany her everywhere. We could move together through society with propriety, and it would be a camouflage for my… shortcomings. It would give her more freedom than she’d ever have in a marriage. It has been our plan since we were quite young. She has never wished to get married. But now, Wickham.”
“She wants to marry Mr. Wickham?”
