My entire body felt as if it was floating. I stood up. She stood up. She was laughing a little. I seized one of her hands.
She was still smiling like a sunbeam.
I brought her fingers to my lips. I kissed the back of her knuckles. “I am the happiest of men,” I said to her.
Bennet came to see me that evening, sending word with a servant for me to meet him outside in the darkness.
He was out there when I approached, his back to me, the collar of his jacket up against his neck, and he hunched into it against the evening breeze.
“You’re displeased,” I said. “You wished her to marry Bingley. But I have promised her that we can all be quite close. I have traveled with Bingley before, been in his company, and I shall be quite pleased to do it again if it means my wife is close to you. You are very important to her and I understand that.”
“I’m not displeased. I see it in her, what I felt when I met Charles, and I would not take that from her. I only came to tell you…”
“Tell me what?”
His voice was hard. “If you hurt her, I shall not be pleased.”
I let out a little laugh, rather liking that. “I shall keep that in mind, Bennet. You are very protective of your sister.”
He took a step toward me. “No, hear me, Darcy, because there is a way that men are with their wives, and I have seen it. They feel justified if there are slights or arguments. Why, you see the way my own father treats my mother, do you not? I want you to understand that she is my sister, and that no matter what she does, I will love her. You, as her husband, your love will be conditional to a degree. Mine never will.”
“My love will not be conditional,” I said, offended.
“You will not wish it to be, perhaps, but we all must own that there are things that can break a romantic attachment. There are things Charles could do that I would not forgive, for instance.”
“Like?”
“Well, is that your concern, really, because—”
“I simply am confused about it,” I said. “I wish an example.”
“Oh, all right, well, most men would not forgive a wife’s infidelity, for example. Most women would not forgive a man striking them.”
“Those are rather extreme examples. I hardly think—”
“There is some line for you, that is all I am saying. She is my blood, however. There is no line. If you hurt her, no matter how right you think you may be, I shall not be pleased.”
“Well,” I said, “I hardly think your sister is going to be that sort of trouble.”
“I do not know,” he said. “We have, even now, just collected her and sorted her out after a botched elopement attempt. She is, by her own admission, adventurous. Perhaps if we’d hadsiblings, someone younger than us, someone to be responsible for, someone else for Mother to dote on. She is the youngest, you know. She is used to having her whims catered to.”
“Is this some warning, Bennet? Are you trying to get me to back out of this, because you know that I cannot, even if I wished to, which I don’t. A gentlemen does not rescind a marriage proposal.”
He was quiet.
“Well, then,” I said. “You have delivered your warning, and I have heard it. Rest assured, I have no intention of hurting your sister.”
“I do not like how this has all come about, I suppose,” he said. “I feel as if the two of you have moved too quickly, and that your general dispositions… I worry you are not the right man for her.”
“I am indeed,” I said. “But I have a sister, too, so I know of what you speak. There is a feeling that no man might be good enough for her, and perhaps, yes, it is because I have memories of her as a very annoying, squalling child kicking my shins and calling me names, and I know that I loved her through all that, but I wonder if anyone else would do such a thing. I see what you mean. But I am quite, quite in love with your sister. Be assured.”
He regarded me. A long moment passed. Eventually, he nodded.
Then, we said our goodbyes and he took his leave of me.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
I went back to London afterward to make arrangements for bringing my wife there and to tell my family of the news. They were not what I would call pleased, but there was much less of an outcry than I supposed I had expected.
