It became clear that whatever had passed between us the night before, things between my wife and I were still in need of some repair, mostly because Mrs. Darcy did not speak to me. She spoke only to Lady Susannah and ignored me entirely.
Lady Susannah noticed, and she seemed rather embarrassed by it, unsure of what to do.
I did not know what to do about it either, so I cornered Mrs. Darcy after breakfast to ask her what the meaning of all of that was.
“It is only that the more that I think about some of the things you said to me last night, the more angry I become,” she said. “How dare you cast the blame on what happened with Mr. Wickham on me? Before, you said it was his fault. But now I see that you think that I brought all that down on myself.”
I sputtered. “That is not exactly what I said.”
“And furthermore, the fact that you do not approve of my brother, that you think he is a sinner—”
“We are all sinners, Mrs. Darcy,” I cut in.
“Well, I am only saying,” she said. “I do not wish to speak to you, I do not think.”
It made things awkward.
We were invited to luncheon at Netherfield, and her brother was there, and so was Miss Caroline Bingley, who I had not seen in some time. She did not seem the least bit put out over the fact that my wife wasn’t speaking to me, or perhaps she did not notice, for she chattered away the entire luncheon talking entirely to Mr. Bennet, commenting on everything that he did or said as if it were positively amazing.
She dominated the conversation, and Mr. Bennet turned red on numerous occasions, and Mr. Bingley seemed to find the entire thing amusing.
I, however, found it horrifying, for I knew what their scheme was.
I resolved that I should find an occasion to speak privately to Bingley about it whenever I got the chance, but for the rest of the afternoon, I had to soldier on with a wife who was not speaking to me, her brother who kept glaring at me at every chance he could get, and Miss Bingley, who would not stop commenting on how smart it was of Mr. Bennet to have put on his cuff links as he had.
“Miss Bingley,” said Mr. Bennet, still glaring at me, “truly, it is not me who does that, but the manservant at Longbourn.”
“Yes, but he must do so at your instruction, does he not?” said Miss Bingley.
“I suppose,” said Mr. Bennet.
“Well, there we are,” said Miss Bingley. “I think that we must all take credit for the things that we instruct servants to do, for where else would they get such ideas, after all?”
“I do not think I got the idea of cuff links,” said Mr. Bennet.
“For heaven’s sake, James, take the compliment,” said Mr. Bingley, chuckling.
“Thank you, Miss Bingley,” said Mr. Bennet woodenly.
“Just think,” said Mr. Bingley, “how much fun it would be if it were the three of us and all of our sisters, hmm? You’d bring Miss Darcy, I suppose.”
“Oh, what if we were all married?” said Miss Bingley. “How would that work, let’s see. I obviously can’t marry Charles, though Miss Darcy could marry Mr. Bennet, but I think it would be best if—”
“Absolutely not,” I said tersely.
Mrs. Darcy caught my gaze and she lifted her chin. She surveyed me with what I can only term confusion.
Mr. Bennet cleared his throat, sticking a finger into his cravat. “We have talked of traveling together, I suppose, but I daresay Mr. Darcy might not find such things to his taste. I suppose he doesn’t approve of anyone having any fun.”
Mrs. Darcy turned to look at her brother, giving her head the barest of shakes.
Miss Bingley looked about the table and seemed to just then realize there was some sort of conflict going on. Her eyes widened. “Well, perhaps we should have a game of cards,” she said brightly. “Cards are really just the thing, do you not agree?”
I had a bad hand, and Bingley did, too, and I took the opportunity to take him aside in the sitting room at Netherfield. “You cannot do that to your sister,” I said to him in a very low voice.
“Do what?” he said, and he was not speaking in a low voice.
“Marry her off to some man who can never have any sort of feelings for her in that way,” I said. “I will not say that your sister cannot be a bit insipid at times, but I do not feel she means it,and it is not fair to her. She deserves the chance to find someone who will adore her.”
