“What did you say to him?” she said.
“That isn’t important.”
“He will say it was only a joke, I suppose.”
“I made him see that it was serious,” I hissed, settling down at the other writing desk.
“Well,” she said. “I likely oughtn’t find that so swoonworthy, but I think I do. You are always my protector, Will. Thank you.”
I looked up to meet her gaze. I felt that floaty feeling again, and it quite wiped away the anger I was feeling.
The Bingleys called upon Lady Susannah that afternoon, with Mr. Bennet in tow, since he seemed to come everywhere with them these days.
I endured even more of Miss Bingley’s attempts at flirtation with Mr. Bennet, who seemed to be as uncomfortable with them as I was.
When Mr. Bennet was not trying to avoid Miss Bingley’s adoration, he was stealing glances at me, and I could see his ire when he did.
I said, at one point, perhaps stupidly, for I knew not where I thought such a comment might lead, “I have been thinking, Lady Susannah, of a conversation we had with you once where you said that you thought men tried to convince women that they needed them, and I wonder if it is not quite this way, if it is onlythat men feel such fierce protective instincts towards women that they sometimes apply them when they are unnecessary.”
Mr. Bennet knew this was directed at him, that I was commenting on his protection of his sister and he sat up straight and started to respond.
But before he could, Lady Susannah spoke, for I had addressed her, of course. “Well, it is the same thing, I think. Men think women need their protection, and this is why they behave as they do.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head.
“No?” she said.
“Well, at least for me, it is not a question of whether anyone needs anything at all. I never think of that before I am acting. If a woman I care about is in need of my protection, I simply act. I don’t think at all.”
“Yes,” spoke up Bingley in a languid voice, “I think this is the difference between men and women. Women are always pondering things out and men are rushing into it without much thought.”
“I wonder what your cousin would say about that as it applies to war,” said Lady Susannah.
“Men can be thoughtful,” said Mr. Bennet. “They can think things through. They can calculate.”
“No, of course they can,” said Bingley, coming to sit down next to him.
“And as for me,” said Mr. Bennet, finding my gaze, “I certainly have not acted, though I have wished to, though I feel as if I ought to have, but I have done nothing, all at the behest of the women I wish to protect. If she doesn’t wish my interference, I do not interfere.”
“That is an admirable trait,” said Lady Susannah, “but it goes back to the heart of it, I suppose, which is what I was asking onthat day, whether or not women need men to do these sorts of things for them.”
“And you said that men were manipulating women to keep them under their control,” I said.
“Oh, I do not know if I would put it quite so strongly,” said Lady Susannah. “But I suppose I do think it sometimes, yes.”
My wife spoke up. “I know we have spoken many times, my lady, and I have said often that I agreed with you that women do not need men, and I am still of that opinion. However, I think that they are nice to have around, men.” She met my gaze across the room and gave me her sunbeam smile. “There are ever so many nice things about them.”
Lady Susannah chuckled. “Well, my dear, you are still a newlywed, so you would say something of that nature.”
“Perhaps,” she said. “Perhaps it is only that I am quite taken with my new husband and that I shall change my mind about it all by and by, but I hope not. I daresay it is lovely to not need him.”
I was not quite sure how to take that comment, but she was smiling, so perhaps it did not matter.
“As for protection,” she said, “that is very nice, too, I suppose. Or, at least, it can be. I know it is a sign that the man in question cares about me.” She looked at me and then at her brother as well.
“But do you need it?” put in Bingley. “For that is the purpose of the conversation, I suppose. Do women need men’s protection?”
“Oh, obviously,” said Caroline. “Why, we are far too weak on our own. If there was any threat, we should quite need men about to protect us.”
