“Oh, come now,” I said. “Look at us. Are we likely to protect you from any threat, truly?”
“You would indeed try,” said Elizabeth. “You would leap at any danger for me, and I am positive of that.”
“But, as Lady Susannah has pointed out, we have civilized ourselves out of most of that,” I said.
“It is true,” said Lady Susannah. “We have little need for brute strength in today’s world. Indeed, when it is applied, it is often to the detriment of whoever is using it.”
“Could we protect ourselves if men did not protect us?” said Elizabeth. “Absolutely.”
“No,” said Caroline, horrified. “No, of course not. Obviously, we do need men.”
“I don’t know that we do need men,” said Elizabeth. “But the world is ever so much better with them in it, I think.”
“Do you?” I said, smiling at her. “Do you truly think that?”
“Well, God must have created your sex for some reason,” she said.
“Yes, if not protection, then what?”
“It is not about the fact that we need you or not,” Elizabeth said. “It is about the fact that you do it for us. Even if I do not need the thing you do for me, I am touched that you cared enough to do it.”
I laughed softly. “Well, that is a bit patronizing, I suppose.”
“And a bit of a blow, yes, not being needed at all,” said Bingley.
“Yes, but it quite makes sense,” said Bennet.
“It doesn’t make sense at all!” said Caroline. “Obviously men are very necessary. Why, Mr. Bennet, when I think of what we should all do without you, I am quite beside myself.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
After this, we all turned out for a walk in the gardens of Trawlings, which were quite well tended and pretty at this time of year.
Elizabeth and her brother ended up walking ahead of everyone else, heads together, talking privately, and none of us interfered. I walked, instead, with the Bingleys and Lady Susannah, until she settled herself on a bench and waved us off with her cane. “I shall sit myself here and not exert myself further,” she said. “You young ones go on with yourselves.”
We all stayed and argued politely with Lady Susannah for several moments until she convinced us to go on without her, and the three of us continued on our way.
“Oh, she is going to talk to him the entire time,” said Caroline. “We can not even see them any more. They have gotten so far ahead of us. And if I am to be charming a man like that, how am I to do so when I cannot even get close to him or speak to him at all?”
“You are speaking of Mr. Bennet and my wife, I assume,” I said. “I wonder if you notice that he seems reticent to speak to you at all.”
“Mind your business, Mr. Darcy,” said Mr. Bingley mildly. “He does not seem reticent.”
“Oh, everyone seems reticent to speak to me,” said Caroline. “But I must say, I cannot understand it at all. There are no whispers about her, none. How is it accomplished? What have you done, Mr. Darcy?”
I touched my chest. “Me?”
“Well, near as I can understand it,” said Caroline, “you swoop in and marry the girl who is not going to be allowed to be married because otherwise she cannot inherit. Except, she had already run off to elope with someone else—”
“You told her of this?” I asked Bingley. “Or did she hear it elsewhere?”
“I told her,” said Bingley. “I daresay she is right and no one has breathed a word about your wife’s little escapade since the two of you have been married.”
“Yes, and why is that?” said Caroline. “This is what I do not understand. Why does everything work out so well for her? Why does she get to marry you and have the attention of her brother and behave entirely badly—”
“She does not behave badly,” I broke in.
Caroline scoffed. “I hardly know what to say to that. I think she must have bewitched you.”
