I turned to look at her. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, I have conversed with you, Mr. Darcy, on a number of occasions, and I would guaranteethatis not the sort of woman you wished to marry.” Caroline put her hands on her hips. “You have spent quite a bit of time enumerating the things that you want from a wife, and she seems to fulfill exactly none of your requirements.”
Perhaps she was correct about that. “Love is a strange thing, Miss Bingley,” I said. “It sweeps in and takes you right out to sea, I suppose. But it is lovely. She is lovely. We are very happy.”
“I should think all you would do was argue,” said Caroline.
“We… have disagreements from time to time,” I said. “But that… we…” I could feel my face heating up.
“Oh, so it’s like that,” said Bingley in a knowing voice.
“It is not like anything at all,” I said.
“At any rate, I am growing concerned,” said Caroline. “You told me that you thought I might expect a proposal from Mr. Bennet, but he has issued nothing like that.” This was directed at her brother. “Do you think he has changed his mind?”
“I know he has not,” said Mr. Bingley. He shot me a pointed look. “And I’ll thank you to keep your counsel, Mr. Darcy.”
I huffed.
After some time, we ran into Elizabeth and her brother coming back along the path, and we turned and all walked together.
Bennet pulled me to the back of the company to speak to me, and he and I lagged behind the rest and talked in quiet voices.
“She tells me that the two of you are working things out,” said Bennet. “But I have to say, when she returned here, it was as I feared, that you were trying to strip away everything about her that is what makes her who she is.”
“I was not,” I said. “But I suppose I can see how it looked that way.”
“She says, however, that you have expressed your disgust with my lifestyle with Bingley.”
“I don’t know if I said it was disgusting,” I said. Of course, it was disgusting. “I am sorry, but we all know this is sinful behavior, that is all that I am saying. And it goes against the nature of things.”
“I don’t think it does go against nature,” he countered. “I have seen too many male dogs mounting each other to think otherwise. But I will agree that it goes against our social norms and structures. However, there have been societies whoapproved of it in the past. We all know of Patroclus and Achilles, after all.”
I let that sink in for a bit of time. There was an argument on the tip of my tongue, that the pagans were wrong about everything and that we had the true and infallible word of God to guide us, but I did not make it, for I was truly unsettled by what he had said. I needed to sort through that before I made any kind of response.
“I do not say this to convince you,” he said. “It is only that I hear that you think I am not a good influence on my sister, and that you blame the aspects of her character that you find objectionable on me.”
“Again, that is really not exactly what I said,” I broke in.
“I think you should allow my sister to travel with myself and Bingley and stay home,” he said.
I turned to him in shock. “What?”
“And if you will agree to that, I will agree to steer clear of Elizabeth the rest of the time. You may take her off to your country house now. Bingley says it is called Pemberley. You can take her away and the two of you can have your lives together. But come August, you will let her come with us on a trip abroad, for two months, and you will stay behind and leave me my sister.”
“Leave you your sister?”
“I am convinced the only way I shall have her the way she used to be is out ofyourinfluence,” he said.
“Well,” I said, “since we are issuing dictates on the other’s behavior and what we think each other should do, I think you should tell Miss Bingley what your relationship is with her brother before you propose to her.”
“Oh, you do?”
“I think it is only fair to allow her to know what she is giving up if she marries you.”
He made a face, looking away.
“Yes, I can see that you are uncomfortable with it. When she fawns over you—”
