“You are perfection, however,” I said, toying with the edges of her hair. “You blind me with your brilliance.”
“You are only saying that because you are in love with me.”
I laughed softly. I was floating again. “I do love you,” I murmured. “Most ardently.”
“And I love you,” she said. “But my brother…”
“Oh, I thought we weren’t going to speak of him.”
“He does not like you.” She put her head back on my chest. “It is odd, you know, because he was always the sort to see the best in everyone, but he is so very protective of me.”
“I think he is angry because you would not give up all your happiness to marry Bingley.”
“No, he understands I could never have done that,” she said, sighing. “I do wonder about all our plans to travel, though. Will the two of you be at each other’s throats?”
I sighed heavily. Well, there it was, wasn’t it? She would rather I not come along with them in August. I could hear it in her voice. I continued to toy with the edges of her hair. “He has said I should stay home and allow you to go without me.”
“Allow me?” She groaned. “And this, you see, is why I was convinced never to get married in the first place, all of thisordering me about, trying to rule over me, and do not tell me that it is natural for you to rule over me, or I shall likely go mad.”
“I do try to rule over you,” I said in a silky sort of voice. “Much good it does me.”
She was smiling. “Ah, all right, Will, all right.”
“It is as I say, Lizzy, we are not at odds. This is part of it between us, I think. At least, anyway, I like it.”
She let out a very noisy breath, snuggling into me. “Oh, yes, I like it, too.”
“Then everything will turn out right in the end,” I said. “We can count on that, I think.”
“Yes,” she said. “Our love is unbreakable.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The following day, we had news that Miss Bingley had accepted Mr. Bennet’s proposal, and we all went round to Netherfield, Lady Susannah included, to offer our congratulations.
I did my best to hide my disapproval, for it was none of my affair in the end, but at the end of the visit, Bennet cornered me and told me in a low voice that he had done as I suggested and told her the truth.
“She said yes anyway?”
“Yes, of course she did,” he said. “Her life will change very little, and it is good for Bingley and me. It ties us together.”
“Aye, I see that,” I said. “It is quite good for you. But is it good for her?”
“She has agreed, all right? And Charles is angry with me for telling her. He is not even a bit pleased, so I hope you are happy with yourself.”
He really did not like me, I could see that. There was a rancor to his tone that bespoke his feelings for me.
I think I might have decided it then, that if it would make things more pleasant for my Elizabeth, that I should not go with them in August. It would not mean that I would never travel with them, after all, simply that I would not travel with them on this first jaunt. Perhaps, with time, I might mend things withJames Bennet, and then he and I might become fast friends, and perhaps then, everything would be different.
I did not say anything to Elizabeth about the plan, however, for the two of us to go off to Pemberley and for her to spend two months with her brother in the late summer and early autumn, until after the dinner we had with her parents.
Bennet was there, and he was polite to me, and I to him. His parents said very little to each other, though Mrs. Bennet dominated the conversation at the table, speaking in her velvet alto voice at length about seemingly any topic that crossed her mind.
She and Miss Bingley were really more alike than they might think, and I thought how much such a thought might embarrass Miss Bingley.
“I am only ever so happy that I have no more worries about marriage,” Mrs. Bennet said. “Both my children are settled, and there is entirely no scandal, even though Lizzy behaved abominably—”
“Mother,” broke in Bennet. “Let us never bring that up again.”
