CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“What can Richard be thinking?” I said. I was pacing. “What can he think he can do with her?”
“I don’t even understand why he’s here,” said Bennet.
“Well, that’s sort of my doing,” I said. “But it’s also sort of your wife’s, if I may say.”
“Oh?” said Elizabeth. “I did wonder if it was the right thing to leave her here.”
“She wished it!” said Bennet.
“Yes, but you did not even seem to put up a little bit of a fight at all,” said Elizabeth. “It must pain a woman to be so invisible to her husband.”
Bennet sighed heavily.
“I do think she’s been a bit… out of sorts,” said Bingley.
“She asked me to bed her,” I said.
“What?” Elizabeth shot to her feet, appalled. “That snake of a woman. If I see her again, I shall wrap my hands round her neck—”
“I said no,” I said.
“She knows you are my husband. How dare she?” said Elizabeth.
Bingley and Bennet shrugged at each other.
She looked between the two of them. “What is meant by that?”
“Nothing,” said Bennet. “It’s only that your husband is…”
“Is what?” she said.
“Tall,” supplied Bingley. “He is such a great tall fellow, after all.”
“Yes,” said Bennet.
I groaned. “Oh, I have asked you, Bingley, to cease—”
“And I have,” said Bingley. “I am only saying, Mrs. Darcy, you must see that Mr. Darcy is a bit, erm, swoonworthy.”
“I do see that,” she said. “But he is mine.”
“Obviously, I am yours,” I said. “Anyway, I wrote to the colonel.”
“Why?” said Bennet.
“Well, you remember how Bingley wanted to marry Elizabeth and then grant me visits of a certain nature?”
“Oh, must we discuss this again?” said Bennet, making a face.
“Apologies,” I said. “It is only that I thought perhaps it was a solution for Caroline, that is all.”
Bennet rubbed his forehead. “So, what happened? He came and fell in love with her?”
“I think so,” I said.
“But she is my wife,” said Bennet. “He cannot simply run off with her like that. And she should not have gone with him. She is ruined now. What could be worth such a thing?”
