My jaw clenched, as she had staked everything on her desire to destroy Elizabeth’s reputation. I imagine that in her mind I would agree with her, and to my shame, there may have been a time before Ramsgate when I might have. That said, I was no longer that man, and I hoped to eventually redeem myself.
Elizabeth stared at her hard, and finally said, “I pity you, Miss Bingley—I honestly do! Providence gifted you with everything anyone could possibly desire and in repayment you have allowed hatred, greed, and jealousy to bend you into a caricature. While I have a great number of bad things I might say about my family, I can honestly assert thatnoneof them have acted as hatefully as you have tonight.”
“I have acted honourably in saving my family from the pernicious influence of yours, and I have no cause to repine,” Miss Bingley snapped with some real venom. It seemed obvious she believed she had won both the battle and the war, and given the usual fragility of ladies’ reputations, she might well have been right.
She certainly would have won without my unflinching support of the Bennets.
I had just about decided it was time to say something but was pre-empted by Elizabeth.
She had been looking around in consternation and probably coming to the same conclusion. Based on the concerned frowns on her allies’ faces, they were doing the same. I had to admit that even a decade in the knife-fight ballrooms of thetonhad not prepared me for this.
Elizabeth sighed quite dramatically, looked around long enough to ensure everyone’s undivided attention, and started speaking.
“I suppose you have succeeded in forcing my disclosure, Miss Bingley, but I would like to point out that we extended the hand of friendship to the Bingleys, and you bit it. We disregarded your inferior social status, and your airs, though objectionable, were nothing in comparison to that total want of propriety so frequently, so almost uniformly betrayed by yourself, by your elder sister, and occasionally even by your brother-in-law, in his rare bouts of sobriety.Only one member of your family has acted with any semblance of kindness, and even he is complicit in allowing you to carry on like a fishwife all day, every day in a house where he is master.”
“You are a fine one to talk,” Miss Bingley spat angrily. “One could devote an entire chapter in a deportment manual to the Bennets.”
“Perhaps,” Elizabeth said, surprisingly calmly. “As to the rest of you, I find your desire to revel in my discomfort distressing, though with a mother like mine, I suppose I should have learnt to expect it. Let me ask you. Do you all feel the right to know my private business?”
“Of course,” one of the matrons yelled. I could not tell who it was, but to suppose it was a long-time victim of Mrs Bennet would be a natural surmise.
I wondered how Elizabeth would answer that, but given the calmness of her demeanour, I had to hope she had a plan.
“Very well, I shall tell all, even though I wastryingto do things in the right and proper order, and I do not enjoy having my private business bandied about this neighbourhood.”
You could have heard a pin drop in the room when she continued.
“No lies or slanders have been told by me and mine, whilst Miss Bingley has done nothing but. Allow me to correct the record. First off, it is true that Jane’s gown was ripped by a gentleman, and it was repaired. None can doubt that. It was done innocently by a very estimable and respectable man whom I will not embarrass by name. It was a simple misstep, no worse than every man in this room has done dozens of times. The tear was simple bad luck, nothing more, andcertainlynothing the least bit salacious.”
There was a grumble, but nobody answered, and she continued.
“It is also true that my father lost a battle of wits to Mr Darcy, as has been reported, although the defeat was of a larger magnitude than reported out of a gentlemanly desire to prevent embarrassment.”
Her mention of my name surprised me, but assuming she had a reason, I edged closer.
“What hasnotbeen reported, because the right people have not been notified—as is proper—is that Mr Darcy asked for and was granted my hand in marriage, and he has obtained my father’s consent. We are engaged and will be married early in the new year, though whether in London or Derbyshire is yet to be decided.”
The room burst into raucous buzzing, while Miss Bingley shrieked and collapsed. Bingley eventually went over to attend her but seemed content to let a servant carry her from the room.
Elizabeth had reached out to draw me to her side during that declaration, and when her hand rested where it belonged on my elbow, I covered it with my own, gave a small squeeze, and resisted the temptation to kiss her then and there.It was a near thing.
She stared at her mother, and reading her thoughts, I leaned down to whisper,“Now might not be the best time to disinvite her.”
I hoped she did not find me overbearing, but she chuckled. “Pity.”
“I wanted to do it properly. I hope you will not regret this.”
She undoubtedly had quite a lot to say—at another time.
“I am happy enough. Somehow, this all seems inevitable. I would hope we can fall in love, or at least be content.”
It was not a particularly auspicious sentiment, but it would suffice for the moment. I swore we would achieve the former. Jane might smile, but we would laugh—eventually.
17.Resolution- Elizabeth
It was some time before I felt true satisfaction that I had set the cat among the pigeons at the Netherfield ball.
To be perfectly frank, there were many times during that first year when I cogitated on whether my precipitousness was boon or bane, blessing or curse. Later in life, when I was so in love with my husband it hurt to be parted for a week, I realised things worked out for the best, but it took some time and more than a little consternation and conflict to get there.
