Chapter 31
Darcy saw the hint locks of the richest brown escaping of beneath the bonnet of a lady entering a house across from his Uncle’s. Elizabeth, the name echoed in his heart before he shook his head. Elizabeth Bennet did not have the corrections to be visiting a house in Grosvenor Square. Not all brown-haired ladies were she. Repeating a refrain in his head he had intoned time and again since his disastrous proposal in Kent. As much as he told himself to forget her, she appeared to have taken up permanent residence. In both his head and heart.
“Do you have new neighbours?” he asked his Uncle.
“Lord Meryton, his lady wife and five daughters apparently. I’ve only met the eldest three but all very fine girls. The dark-haired one, or should I say one of the dark-haired ones. Would suit Richard very well. She is very pretty and there is some depth to her which I feel would suit Richard.”
“Meryton?” Darcy asked taken aback. It reminded him of the market town near Netherfield. But the highest family in the area had been the Bennets.
“Yes, he is the newly minted Earl,” Lord Matlock told him. “Apparently, he saved the life of the Prince Regent last August. Your Aunt sponsored the presentation of Lady Meryton and the daughters. So we can perform introductions,” his Uncle said. Then he raised a hand to his chin and looked at Darcy. “You know, thinking on it. You such consider the otherdark-haired girl,” he said and continued. “She would be just the match for you.”
“I was in Meryton in November, and I heard nothing of an Earl of Meryton,” Darcy exclaimed. “And no one was talking about a recent visit from the Prince Regent. Never mind somebody saving his life.”
“Well you are not the most outgoing of fellows Darcy,” he Uncle said. “Mayhap you did not speak to very many people.”
Darcy found it hard to believe that Mrs Bennet, would not have been speaking volubly about any of her neighbours who had hosted the Prince Regent.
“Meryton told me that the Prince Regent tried to make him a Duke and he had to negotiate him down to Earl. He said his wife would have an apoplexy at being married to a Duke. And that he had only been half certain she would survive being made Lady Meryton,” he said with a chuckle.
By this Darcy thought must have been someone who had not been part of the gentry. This would explain why no one was speaking of it. But his Uncle continued. Everyone knew that the Prince Regent was excentric. It would be just like him to make a commoner a Duke.
“Damn fine fellow, Bennet,” he said, and Darcy took a step back in shock. His Uncle had not noticed his reaction and continued. “I remember him from my Oxford days. No one could beat him in chess. I suggested I take him on again. And he suggested I try to beat either the fair-haired daughter Lady Jane or Lady Lydia, his youngest,” he said with a chuckle. “Apparently the youngest is a prodigy in chess,” he chuckled again. “She is not out in town, but your Aunt has met her. She said that she was bright at button but only gone sixteen. “Meryton said he would set up a match for me one evening. I must admit I am looking forward to matching horns with a young lady,” he said that last with a glee filled laugh.
“Lydia Bennet is a chess prodigy?” Darcy asked.
The Earl frowned, “you know the girl,” he asked.
“I know the entire family,” he confirmed. “I met the Bennets when I was in Hertfordshire with Bingley.”
“Ah young Bingley,” he said shaking his head. “Nice enough fellow but led around on leading strings by his younger sister. Not so much a man as a boy. I suppose it is nice for you to have someone around who is not so serious as yourself.”
Darcy would have thought more of what his Uncle was saying about Bingley, but his mind was too busy. Mr Bennet was an Earl. Lord Meryton and Mrs Bennet was now Lady Meryton. And his Elizabeth, he thought and corrected himself. Not his Elizabeth, for she had never been that. Miss Elizabeth Bennet was now Lady Elizabeth and Miss Bennet was Lady Jane. If he and Bingley’s sisters had left him alone, he would now be married to the daughter of an Earl. With their elevation they would be in high demand, even with little in the way of dowries.
