Mary was in her ugly yellow dress - one that Lydia could understand someone sneering at. But Kitty’s pink gown was lovely (Lydia had chosen the matching hair ribbons herself!) and as for Lydia’s grey dress, it fit her perfectly and made her look effortlessly fashionable. Yes, even in simple clothes Lydia knew that the Bennet sisters shone.
Miss Bingley looked at them as if she longed to scrape them from the bottom of her shoe.
She herself was dressed in lavender taffeta, with white lace at the neckline and the hem. The sleeves were gathered, with a sheer halo of shimmering silk around the cuffs. Her hair was so expertly coiffed that Kitty awkwardly whispered to Lydia to ask if it might be a wig. A single stone from Miss Bingley’s jewellery was worth more than all of the sisters’ ornaments put together, and Miss Bingley hadmanysuch stones.
Elizabeth had said that they did not need to dress for dinner. Miss Bingley had not dressed for dinner either; she had dressed forcourt.
It was ridiculous. Lydia could not help giggling when she saw the ludicrous sight of the woman trying to eat soup. The smallest spill would have ruined her elaborate dress, and so she sipped with her lips pouting out like a shrew.
Miss Bingley knew that she was being stared at. She did not like it. She directed the room’s attention to other matters with the slippery ease of a snake. Lydia was too loud, Kitty was too tanned, and Mary was pale. Of course, the insults were phrased as mere observations. It was terribly rude to say that someone lookedpale,but to express concern over the pallor of a friend’sface, and to invite them to walk around the garden, was perfectly acceptable.
Everyone knew what she was doing. They had all played the same game with a score of other split-tongued witches. But even witches had lines that they refused to cross! Miss Bingley justkept going!
Lydia was staggered by it. One by one, she saw her sisters look down at their plates and surrender to the other woman’s smug assault. Even Elizabeth, normally so confident and quick to retort, had nothing to say.
Lydia thought idly that what Miss Bingley really needed was someone to tell her off. A governess, perhaps. But it was too late - nobody would dare to send Caroline Bingley to her room!
So how was she to be confronted?
The youngest Miss Bennet, who had cut her teeth tormenting the swains of Meryton, began at once.
She started by becoming the older woman’s acolyte. Oh, she made it clear thatagewas a factor in her adoration! How could Miss Bingley protest such devotion? Lydia could hide her insults just as well as she, and did so with a charming smile on her innocent face:
Oh, Miss Bingley, how clever you are to say such things! You must have so much experience speaking to men, after so many years…
This lace is gorgeous! It was the height of fashion when I was a little girl. How clever you are to re-use it for another season!
Please tell me everything about your time in London! I know it might take a while… you were there for so long… but I must hear everything you can remember!
Were your partners at your coming-out ball handsome? Oh, I bet you were the most beautiful of them all! Whoever they ended up marrying cannot be half as pretty as you, Miss Bingley!
… and so on.
Lydia was not conventionally clever, but she twisted words with the skill of a satirist and the acumen of a sadist.
During their first evening together, Lydia tested how far she could press Miss Bingley before the woman’s cobweb-tethered patience snapped. There was an oiliness in Caroline’s eyes which had a dull glow, like a rusty portcullis slamming shut when she was furious. Convention and strict etiquette meant that Miss Bingley’s face always looked serene and unmoved by such violent emotions, but those eyes - ah! In their fishy depths was the reward which Lydia craved.
Lydia sat in the middle of her huge, soft bed and giggled to herself that night. She had feared that Pemberley would be frightfully dull. How wrong she was!
Miss Bingley did not appear for breakfast in the morning. Lydia wanted to give herself credit for that, but the others assured her that it was quite normal. Miss Bingley’s habit was to rise slowly, and then to take a walk about the house and grounds until luncheon.
Lydia lay in wait. She borrowed a puppy she had seen running around the stables when they arrived and walked it around the garden in circles until her prey emerged. Puppy and girl bounded forwards with equal enthusiasm and ambushed the startled Miss Bingley in her tracks.
But - this was the beauty of it - she could not possibly object! Lydia was capable of being flattering and charming and could not be scolded or dismissed.
After a few days of being stalked by the irritating youngest Miss Bennet, Caroline started to relax. She could see no real malice in the girl. Lydia spoke like a besotted fool but genuinely wanted to be guided by her betters. Well, why not? Caroline was glad that one of the Bennets, at least, was sensible of her position. It was about time that they realised how little they knew of the world.
If she was to instruct Lydia, she told her sternly, then some boundaries would have to be drawn. Chief among them were fixedappointmentswhere they could converse. The ‘surprise visits’, she insisted, must stop.
Lydia smiled sweetly and agreed. Inside, she was crowing. The last part of her assault could finally begin.
Now, when they had no ‘appointment’, Miss Caroline Bingley would think that she was alone. Alone, finally, after endless days of being accosted!
Lydia had no idea what a shrew like Caroline would do when she thought herself unobserved… but she was looking forward to finding out.
Chapter 49
The second Bennet sister to lurk in the gardens was Mary. While she normally despised nature in all of its itchy, sneezy forms, she could no longer bear to stay inside the house.
