The family, minus Lydia, had all assembled in the family sitting room, when Lizzy returned from her errand across the square. The man himself had accompanied her and her footman. Other than Jane and Lizzy, no one in the family had seen Mr Darcy since the ball in November when, for some unknown reason, he had danced with no other but Lizzy, not even Miss Bingley or Mrs Hurst. There was no look of pride or arrogance in his mien. If anything, the Bennets who had not seen him since the ball, saw genuine contrition. Mrs Bennet recovered first.
“You are very welcome Mr Darcy, and we thank you for your kind and welcome invitation to dinner on Wednesday two days hence,” Mrs Bennet said as she welcomed her guest.
As shocked as the rest of the Bennets had been to see him, Darcy was now amazed and could not believe what he was seeing. ‘Who is this lady, and what has she done with Mrs Bennet? What has happened to the younger Bennet? She looks like a proper young woman, no outbursts and no flirting. The middle one, Mary, always behaved well, but seems so much more confident now. Thank goodness the little flirting hoyden, Laura, Lynetteno,Lydia is not here. The two younger sisters are young ladies I would be happy to introduce to Georgie!’ After getting past his amazement he forced himself to answer his hostess.
“I thank you for your gracious welcome, Mrs Bennet. I requested to accompany Miss Elizabeth and her footman back to your home if it was not too much trouble; I wished to speak to Mr Bennet about the schools that Miss Elizabeth had asked me about. Before I do, there is something that I would like to say to your family if I may, sir?” Darcy looked to Mr Bennet respectfully and once he received a nod, he proceeded.
“I have already had the opportunity to apologise to Miss Bennet and Miss Elizabeth, but I find that my honour will not allow me to go without asking forgiveness from all of you. From our first meeting on I behaved deplorably, as has been pointed out to me,” he said as he looked toward the second Bennet daughter, “I showed selfish disdain for all except my friends, who are no longer my friends. My behaviour was ungentlemanly, arrogant, and yes Miss Elizabeth, hypocritical. At first, after Miss Elizabeth pointed out my shortcomings and my hypocritical behaviour, I was angry, very angry. However, the more I thought about her words, really considered them, the more I saw that I should be angry. Not at Miss Elizabeth for speaking aught but the truth, but with myself for my abhorrent behaviour, pride, and arrogance.
“I especially apologise to Mrs Bennet,” he turned and addressed her, “I was so very rude to you at that first assembly, but at least I did not tell you that you were not tolerable enough to tempt me,” he offered with a small upturn of the corner of his mouth so she would know that his apology was sincere and he in no way held animosity.
The Bennets, excepting Lizzy and Jane, could not believe that he was willing to employ self-deprecating humour.
“Mrs Bennet, you were truly no worse than, and in most cases far better than, the match-making mamas of theTon. But as was pointed out in my arrogant hypocrisy Madam, I judged your behaviour by a different standard than I would have a member of theTon. I was completely wrong, and I humbly ask your forgiveness, Mrs Bennet.” He bowed to her.
“We all make mistakes young man, and I forgive you completely,” a very surprised Fanny Bennet, who had not expected a direct apology from the great Mr Darcy, offered her very gracious reply.
‘Who is this man and what has he done with the proud, disagreeable man that we met in Hertfordshire? I thought that Lizzy and Jane were reporting through the lenses of rose-coloured glasses, but no. This is a different and better man than we knew before. I see the way he looks toward my Lizzy for approval all the time. This man has not given up his quest to win my second daughter’s heart. We will have to see if he succeeds and whether or not I approve of him. I suppose that if Lizzy decides she will be his, I will not gainsay her, but I will not make it easy for him if, or when, we get there,’ Bennet thought to himself as he listened to the man humble himself before all of the Bennets present.
“I thought myself above you because of my estate and my wealth. I was wrong, I am a gentleman and Mr Bennet is a gentleman. That makes us equal. As much as I abhor the machinations and behaviour of my aunt, Lady Catherine, it was pointed out by a number of my Fitzwilliam relations, whom you will meet on Wednesday, that as much as I disliked what she was, my behaviour emulated hers rather than my beloved late parents. Hearing that shocked me beyond belief, but thankfully before I defended myself, I saw that they were correct.
“Between the much-deserved set-down delivered by Miss Elizabeth and what my family showed me, including my sister Georgiana, my faults are being addressed. It may take longer than I, or anyone else would like, but I will address all of the reproofs that were laid at my door and correct them each to the best of my abilities.” Darcy bowed to the whole of the family.
After looking at his wife and family Bennet relieved Darcy’s anxiety as he looked like a man in the dock waiting for the judge to deliver his verdict. “On behalf of myself and my family your apology is fully accepted, Mr Darcy. Let us move forward as friends and not dwell on the past anymore,” Bennet stated.
“You have my heartfelt thanks sir, and I would be honoured if you would address me as Darcy going forward,” Darcy said as he released a breath that he did not realise he had been holding.
“I will do so Darcy, so long as you address me as Bennet. If there is nothing else for my family, please join me in my study and we can discuss the schools.” Bennet smiled at the recovering Bennet ladies and loved that they were so pleased.
“Please lead the way, Bennet,” Darcy agreed.
As the two men left the family sitting room, a very quiet Lizzy could not keep her thoughts in check. ‘The more that I see him, the more I begin to believe that he may be the ideal husband for me. It is not love I feel for him yet, as I told Mama, but I believe that it will be someday, and possibly sooner rather than later. He is nothing like the persona of the arrogant man that I met in Meryton. Yes, I was looking for bad in him after he hurt my pride and vanity at the assembly, and I have admitted that left me open to believe that lying snake Wickham. How wrong I was! One had all of the appearance of goodness while the other possessed all of the goodness in fact.
‘If I had not been so blind, I would have seen the glaring contradictions in what that lying manipulator told me. Thank God that he was removed before he ruined Lydia. It seems that he was close to achieving that aim before he was taken to task for his lies, debts, and seductions. How close did my family come to being ruined by my wilful blindness? Yet as Papa said, the past is in the past, we, Mr Darcy and I included, need to move forward. Yes, we need to learn from our past mistakes, but we cannot live in the past anymore.’
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
The two men had settled comfortably in their chairs in Bennet’s study. Each was sipping a glass of Bennet’s excellent port. Darcy told Bennet about the two schools he would most like to suggest and both had openings. Bennet knew that as Darcy was recommending Greenlake School for Young Ladies for Kitty, which was in Town; it was the same school that he had sent his own sister to, and Lord Matlock had sent his daughter Lady Tiffany to the same one. It was a recommendation made without any reservation. Although at almost seventeen Kitty would be a year or two older than the average girl that entered the institution, Bennet was comfortable that Kitty would do very well at the school.
Dark Hollow School for Girls under the direction of headmistress Mrs Hesperia Gilbert seemed like the ideal place to take Lydia in hand. Darcy passed on the information that Mrs Ponsonby had received from her cousin. All privileges had to be earned at Dark Hollow, and the more a girl did not comply, the harder her life would become with more chores, mode of dress, going as far as functioning as a maid to others. The first step in the consequences was wardrobe. Depending on the offence, a girl could end up wearing a scratchy burlap dress for weeks at a time. It did not hurt that the school sat in the centre of a large estate and that the nearest town was more than a twenty-mile walk from the estate’s gates, which were more than two miles from the school. Bennet decided that if this school could not help Lydia, then the one that could did not exist.
As soon as Darcy departed, Bennet would send an express to headmistress Mrs Hesperia Gilbert to ask how soon that he could enrol Lydia. “I thank you for all of this, your assistance was invaluable. But I now must ask, what are your intentions toward my second daughter, Darcy?” Bennet asked directly, going to the heart of that concern, wanting to know before Darcy left.
“Entirely honourable, sir,” Darcy answered without having to think about it. “If I can fix the many faults that Miss Elizabeth highlighted for me, and her opinion of me consequently improves so that I am not the last man in the world that she could be prevailed upon to marry anymore; hopefully to the point that she in fact thinks me the only man that she would be willing to marry; then I will again ask her to marry me. This time without the insults in the proposal. If that comes to pass and she accepts me and you confer your blessing and consent, I will marry her,” Darcy laid out the whole of his hope in his reply.
“I know you are not a fortune hunter, as you offered for Lizzy when you believed her penniless and with no connections of note. I have an idea that your income is far higher than the reported ten thousand per annum. It has come to my attention that your cousin, Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam, has been paying attention to Jane, and after what he said to Lizzy about a second son needing to marry with some consideration to money, I am not sure that Jane’s attraction is not her vast wealth,” Bennet said after he had considered the younger man’s answer for a short time.
“That, Bennet, would be a legitimate concern with anyone but Richard. Let me address the comment that he made to Miss Elizabeth first. He saw that I was already well on my way to being besotted with Miss Elizabeth. He and I have always been more like brothers than cousins. Just like I said something I did not mean at the assembly where I first met your family, Richard said what he thought that he needed to so that if Miss Elizabeth held a tendre for him; he let her know in his own foot-in-mouth way that he was not available to her. He has told me that it was an arrogant presumption on his part that he said what he did without any empirical evidence that Miss Elizabeth cared for him beyond friendship.”
Darcy paused for some seconds and gathered his thoughts. “His parents are much like mine were, and nothing like Lady Catherine. They have taught, no drummed into their three children’s heads, that theONLYreason to marry is love and mutual respect. If they ever expected that Richard or Tiffany made a choice based on anything other than love and respect, they would be vociferous in their opposition. They are not like most members of theTon. Also, Richard is not a poor, and I mean wealth wise, second son.
“What he does not know is that he has inherited his Grandfather Hampton’s estate and fortune. His parents will inform him if he is ordered back to the Peninsula to go fight against the tyranny of Napoleon. My Aunt Elaine, Lady Matlock, was the only issue of her parents. As far as Richard knows, she inherited their estate Brookfield, which is but fifteen miles from Pemberley in Derbyshire, and had a clear eight thousand per annum. There was a fortune of thirty thousand pounds that has been invested in your company along with the profits from the estate these fifteen years since his Grandmother Hampton passed. Last time I spoke to Uncle Reggie, his fortune was well over three hundred thousand pounds.
“They wanted to tell him before he was ordered to war the first time where he participated in the various battles, including both at Badajoz, and thankfully survived with only slight wounds. They did not mention anything before as they knew that his sense of honour would not allow him not to go. Given that I believe that he is well on his way to falling in love with Miss Bennet, I believe that he will sell out the instant that he knows about his true position. I intend to recommend that Aunt Elaine and Uncle Reggie tell him now. That way he will not feel that he is being dishonourable and selling out just because of the orders.” Darcy let him in on the family secret without hesitation as it most certainly affected his daughter’s happiness.
“Thanks to your recitation, I am convinced that he is not a fortune hunter and I will let my wife know as well. I knew a Reginald Fitzwilliam at Cambridge very briefly; he was two years ahead of me. Seemed like a capital fellow, but we never spent enough time together to become friends. Tall fellow, blond with very blue eyes, also from Derbyshire I believe,” Bennet mused.
“That is my Uncle Reggie. He mentioned that he remembered your name from Cambridge and is looking forward to meeting you on Wednesday at Darcy House.” Darcy chuckled.
