“You are welcome! My wife and I await you in Kent whenever you please!”
“Thank you. Though I expected such an invitation several months ago in answer to my letter.”
“Oh, Mr Bennet, at that time we lacked sufficient space, but now we have prepared an apartment for you!”
For the first time, Thomas smiled, and Mr Collins mistook the expression entirely.
“You will come, surely? Kent is delightful at this season.”
Only Elizabeth and Mr Bennet understood the true cause of Thomas’s smile. News travelled remarkably quickly between Kent and Hertfordshire. Clearly, Mr Collins had already heard of the apartment prepared for Uncle Thomas at Longbourn.
“Thank you, Mr Collins, but at present we are occupied with Miss Bennet’s marriage.”
“Then afterwards—at any time!”
“Mr Collins, for more than forty years I have lived amongst people who see little purpose in disguising their thoughts. I have lost the habit of diplomacy, so I shall be perfectly frank. Every one of my nephews and nieces possessed exactly one opportunity to prove themselves, family. The answer to my letter decided the matter. Those who welcomed me are my heirs. The rest—”
“No!” Mr Collins almost shouted into the stillness of the library. “It is not fair to judge a man after so short a trial.”
“Please stop, Mr Collins. You are only worsening your own situation.”
“Then,” Mr Collins declared, rising abruptly in an attempt to dominate the room, “I want Longbourn, which is rightfully mine!”
Thomas also rose, and though scarcely taller, his presence immediately commanded the room.
“Mr Collins, you are insensitive and vile, and those are only two among your defects. My nephew Edward Bennet stands before you alive and well. Leave now. You are not mentioned in my will and never shall be.”
At that very moment, Tom entered the library. In a firm yet perfectly polite manner, he invited Mr Collins to leave, and everybody present understood that he would escort him all the way to the gates of Netherfield to ensure his departure.
For a long while afterwards, they remained silent, as though waiting for the atmosphere of the room to clear itself of Mr Collins’ presence.
“It is curious how much people resemble their parents,” Thomas said at last. “His father was not an evil man, but he possessed an exaggerated regard for property. I remember a letter I received from him when it became apparent that you would have no male heir. We scarcely knew one another, yet he suddenly wished to be considered family and to ensure that Longbourn’s entail would operate to his advantage. It was a letter no decent man ought ever to have written…and, as you saw, the son’s conduct is not far removed from his father’s.”
Elizabeth’s expression betrayed unmistakable alarm as thoughts of her own mother’s faults immediately occurred to her.
Both gentlemen smiled at once.
“My dear,” Mr Bennet said gently, “your mother possesses many remarkable faults, but she also possesses every essential virtue.”
Chapter 15
Mr Collins’s visit was not commented on by the others. It seemed that Mr Bennet had discussed it with his wife, and in no time they all forgot about the obsequious parson, as the upcoming wedding occupied all their thoughts and activities.
Torn between the need to go to London to attend to some urgent business matters and his fear of leaving his betrothed, Mr Bingley looked even more bewildered than usual. Only when he received his future father-in-law’s assurance that he would not take his eyes off Jane for a moment did he decide to return to London for a few days before the wedding.
“Your sisters and Mr Hurst are invited to stay here, at Netherfield,” Elizabeth said just before their departure. The gentleman’s gratitude was so profound that she smiled, feeling that she had changed and that her former rancour had been forgotten. By contrast, he was still ashamed of his sisters’ behaviour and bad manners.
“Enough,” Jane had declared. “In less than three weeks, we will be family, and we must forget the past. I hope they will receive me as their sister.”
Bingley also hoped that they would behave graciously towards his wife. Secretly, however, his decision was taken—at the slightest hint of animosity, he would cut the connection with them until they changed their attitude.
The two lovebirds were almost impossible to separate. They postponed their departure for nearly an hour, as Bingley remembered a great many things he needed to say to Jane, all very important and all regarding their wedding. Darcy and Thomas, who were making the journey with them, waited with much patience, letting the newly betrothed gentleman decide when he was ready to leave. Darcy felt a kindred joy, but he did not dare express his feelings so freely. For him, it had been a gratifying stay, even if no definitive word had passed between himself and Elizabeth.
They had had some occasions to be almost alone, walking from Netherfield to Meryton or Longbourn with Jane, Bingley, and the others. Still, they had not crossed that particular border between amiability and insinuations of a possible continuation of their relationship.
“Let us wait for my trip to London,” Elizabeth said once, when Mr Darcy almost begged for an answer.
“I need to know at least that we have forgotten everything about Kent.”
