She smiled again, somewhat enigmatically. “I once consideredthree milespractically nothing. Before I lost my sight, I wandered the woods for hours and hours nearly every day. I thought walking to Netherfield and back in a day as a trifling journey. Now I must be more circumspect, as you might well imagine. However, Thomas checked this lane carefully and reported its condition last night, so Mary was sanguine about allowing me the final distance on my own.”
His curiosity aroused, Darcy asked, “Thomas?”
“The footman who delivered the message. He is well known to me, and always checks the lanes for debris, puddles, or obstacles. The people who pass through Longbourn always keep me apprised of conditions.”
The kindness of these people struck him, though it was not surprising given Miss Elizabeth’s disposition. That so many would go out of their way to provide such intelligence was a testament to her character. Still, he marvelled that her father allowed her to go so far unassisted, particularly without sight. That said, he acknowledged that it would take a stern father to deny her anything. Experience suggested she would do as she pleased, yet in such a way that everyone simply agreed her idea was the most sensible course. He could use that type of—
The disconcerting thought struck him without warning. He would obviously not have this lady in his life after leaving Hertfordshire, and a surge of sadness followed. There was clearly nothing to be done, but it was an odd, unexpected, (and frankly unwanted) thought he might examine later.
He tried to show proper manners for once. “Would you care for breakfast? The household will just be sitting to table.”
“I thank you, but I already broke my fast. If you would be so kind as to assist me to the breakfast room, I shall pay my respects to the master and hostess, and ask consent to wait on my sister.”
He chuckled at this perfect display of propriety. He suspected she could perfectly well get to her sister without assistance, but who was he to quibble?
“It would be my pleasure, madam.”
He covered the few yards between them in a few paces. Emboldened, he reached down to place her left hand in the crook of his right arm, taking her cane in his left. He was unsure whether this was strictly polite, but it seemed gentlemanly enough. Absent further instruction, he would proceed.
“It is a dozen paces to the bottom of the steps. I will warn you when it is time to ascend. There are eight steps to the door, and as you probably know, the breakfast room is on the left once we enter.”
She rewarded him with a huge smile at his thoughtfulness; it brought a matching smile to his face, and he wondered if she could detect that in any way.
~~~
The conversation in the breakfast room was cordial enough. Miss Elizabeth did not bother to swat away any of the catty comments Miss Bingley threw her way, and within minutes, she curtseyed and turned to leave.
Darcy turned to escort her, but she waylaid him. “There is no need to avoid your meal on my sake. Thomas is in the hall, and I shall be quite safe in his hands.”
She smiled archly towards the table, and Darcy conceded she had trapped him neatly. He would happily have gone to the stables to eat an apple in the company of the stable hands to avoid a meal with Miss Bingley, but there was little choice now.
He loaded a plate from the sideboard, poured coffee, and sat to table whilst discussion of the unexpected guest flowed around him.
“You observed it, Mr Darcy, I am sure,” said Miss Bingley; “and I am inclined to think that you would not wish to see your sister make such an exhibition.”
“Certainly not.”
“To walk three miles, or four miles, or five miles, or whatever it is, above her ankles in dirt, and alone, quite alone! What could she mean by it? It seems to me to show an abominable sort of conceited independence, a most country-town indifference to decorum or even good common sense.”
“It shows an affection for her sister that is very pleasing,” said Bingley.
“I have an excessive regard for Miss Jane Bennet, she is really a very sweet girl, and I wish with all my heart she were well settled. But with such a father and mother, and such low connections, I am afraid there is no chance of it.”
“I think I have heard you say that their uncle is an attorney in Meryton.”
“Yes; and they have another, who lives somewhere near Cheapside.”
“That is capital,” added her sister, and they both laughed heartily.
“If they had uncles enough to fill all Cheapside,” cried Bingley, “it would not make them one jot less agreeable.”
“But it must very materially lessen their chance of marrying men of any consideration in the world,” replied Darcy.
He was participating in the conversation with a quarter of his mind at best. A moment later he realised what had been said, just as he heard Miss Elizabeth speaking at only slightly above her normal volume.
“—and as usual, I thank you for your diligence on the lane, Thomas. Is Ellie over her cough yet, and when is Mrs Jameson going to come over to ask Hill for—”
It was only a snippet of conversation on the wind, and it took him a moment to wonder at something he had read. Some asserted that when people lost their sight, they sometimes compensated by developing better hearing. Some asserted the body adapted to the loss, and others claimed the blind simply paid more attention to what already came in. Either way, he had listened to Elizabeth Bennet enough to know she rarely if ever raised her voice. She had done so this time deliberately, but not enough for anyone farther from the door to hear. He suspected she was a master of acoustics, and she was simply telling him, in her own subtle way, that she had heard some or all of their conversation. If so, she was not likely to have enjoyed it. All in all, he had not acquitted himself noticeably better than the superior sisters, and an apology was due as soon as it could be arranged.
