Page 23 of Fortuitous Encounters

“You have more than earned my forgiveness and respect, sir. You need not, unless it will make you feel better. It is not necessary to make me esteem you.”

“That seems too easy.”

“Let us agree that in life, hard things are by necessity hard, so there is no need to make easy things hard. You had a bad night at the assembly and are not usually so… ah… disagreeable.”

“I am unconvinced that is the case, but I will accept your forgiveness gratefully, and work to reduce the risk of requiring more.”

Elizabeth laughed. “That may well be the most convoluted apology-non-apology in history.”

He laughed along with her, and for the first time since he called her not handsome enough to dance with, she liked the man. With a lot of time to think, and none of the ridiculous chatter that passed for conversation at Longbourn, she could not know the pressures on such a man. Was he hunted for his money every day of his life? Was Mrs Bennet his fiftieth matchmaking mama of the year? Had he even made five minutes in the assembly before his consequence was bandied about by all? Did his estate require Herculean efforts? Did he have more than one? Was his sister a difficult responsibility, as most fifteen-year-olds were? She had no way of knowing.

With the tea service underway, Mr Darcy gave them the lay of the land. “Your parents have bet it all on a roll of the dice and keep upping the ante. Your father has put it about that you are to be married. Your mother and younger sisters suggest it will be to Mr Collins, but your father is slightly cagier about it.”

“Why is that? If he is trying to flush me out, why be cagey?”

Mr Darcy looked pained.

Before he spoke, Mr Herbert suggested, “Might I take a crack at it?”

“Be my guest,” he said, looking suspiciously relieved.

Mr Herbert began, “Based on your character, Miss Elizabeth, I know you are aware of the tactical advantages of stealth, no?”

“In a house like Longbourn, it is a survival skill. You learn early to keep anything private if you do not want it scattered about the neighbourhood.”

“Very sensible. However, I doubt you have quite as good of appreciation for a tactic your youngest sister has mastered, but where you are a babe in the woods.”

“Meaning?” Elizabeth asked with a sinking feeling.

“Meaning, you are not naturally inclined towards lying.”

Nobody raised in Longbourn would be surprised by the assertion, so she nodded for him to go on.

“Your father is… or at least, he is not averse to it. Mrs Bennet and your two youngest stretch the truth often, because it is a good tactic for getting what they want. Your father rarely needs to do so, because he is the head of the family and can usually rule by fiat.”

Elizabeth looked between the men, wondering if she would ever understand their minds.

Darcy added gently, “He need not lie in the ordinary course of events, but has that in his bag of tricks, and I doubt he would be averse to pulling it out.”

Elizabeth considered this. “He did not tell my mother about Mr Collins’s visit until the day before, even though he knew about it for a fortnight. I suppose that was a lie.”

“Lie by omission, at the very least.”

Mr Herbert said, “To the point. He is doing what soldiers call ‘keeping his powder dry’. He need not lie just yet, so he does not want to poison the well by acting prematurely. He knows full well that no matter what his wife and daughters say, he can reverse them all by simply making a definitive statement.”

Elizabeth considered that until it started making a perverted sort of sense.

“So… he is waiting until he is certain he can find me before he springs the trap.”

“Correct,” Darcy said. “He assumes your relatives in town will only keep you so long and doubts you have any allies or money. Combine that with his natural hubris and indolence; he probably believes you will be forced to crawl back home when all is said and done.”

Elizabeth frowned fit for a gargoyle, but nodded acceptance of the logic. He would wait until the end of time, but he did not know that.

Mrs Herbert added, “He understands you might know someone who can aid you in an escape, and in the back of his mind, he has made his contingency plan.”

“Which is?”

The other three exchanged glances, and Darcy finished the thought.