Page 102 of A Most Unwelcome Acquaintance

Mary nodded. “Kitty’s account places the injury earlier. His first account placed it later.”

“Did he give dates?” Elizabeth asked.

“No. He spoke of the events in sequence. His godfather died, Mr. Darcy refused the living, and then Mr. Wickham had to abandon the church. Kitty says he abandoned it because Mr. Darcy had destroyed his prospects.”

Bennet closed his book. “A contradiction without a date remains a useful creature. It cannot prove much, but it can bite.”

Elizabeth went over both accounts in her mind. Memory could shift, and Kitty might have misunderstood a confidence offered in a passage while she was eager to be trusted. Wickham might have shortened one explanation and enlarged another. None of it proved that Darcy had told the truth.

Yet Mary had no reason to favor Darcy, having spoken to him only once or twice. Her recollection came from the same evening on which Elizabeth heard Wickham’s story and accepted it because it agreed with her opinion.

“Are you certain?” she asked.

Mary looked offended. “I do not often forget the arrangement of an argument.”

“No,” Bennet said. “Its substance may suffer, but never its arrangement.”

Mary took up her pen again.

That afternoon, Bingley called at Longbourn with Darcy. Mrs. Bennet received them with pleasure, and Bingley’s attention to Jane soon displaced every other concern.

Kitty remained in the drawing room, though she kept her eyes on the drive whenever wheels sounded beyond the windows. Lydia tried twice to provoke her and, receiving no answer, turned her efforts toward Bingley.

Darcy spoke little at first. Elizabeth thought he looked at Kitty more than once, with the attention of a man measuring the effect of a warning. She resented his knowledge of the matter, then resented herself for assuming that his knowledge was superior to hers.

When Mrs. Bennet proposed that the gentlemen view a new gate Bennet had ordered near the south meadow, Bingley agreed before discovering that Jane was not joining the walk. He recovered by suggesting that everyone go.

The party divided before they reached the lawn. Lydia and Kitty walked ahead, while Mary remained with Mrs. Bennet, who had decided the air was too sharp and stopped beneath the shelter of the portico. Bingley and Jane moved at a pace that left Elizabeth beside Darcy.

For several minutes neither spoke.

“You were in Meryton today,” Darcy said.

She looked at him. “And how did you learn that?”

“Bingley mentioned that Miss Bennet went there this morning.”

“Then you know less than I supposed.”

His expression sharpened. “Has something occurred?”

“A bootmaker discovered that your name is poor security.”

Darcy stopped.

Elizabeth took another step before turning back. His face had lost the reserve she associated with him. What replaced it was not surprise, but recognition.

“What did Wickham purchase?” he asked.

“A pair of riding boots, charged through another man. He said you would answer for the account, or that money due from your estate would soon settle it.”

“Who is the tradesman?”

“Mr. Pritchard.”

Darcy looked toward the road, though he could see nothing beyond the hedge. “I spoke with him last week.”

“You knew of the debt?”