Page 141 of A Most Unwelcome Acquaintance

The answer echoed Jane and Mary, though each had reached it by another path. Elizabeth rose and crossed to the window. The drive lay empty beneath the last light. Lady Catherine’s wheels had cut dark tracks in the damp ground, while the marks from Bingley’s carriage crossed them on the way to Netherfield.

“I believed Mr. Wickham because his story explained Mr. Darcy,” she said.

“And now?”

“Now Mr. Darcy explains himself with less convenience.”

“That may be to his credit.”

“It is not to my comfort.”

“Comfort is a poor test of truth.”

She turned. “You are as severe as Jane.”

“Your sister has surpassed me. I shall have to recover my position.”

Elizabeth smiled despite herself, then grew serious. “I still do not know what passed between him and Wickham.”

“No.”

“And he may still refuse to tell me.”

“He may have reasons that do not flatter him, or reasons that do. You are not required to decide before the evidence arrives.”

“That sounds like something you have said before.”

“Age repeats itself because youth seldom listens the first time.”

Elizabeth went upstairs before supper and considered the assembly without the satisfaction the memory had once supplied. Darcy’s insult remained ugly, but she could no longer deny how much wounded vanity had shaped the contempt she built from it.

A knock sounded, and Mary entered with a candle. “Supper is ready.”

Elizabeth turned from the mirror. “Mary.”

Her sister paused.

“You were right.”

Mary’s satisfaction showed for one instant before discipline overcame it. “About which point?”

“Do not ruin it.”

Mary took the rebuke with grace. “I shall try.”

They went downstairs together. In the drawing room, Mrs. Bennet was at the part of the story in which Lady Catherine’s carriage became larger than the house, Kitty’s remark became an act of family courage, and Darcy’s defense proved an attachment she had suspected from the first moment he entered Hertfordshire.

Elizabeth stopped in the doorway.

Mary followed her gaze. “Distinguishing among facts may take some time.”

“In this family, it may prove impossible.”

They entered before Mrs. Bennet could summon them, and Elizabeth took her place at the table no more certain of Darcy’s intentions than she had been that morning. She knew only that her first judgment had failed, and she would not replace it with another chosen for comfort.

Chapter 31

CAROLINE KNEW LADY Catherine had failed before anyone explained what had happened at Longbourn. The proof entered with Darcy, Georgiana, Anne, Mrs. Jenkinson, and Bingley.