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CHAPTER 20

Caroline’s face bore an angry shade of disgust. She threw her linen napkin down and pushed her chair away from the table, sending the attending footman scrambling to assist her. “Charles, how could you?”

Caroline could not believe how her brother had made such a farce of his life. She had hoped he would make good use of having Georgiana Darcy in his home and thus satisfy her greatest wish for an alliance between the two families. Helping them along was her sole reason for leaving London before the end of the Season, her brother’s future happiness, and thus her own, was just that important. She knew Darcy felt the same way too regarding an alliance between his best friend and his sister. Indeed, it was but one of the things she and Darcy always had in common. Oh, he would never admit it. In fact, he had gone out of his way to deny Caroline any and everything that might bring her a modicum of pleasure since he met that Eliza Carlton.

“Caroline, I know how much you abhor this situation, but it is of no consequence. Miss Lydia Bennet is to be my wife, and there is nothing to be done about it.”

“She will marry you over my dead body.”

“I would rather it did not come to that.”

Elizabeth and Darcy walked into the room. During the days leading up to this debacle, Caroline had done all she could to remain civil to Elizabeth and even her son, whom Caroline swore she was allergic to when speaking to her lady’s maid. The reason for her amiable civility towards Darcy’s newfound family was her fervent wish to retain the right of visiting Pemberley. The prospect of that wild Lydia Bennet marrying Charles shattered all Caroline’s pretences.

“Darcy, how on earth could you have allowed—nay, encouraged—my brother in this foolhardiness?” Caroline demanded.

Darcy looked at Charles. “So, it is done.”

“Yes, I have just come from Longbourn.”

Elizabeth walked to Charles’s side. “So we are to be brother and sister. I imagine my sister and my mama are very excited and no doubt making wedding plans as we speak.”

“I believe they are. I mean to say that is what Miss Lydia said they would do when I took my leave.”

Caroline’s mouth gaped. “Charles, I will not abide this. This is a travesty for our family. Just think of the irreparable harm to our family should that dim-witted girl arrive in town proclaiming herself as Mrs. Charles Bingley. Our family’s reputation as upstanding people amongst society will be ruined.”

“Come now, Caroline. I can imagine far worse things than being married to my best friend’s sister.”

“That young trollop barely warrants the distinction.”

Caroline Bingley had gone too far. Elizabeth placed her hands about her waist. “I would ask you to refrain from disparaging my sister, Caroline. By Charles’s own doing in offering his hand, she will be your sister as well. If for nothing other than the sake of family harmony, you must endeavour to accept it.”

“I shall never countenance such a disgraceful alliance.” She glared at her brother. “Better that you had married the elder sister than … than the silliest one of them all.”

Bingley narrowed his eyes. “Well, you and I both know why that did not happen, do we not?”

“And you blame me? You may as well point a finger at your best friend.”

Elizabeth looked at Darcy. “What on earth is she saying?”

Darcy made no answer.

Charles said, “In the end it is my own doing. I blame no one but myself for this business.”

When the notion of residing at Netherfield Park during their stay in Hertfordshire was first proposed, Elizabeth had supposed its greatest drawback was the possibility that Caroline Bingley would also be in residence. That vile woman had not changed at all since the time Elizabeth last saw her in London. Surely one would think her propensity to fawn over Mr. Darcy would have diminished once he was no longer a single man in possession of the key to her heart—that being the prospect that she would be the next mistress of Pemberley. Sadly, it had not. Whatever did she mean when she told her brother that he may as well point a finger at his best friend? Did she mean to suggest that my husband had a role in separating Bingley and Jane?

Elizabeth had held her tongue while in the Bingleys’ company, but now she was alone with her dear husband, and she meant to have answers.

“What did she mean? Is this just another instance of Caroline being Caroline, bent on causing trouble, or is there some basis for her scurrilous declaration?”

Darcy shrugged. “Depending upon one’s perspective, one might say it is a little of both.”

“What are you saying?”

“Caroline feels strongly that there is basis for what she said. I, however, know that her accusation is baseless.”

“Sir, just to be clear that we are of one mind on the matter, are you suggesting that she has reason to suspect you had a part in separating Jane and Bingley all those months ago, of exposing one to the censure of the world for caprice and instability, and the other to its derision for disappointed hopes, and involving them both in misery of the acutest kind?”

“I would not go as far as to say all that.”