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“What do you say?”

“Elizabeth, I would not say I had a hand in separating your sister and my friend.”

“Yet you did say Caroline has sufficient cause to believe you did.”

“As you can rightfully surmise, Caroline was adamantly opposed to an alliance between her brother and your sister Jane. Charles refused to believe her when she posited that Jane was more interested in his fortune than anything else, and when he sought my opinion on whether I believed that Jane did not care for him⁠—”

“What did you say?”

“I told him the only thing I could tell him in good conscience. Regardless of the ardent feelings of love that he professed towards your sister, never did I detect any such feelings in her towards him.”

“So, Caroline is correct. You did separate them.”

With assumed tranquillity, Darcy said, “No—I did not. Bingley chose to leave Hertfordshire of his own accord.”

“Yet one word of encouragement from you might have been all that was required to persuade him to stay.”

“It is all speculation at this point, would you not agree?”

“I am appalled, Mr. Darcy, to know that my sister might have been married to Bingley had you offered him the encouragement he sought from you—the encouragement he needed to offer Jane his hand in marriage.”

“Bingley is his own man! And no, I did nothing to encourage him. By the same token, I did nothing to discourage him,” said Darcy, in a less tranquil tone.

“Yes, you simply stood by and did nothing when my sister might now be married to the man she truly loved—who truly loved her.”

“Who is to say she is not currently married to a man who truly loves her—a man she truly loves in return?”

Elizabeth threw up her hands. “I do not know why any of this comes as a surprise to me. From the moment of our first acquaintance, you made no secret of your disdain for my family.”

“You will recall that any disdain I may or may not have felt at the time did not extend towards you.”

“And this must be your excuse?”

“No—I am not trying to make excuses. Had I detected any symptom of love in Jane towards Charles, I would have told him so.”

“Jane rarely shows her true feelings to anyone!”

“And this must be your excuse? Pray tell me, dear wife, if Jane had been as much in love with Bingley as you seem to think she was, then why did she not put forth more of an effort to make him aware of her sentiments, especially as she was living in town? How difficult would it have been for their paths to cross, given her prior acquaintance with his sister?”

“Jane is shy! She would never have put herself in the path of a gentleman who had treated her as Bingley had.”

“Then that is indeed her misfortune, assuming what you say is true.”

“Surely this indifference you feel towards Jane does not extend towards your friend. He loves her still.”

“I am well aware of Bingley’s continued devotion towards Jane; however, I cannot allow myself to feel any culpability for his heartache. When Bingley learned that you and I had renewed our acquaintance since parting ways in Hertfordshire, he came to me with unfounded accusations of betrayal.”

“Why is it that all accusations against you are proclaimed as unfounded, when all evidence suggests otherwise?”

Darcy folded his arms over his chest. “I did not force Bingley to abandon your sister! He made his own choice. What is more, I told Bingley that Jane was residing in Cheapside with the Gardiners.”

Elizabeth coloured. “Bingley knew my sister was in town, and he chose to do nothing about it?”

“To be fair, he later told me that he indeed acted upon the intelligence. He did go to Cheapside to see Jane, but he felt that he was too late. You see, he espied her strolling arm in arm with Mr. Collins. He turned and walked away without approaching them.”

“Seeing Jane with Mr. Collins is hardly an excuse for his not making his presence known.”

“I would agree, but it was not so simple for Bingley, for it was not just that he saw the woman he loved with another man. He saw the woman he loved looking at another man in much the same way as he remembered her looking at himself.”

Elizabeth breathed in the fresh air. A good long walk from Netherfield to Longbourn was precisely what she needed. Her hours at her father’s bedside were taking their toll on her spirits, but she would not complain. Her family needed her.

Crossing field after field at a hurried pace, jumping over stiles and springing over puddles with impatient activity, her frustration towards her husband veered in a different, more fitting, direction. Oh, that spiteful Caroline Bingley! She is miserable, and she will not be satisfied until everyone around her is equally so.

She knew exactly what she was doing in pointing a not too subtle finger at Fitzwilliam. She meant to stir up trouble between my husband and me, and she almost succeeded.

Of course he did not form a favourable impression of my family upon first making their acquaintance. What a spectacle her two younger sisters had made of themselves when first they all met at the Meryton assembly—the way they jostled with each other to gain the most advantageous position to garner Mr. Bingley’s attention.

Oh, how utterly embarrassing. Her mother had been no better, for her intention of promoting a match between one of her daughters and the handsome and rich and oh so amiable Mr. Bingley was made clear from the start. She had even boasted aloud of an impending marriage at Netherfield within the very near future. Then there was Jane’s own behaviour towards the gentleman, which, while far above any manner of reproach, might easily have been perceived as a lack of ardent affection.

Now the worst possible scenario has unfolded right before our eyes. Elizabeth did not believe Lydia’s account of the events that led to her future marital felicity as a rich woman with many fine carriages and clothes one bit. But what could she say? What could she do? There was only one way to salvage her family’s reputation: Bingley must marry Lydia.

What a shame indeed, after all he has done in forgoing the Season in town and being here to host our large party. Is this the gratitude he is to receive, to be tricked into marriage by someone who cares not one fig for him? Elizabeth shook her head. I will not continue to dwell on this matter, for to do so will result in my own misery. Mr. Bingley suffers enough misery for all of us, including his pernicious sister.