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Before Jane could manage a fitting reply, Darcy said, “Indeed, Bingley, that is very kind of you. Miss Bennet is a most honored guest, however, whom I insist upon escorting to the dining parlor. Anne, you will not mind, I am sure.”

Observing all this, Elizabeth smiled. Mr. Bingley, she silently considered. I think I shall like that young man very much.

Wearing a black dress with a dark shawl about her shoulders, Anne said nothing, but rather she offered a half-hearted smile. Whether she was upset by the arrangement, Elizabeth could not say. There was, however, another member of their party who was clearly unhappy with the scheme. Donned in the most fashionable attire of all the ladies assembled in the room, the young lady’s countenance turned a shade of dismay as stark as her crimson gown. Having always considered herself an excellent studier of people’s character, Elizabeth knew in an instant that there was quite a story there—about which she was most eager to hear all the details.

Accepting the colonel’s extended arm, Elizabeth knew one thing for certain: by the time the evening was over, she would know all there was to know about this other young woman, including her name which Elizabeth had also missed during the initial excitement earlier.

Elizabeth smiled at her companion knowingly. He appeared to be an amiable gentleman who suffered no pretensions whatsoever as best Elizabeth could tell, and she looked forward to remaining close by his side for the rest of the evening save the time when the gentlemen would be parted from the ladies for port.

No doubt the colonel will be more than happy to familiarize me with every pertinent detail I ought to know.

CHAPTER 6

DIGNIFIED IMPERTINENCE

Lady Catherine, presumably acting in her late sister’s stead, presided proudly over her brother-in-law’s table. Elizabeth counted her blessings to be seated beside the amiable colonel at a comfortable distance away from her ladyship, for it allowed her the liberty of undertaking a further study of the dinner guests under the gentleman’s tutelage.

By the second course, he had familiarized Elizabeth with all the members of the party as well as the certain knowledge that these were the people with whom she would be spending her time in company for the entirety of the summer.

There was the party from Kent: Lady Catherine de Bourgh, her daughter Miss Anne de Bourgh, and a Mrs. Jenkinson, Anne’s companion, who sat next to her charge, no doubt, to serve Anne’s every whim.

Elizabeth had also learned that the young woman who had been so disappointed that she was not escorted into the dining parlor by Fitzwilliam Darcy was the younger sister of the charming man who so admired Elizabeth’s own dearest sister, Jane. The young lady’s name was Miss Caroline Bingley. As it happened, the elder Mr. Darcy did the honors of escorting Miss Bingley to the room, going so far as to seat the young woman next to him.

How could the young lady not have been honored by such a distinction?

There were two other members of Bingley’s family included among the guests: Mr. and Mrs. Hurst, the former, his brother-in-law and the latter, his elder sister. The former struck Elizabeth as being woefully wanting in manners and decorum—his interest more attuned to the array of fine dishes placed before him than anything happening around him. His wife seemed to give him no mind at all, and when she was not pushing her food around on her plate, she was fumbling with one or another of the strands of brilliant pearls draping her neck.

While Mr. Bingley’s family failed to impress Elizabeth all that much, the same could not be said of the young gentleman himself. What a handsome, agreeable young man he appeared to be—no doubt someone who possessed in a very large degree all the good manners and amiability which seemed to have eluded his sisters. But if there was but one thing that Elizabeth admired most about the gentleman, it was the way he looked at Jane. He really did seem genuinely disappointed in not having had the honor of escorting Jane to the dining parlor. He escorted Mrs. Jenkinson instead. However, his disappointment was no doubt short-lived when he found himself seated directly beside Jane at the table. Fitzwilliam Darcy sat at Jane’s other side.

Elizabeth’s heart was warmed by the prospect of her sister seated between two handsome gentlemen, both very much intent on having their share of the conversation with her. However, Elizabeth would have to say that Mr. Bingley appeared to be the more ardent admirer of the two gentlemen. True enough, Fitzwilliam Darcy was just as attentive to Jane as he had been before, and he was clearly more attentive to Jane than he was to his cousin Anne. However, there was something missing in his manner that was acutely evident in Mr. Bingley’s. Elizabeth wanted to call it adoration, indeed, she was certain that was the term which best described it, but how could it be, she wondered? Mr. Bingley had only met Jane a few hours earlier, yet he could scarcely take his eyes off her.

Elizabeth almost likened Bingley’s manner to the way the younger Mr. Darcy had regarded her when they first met except for one fact, that being the latter had barely looked at her since. If she did not know better, she would have sworn that he was making a concerted effort not to look at her. She had to admit that it pained her just a bit, for she now considered that maybe he was simply looking at her so intently earlier merely to find fault. Maybe he had judged her and found her wanting. On the other hand, perhaps he was simply an enigma. It bothered her that she was unable to read the gentleman—that he was so different from the colonel who sat next to her, for with him, she felt as though she was in the company of someone whom she had known all her life, even though they had only just met.

Silently chastising herself for thinking of Pemberley’s heir in any manner that did not involve his relationship with her sister Jane, Elizabeth allowed her eyes to wander about the magnificent room. Everything that she saw was splendid. Not only was she eager for the next day to come so that she might roam about the grounds at leisure, but she was also contemplating what it must be like to wander the halls of Pemberley for hours at a time, as well, beholding all its splendors.

Try as she might to avoid it, it was absolutely necessary for Elizabeth and all the rest of the dinner party to listen to Lady Catherine talk, which she did with alacrity, delivering her opinion on every subject in so decisive a manner as to prove that she was not used to having her judgment contradicted.

She inquired into the Darcys’ domestic concerns familiarly and minutely and gave a great deal of advice as to the management of the household affairs that ought to be conveyed to the housekeeper—a Mrs. Reynolds. It seemed that nothing was beneath the great lady’s attention, which provided fodder for Elizabeth’s entertainment throughout the first courses.

In the intervals of her discourse with her brother and her nephews, she addressed a variety of questions to Mr. Bennet, Elizabeth and Jane, but especially to the latter, which fit in perfectly with what the colonel had taught Elizabeth to suspect.

Having mentioned to her brother, Mr. Darcy the elder, what genteel, pretty kind of girls he had invited to stay at Pemberley, she then turned to Jane.

“I understand you are the eldest Bennet daughter.”

“Indeed, I am the eldest of five daughters. My sisters Mary, Kitty and Lydia remained in Hertfordshire.”

“Five daughters? Are they all as handsome as you and your next eldest sister, Miss Elizabeth?”

Elizabeth felt her color rise in the wake of such unexpected praise. Jane, no doubt suffering sentiments akin to her sister’s, said, “You are very kind, your ladyship.”

“What of your governess? Has she left you?”

Refusing to relinquish her smile, Jane dabbed her lips with her linen napkin before speaking. She then said, “We never had a governess, your ladyship.”

Elizabeth tried not to notice the disgust that overspread the Bingley sisters’ faces in digesting this intelligence. No doubt, those two had been educated in one of the private seminaries in town, and they likely supposed it to be the hallmark of an accomplished young woman.

Aghast, Lady Catherine replied, “No governess? Five daughters at home with no governess. Why I never heard of such a thing. Your dear mother must have been a slave to your education.”