Miss Bennet & Mr Bingley (30 page)

Jane felt herself colour and shifted with embarrassment in her chair.
How could Lydia be so thoughtless? Her sister apparently unaware of the distress
she was causing to all that listened, apart from her husband, continued gaily
in the same vein.

‘Oh! Mama, do the people hereabouts know I am married today? I was
afraid they might not; and when we overtook William Goulding in his curricle, I
was determined he should know it and so I let down the side glass next to him,
took off my glove and let my hand just rest upon the window frame, that he
might see the ring, then I bowed and smiled like anything.’

This last statement proved too much for Elizabeth and she scrambled to
her feet and ran from the room; Jane wished she could go with her but felt duty
bound to remain where she was and offer support to her parents at this
difficult time.

It was not until they were passing through the hall go to the dining parlour
that her sister rejoined them. Lydia at that moment walked up to Jane and said
with a condescending smile. ‘Ah! Jane, I take your place now, you must go
lower, because
I
am a married woman.’

All through the meal Lydia’s ease and good spirits increased. She told
her assembled family that she longed to see Mrs Phillips, the Lucases, and all
the other neighbours, and hear herself called Mrs Wickham by each of them. It
was insupportable, but worse was to come when they were reassembled in the
breakfast room.

‘Well, Mama, and what you think of my husband? Is not he a charming man?
I am sure my sisters must all envy me. I only hope they may have half my good
luck. They must all go to Brighton. That is the place to get husbands. What a
pity it is, Mama, we did not all go.’

Mrs Bennet nodded vigorously. ‘Very true; if I had my will, we should.
But my dear Lydia, I don’t at all like your going of such a way. Must it be
so?’

‘Oh, Lord! Yes; there is nothing in that. I shall like it above all
things. You and Papa, and my sisters, must come down and see us. We shall be at
Newcastle all winter, and I daresay there will be some balls, and I would take
care to get good partners for them all.’

Mrs Bennet trilled happily. ‘I should like it beyond anything.’

‘And, then when you go away, you may leave one or two of my sisters
behind you; and I dare say I should get husbands for them before the winter is
over.’

Elizabeth could remain silent no longer. ‘I thank you for my share of
the favour, Lydia, but I do not particularly like your way of getting
husbands.’

Even this direct reference to her sister’s indiscretion did not repress
Lydia’s buoyant spirits.

When eventually Jane was able to retire to the blessed silence of her
shared apartment, she turned to her sister in despair. ‘Lizzy, how shall we
support it? They are to be with us a full ten days; imagine the embarrassments,
the indiscretions we shall all have to endure before they depart.’

‘We must thank God, Jane, that they do not stay above ten days. If Mr
Wickham had not received his commission before he left London, and have to join
his regiment at the end of a fortnight, they might have been with us for
weeks.’

One afternoon Wickham came to walk beside her in the garden. ‘Miss
Bennet, or should I call you Jane, now that I am your brother?’

‘It is permissible for you to call me by my given name, but I would
prefer it if you did not.’

She had surprised herself by speaking so sharply to a man she had used
to think charming and reliable. His expression changed and for a moment he
looked uncertain.

‘In which case, I would not dream of offending you. No doubt you are
unhappy that I cannot provide for Lydia as well as you might have hoped. If Mr
Darcy had not deprived me of my living matters would be very different.’

‘I understand, sir, that things are not quite as you would have me
believe. Mr Darcy is an honourable man and treats everyone with respect.’

He looked shocked, but rallied and smiled his usual superficial smile
and walked away. Jane watched him go, she could not help comparing him with
Charles. Now
he
was a true gentleman in every respect.

A few days after Elizabeth and Jane heard such news from Lydia they
could scarcely credit it. The girl was determined to share with them every last
detail of her wedding day inspite of their discouragement.

‘No really, we have no wish to hear of it. I think there cannot be too
little said on the subject.’

‘La! You are so strange! But I must tell you how it went off. There was my
aunt, all the time I was dressing, preaching and talking away just as if she
was reading a sermon. However, I did not hear but one word in ten, I was
thinking, as you may suppose, of my dear Wickham. I longed to know whether he
would be married in his blue coat.’

Jane made a desperate attempt to stop her sister’s flow of words.
‘Lydia, I believe I heard Kitty calling you, do you not think you should go and
see what she wants?’

‘Fiddlesticks to that! I should much rather be here with you to and tell
you exactly what took place. Just as the carriage came to the door my uncle was
called away upon business and I was so frightened that he would not be back in
time and we would not be married that day. Luckily he came back again in ten
minutes time and then we all set out.’

She smiled round at her sisters seemingly unaware of their
disinclination to listen to her account. ‘However, I recollected afterwards, if
he had been prevented from going, the wedding need not be put off, for Mr Darcy
might have done as well.’

‘Mr Darcy!’

Jane looked up in surprise and
Elizabeth jumped to her feet in utter
astonishment.

‘Oh, yes - he was to come there with Wickham, you know. But, gracious
me! I quite forgot! I was not to have said a word about it. I promised them so
faithfully! What will Wickham say? It was to be such a secret!’

‘If it was to be a secret,’ Jane said hastily, ‘say not another word on
the subject. You may depend upon my seeking no further information.’

‘Oh! Certainly,’ said Elizabeth, but Jane could see her sister was
burning with curiosity. ‘We shall not ask you any questions on the subject.’

‘Thank you,’ said Lydia, ‘well, if you did, I should certainly tell you
all, and then Wickham would be angry.’

Jane watched Elizabeth hurry away and was obliged to sit and endure a
further thirty minutes of tedious details before she could escape to join her
sister in their private sitting room. As she walked in Elizabeth was folding a
letter. She could guess to whom it was addressed, but her delicate sense of
honour would not allow her to speak on the subject even when they were private.
If the matter was confidential then it would not be she who would ask
impertinent questions.

However, it did not stop her wondering exactly what Elizabeth had
written to her aunt.

Charles returned to his town house
four days after receiving the letter from Mr Darcy, leaving his sister Caroline
to travel back with Louisa and Hurst. He had no wish to be cooped up in his
carriage with her, listening to her complain and criticize everyone she knew.
No, he was much better travelling speedily from Derbyshire to London; the
closer he got to his destination the more determined he was to send
instructions to Nicholls to have her prepare Netherfield for his arrival.

However, when he reached home he
was immediately embroiled in various business matters with his lawyers and was
unable to send word to Netherfield for a further two weeks. He advised Darcy
that he was back, but received a short note in reply saying would contact him
as soon as he was free to do so.

Charles was puzzled as to why he
had been asked to return to town in order to talk to his friend when Darcy
refused to come and see him. He was in the drawing-room reading a newspaper
when the visitor he had been expecting these past two weeks was finally
announced.

‘My dear Darcy, I have been kicking
my heels in town when I could have been in Derbyshire enjoying my visit to
Pemberley in your absence.’

‘I do apologize, Bingley. My business
has been satisfactorily concluded, I am now here to make a suggestion. I think
it is time that we returned to Netherfield. I should like to accompany you, if
you would allow me to.’

This was unexpected, but pleasing, news.
It was exactly what he wished to do himself, he felt sure his friend intended
to pursue Elizabeth and that would give him the opportunity to renew his
acquaintance with Jane without revealing his intentions. He did not wish Darcy
to know he still loved her, if he discovered that she had no feelings for him
then it would be he alone who suffered from the rejection.

‘I should be delighted to go back
to Hertfordshire for a week or two; I made good friends there and felt that I
came away too quickly, without saying my farewells. I believe that there has
been sufficient time passed by for me to return without exciting undue
comment.’

‘Excellent! When shall you go
down?’

‘I should send word to Nicholls
tomorrow. If I allow her three days to remove the covers and fill the larder,
that should be sufficient. I have only a skeleton staff at Netherfield, I shall
send down my people from here. Although there will only be the two of us in
residence, the house is far too large to be run without a full complement of servants.’

The letter was duly written and
sent the following morning; he was not sure if he was excited or fearful to be
visiting Longbourn again after so many months absence. His future happiness
depended on the reception he received from a certain member of the Bennet
family.

 
* * * *

Jane was relived when the day of
Lydia’s departure finally arrived. Even at the last, Lydia had made a jibe
about her sisters not being married, saying that she would not have time to
write to Longbourn now that she was married. She suggested that her sisters
might like to write to her as they had nothing else to do.

But life had barely settled down to
normal when news arrived that Charles was to return to Netherfield! And all the
hopes she thought she had put aside rose up again. Could he be returning for
her?

‘I saw you look at me today, Lizzy,
when Aunt Phillips told us of the present report; and I know I appeared
distressed. But do not imagine it was from any silly cause. I was only confused
for the moment because I felt that I should be looked at. I do assure you, the
news does not affect me either with pleasure or pain. I am glad of one thing,
that he comes alone; because we shall see the less of him. Not that I am afraid
for myself, but I dread other people’s remarks.’

‘I am glad to hear you say so,
Jane. You have had more than enough upset over the past few weeks it will do
you no good to have more. Although, I do feel it is a shame that Mr Bingley
cannot come to a house, which he has legally hired, without raising all this
speculation.’

‘I do agree with you, and I, for
one, shall not be expecting to see him at all. I have nothing against Mr
Bingley, although I no longer wish to be intimate with his sisters, but neither
do I wish to renew our acquaintance.’

Jane was almost convinced that what
she had said to Elizabeth was the truth. It had been nine months or more since
she had set eyes on Charles, quite long enough to have recovered from her
misapprehension. However, she knew herself to be affected by it. She jumped at every
loud noise, felt her eyes fill with tears for no reason at all and was well
aware that her sister knew how disturbed she was.

It did not help that her mother
began again on the subject that had been discussed at length almost twelve
months ago. ‘As soon as ever Mr Bingley comes, my dear, you will wait on him of
course.’ Mrs Bennet cried to her husband.

‘No, no. You forced me into
visiting last year, and promised if I went to see him, he should marry one of
my daughters. But it ended in nothing, and I will not be sent on a fool’s
errand again.’

Although her dear father did not
mean to distress her by his remark Jane could not help but feel this referred
to her dashed hopes. Her mother continued to demand that it was absolutely
necessary for a call to be made to Netherfield; that all the other gentlemen in
the neighbourhood would be visiting with their cards on Mr Bingley’s return.

‘It is an etiquette I despise. If
he wants our society, let him seek it. He knows where we live. I will not spend
my
hours running after my neighbours every time they go away and come
back again.’

Mama would not give up the subject
and Jane wished she could leave the room without drawing attention to herself.

‘Well, all I know is, that it will
be abominably rude if you do not wait on him. But, however, that shall not
prevent my asking him to dine here, I am determined. We must have Mrs Long and
the Gouldings soon. That will make thirteen with ourselves, so there will be
just room at table for him.’

Jane was able to talk privately to
Elizabeth on the matter. ‘I begin to be sorry that he comes at all; I could see
him with perfect indifference, but I can hardly bear to hear it thus
perpetually talked of. My mother means well; but she does not know, no one can
know how much I suffer from what she says. Happy shall I be when his stay at
Netherfield is over.’

‘I was you could say something to
comfort you, but it is totally out of my power. You must feel it; and the usual
satisfaction of preaching patience is denied me, because you have always so
much.’