“You damnable fool,” Darcy muttered to himself as he entered his office at Rosings. The walk from the parsonage had been quick and focused; leaving little time to think on the situation with any attention to meaning.
After locking the door of his office, he headed over to his desk and withdrew a small box from a drawer. Within lay a dagger, and Darcy took hold of it with mean force. Pulling it from its sheath, he marveled at the blade as it shone in the light. The glint from the weapon cast an eerie reflection of himself, and the shadowy image appeared to reveal more of his mood than his countenance. Only now did he take a moment to collect his thoughts.
With the dagger still in hand he headed to a chair, and as he sat deep into the recesses of the wingback, his mind sank deep into thought. Questions came quickly to mind.
“How did she know about the poisoning? How did she know about her sister Jane and Charles?”
Wickham had no doubt prejudiced Mr. Darcy in Miss Bennet’s mind with regards to the relations between the two gentlemen. Darcy’s mind seethed with anger at the thought of that charismatic charmer, with a smile upon his face, deceiving Miss Bennet.
His mind began to recount the meetings between Elizabeth and himself. For the first time, he took a clinical look at her and viewed her as an adversary rather than a simple country lady.
Assumptions built with deductions led to inferences, and the mind of Darcy soon saw a hazy image of the young lady coming into focus. Her walk through the mud to Netherfield revealed a constitution of determination as well as physical fitness. These facts, combined with her naturally ability in dance, confirmed his idea of her being physically capable. The answers came quickly to Darcy now that he was looking for pieces of a puzzle he was heretofore unaware needed assembly.
Miss Bennet’s book the night she attended Jane was the one he left in the drawing room. The one she seemed interested in reading and his mind now concluded must have been his book on local flora; marked and noted on sections of arum maculatum.
He could recall Elizabeth’s inquiries into the nature of her sister’s illness. He further recalled the amount of time Elizabeth spent with Jane, which Darcy originally assumed showed affection, and was now seen as both affection and guardianship against an unknown foe.
Elizabeth’s charming nature had led Darcy to reveal much, and he now reminded himself of just how much private information she had garnered from him. His old wounds, his business in London, relationships with Charles and Colonel Fitzwilliam; the latter individual he now assumed was her source of information regarding her sister in London. He could hold no animosity towards his cousin, as he knew the colonel would not knowing put Darcy in an awkward situation. No, concluded Darcy. Miss Bennet had very skillfully drawn the information from the colonel.
“Clever lady!” Darcy marveled aloud to the room.
Deciding what to do next was Darcy’s current dilemma. He glanced at the blade still in his hand and stared. Taking a deep breath he thought on Miss Bennet and the content of her character. The affection towards her sister, the generosity in her spirit, and kindness when engaged in argumentation, all were attributes that Darcy was sure he had not misjudged. While he might fault Elizabeth for her erroneous conclusions, he could not bring himself to condemn her for shallowness of the soul.
Standing up, Darcy put the dagger on the desk and walked to the bookcase where tripping a few hidden catches revealed a compartment. Darcy pulled paper and ink, along with a quill, closed the compartment, and headed back to the desk. Initial reticence of action receded, and as he wrote, his mind focused on the task. As one might expect in many endeavors, the simple engagement of actions can convince the person of the correctness of the solution.
Mr. Darcy, already skilled with words, found the letter to flow exceedingly easy for him; and when done, the pages reflected articulate sentences combined with personal feelings. Feelings Darcy was unaware he could so eloquently express in words.