And yet he returned the next day. And the next. And by the day that followed, Darcy had come to dread the arrival of Mr. Jones, for he knew the time for their strange little idyll was coming to an end. Miss Jane was almost entirely well again, and Miss Elizabeth had appeared well to him since the second day he visited her. Were it not completely outside his character, Darcy thought perhaps he could somehow incentivize the apothecary to stay away another week, but artifice was anathema to his character. He could no more deceive than he could expect to be crowned King of France. Darcy made peace with himself by determining he would be pleased to call on her as any good friends do once she returned home.
“What a pleasant room this is,” said Mrs. Bennet one morning a few days later. She and her three youngest daughters had arrived to visit with her eldest, and to thank Mr. Bingley in particular. “Take note, my girls, for you’re not likely to see a home so fine again any time soon.”
“We would if you’d let us go to London,” complained the youngest girl. Miss Lydia was her name. She turned to Mr. Bingley. “Papa thinks we’re not to be trusted in town, but with no dowries to speak of, you’d think he’d want us to meet as many – oof! Mary!” Lydia turned, the bottom half of her thought lost in fury at her sister.
Darcy did not acknowledge having seen the pinch; it seemed more appropriate to let that avenue of conversation pass, though he was curious to know how a gentleman of any means came to have five daughters and not a dowry among them.
“Leave her alone, Mary,” said Miss Kitty Bennet. “She’s already cross because her new officer beau won’t come to scratch.”
“Kitty! Lydia!” cried Mrs. Bennet. “You will stop this nonsense at once. I am so sorry for my daughters’ behavior, Mr. Bingley.”
“Oh, you needn’t –” Bingley stopped, as Mrs. Bennet would continue.
“It’s just that, without Jane’s influence at home – she always provides such an example for the rest of my girls. Elizabeth, too, but Jane is a true treasure to me. I hardly know how I shall do without her someday.”
Mrs. Bennet paused to let Mr. Bingley absorb this information.
“It will please you, then,” said Miss Bingley coldly from her chair at the far end of the room, “to learn that Miss Bennet is almost entirely recovered. Indeed, I do not think even the peerless Mr. Jones would object, should she wish to leave today.”
“Of course, we are pleased to have her here,” Bingley hastened to add. “For as long as she’d care to stay.”
“I’m glad of it, Mr. Bingley, for much as I depend on Jane, I know my Lizzy simply could not do without her while she’s ill.”
Darcy briefly considered intervening. Miss Elizabeth had appeared to him the very pinnacle of good health when he’d visited her yesterday. Yet should he speak up, it might hasten her departure and that thought did not suit at all.
Darcy held his tongue.
Mrs. Bennet’s conversation tended toward the uncouth – hardly surprising giving her youngest daughters’ earlier outbursts. It chafed his elevated sense of decorum and propriety, but Darcy’s mind wandered to the reading he’d chosen to bring to Miss Elizabeth when next they talked. If Mrs. Bennet’s conversation brought any further offense, he was deaf to it. A short time later, she and the younger women were escorted to see the elder Bennet sisters and Darcy thought of them no more.
Darcy was collecting the books he’d chosen for his daily visit to Miss Elizabeth when the library door opened.
“Miss Elizabeth,” he said, surprised. This was the first time she’d appeared downstairs since falling ill last week. “Whatever are you doing down here?”
She smiled but before she could answer him, Bingley came in with Miss Jane Bennet.
“They’ve been freed,” said Bingley. If the good cheer in his voice sounded forced, it was to Darcy’s ears only. “Mr. Jones has just proclaimed them well. What news, eh?”
“That is excellent news,” said Darcy. Despite having dreaded this day, he found no small amount of relief in the news.
“We’ll trouble you no more, Mr. Bingley,” said Jane, blushing slightly. “I’ve written to my mother already. We expect our carriage at any time.”
“So soon!” cried Bingley. “But surely not yet. You must stay for dinner. That was the original purpose of your visit, was it not – to dine with my sisters? I’ll let them know and we shall have a proper meal tonight before you leave.”
Miss Jane looked at her sister.
“Do stay, Miss Elizabeth,” said Darcy. “Perhaps you can convince me to read Fordyce after all.”
She smiled at him for that. “If you insist, Mr. Darcy, though you may yet regret asking.” Elizabeth looked back at her sister and they nodded.
“Thank you, Mr. Bingley,” said Miss Bennet.
“Not at all, not at all,” he said. “But where are Caroline and Louisa? I’ll fetch them down. They’ve been miserable, having to stay away from you this last week.”
Darcy arched a brow at that assertion, but as he suspected it served Charles’s interests for the Bennets to think well of his sisters, he did not refute it. Miss Jane Bennet smiled placidly; once Bingley had quit the room she turned away, amusing herself with the art on the walls and leaving himself and Miss Elizabeth in relative privacy.
“I expect you’re quite happy to be returning home,” he said.
Miss Elizabeth blushed a little. “I confess I am, though I’ve enjoyed our talks so very much. I hope you won’t think meanly of me for wanting to return home again.”
“Of course not. Although Netherfield will suffer for it.” Darcy did not add how very much he had come to prefer her company.
Perhaps he should consider courting her.
He banished the thought on the instant. However well matched they might have been, her family had proved entirely unsuitable; any intimate connection between her family and a man of his position was untenable, unthinkable even. It made Darcy rather sad but he shook it from his mind before Elizabeth could notice the effects. His thoughts could not but injure her feelings – or at the very least her pride – and he would not see her injured.
A knock sounded in the parlour.
“Darcy,” said Bingley, looking rather queer. “There is a man just arrived who says he needs to speak with you in private.”