Page 20 of The Best Of Relations

“Never mind, never mind,” Bingley said hastily. “Sorry, Caroline. I did tell you that you would be bored here if you insisted on coming,” he tried to placate her. “I told you Darcy and I planned to use the house as a hunting lodge!”

Caroline huffed. “Ghastly place! A hunting lodge is all it is fit for! I can’t imagine why you’d want to buy it…”

“I don’t plan to buy it. I have a six-month lease, Caroline, and I daresay I shall not renew. While I greatly enjoy the society hereabouts, and I shall always be fond of Netherfield because it was while living here that I met my dear Jane, it’s not the kind of estate that will suit us. Hutton has told me about a very nice place he knows of for sale in the West Riding, I intend to go and look at it in the spring.”

Caroline let out a little scream. “Yorkshire?”

“That’s where the West Riding is, yes.”

“But that’s – that’s in the North!”

Bingley cocked his head at her. “So is Derbyshire,” he pointed out, “but I’ve not yet heard you complain of Pemberley’s location.”

Caroline was too upset at the thought of being dragged off to live in the wilds of the north to think of a suitable retort for that, and by the time she had finally come up with one, Bingley was gone. He ordered his horse saddled and headed out, glad that he no longer needed an excuse to make directly for Longbourn.

Jane’s reaction when he was shown into the parlour was everything he might have hoped. Her smile lit up the room, and her eyes sparkled as she gazed at him. Bingley crossed the room to her, seized her hand in his and kissed it.

“I have missed you very much,” he told her softly.

“I missed you too,” Jane said, gazing her fill of him. He looked very handsome with his curly blond hair ruffled by the wind. “I have been kept busy, though, chaperoning my sisters.”

“Indeed?” Bingley took his eyes from her for a few moments and glanced around the room. Mr Hutton and Mary were at the table together, heads bent over some old tome. Mr Darcy and Elizabeth sat by the window, a chess-board set up between them. Jane, sitting by the fire with her needlework, was indeed obviously there in the role of chaperone. Mr Bingley looked at her and gave a slightly roguish smile. “But who will chaperone you and I, Miss Bennet?”

“I heard that, Mr Bingley,” Elizabeth called from her seat, though she did not take her eyes from the chess-board. “Behave yourself!”

He laughed, not at all abashed, and went about the room greeting everyone exuberantly, saying how happy he was to be back.

“Your business is all concluded?” Darcy asked.

“Yes, yes. The Scarborough Star sailed the day before yesterday,” Bingley gave Darcy a reassuring nod. “All her cargo well settled aboard.” He glanced across at Mr Hutton, and then at Darcy, and turned back to Jane, grinning mischievously. “Miss Bennet, I must ask you. What is it that your mother puts in the tea here at Longbourn? I can think of no other explanation as to why your house has broken out in such a rash of lovesick fellows.”

Elizabeth burst out laughing. “Mr Bingley, if my mother indeed knew of such a secret ingredient for tea, we would all be dowered like royalty!”

Hutton and Darcy were both looking abashed, but not at all offended, and even Mary was smiling. Jane rang the bell to call for tea, and Bingley drew up a chair to sit beside her. Jane laid aside her needlework to give him her full attention, and he could not have been happier.

Their peace was shattered not five minutes later when the sound of a coach was heard coming up the drive. Elizabeth peered from the window.

“That is a very grand equipage; but I do not recognise it. I wonder to whom it can belong?”

Mr Darcy turned his head to look out too, and a moment later shot to his feet, pale-faced. “That is my aunt, Lady Catherine De Bourgh!”

Chapter Ten

“Whatever can she want here?” Elizabeth asked, bemused, following Darcy out into the hall. He turned and took her hands in his. She blushed, still unaccustomed to such intimacy even though he had approached her father to request a formal courtship three days ago, and had been much in her company since.

“My suspicion is that Mr Collins ran straight home to Kent with his tail between his legs and poured out his tale of woe to Lady Catherine, including a selection of snippets about my interest in you that would have been like presenting a red cloak to a bull. I have already told you that I am bound by neither honour nor inclination to my cousin Anne; Lady Catherine has deluded herself for years that I will come about and marry her. To avoid the breach in the family which would ensue if I refused outright, I have never yet done so.”

Elizabeth pursed her lips. “And now those chickens are coming home to roost.”

“With a vengeance, on Longbourn’s doorstep. I would rather the coming confrontation happen anywhere but here, but there is no way to avoid it now. All I ask, dearest Elizabeth, is that you leave me to face it alone. You need not be inflicted with the venomous spite she will spew upon you and your family.”

“I will not.” She lifted her chin proudly. “My courage rises with every attempt to intimidate me. Words cannot hurt me, for I am clad in the armour of knowing you love me.”

He said no more, for Hill was opening the door to admit Lady Catherine, but the look he bestowed on Elizabeth made her feel quite warm through. Side by side, they waited for the aggressor.

Elizabeth was rather surprised to see that Lady Catherine de Bourgh was quite a small lady, no taller than she herself. She held a cane in her hand, but it seemed to be an affection, for the tip never touched the ground. Instead, she used it to point with, and to punctuate her statements, which were delivered with all the force she could muster.

Darcy deftly managed to escort Lady Catherine into the drawing-room, at which she looked around and sniffed dismissively, before settling her beady black eyes on Elizabeth, pointing her cane and saying;