Alias Thomas Bennet (20 page)

“It is all well that he made observations on such differing topics, but he also stated that he lacks interest in arguing with those who propose philosophical challenges to his theories. Thus, I must criticise him because he has not answered my questions. Where is the radiation created?”
²

That was a question Darcy could not answer, so instead he reverted to mild flirtation. “You are beginning to sound like a bluestocking again!”

Elizabeth realized that his statement was meant neither to be unkind nor to demonstrate disdain for knowledgeable women; he enjoyed her contrary opinions and meant to tease her. She blushed as she caught herself admiring his handsome profile and collected her thoughts to continue their flirtatious quarrel.

“I am no such thing!” she protested with a brilliant smile. “I do not attend salons to provide my opinions on literature or mathematics with other ladies; rather I spend my time doing experimentation with my father and Mr. Akuete with the hope that better understanding will come from our findings.”

“You develop your own experiments?”

“No, mostly we perform the same experiments as the scientists. Mr. Akuete builds the apparatus for us, my father makes the observations, and I try to see alternate theories from our efforts.”

“Akuete—is he the African man, the steward?”

She inclined her head in acknowledgement.

“So that is why you are always asking me why this radiation occurs?”

She smiled and responded, “I admit that I am trying to goad you more than I am expecting you to know the answers to my questions. I am quite diverted to see you confounded.”

“I, confounded? Gadzooks!” he cried.

She laughed at his exclamation. “Seeing you confounded is much more entertaining than seeing you proud and reticent.”

“Proud and reticent, also? I am pained!” he said, laughing and holding his free hand to his heart. “Have you other observations on my character to profess?”

She was very tempted to share all the qualities she admired about him; he was certainly one of the most intelligent men she knew, and she loved their spirited discussions on any topic; he showed great diplomacy in dealing with Lady Catherine’s demands; he was a good friend to her father and Mr. Bingley, and was conscientious about his acquaintance in general; and he was very handsome with a fine figure enhanced by impeccable taste in dress without being a dandy.

She chose, instead, to laugh off her portrayal lightly and said, “Your character is therefore complete, Mr. Darcy.”

He laughed and placed his hand over hers on his arm. She enjoyed the intimacy and thought that, if she were not so determined to dislike him, she would be in danger of falling in love with him.

2
If you didn’t follow the science, don’t be alarmed. The theories discussed are obsolete—for example, the notion of caloric. The treatise they are referring to is John Leslie’s An Experimental Inquiry into the Nature and Propagation of Heat published in 1804.

Chapter 13:
Elizabeth sojourns in Kent and cannot have been always at Longbourn.

March 1812

The gentlemen continued to visit the parsonage almost daily, sometimes separately and sometimes together. Colonel Fitzwilliam’s manners were very much admired at the parsonage, and the ladies felt that he must add considerably to the pleasure of their engagements at Rosings. It was some days, however, before they received any invitation, for while there were visitors in the house, they could not be necessary. It was not till Easter, almost a week after the gentlemen’s arrival, that they were honoured by such an attention, and then they were merely asked upon leaving church to come there in the evening.

The affable colonel seated himself near to Elizabeth, and the two made merry conversation, not without the attention of Mr. Darcy and Lady Catherine. The hostess, desperate to have her share in the conversation, asked and then learned that they were speaking of music. Lady Catherine declared herself to be such a proficient in the admiration of music that she must have some that instant, and thus, Elizabeth was conscripted to play for the gathering. Colonel Fitzwilliam joined her at the instrument in order to assist her with turning the pages of her sheet music. It was not long before Mr. Darcy approached the pianoforte and positioned himself to look upon the fair performer, a situation only slightly less desirable than the colonel’s alongside her.

“Do you wish to frighten me, Mr, Darcy, by coming in all this state to see me play?” teased Elizabeth. “For I have been told that your sister plays delightfully, and there are few with such a level of achievement as to win your approbation.”

“Whose account is this?” Colonel Fitzwilliam asked, eyeing Elizabeth with curiosity.

“Do you know Miss Bingley?” Elizabeth fingered out a recently popular composition that she had mastered thanks to the welcome instruction of her sister Mary.

“The younger sister of Darcy’s friend, Charles Bingley? Yes, I have met her, and although Georgiana is quite accomplished on the pianoforte, Miss Bingley may have reasons of her own to sing such high praises. Do you not agree, Darcy?” Fitzwilliam smirked and winked at his cousin. Darcy just rolled his eyes.

Elizabeth laughed. “That is a very good account of the situation. Miss Bingley is all flattery where she seeks the notice of others.”

“Darcy and I are somewhat biased in our opinions of his sister’s talent at the pianoforte. Such is the right of an elder brother and a guardian.”

“I am sure Miss Darcy is deserving of all such praise; however, I must warn you that Mr. Darcy is known to profess opinions that are not his own.”

“How so?” the colonel asked, intrigued by the knowledge this young woman had of his enigmatic cousin.

“Do you wish me to tell him, Mr. Darcy? How a man of sense and education can betray his own knowledge in order to make another argue?”

“You would have my relations believe that I am afraid of you, Miss Bennet,” said Darcy smilingly. “I assure you, that is
not
the case.”

“Pray let me hear what you have to accuse him of,” cried Colonel Fitzwilliam. “I should like to know how he behaves among strangers.”

“You shall hear then—but prepare yourself for something very dreadful!” Elizabeth proceeded to relate the particulars of a sportive debate on a book where Darcy had taken the other side from his real opinion in order to draw out sound arguments from Elizabeth regarding her interpretation of the lines of poetry. This caused a laugh from the colonel while Elizabeth gave a wry glance at a sheepish Darcy.

Elizabeth continued, “I was surprised to find that Mr. Darcy and I could ever discuss books; I had not thought we would ever read the same ones, at least not with the same feeling. When he suggested we could compare our opinions, I was astonished by the vehemence of his seemingly erroneous arguments.”

“Miss Bennet would have you believe I think ill of her accomplishments,” Darcy said, “but I had not known her long before I easily conjectured that she would have read many of the same books as I. Her intelligence far surpasses that of most women.”

“So you see, Colonel, Mr. Darcy and I do not get on at all. He acknowledges my intelligence, yet he argues against my philosophies. It is particularly incumbent on those who never change their opinion to be secure of judging properly at first,” she said ruefully.

Darcy wisely kept quiet as he was reminded of their discussion at the Netherfield ball.

Elizabeth then changed the topic by addressing Colonel Fitzwilliam. “Now, since I have managed to do ill justice to that piece of music, you may not be so pleased with hearing more, but my fingers are at your command.” The colonel perused the sheet music and selected a simple folk tune, and she obliged him by playing it.

Here they were interrupted by Lady Catherine, who approached and, after listening for a few minutes, said to Elizabeth, “Miss Bennet, you cannot expect to excel at the instrument if you do not practice. You have a very good notion of fingering, though your taste is not equal to mine. Anne would have been a delightful performer, had her health allowed her to learn.”

“Then I must take your advice,” Elizabeth said in a feigned show of submission.

“Perhaps you might like to practice on the pianoforte in Mrs. Jenkinson’s room. You would not bother anyone there.”

The three cousins looked uncomfortable at Lady Catherine’s ill-bred comment, and Elizabeth was gratified that not everyone was interested in critiquing her.

***

8 April 1812

“I am fortunate to keep up with such an excellent walker and have such good company as I tour the park,” Mr. Darcy said one day to Elizabeth.

“Indeed you are. I suppose I am fortunate as well since I am only tolerable and not handsome enough to tempt you,” she said with a sparkle in her eyes.

Darcy’s face fell. He stopped, turned to face her fully and looked at her with pleading eyes. “Miss Elizabeth, I must beg your forgiveness for uttering such an inaccurate and unkind thing. I was not myself that evening. I was already regretting my words as they left my mouth and have chastised myself ever since. I am deeply remiss for not apologizing sooner. Please accept my sincere apologies.”

“You admit that you were mistaken?”

“I have long thought you one of the handsomest women of my acquaintance,” he replied with a look that made her lower her eyelashes and blush right down to the neckline of her morning dress.

She quickly recovered and, in an attempt at levity, said archly, “Well then, Mr. Darcy, let it trouble you no longer. It is forgotten, and we can be friends.”

“Friends? I no longer need to dread your fierce arguments?” he teased. Darcy once again placed her hand on his arm, and they resumed their pace.

“I cannot promise always to control my urges towards impertinence, but you can be assured that I will no longer incite a quarrel with you for reasons of spite.”

“Aha!” he guffawed. “You have owned to malicious attacks on my point of view! I was afraid I was imagining the vindictive tone.”

“Sir, you are tempting me to re-examine my forgiveness and return to despising you!” she protested, all the while relishing the knowledge that she no longer disliked him—that in fact her admiration had grown more than she cared to acknowledge.

“I would not dare,” he said in a grave tone while he grinned and shook his head with amusement.

“Tell me, Mr. Darcy, how long do you expect to remain with your family in Kent?”

“I leave on Saturday.”

“For London?”

He shook his head. “No, I have had enough of the Season,” he said. “First I will collect my sister from my uncle’s home in London and then return to Derbyshire for the summer. I have not spent time with her since Christmas, and we are very close, being the only Darcys left in our line. We are expecting guests at Pemberley, and Georgiana and I will probably stay there until the start of the Little Season.”

“Are the Bingleys to join you then?”

“No, my guests will be family members. Bingley plans to remain in Town for the rest of the Season and then return to Netherfield Park.”

“Well, perhaps I will see you if ever you visit Mr. Bingley again.”

“I should like that, Miss Elizabeth. I should like that,” he said softly. He paused and, after a moment’s deliberation, said, “You cannot have been always at Longbourn.”

“This visit to Kent is the farthest abroad I have been in my life.”

“’Tis not a far distance.” Darcy compared the distance from Longbourn to Pemberley in his mind.

“Not a far distance? ’Tis nearly fifty miles!” Elizabeth cried, astounded.

“Fifty miles may seem like a far distance when you have never been far from home, but the roads are good, and it is barely a day’s travel, so I would not call it a far distance.”

“The near and far are relative as to fortune. When one can afford to travel, I suppose Kent is barely farther than London.”

He nodded and seemed introspective but did not respond.

Elizabeth continued, “With the exception of the Season in London with my Aunt and Uncle Gardiner and this visit to Kent, I have not been anywhere, but I am eager to change that. I plan to go to the Lake District with them this summer. I should like to visit Derbyshire as I am told it has many unique beauties.” She looked up at him, and he returned her gaze with an intense expression that she could not read.

She averted her eyes and blushed beneath her bonnet as she realized her statement could be taken as a bold declaration. She attempted to render her comments more appropriately neutral by adding, “I would dearly love to travel, but it is difficult for someone in my situation.”

“You will like Pemberley,” Darcy said with passion, and her chest tightened at the implication that he would want her to be there. Her heart told her that
she
wished for it, also.

They were approaching the parsonage when he stopped and turned to face her, taking her hands in his.

“Miss Elizabeth,” he said, searching her face. He took a deep breath as if preparing to say something of importance.