Miss Bingley is not finished yet, and in for the worst night of her life. Oh dear. 😉

To answer a question. RL = Real Life

~~H~~

…often go astray

The third course of the dinner had just been served when the heavens opened up and yet another downpour started to inundate the countryside.

Mrs Bennet startled at the noise of hail hitting the window shutters and exclaimed, 'oh dear, not another rainstorm! The sky had seemed clear enough today.' She turned to Bingley. 'I so hate cutting our evening short, but unless we leave this instant, we will not make it home tonight before the road becomes impassable again.'

Bingley, who had looked forward to spending a relaxing evening with Jane, protested, 'you must not leave now. If the rain is as heavy as it sounds, you could be stranded along the way. This house is large enough to accommodate you all. You must stay.'

He turned to his sister, 'do you not agree, Caroline?'

Miss Bingley thought to object to having all those Bennets underfoot when she had an epiphany. There could not be a better time to show Eliza that her courtship with Mr Darcy was just a temporary aberration on his part. She therefore immediately supported her brother. 'My brother is quite correct, Mrs Bennet. You simply must accept our hospitality. It would not do to have any of you get sick, especially Mr Bennet.'

The reminder that her husband's life could be put into jeopardy convinced Mrs Bennet to the change in plans. Mr Bennet agreed, since it would allow him to spend some time in the congenial company of other gentlemen.

Therefore, Miss Bingley instructed one of the footmen to inform the housekeeper of her guests' need to be accommodated.

~~H~~

Mrs Bennet was not the only one to be disturbed by the change in weather. Colonel Fitzwilliam mentally cursed the noise of the hail on the shutters, so similar to the sound of shrapnel, which was causing him to tense up.

He dropped his right hand into his lap to hide the fact that it was balled into a fist as he tried to keep his nerves under control. Since there was no easy way to excuse himself from the table, he set himself to endure.

Fitzwilliam was startled again when he felt a small hand gently covering his fist, as Edith said casually, 'this pheasant is excellent. Do you not agree?'

The Colonel stopped himself from flinching away from the contact, and as soon as he realised the owner of the hand was offering comfort, he grasped it like a lifeline. That small amount of security allowed him to answer, 'I quite agree. I remember my mother serving this dish and I have always enjoyed the flavour.'

Edith smiled and suggested, 'if it is such a favourite of yours, I shall allow you to savour it in peace, without having to make conversation.'

They both proceeded to eat one-handed while Richard attempted to regain his equilibrium. He was aided in his endeavour by the hail stopping to hit the shutters. Whether it was because the hail had spent its fury or due to a shift in the wind, which blew it away from house, Richard did not know. He cared not, as long as the noise stopped.

As soon as relative quiet reigned, he took a deep breath and gave Edith's hand a grateful squeeze and released her. He noted with chagrin that she opened and closed her hand several times to relieve the pain he must have caused with his tight grip. When he started to apologise, she gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head.

As Edith used her left hand to raise the napkin to pat her lips, Richard happened to glance across the table where Darcy was watching him with an amused smile.

Richard challenged, 'would you care to share the joke?'

Darcy just smiled more widely and said, 'oh, it is nothing,' before turning to continue his conversation with Elizabeth.

~~H~~

Once everyone had finished eating the last course, Caroline led the ladies into the drawing room, where tea was being served.

Mary offered to entertain the ladies with music which the Bennet ladies eagerly accepted, since Mary had greatly improved over the past three years.

While the younger girls listened to the performance or chatted amongst themselves, Mrs Bennet sat next to their hostess to have a quiet word with her.

'My dear Miss Bingley, I thoroughly enjoyed the light repast with which you provided us. But you should have let me know that you were having difficulties getting supplies. I would have been happy to furnish you with the provisions for a proper dinner.'

Caroline turned puce because she had thought that the Bennets would be impressed by her elegant menu. It had never occurred to her that anyone could criticise her table. 'You do not consider three courses with seven dishes each to be a proper dinner?'

'I suppose that it must be different in town, but in the country, we are hearty eaters. For a celebration dinner if I had only served three courses, I would always have at least nine dishes per course.'

Miss Bingley nearly choked on her tea, as she remembered discussing the dinner with Mrs Nicholls and ruthlessly dismissing any suggestions for the menu which the woman was trying to make. There was no need to go to the expense of buying all that fowl for the dishes the housekeeper was trying to recommend.

Rather than admit to any fault, Caroline tried to shift the blame. 'I am afraid that the housekeeper had to cut down on the number of dishes due to the limited choices available at the butcher.'

'The butcher does not sell fowl. Surely the gentlemen brought back many more birds from their hunt yesterday than were served tonight?'

Caroline was so shocked by that comment that she blurted out, 'you mean the men were not just going out for sport? They brought all those birds Mrs Nicholls wanted to cook?'

It was Mrs Bennet's turn to be shocked by the lack of understanding of country life which Miss Bingley displayed. 'You mean you did not know where all the food on your table comes from?'

Mrs Bennet shook her head in disbelief as she patted Caroline's hand in a motherly fashion. 'Do not concern yourself. I will be happy to teach you how to set a good table.'

All Miss Bingley could do was to sit and stare at the woman she had despised for being unsophisticated. Mrs Bennet might be lacking in manners, but she certainly knew her food.

~~H~~

While Edith did not participate in the conversation between Mrs Bennet and Miss Bingley, she was sitting close enough to hear every word.

She had always known that Mrs Nicholls was an excellent housekeeper, but she must have the patient of a saint to put up with a mistress as incompetent and opinionated as Miss Bingley.

Edith was looking forward to having a cup of tea and a chat with the housekeeper after everyone had gone to bed. She planned to give the lady a significant bonus as hazard pay.

~~H~~

During the separation of the sexes, Darcy had a quiet word with his cousin, while Bingley chatted with Mr Bennet and Hurst focused on the port.

'Will you be well tonight?'

'Why should there be any problems?'

'Considering that I switched rooms with you so that you would have the quietest room away from everyone, I thought that having all the Bennets in the rooms next to you might disturb your sleep.'

Richard sighed and looked towards the fire rather than meet his cousin's eyes. 'I asked you to switch with me not so much for my benefit but everyone else's. I sometimes have night terrors which cause me to wake up screaming. I was hoping to spare you the disturbance.'

'We are the same distance apart even with the switched rooms,' Darcy pointed out logically.

'True, but I am further from our hosts. I truly do not need Bingley or even worse, his sister barging into my room when I am in no condition to face anyone.'

Darcy gave a sympathetic chuckle. 'Since you put it that way, I can understand.' He tilted his head in a questioning manner. 'You are having problems with your memories even when awake, are you not?'

'What gave me away?'

'It is not like you to hold the hand of a lady during dinner. I wondered earlier if you had succumbed to the charms of Mrs Farrington after all, but her reactions showed concern rather than flirtation.'

'Since when have you become an expert on people?'

Darcy grinned. 'Since I started to pay attention.'

Richard gave him a rueful smile. 'Mrs Farrington has become a good and trusted friend. I think it might be helping me to relax.'

'What set you off during dinner that you needed help to relax?'

'It is remarkable how much like shrapnel a heavy hailstorm can sound like.'

'Nasty stuff, shrapnel.'

The Colonel unconsciously rubbed his shoulder. 'You have no idea,' he murmured.

Rather than dwell on the progressively more uncomfortable conversation, the cousins turned their attention to Mr Bennet and Bingley.

~~H~~

Since Darcy and Bingley were impatient to return to their ladies, it was barely half an hour before the gentlemen made their way to the drawing room where a severely chastened Miss Bingley greeted them with a tight smile.

Caroline was grateful that the company of the gentlemen allowed her to get away from Mrs Bennet. She and her sister even offered to provide music for the two couples to dance.

When the music started, Lydia saw an opportunity to dance with a dashing officer, even going so far as to hint very strongly that she wished to dance with him. She was most disappointed and completely lost interest when the Colonel said, 'much as I would enjoy dancing, I am afraid that my dancing days are over. Being injured in my last battle has put paid to such endeavours in the future.'

'Is it common that officers are injured?' she asked.

'Quite common, and I am one of the more fortunate ones. I still have all my limbs.'

That information caused Lydia to tell her mother, 'Mama, while officers might look most handsome in their regimentals, I do not wish to take the risk that I will end up married to a cripple.'

That comment caused lamentations from Mrs Bennet, which gave Edith a chance to quietly say. 'thank you,' to the Colonel. When he raised a quizzical eyebrow, she added, 'her older sisters and I have struggled to find a way to break her fixation with red coats.'

'I am pleased to have been of service,' Fitzwilliam replied with a grin, before returning to an earlier discussion about his dream of breeding horses.

The rest of the evening passed pleasantly. When they tired of dancing, Elizabeth took a turn at the pianoforte, with Darcy turning the pages for her.

Eventually, everyone made their way to their rooms.

~~H~~

Caroline Bingley considered the idea she had had over dinner and could not find fault with it. Having the Bennets in the house served a double purpose. It gave her a bigger audience to force Darcy into doing the honourable thing while ensuring that Eliza's nose was well and truly rubbed in the fact that she was outclassed.

Also, since her brother would be marrying into the family, they would not want to cause a scandal which could affect their daughters.

She therefore she spent time to dress and arrange her hair with great care, and when finished she studied the result with a pleased smile. Her hair fell in gentle and lustrous waves to her shoulders. She knew that she was a beautiful woman and had a luscious figure which was displayed to great advantage in the diaphanous nightgown and the silk peignoir.

Although, since the corridors were chilly, she added a more sensible robe and slippers, which she planned to drop just inside the door of Darcy's room.

She judged that everyone should be asleep and with an eager smile let herself out of her room to make her way to her destiny as Mrs Darcy, Mistress of Pemberley.

~~H~~

Colonel Fitzwilliam was caught up in a nightmare and back in battle.

The fighting was fierce, and a stray bullet hit his horse. He barely had time to get his feet out of the stirrups and roll away when it collapsed.

He did not have the leisure to mourn the death of the faithful animal, which had been given to him by his father when Fitzwilliam had decided to enter the military.

Instead, he continued to fight on foot and when he felt a touch on his shoulder, he lashed out.

The resultant scream was high-pitched and full of agony.

The dream changed and he was standing in a field surrounded by his wounded comrades, screaming in pain. He was shouting for assistance.

'Medic! Where the hell is that double blasted sawbones? Can he not see that the wounded need him?'

~~H~~

Edith was coming along the dimly lit hallway accompanied by Blake who would not leave her side unless she was in her own home. He was carrying a candle to augment the light in the corridor.

She had spent a pleasant hour chatting with Mrs Nicholls and deciding on strategies of dealing with Miss Bingley, when she heard a high-pitched scream.

The shouting male voice made the source of the noise clear. It was coming from the room at the end of the corridor.

Recognising the voice, Edith ran to the door and threw it open to be greeted by a sight of the Colonel standing beside his bed with his right fist raised as if he was holding a sabre, shouting for medical assistance.

That the assistance was necessary was obvious as Miss Bingley was a few feet away from him, cowering on the floor while she was pressing a hand against her face and screaming.

Blake came rushing into the room behind her, at the same time as Corporal Bennings made his entrance from the dressing room.

'Colonel, stand down, help is on the way,' Blake barked in his best Sergeant-Major voice.

'Remove that banshee. She is upsetting the Colonel,' Edith ordered Blake.

Blake looked from the screaming Caroline to the wild-eyed Colonel and saw the wisdom of the order. He put down the candle on a convenient table.

'Yes, my lady,' he said as without further hesitation he stepped behind Miss Bingley clasped an arm about her waist and picked her up while he put his other hand firmly over her mouth.

In moments quiet reigned as Blake carried Caroline from the room. In the hallway he was obstructed in carrying out his orders as a crowd of Bennets was gathering in the corridor.

'Miss Bingley had an accident and is distraught,' he said briefly. 'I suggest that you return to your beds.'

When it looked like Mrs Bennet wanted to argue, Blake added, 'Mrs Farrington has the situation under control. Just leave her to it.'

For once, Mr Bennet took charge, recognising that there was a situation, but his cousin was dealing with it. He reinforced Blake's order but planned to get the full story in the morning.

Further along the corridor, Darcy had stuck his head out of his room when he heard the commotion. Seeing Blake carrying Miss Bingley from his cousin's room, he put two and two together and came to the conclusion that he had had a narrow escape. He decided that a strategic retreat was in order.

~~H~~

~~H~~

The Colonel and the Heiress (working title) by Sydney Salier, Copyright © 2022