Where a father meets the man who's courting his daughter.
Chapter 41: London Demand
London, Cheapside, Wednesday the twelfth August. Eighth day. Morning.
"Mr. Gardiner and monsieur d'Arcy have finished, Sir. If you would be so kind and join them in Mr. Gardiner's study?"
"I'm on my way," said Mr. Bennet putting his cup of tea down on the tray. "Please, would you see that Lydia does not spy on us? I'd like to make the announcements myself!"
Jonas bowed and his eyes smiled even if his face was perfectly without expression.
"We'll see that Miss Lydia has no reason to camp behind Mr. Gardiner's study door."
"Thank you Jonas, that would be a great help..." He winked at the butler who was also a trusted friend. "And I do believe that the rose bush under my brother's window should be in need of a little cutting. I'm sure you'll be able to find someone skilled in gardening, won't you?"
They both pretended having not heard the muffled swear word coming from outside the sitting room and Mr. Bennet, looking a last time at his suit in the mirror, went on.
He sighed. There was the first bridge coming toward him.
He would have liked to have more time but then, when in these last seven days, had he had enough time to take intelligent decisions?
He walked with Jonas into the hall, smiled at Lydia who was shooting arrows at the universe and stopped before his brother's study door.
He took an deep breath and nodded to Jonas who knocked, entered when invited and announced him.
"Please let him in, Jonas," said Mr. Gardiner.
He entered and immediately looked at the man standing near the library window. He was tall and sinewy and stood there straight and lordly.
They bowed.
"I'll let you now," said Mr. Gardiner.
"If you like, you can stay," answered d'Arcy. "What I'm going to say is not meant to be a secret for other members of the family."
"I appreciate your trust, but I'm sure some conversations must be done privately. I would like it to be so. I'm sure my brother will keep us informed afterwards. I, for my part, must urgently go to town where a few gentlemen of my acquaintance are taking decisions they could regret. I'll hurry to give them the last and interesting piece of information we spoke about."
"Thank you, Mr. Gardiner, I appreciate it..."
Mr Gardiner bowed.
"Edward. Monsieur d'Arcy," and followed Jonas out of the room.
There was a lengthy silence and Mr. Bennet was the one to break it. He was sure his opposite would have waited hours before speaking.
"So that's it," said he after a long time.
"Indeed, that's it..."
Three words followed by an other lengthy silence that grated on Mr. Bennet's nerves.
"Please, stop playing that idiotic game! If I grant you the title of the most patient and less nervous suitor I ever met, will it be enough to get you to speak?"
D'Arcy's eyes soon followed by his lips showed humor and mirth.
"I suppose it should be enough," conceded d'Arcy who let his smile blossom on his –handsome-- face.
Edward Gardiner looked at him, studying his features and his bearing.
There was a man who knew what he wanted. There was also a man who was in the habit of taking what he wanted without looking back once. The image of a tiger would come up when looking at him. Mr. Bennet could even imagine the way he would move.
"I had not had the opportunity to thank you for the rescue of my daughters and their friends. I would have been very upset –and guilty-- if you hadn't been there in time to help them."
D'Arcy's smile twitched.
"You should not forget to thank the British Army, Mr. Bennet. Had they not be so poor soldiers I would have been late..."
"Had they been better soldiers you would, perhaps, have been of no use. I do believe that the scum who took advantage of your invasion to let their real selves be shown would have gone on with playing the honest people they were not..."
"We will never know..."
"What I know is enough and, as a father, I thank you for the prompt involvement who saved probably my daughters' lives..."
D'Arcy bowed.
"It was my duty as a gentleman and it soon became my pleasure as a man..."
That remark could not not be looked at with a minimal disapprobation. He forced his smile away.
"Indeed I heard that you saw my daughter a few times without a proper chaperon?"
"Could a dozen Irish freedom fighter be considered as enough to replace a woman chaperonage?"
Mr. Bennet's smile came back against his will.
He liked the witty remarks of this man. He would take great pleasure word-fighting against him.
"You dodged the real answer I expected, monsieur d'Arcy. I suppose that was your goal."
D'Arcy's smile blossomed into a real laugh.
"You seem a clever opponent. Not the best qualities you await in a father in law..."
"You'll have to do with me if you persist to look at my eldest daughter with prospects in your eyes."
D'Arcy nodded.
"That's quite true and to say the truth I do intend to follow those particular prospects."
Mr. Bennet crossed his fingers and gave himself a few seconds to fathom the situation.
Did he want this man as an in-law?
No and yes.
'No' because it would mean that he would lose all contact with his eldest daughter and 'yes' because if this man was Jane's choice, it would also be his.
"You're the most troublesome suitor I ever witnessed. Won't you ask the question I'm wanting you to ask?"
The answer did not really surprise Mr. Bennet.
"Not immediately, Mr. Bennet. I will ask you, but, before, I'll present you with all the reasons to say no."
"None to push me into 'yes'?"
"You already know the only reason to say 'yes'. What you need to know are the reasons to say 'no' to my drive to become your daughter's husband."
Mr. Bennet couldn't help but shake his head.
"Very peculiar, monsieur d'Arcy. Most of suitors would do the opposite. Try to convince me that they are what is best for my daughter."
"That's because I'm not what is best for your daughter! What's best for your daughter lives in this same house and he would be, in my opinion, much better suited to your daughter's tranquility than I."
Mr. Bennet could not not notice the choice of the word.
"Tranquility? Not happiness?"
"I have the arrogance to believe that I would be the best one to give her that. But that happiness would be embedded in so much trouble, actions and journeys that she will probably never have what all women dream of: a beautiful house, armies of servants and time to look at her children becoming adults..."
He went to the window and looked at the gardener trimming the rose bushes.
He was probably not aware of the two rifles who followed each and everyone of his movements.
D'Arcy hoped he would do nothing foolish.
"I am a man of the sword, Mr. Bennet. I'm probably not pessimistic if I say that in the next twenty years I will fight a campaign after another. Probably with only a few months rest between the end of one and the beginning of the next."
He turned and looked at Mr. Bennet.
"And I'm not a man to let my family behind me. I'll take your daughter with me around the world and I'll want her to be at my side every single day of our marriage. It would be an interesting and eventful life but never calm, never smooth."
Edward Bennet joined him at the window.
"So you count on me to force you out of your love affair?"
D'Arcy looked at him with surprise in his eyes.
Yes, it was something like that. He would be terribly unhappy but he would have the possibility to hang Mr. Bennet's refusal in front of his plight.
Mixed with a pinch a resentfulness he could probably live with it. Survive would be a better word.
"You're even cleverer than I thought..."
"And that troubles you?"
"Not in the least... I like circumstances that force me to be better. I am a man with lots of enemies and some of those enemies are a few of the most powerful men in the world. I need to be always ahead of them. And that needs a well functioning mind. And to get such a mind you need challenges. If possible other challenges than battles and conquests."
"So you want me to say no?"
D'Arcy looked once more at the gardener who had seen him and who was visibly more nervous.
That was a good thing. A scared man does not do too foolish things.
"No," said he after an long moment thinking. "I want you to accept my demand of your daughter's hand. I want her to be my wife and I want you to give her to me..."
He looked at Edward Gardiner.
"But I want you to be totally aware of what you will do to her, Mr. Bennet. You will do her a favor and a great disservice." He shook his head. "I pray to all the gods of all earth that she will never be unhappy with me but I know with certainty that she will be unhappy with the circumstances."
He sighed and went to the armchairs.
"Could we sit? I had a tiring night and my day is only beginning."
Mr. Bennet nodded and sat opposite to the not so young man.
"You must know," continued d'Arcy, "that I never intended to marry. I'm a lonely soul who revels in doing what pleases him. I always believed that marriage would cut me of the liberty I so love."
He sighed again.
"I resisted twenty years. Till that afternoon in Rosings when I saw her, with that stick in her hand trying to crush the heads of those ruffians."
His eyes wandered into the realm of memory or wish-thinking.
"Was it the sun in her half dressed hair, was it something else? I really don't know but even while I was too far away to see her features, I had that fluttering in my inner parts that warned me that something exceptional was happening..."
He laughed.
"And then I saw her and my inner peacock snapped in. I couldn't help but do it the most flashy way possible. I could have shot one at twenty meters and the whole flock would have fled in an eye's wink. But no, I went in with only my sword and wearing just my skirt. And I cut them in pieces..."
He passed his hand over his weary eyes.
Mr. Bennet hoped that if he was tired it was not because he had just spent the night with her. If he had, there would be...
Something snapped in place in his mind.
After a few seconds he couldn't bear it anymore.
"You saw her tonight?"
D'Arcy looked up and his smile was back. More mischievous than ever.
"That I cannot confess, Mr. Bennet. If, and I say if, it would have been the case, you would have no more choice to refuse my demand. You must continue to believe that I didn't see her tonight. It's very important to ensure the credibility of your answer..."
Mr. Benet shook his head and made a grimace.
"You know that that answer with everything it implies is even worse than a simple 'yes'?"
"You asked..."
"You could have said 'no'..."
"And you would have believed me?"
"No, I wouldn't,' confessed Mr. Bennet. "Because I have proof you've been with her. I was wondering what it was since I stood at your side at the window. Even with closed casements I smelled the fragrance of the roses outside, but that peculiar fragrance was so well known I could not stop thinking about it..."
He looked at d'Arcy with severe eyes.
"But since I still smell those roses here, I have no other solution but to accept that what I'm smelling is not the rose bush but your perfume or to be more adequate the remnants of my daughter's perfume..."
D'Arcy made a face.
"Sorry I had nor the time, nor the opportunity to take a bath..."
His smile came back.
"And to say the truth, even if I had had that opportunity I would not have taken it. I love to be reminded of her through that little lilac-rose fragrance..."
He stopped when he saw Mr. Bennet's look.
"Alright, I saw her and we spoke..."
Mr. Bennet stood up and looked at d'Arcy with forced anger in his tone. He would not have believed it but he took great pleasure in playing this outraged father role.
"You spoke? You do really want me to believe that speaking with her was enough to drench you in her perfume?"
D'Arcy pouted.
"Drenched is perhaps a little exaggerated..."
"You swear you didn't touch her?"
"Of course not! What man could swear such a thing without being seen as the worst of liars?" He looked at his hand. "I will concede that I kissed her... once..."
Mr. Bennet's face was the perfect image of disbelieving.
"It was a lengthy kiss, I'll admit so much!"
"Thanks for such a truthful confession, Mr. D'Arcy. It warms my heart to know that my future son in law is able to say the truth!"
D'Arcy's look was pleading when he spoke a few seconds later.
"I do swear to you that nothing happened that could put your daughter's virtue in jeopardy. We spoke and we... spent a little more than two hours together. But nothing happened that..."
"Don't says a word more! I don't want more details. I'll have to speak with Jane and I'll have to do it sooner than later."
He frowned at d'Arcy.
"Did you propose to her..."
"I did, but I asked her not to answer immediately. I don't want her to take an hasty decision. I'm not an easy man to live with. I have dark sides within me that she will have difficulties to accept." He snorted. "I have difficulties to accept them. All in all, I'm not a sane man, Mr. Bennet. Don't force her to marry me. She must come to me of her free will. I couldn't stand it otherwise..."
"I won't force her, I won't even speak to her about what I just learned. But I must confess that I'm a little disappointed in her. I would have thought her made of a sterner stuff..." He let a smile come to his lips. "Even if I do understand why she could surrender to the like of you..."
He took a deep breath and hold out his hand.
"If she agrees to be your wife, you'll have my blessing, monsieur d'Arcy. I gave her the right to choose, I won't take it back. It's all her choice now..."
D'Arcy had great difficulties to look as contrite as he should but his eyes were tingling and Mr. Bennet was quite satisfied with how this peculiar interview went.
Now he had the moral high ground.
Now he could be a real father to this mammoth of a warrior.
He wouldn't go as far as spanking him –way too dangerous that-- but a tongue lashing from time to time was a very real possibility.
Just before going out the front door, d'Arcy turned and looked at him.
"I have also spoken with the Prince of Wales. It could very well be that Jane's presence in the Palace is no longer necessary. You should perhaps ask him if you can take her away. I do believe he will accept her removal..."
He smiled a last time and hold out his hand.
"It has been a pleasure, Mr. Bennet, I like it when my opponent are smart and resourceful. The victories give so much more satisfactions."
"I agree, monsieur d'Arcy, I agree, but today I'm sure you know who's the winner, don't you?"
D'Arcy didn't answer and turned away.
But his eyes were still smiling when he got to the horse Kennedy was holding.
"Good day, Sir?"
"The best, my friend, the best..."
Next chapter: Pemberley Discoveries