Colonel Fitzwilliam returned from London a week later. The party was gathered in the music room late one morning, listening to Miss Darcy play a new piece she had been practicing, when he walked in unannounced. She was the first to notice him. In her surprise, she stopped mid-chord and jumped up to greet him. "We did not expect you back for another week at least!"
He looked quite pleased with himself. "Then I have succeeded in catching you all off guard, which was precisely my object." He shook hands with Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth, and greeted the rest of them warmly. But his happy manner was soon dimmed by his succeeding announcement. "My return is hastened by an unfortunate circumstance, though not at all unexpected: Mr. Knott's mother passed away four days ago."
Murmurs of concern came from the party gathered, but Kitty felt as thought someone struck her. Of course she had known it was coming, but that did not make her feel any better about it. Poor Mr. Knott! He had been so affected by her illness; surely he was suffering at her death.
"Mr. Knott means to remain in London for at least a week to come. His father is not in particularly good health, either, and so he has agreed to stay until her affairs are settled. I do not anticipate that he will be willing to leave his father until he can assure himself of his father's good health, and that he will be well cared for."
"Are you planning to return to London as well, Colonel?" asked Miss Pratt.
He shook his head. "No, I can be of no further use to him, and I have no other reason to return. Since Darcy was so kind as to extend me a standing invitation to Pemberley, I thought I might as well come back and see how you were all getting along." Turning to Georgiana, he added, "I believe I interrupted your playing, my dear. Do you mind starting the piece over so I can hear the whole thing? Your brother commissioned me with acquiring the piece and having it sent here, so I think I have a right to it."
Georgiana was pleased to resume her concert while the Colonel took his seat between Miss Pratt and Kitty, but Kitty had lost all ability to focus on the music. All she could think about was Mr. Knott, and how soon he would return. It never occurred to her to question whether or not her was going to return—of course he was, and if he really meant to propose to her, he would come back for her sake if nothing else.
That thought warmed her heart, but it did not help her decide whether she was actually going to accept his proposal. Could she live married to a clergyman? Granted, he was not as tedious or as stupid as Mr. Collins, and the vicar at Longbourn was ancient and slept through as much of Sunday services as any of his parishioners. But it was hardly the life she had envisioned for herself. She had really expected a wealthier man, like she had believed Mr. Johns to be, who would be a good friend of Mr. Darcy's and keep her in fine style for the rest of her life.
Then again, Mr. Knott might well be the only man who would ever love her. She had made it this far in her life without finding any man who showed her the smallest bit of interest. All of her sisters were married or engaged already, and she could hardly bear to think that she would be obliged to go home to her mother without having anything to show for her time away.
She knew it ought to come down to how well she loved him. He was not handsome, of course, but he was so pleasant, and he was a good friend to her. Perhaps—
"So, Colonel, how long do you mean to stay at Pemberley this time?" Amy spoke over the sound of Georgiana's playing, startling Kitty out of her thoughts.
He did not take his eyes off of Georgiana, and his response was much quieter. "As long as Darcy will allow it, I suppose."
"So your plans are not fixed, then?"
"Not at present, no." Still he did not look at her, and Kitty wondered that Amy did not notice his clear disinterest in the conversation.
"I do hope you will remain through Michaelmas. I was planning to stay that long myself, you know, although my mother has written that she is still much engaged with preparations to bring my sister out into society this winter."
"I did not know that."
"Yes; I am very glad to have escaped the preparations myself, for I remember my mother's preparations for my own coming out, and I pity my sister for having to endure them. I do hope I can be present for her first ball, however. She will need someone a little more acquainted with society than my mother is, to ease her transition."
He nodded but Kitty had the distinct impression that he had no idea what he was agreeing with.
"I am sure my mother has done her best for us, of course, but she is not able to keep up with the latest fashions the way I am, and of course her understanding is so old-fashioned, that she cannot quite see the necessity of going out as often as one really must, to keep up with society. I don't know what she would do without me, to be perfectly honest. I really think, sometimes, that I am the only one that keeps that family in any kind of fashion whatsoever."
Kitty looked around the room in wonder. Did any of the others notice what was happening? They were watching Miss Darcy intently… but she could see the twinkling glances shared between Elizabeth and her father, or Mr. Darcy. They were not entirely ignorant. They just did not care to say anything. Well, she could ignore it too.
"Do you go to many parties and balls when you are in London, Colonel?"
"There are not many held at this time of year."
"That is true, and a great tragedy, to my mind. There are some parts of town which are very pleasant at this time of year; the parks are never lovelier, I am sure."
"Most green places are greatly improved by the presence of vegetation," he admitted.
"Yes, and strolling about them with a few intimate friends is such fun. Of course, there aren't really any shows worth speaking of in the summer, and there is hardly anybody there, which does make it a bit harder to keep oneself entertained. But you gentlemen are to be envied above all creatures, for you have at your disposal many more sources of entertainment than we have."
"That is unfortunately true. But there are some ladies who are able to find sufficient entertainment in the avenues they have available to them; for example, Miss Bennet has been greatly entertained by Georgiana's performance this morning, have you not, Miss Bennet?"
Kitty could not help herself. "Oh yes, Colonel, very much so. It would have been very vexing to have missed it." She fought to contain her smile, but when even her father's shoulders shook with suppressed laughter, she couldn't keep a broad grin from spreading across her face.
Kitty was not to see how much Miss Pratt had deluded herself about the Colonel until after dinner, when she outlined her ideas in secret.
"You were sitting on his other side, of course. Did you not see how easily we conversed together this morning? I learned ever so much about him, too; his preferences when in town, for one, and that is very important for a lady to know."
"Forgive me, I must not have heard that part. What did he say he preferred doing while in town?"
"Oh, only exploring the parks and enjoying the theater, which are two of my favorite London activities as well," Amy said with a proud smile. "I really do think that he is beginning to like me very well indeed."
Kitty did not know what to say. It had been quite clear to her that Colonel Fitzwilliam did not care for Miss Pratt, so how could Amy be so confident that he did?
She recollected that she had seen no symptom of Mr. Knott's affection for her, either. Of course, now that she knew to look for it, she saw the evidence she had missed before, but perhaps even knowing to look for the Colonel's feelings did not mean that he would express them in a way which she could perceive.
Fortunately for Kitty, Amy required no answer. "My only concern is that one of us will be forced to leave before he can finish the business and propose to me. He does seem to be taking his time about it! I was sure he was going to propose to me before he left last time, but of course that was so sudden, that perhaps he was meaning to and did not have the chance. I must be sure to give him every chance of proposing that I can arrange." She hesitated, and frowned. "But why has he not sought me out yet? Perhaps I have not given him enough encouragement."
"I don't think that is the trouble," Kitty said, trying to keep her confusion out of her tone.
"No? Well, I didn't really think so either. But I really cannot account for it. Unless his family tried to discourage him while he was staying with them! I am sure they will not think that I am good enough for him. How will I ever convince them that I am the right choice?"
"That may not be it either." When Amy looked searchingly at her, she had to come up with some elaboration. After a moment of panic, she blurted, "What if he is only waiting to be sure that he can offer you a stable situation? He might not have enough money to be secure of offering for you, either."
Amy waved that away. "Oh, I do not think that will be a problem; I have plenty of money. Goodness! If he does not think that five thousand pounds is enough to marry on, what will satisfy him? I know it's nothing to Miss Darcy's fortune, of course, but it ought to be enough for him. It's certainly enough for me."
"You don't know whether any of these scenarios is the right one," Kitty pointed out.
"I know." She sighed, and her shoulders slumped forward a little bit. "I am running out of options, Kitty. I have to find a way to make him propose!"
"That isn't in your power. You have the right to refuse him or accept him if he does offer, but until he does, you are at his leisure. And what if he doesn't mean to propose at all? What if he does not like you well enough to be willing to marry you?"
"Of course he does! What do you think I have devoted myself to while I've been here? I am very good at making men like me, Kitty. There is really no chance that he does not want to marry me… I just cannot see how to bring it about. Unless…"
There was something in her tone that set Kitty on edge. "Unless?"
"Well, what if I did just what Camilla did?"
"Camilla Johns?" If there was an idea Kitty had expected less, she couldn't have told what it was. Who in their right mind would do anything the way Mrs. Johns had done it? Her having done something was a pretty sure sign, in Kitty's mind, that it ought not to be done. It didn't take a long acquaintance with that woman to know that anything she thought right was probably far from the mark.
"It worked wonders on Mr. Johns, you know. Why not? I'll just trick him in to compromising me, and I shouldn't have any trouble convincing him to marry me after that. If his honor is not up to the task, Mr. Darcy's extreme sense of protection for his guests will do it. I have never seen a man more beholden to the minutiae of honor as he is."
"You cannot be serious. What if he still will not have you? You would be compromised and have no husband to show for it!"
"Well I can't imagine that would actually happen. I know he loves me, after all—he just needs to be convinced that marriage to me is the right choice, and if the best way to do that is to seduce him into doing a little bit more than a gentleman ought, well, that's what it takes. I won't mind, as long as we marry in the end."
Kitty had a sudden vision of Lydia's letters from Brighton, with so many of the same sentiments expressed therein. She shook her head. "It will not end well. Besides, I would not like to live with someone I tricked."
"Oh, you're being ridiculous now," Amy said, waving her hand. "I don't see any reason why I should not have as good a marriage as any woman. Besides, I would only be tricking him to get him to realize something he should have known all along. That's not the same as forcing him to do something against his will. I just need to persuade him." She paused, and lowered her voice even more, in what seemed to Kitty to be a ridiculous precaution, as no one was near enough to hear her anyway. "I might need your help to do it, though."
Disgust welled in her stomach, but Kitty only shook her head and said, "I cannot. Can you imagine what my father would do to me if he found out? I would be risking far too much."
"Don't be such a coward, Kitty! Your father would not find out. I only want you to help me get him alone, if you need to, and keep anyone out until I give the signal. For we must be found out, you know. I think I would need to start small, and build to something truly compromising. It might take several days, or weeks. So it would only be a matter of keeping people away until I'm ready. I wonder if we could use your bedroom?"
That really was too far. Kitty stood up. "If he is the sort of man to join you in another woman's bedroom, he is not the sort of man any lady should think of marrying," she said quietly. "I will have no part in it." She marched away without a backward glance.