Mrs. Bennet and her daughters arrived in a tumbled heap of packages, elation and exhaustion, most of the first two belonging to the mother and the last to the daughters.
Elizabeth set her mother to examining her acquisitions and sought Darcy, whom she found in the billiards room, already dressed for dinner. He threw down his cue to embrace her, and she eagerly sought his arms. Warmth and comfort flowed back into him, and he gratefully brushed her hair back from her face and looked into her eyes.
"My mother can have no complaints of this trip, even if we cannot get Kitty presented," Elizabeth said. "For she has bought any thing that she might. I do not know how she will store it all tolerably in her room."
Darcy smiled and proposed larger chamber furnishings.
"Let us not encourage her. For all we were supposed to be shopping for Kitty, before I knew it she was speaking of the expectations on her as the mother of the debutante and laying hands on all that was lace-edged or silken."
"She has never had the freedom of the shops of London," Darcy observed. "Ladies always get over the novelty in time."
"I do not wish to grant her time," Elizabeth admitted, her arms around Darcy pulling him closer.
"We will get this done in a matter of days," Darcy assured her.
"Was Louisa willing to stand for Kitty?" she asked. Darcy had to admit that she was not at home, and reported that while Louisa was in town, Caroline was not.
"That is fortunate for our cause," Elizabeth said, smiling at him.
"Miss Bingley would likely see fit to block us out of vengeance if she might as her last attempt at revenge was foiled," he said light-heartedly, then winced.
Elizabeth looked at him, confused by his expression of pain.
"What is it, my love? What troubles you?" she asked, drawing him to sit beside her.
He wrapped an arm around her waist, trying to collect himself and decide how much to tell her.
"I went to the fencing school for practice and found myself unable to lift my sword," he confessed. "It seems that my fight with Wickham…" he trailed off, unable to put words to his feelings.
"Oh my dear Mr. Darcy," Elizabeth cried, wrapping her arms around him. "That you should suffer for the sake of such a scoundrel. There is no justice."
"I believe my fencing master was more concerned that I might bring the wrath of the Crown down upon his school than that I fought to the death," Darcy admitted.
"It was a mad thing to do," Elizabeth said. "But I know you felt that you had no choice. What a man tries three times he will try a fourth and fifth."
"Yes, you've put your finger on it," he agreed. "When Lady Catherine and Miss Bingley sent him on his evil errand, they put his life in peril."
"They are to blame," she said reassuringly. "They meant to shackle you with the shame of a shameless brother-in-law. A terrible vengeance for your marrying as your heart dictates."
"Lydia and Wickham should have been a sad couple," he mused. "Unless your sister is a better housekeeper than I suspect, they should always have been in debt."
"Lydia can never have without spending all," Elizabeth admitted. "And always borrowed without thought of repayment." Darcy nodded as she confirmed what he had suspected.
"She and Wickham were cut of the same cloth. I hope Chamberlayne is of a better weave."
"I hope so, but I do not intend to let their troubles bother us. Your generosity to my family is unexampled, and it is past time for you to be left in peace."
"For us to be left in peace," he said, clasping her to himself.
After morning services, Darcy received a note from Mrs. Hurst that she would receive him in the afternoon. Relieved, he informed his wife and steeled himself for the visit, providing himself with Bingley's letter and his firmest hold on his humility.
He declined Mrs. Bennet's offer to accompany him to press the matter, herself. He did not like to think of the cruel fun that Louisa might have with the desperate mother.
It was with a firm conviction that his pride was tamed by his need that Darcy knocked on the Bingley door.
"Mr. Darcy," Mrs. Hurst greeted him in feigned delight. When the servant reported his visit, she had feared that he had come with accusations, with demands to face Caroline. That he seemed a supplicant now was a great relief.
"How good of you to visit," she said. "Are you in town long? I should have expected you to be in Derbyshire by now."
Mr. Hurst contented himself with a half-hearted offer of brandy, which Darcy declined, to Hurst's relief.
"I am in town on a peculiar errand," Darcy explained with some hesitation. "Mrs. Bennet, of course unfamiliar with the ways of court, wishes to have her daughter Catherine presented."
"Surely this fall is soon enough to arrange for that?" Louisa asked, puzzled.
"In the normal course of things, yes. But as Mrs. Bennet does not know of Parliament's schedule and thinks, in her country way, that town is always the same, wishes that Catherine be presented… well, now."
Louisa's tinkling laughter rang through the parlor.
"Now? To be presented now? Oh, to be a farmer's wife and to know nothing of town. You must be so happy with the novelty your new family presents for you. Life had grown too easy for you, Mr. Darcy."
He breathed deep and redoubled his resolve to be obliging. Louisa took note of his displeasure and reigned in her merriment.
"It is of course unlikely that a presentation can be arranged now," Darcy admitted. "But in the case, your brother has asked if you might stand sponsor to the girl," he said, offering the letter.
Mrs. Hursts' eyebrows shot up. She took and examined the letter, scarce able to contain her mirth.
"Charles does not think as Mrs. Bennet, of course, that a presentation might be managed in full summer?" she said, re-reading the brief missive.
"Of course not," Darcy assured her. "But, knowing how important this is to Mrs. Bennet, he yet asks this favor of you, as do I."
Louisa slowly refolded the letter, then looked at him.
"I shall be happy to stand for your sister-in-law at her presentation. But that may not be possible this winter, when it might occur. It seems that I am to give Mr. Hurst an heir," she said.
Darcy controlled a start of surprise. He had somehow not considered that their union might be fruitful.
"Pray, accept my congratulations," he said, addressing them both.
"Yes, it is an occasion of great thanksgiving," Louisa said drily, observing her somnolent husband's form on the couch across the room.
"Tomorrow I meet with the Lord Chamberlain and expect to receive certain knowledge whether it is positively too late or no," Darcy said. "I will write you as soon as I know."
"Pray, do," Louisa said, unable to completely repress a mocking tone in her voice.
Darcy excused himself to both and retired from the scene, head full of phrases he had successfully repressed.
Elizabeth received the news with mixed feelings, feeling that Darcy must have suffered in the application. Her mother was all delight, certain that this heralded success for their mission.
"Now Lizzy, you make sure that Darcy asks the Lord Chamberlain just the same way," her mother counseled her. "You were both so certain that it was too late, but it seems that Mrs. Hurst, quite the lady of town, does not think so."
It was beyond Elizabeth's powers to explain to her mother why Louisa had agreed to this hare-brained request, so quietly agreed with all her mother said before escaping, leaving Kitty to the joys of her mother's wisdom.
She found Darcy in his chambers, his head in his hands. She swiftly put herself at his side.
"I hope she was not too cruel," she said consolingly.
"She was nothing worse than I expected," Darcy said. "Perhaps motherhood has softened her."
"Motherhood?" Elizabeth asked, puzzled.
"She agreed to stand for Catherine this summer, but said that by this winter, when we might actually receive her aid, she will be in her confinement."
Elizabeth, who had also never pictured the Hursts as parents, uttered a slight "Oh."
"It matters naught," Darcy said. "By this winter, there will be many in town who would stand sponsor for her."
Elizabeth nodded. "All this unnecessary trouble," she said, smoothing his hair with a tender hand.
Darcy smiled weakly. "It will soon be done."
Soon after breakfast, Darcy departed for the Lord Chamberlain's offices. Scarce anyone was about, and it was with no surprise that he learned that Her Majesty would not receive until the season. In fact, she had left town directly after last year's drawing-rooms to be in in Windsor for Christmas.
With a slight explanation about the unrealistic expectations of country folk, Darcy took his leave and returned home.
Mrs. Bennet's displeasure was vast, and scarce could she accept that Mr. Darcy had asked properly, lamenting that she had not been allowed to accompany him.
"Mama, how can Kitty be presented when the queen is not here for her to be presented to? Please, see reason," she pleaded.
It was with many explanations and promises that the Darcys at last prevailed upon her to return to Hertfordshire to await Kitty's presentation with the rest of the debutantes in winter.
"I am disappointed in you, Lizzy," her mother said harshly. "I thought you liked Kitty just as well as you did Lydia."
Suppressing tears, Elizabeth left them and sought her husband, who had left her to soothe her mother's frustrated ambition.
"I hope this will teach her to listen to her betters," Elizabeth said bitterly.
"As she mothered you, I'm sure she thinks she can have no betters," Darcy said consolingly.
Smiling at his attempt to comfort her, Elizabeth sighed.
"At least now we can let go of this futile errand," she said. "And return to the country. I now see why all who can leave London in summer, for it is passing warm here."
Darcy agreed emphatically and asked if she still wanted to go direct to Derbyshire.
"Oh yes, above all things," she said. "Jane understood that we would, and she and Bingley can come visit us as they will."
Darcy smiled, anticipating the joys of a quiet summer and fall with his wife.
Elizabeth bade farewell to her mother and sister after supper, as she and Darcy planned to travel early. The journey north to Pemberley would take many days.
Mrs. Bennet managed to suppress her disappointment enough to part from her daughter tolerably. Lizzy may not have acted as she would wish, but she had married very well, and that counted for much.
Kitty, yet overwhelmed by being in town, cried with the parting, and it was not without some feeling that Elizabeth parted ways with her, assurances of spending Christmas together lending some balm.
Mrs. Bennet and Kitty would return to Longbourn via Gracechurch Street, as Mrs. Bennet greatly wished to visit her relations in all her new state.
Caroline's face has begun to hurt from forcing a smile, but she kept her lips turned up as she once again listened to the sallies of an acquaintance on the Darcys.
"Oh, really?" she asked, feigning ignorance. "I hardly ever see Mr. Darcy since his marriage."
The lady, questing for yet more gossip, feigned disbelief and asked if Caroline had not seen the savage behavior of the Bennet girls, eloping with the least provocation at every turn.
With a powerful effort, Caroline gave a tinkling laugh and proclaimed that she had seen nothing, only the wedding preparations for the eldest to her brother.
Disappointed, the lady abandoned her, allowing Caroline to continue to stalk her prey, a gentleman of good fortune with a country estate to which he was fond of inviting friends during the summer. Breathing deep and straightening her shoulders, she prepared to leap into the fray once more.
—
Dear readers,
Thank you for reading!
My take on the upbringing of the Bingley girls is that they went to the best schools, largely in order to rub elbows with high-status girls so that they might have friends willing to sponsor them for presentation (in addition to those friends having single brothers). A big part of the justificiation of the huge cost of those schools for tradesmen, as their father was, would have been the promise of social climbing, which Caroline would have attended to assiduously.
Remember that Sir William, though having made his fortune in trade, was presented to the king. Wealth was blurring social boundaries in this era. A review of the list of persons presented to Her Majesty reveals many untitled names from unprepossessing origins.
I hope you're enjoying the story. Only 18 more chapters left to go!
I hope you enjoy,
Kaurifish
