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Chemistry chapter title suggested by Deanna27

Chapter 6 Chemistry

After seeing the lady he had so assiduously been avoiding walk into his den, Darcy's first impulse was to shut the door. But this mad desire was swiftly checked by more rational thought. He knew it would be safest to quietly leave the room before his baser nature got the better of him, but Darcy could not but feel that was a cowardly thing to do. He was still not entirely free of the worry that he had interfered with Miss Elizabeth last night during that damnable blank in his memory. What better way to expose the truth than to talk to the lady herself? He quietly approached to bid her good evening.

When Elizabeth jumped visibly, Darcy realised his mistake—he had been unconsciously stalking her and should have made more noise on his approach.

Quickly regaining an appearance of composure though her heart was thumping, Elizabeth explained her misdirection. "I beg your pardon. I was looking for the billiard room. Mr Bingley said it was the first to the right at the bottom of the stairs."

"He intended you to go straight," corrected Darcy, looking deep into her eyes where he saw no fear or evasion. This proved to be a mistake. He felt a brief moment of vertigo, as if he would fall into those bright eyes. They seemed a portal to the universe. "It is next door," he added, tearing his eyes away, "—the first on the right as you head towards the front door from the stairs."

"Oh! How stupid of me!" cried Lizzy. "I should have realised my error immediately, but it is so dark in here. It took my eyes a moment to adjust. Then I saw this delightful little alchemy set!"

That broke the spell and set Darcy's teeth on edge—he was a member of the Royal Society. "It is a chemistry set," he said through gritted teeth. "I would not dabble in anything so unscientific as alchemy."

"I beg your pardon," said Elizabeth in a conciliatory tone. "But both words are from the same Arabic root. My father considers Jabir* to have been the first of the scientific men."

"The aims and practices of alchemy are anathema to reasoned thought," said Darcy, folding his arms across his chest.

"It is understandable that new knowledge should seek to divide the possible from the impossible," said Elizabeth gently; "that natural philosophers should wish to interpret their findings with fresh eyes, but there is also the danger of throwing the baby out with the bathwater."

Darcy's arms loosened and fell to his sides. Despite her soft tone, there was a strange fire in her eyes as she spoke. "You know something of alchemy?" he asked more civilly.

Elizabeth laughed. "Nothing really. My father merely teases me about the time I spend in the still room, saying I wish to rival Rhazes#. I can make small beer, jam and toilet water, not gold or everlasting life. I beg your pardon for disturbing you."

Elizabeth curtsied and walked quickly from the room in the direction of the billiards room, leaving Darcy to regret his manners—the way he had fired up when she had mentioned alchemy. Just when he was supposed to be on his best behaviour—repairing the insult of the assembly—he had attacked her verbally. Darcy knew he was extraordinarily sensitive about the topic of alchemy. Since his return from the continent, his friends had teased him about the shift of his interests from natural philosophy to vitalism, which many of them thought as disreputable as the dark arts. In a one-minute conversation, Miss Elizabeth had put her finger on his wound.

Darcy walked to the vials and flasks on the table to stroke the glass, remembering his original aim in approaching her. She had not avoided his eyes. There was no fear in her. If he had touched her, she had no memory of it. That was something. Nonetheless, she clearly intended to join the Bingleys at dinner, which would give him another chance to observe her. Perhaps it would be better if she stayed at Netherfield for a while, until he was sure.

Finn returned shortly after Elizabeth's exit to find the master examining the apothecary set.

"You forgot to close the door after you, Finn," murmured Darcy.

"I am sorry, sir," said Finn, a little surprised at the mild rebuke. "I expected to be but a moment but was unfortunately detained."

"Miss Elizabeth came in when you left."

Finn realised he was holding his breath.

"You are stronger than you give yourself credit for, sir," he praised.

"When I am awake, it would appear so," said Darcy calmly.

Elizabeth spent a pleasant half-hour playing billiards with the Bingley sisters, who had reluctantly offered her a cue. In the absence of the gentlemen, the sisters soon became more pleasant. Elizabeth took turns with Louisa against Caroline who was very skilled in rearranging the balls on the table. By the time they repaired to dinner, Lizzy had grasped the principles of the game but knew she would have to put in many hours to rival Caroline. Their game was immediately suspended when Bingley finally arrived in the room in evening dress.

When they entered the dining room, Caroline and Mr Bingley took opposite ends of the table, as Elizabeth had expected they would. Caroline directed her to sit next to her brother. Mr Hurst sat on Elizabeth's other side and Louisa directly opposite her. The mood changed immediately upon Mr Darcy's entrance; Caroline's eyes immediately flicked from him to Elizabeth, making Lizzy wonder if Miss Bingley had overheard something of their brief exchange in the study from next-door in the billiard room. Then Caroline pulled herself up to her full height and, with an ingratiating smile, invited Mr Darcy to sit down beside her.

The food that was set upon the table was quite different to what Elizabeth was used to—very elaborate dishes that she did not recognise. Lizzy had heard that the Bingleys employed a French cook and the viands seemed to confirm it. She took a little of each, not knowing what she would like and not wishing to leave anything upon her plate that might indicate disapprobation. Part of her wished she had remained upstairs to partake of Jane's gruel.

Mr Hurst noticed her hesitation. "You do not like ragout?" he asked incredulously, heaping one of the dishes upon his own plate.

"I am used to plain dishes, sir—a roast, some fish and vegetables," Elizabeth replied.

Mr Hurst shook his head but was already too busy eating to reply. Elizabeth wondered how he managed to fit into those tight breeches.

"I like a good roast myself," agreed Bingley. "There is nothing better than roast beef with mustard or roast pork with apple sauce."

Elizabeth smiled her gratitude at him.

Bingley then proceeded to enquire politely of her sister. It was too soon for Jane to be better, so Lizzy could not give him any good news on that head. But she thanked him for his kind hospitality and for Caroline's attention—for Lizzy was a little embarrassed that Mr Jones had roused Caroline from her bed by calling so early. Elizabeth had advised Mrs Nicholls that if the apothecary should arrive early on the morrow, she would gladly come down to meet him to avoid disturbing the lady of the house again.

The rest of dinner passed in polite conversation, but as the topics were of events and people in London, Elizabeth could contribute little. Nonetheless, Lizzy felt it a welcome break from the mealtime topics of Longbourn, which were typically dominated by her mother, and lately enlivened by Lydia and Kitty's endless observations of the officers of the militia. Occasionally Elizabeth thought she felt Mr Darcy's eyes upon her, which she confirmed once or twice by glancing towards him when Miss Bingley happened to be speaking. What he could mean by staring at her, Elizabeth could not guess. She could only imagine that she drew his notice because there was something more wrong and reprehensible, according to his ideas of right, than in any other person present. Perhaps he thought her dress too plain or her simply-dressed hair not fine enough. Caroline was wearing silk and she was sporting at least two hairpieces: an elaborately braided bun of not quite the same shade as her own hair and a curled fringe of the type adopted by the Empress Josephine.

When the ladies withdrew, Elizabeth would have returned to Jane if Caroline had not begged her to join them, which surprised Lizzy a little—for Caroline had made not one attempt to include Elizabeth in the dinnertime conversation, as her brother had done once or twice. Thinking it would be impolite to eat and run, Elizabeth assented, despite wishing to be back with her sister.

In the drawing room, the ladies sat together in three fauteuils near the fire. In the absence of the gentlemen, Caroline immediately reassumed the friendly character she had displayed in the billiard room. Miss Bingley could describe an entertainment with accuracy, relate an anecdote with humour, and laugh at her acquaintance with spirit. Louisa contributed her mite but was clearly the second fiddle.

The gentlemen were not long over their wine. Mr Bingley was keen for novel company and neither of the others objected to their speedy removal to the withdrawing room. Mr Hurst feared he had overindulged in ragout, despite eating extra potatoes to compensate, and was thus not averse to forgoing the port. Hurst was a little surprised that Darcy was willing to abstain; he rather wondered that Darcy's countenance was not positively florid with the number of bottles he put away—his valet seemed to be constantly clearing them from his rooms. Hurst could only assume that Darcy had an heroic constitution.

Upon the gentlemen's entrance, Caroline immediately jumped up and called for tea, then raced to the pianoforte in order to entertain them. Hurst lounged on a settee while the other two gentlemen ranged themselves with their backs to the fire.

Miss Bingley's performance was superlative, far better than anything Elizabeth could achieve. Towards the end of it, Mr Darcy sidled towards Lizzy and she got the feeling he was about to say something but he never did. As soon as the applause subsided, Mrs Nicholls providentially entered with the tea, and Elizabeth departed, making Jane as her excuse.

Mr Darcy was at first unhappy to see her go. He had wanted to continue their conversation on alchemy, partly to make up for his earlier abruptness, but also because he was genuinely interested in its continuance. But once he had more time to reflect on it, Darcy was glad he had not done so. He knew it would rub Miss Bingley the wrong way and he also felt it was a conversation he would prefer to have in private. Perhaps there would be a chance to speak to Miss Elizabeth before she left Netherfield and if not, there was plenty of privacy to be had in a noisy ballroom or some other evening engagement when they might meet again.

About one hour after Miss Elizabeth's departure, Darcy retired early, was eased into his black coat, and climbed out the window, determined that last night's lapse should not be repeated. Finn had assured him he had found something better than the bandages to restrain him, but preventative measures were also important.

It was only as he was running back to Netherfield's manor house afterwards that several of Darcy's various thoughts regarding Miss Elizabeth coalesced.

Thus, instead of clambering up the south side of the house to enter the open window of his chamber and thus encounter the restraining influence of Finn, Darcy walked around to the east side of the house to stare at the guest chambers. The windows were dark; the Bennet sisters had gone to bed.

Darcy continued around to the front of the house. It was easy to climb upon the portico where he found one of the windows of the upstairs sitting room to be unlocked. The Bingley sisters never used this room, preferring the grander rooms downstairs. Passing into the hallway, Darcy crept past Charles's bedchamber—liking to read a little, his friend might still be awake. On past Caroline's room, Darcy ascended the carpeted stairs, being careful to avoid the step that creaked.

Finally he found himself on the guest level. He tried the Bennets' door first but, as expected, it was locked. During dinner it had been disclosed that though Miss Bingley had made up a second bedchamber for Elizabeth which she had declined it in favour of staying with her sister—for they shared a chamber at home. Earlier in the afternoon, Miss Bingley had sought him out in the study for rather nebulous reasons, but in the course of her bibble-babble she had revealed some information that now appeared of more significance. The room that Miss Elizabeth had slept in last night was originally the dressing room for the bedchamber that Jane Bennet occupied; the interconnecting door stood behind the closet. At Miss Bingley's request, the blacksmith had sent his boy to remove the lock from the hall door of the dressing room, but had sent word that he could not foreseeably repair it within the next sennight. That meant that even if the Miss Bennets locked their door, there was still a potentially unsecured way into their room via the dressing room.

Returning to the dressing room, Darcy entered and noiselessly swivelled the closet aside. The door had no lock but the mechanism had a tongue and the handle on the dressing room side had been removed. This proved no problem for the swordstick Darcy had taken to carrying.

Once inside the bedchamber, Darcy padded noiselessly over the carpet to the four-poster bed.

The Bennets lay together with Jane facing the window and Elizabeth clasping her sister in her arms. In casual repose they were even more beautiful than they appeared in a ballroom, with their hair splayed upon the pillows—the dark and the fair.

Darcy glanced at the night stand. Next to the snuffed candle lay the ruby cross on its chain.

Footnotes

Jabir ibn Hayyan - the father of modern chemistry was the son of a pharmacist.

#Rhazes, an early proponent of experimental medicine, became a successful doctor. His works in alchemy present the first systematic classification of carefully observed and verified facts regarding chemical substances, reactions and apparatus, described in a language almost entirely free from mysticism and ambiguity.

Pinterest captions

[1] "It is a chemistry set," he said through gritted teeth. "I would not dabble in anything so unscientific as alchemy." Love this pic of Laurence Oliver's Darcy getting too close to Greer Garson's Elizabeth in the 1940 version of PnP

[2] "Both words are from the same Arabic root. My father considers Jabir* to have been the first of the scientific men."

[3] "…there is also the danger of throwing the baby out with the bathwater."

[4] My father merely teases me about the time I spend in the still room, saying I wish to rival Rhazes#. Rhazes, an early proponent of experimental medicine, became a successful doctor. His works in alchemy present the first systematic classification of carefully observed and verified facts regarding chemical substances, reactions and apparatus, described in a language almost entirely free from mysticism and ambiguity.

[5] Elizabeth spent a pleasant half-hour playing billiards with the Bingley sisters, who had reluctantly offered her a cue. This pic - Detail from Game of Billiards by Louis Leopold Boilly, 1810

[6] Part of her wished she had remained upstairs to partake of Jane's gruel. Gruel - a thin oatmeal considered a good food for invalids- a favourite of Mr Woodhouse (Emma).

[7] Mr Hurst noticed her hesitation. "You do not like ragout?" he asked incredulously, heaping one of the dishes upon his own plate.

[8] "There is nothing better than roast beef with mustard or roast pork with apple sauce."

[9] Occasionally Elizabeth thought she felt Mr Darcy's eyes upon her. This pic - Colin Firth

[10] Caroline was wearing silk and she was sporting at least two hairpieces: an elaborately braided bun of not quite the same shade as her own hair and a curled fringe of the type adopted by the Empress Josephine. This pic - Lindsay Duncan as Lady Catherine in Lost in Austen

[11] Louisa contributed her mite but was clearly the second fiddle.

[12] Miss Bingley's performance was superlative, far better than anything Elizabeth could achieve.

[13] Darcy was glad he had not done so. He knew it would rub Miss Bingley the wrong way and he also felt it was a conversation he would prefer to have in private.

[10] Miss Bingley had sought him out in the study for rather nebulous reasons, but in the course of her bibble-babble she had revealed some information This pic - Miss Bingley, played by Tibbles

[11] This proved no problem for the swordstick Darcy had taken to carrying. This pic - couldn't resist the motif.

[12] The Bennets lay together with Jane facing the window and Elizabeth clasping her sister in her arms … their hair splayed upon the pillows—the dark and the fair.