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“A wedding is not enough of an event for you?”
Fitzwilliam Darcy was very fond of Charles Bingley, and considered him one of his closest friends, but he could not deny that the man was highly provoking at times.
“There are weeks to go before the wedding!” Bingley exclaimed. “A ball at Netherfield will hold us over nicely.”
There was no working on such a man. Bingley would be incurably sociable despite Darcy’s best efforts to rein him in.
“And besides,” Bingley added, “a ball spreads such goodwill throughout the neighborhood! If I am to settle here for a while, I would like my neighbors to think well of me.”
“I hope this will not become an annual event.”
“It might,” said Bingley defiantly. “Most people do enjoy a ball, you know.”
Darcy made a skeptical sound.
“And I will not have you standing around all night, Darcy,” warned Bingley. “You must dance, and not only with Elizabeth.”
“I am acquainted with very few ladies in Hertfordshire.”
“Nonsense! I will let you borrow Jane for a couple of dances, and then there are the younger Bennet girls and several Lucases to choose from. You need not look farther if you do not wish to.”
Of the remaining Lucases, Darcy knew only Maria by name. He might be able to recognize the rest of them by sight, but that was not a given. The Bennets, then, it would have to be.
***
“How very unfortunate it is for you to have a friend so fond of dancing,” teased Elizabeth, her eyes sparkling.
“He has been causing me a great deal of vexation lately,” agreed Darcy.
He and Bingley were visiting Longbourn that morning. Bingley had long since disappeared somewhere with Jane, and Darcy and Elizabeth had confined themselves to the very copse where, he understood, Elizabeth had so momentously incensed his aunt.
“And what are your plans for that evening?” Elizabeth asked. “I do not think that you will be able to hide behind all of the old men. You are far too tall.”
“I will dance with you and Jane.”
“Oh, I was always going to claim you for at least the first two dances. Now that your reputation has undergone such a complete reversal in Meryton, I am eager to show you off and to feel everyone’s envy.” She smiled up at him archly. “And Jane, of course, will never refuse you. But I am afraid that there will be more than four dances, my dear, and you will not be able to alternate between us all night.”
“I could dance with Mary and Kitty,” he said, unable to keep a note of doubt from his voice.
Elizabeth laughed. “I believe Kitty would be terrified at the very suggestion, and Mary--” she stopped abruptly, puzzled. “To tell the truth, Fitzwilliam, I am not sure what Mary thinks of you.”
Darcy, it seemed, was going to have to get to know his future sisters. He did not care about the approbation of people in general, but he wanted the good opinion of the Bennet family, for Elizabeth’s sake.
***
Bingley had invited the Bennets to Netherfield for the day, and even Mr. Bennet had made the trip, though he had quickly sneaked off to the library and hadn't been seen since. Mrs. Bennet had not ceased talking since their arrival, to the mortification of her two eldest daughters, and only Bingley seemed truly at ease. He had soon swept Mrs. Bennet off to inspect some new furniture, and Mrs. Bennet eagerly called for Jane to join them. Mary had made her way to the pianoforte to make a great deal of noise, and Elizabeth was examining the book Darcy had lately put down, leaving Kitty to look around awkwardly, unsure of what to do with herself.
“Good morning, Catherine.”
Kitty made some kind of answer, but it certainly was not an audible one. Darcy assumed it was an appropriate response and carried on.
“I have never asked: do you prefer to be called Catherine or Kitty?”
Her eyes were very wide. “Either one will do, sir.”
“But I would like to know your preference. We are to be brother and sister and I would not wish to call you the wrong thing.”
“It does not - I do not--” she stopped. “Kitty. I prefer Kitty.”
With this hurdle out of the way, Darcy was unsure of how to proceed. He didn’t know much at all about Kitty. Even her own family seemed to view her as more of an extra appendage to Lydia than as a separate person, but she must have her own opinions and enjoyments. Before he could figure out how to begin, however, they were interrupted by Mrs. Bennet.
"Now, now, Kitty, Mr. Darcy does not want to speak to you. I am sure he wants to be with our dear Lizzy!" She simpered at him. "Mary plays delightfully, Mr. Darcy, but I am sure you and Lizzy would prefer to be somewhere a bit quieter. Perhaps you would like to join Mr. Bingley and Jane? They were planning to take a turn about the garden, as the weather is so mild today. I know how you and Lizzy so enjoy your walks.”
And she left, fairly dragging Kitty behind her. Kitty, he thought, looked rather relieved.
***
“I am not sure why she is so frightened of me.”
Elizabeth laughed. “Well, you do have an air about you, Fitzwilliam.”
“What do you mean?”
“You are so tall and stately. And handsome,” she added playfully. “You intimidate people.”
“I never intimidated you,” he said, smiling.
“You know better than anyone that I am more than usually impertinent.”
***
Darcy had a much higher opinion of Jane Bennet than of his other prospective sisters, but he was far more worried about his conversation with her than about whatever may come later with Mary or Kitty. He was overdue for a confession and he was unsure of how she was going to take it.
While Bingley was preoccupied with listening to Mrs. Bennet’s plans for the wedding, and Elizabeth went to look in on her father, Darcy seized the opportunity to speak with Jane. He explained his role in her separation from Bingley without ceremony and without any excuses for his behavior. Jane’s face remained serious but calm through his recitation. Bingley had been quite angry when he had owned it all to him, but Jane seemed merely pensive.
“You truly believed me indifferent?” she said when he had done.
“I did. I see now that I was mistaken.”
“Then there was no malice in what you did.”
“None at all.” He could not, of course, tell her how frequently Bingley had fallen in love before, and how Darcy had been forced, on numerous other occasions, to step in and save Bingley from an unfortunate connection. He tried to explain, without maligning Bingley or absolving himself, why he had undertaken such a separation. “I have known Bingley for a long time, and I have seen other women show more interest in his wealth than in him.”
“And I am certain that you had seen my mother behave similarly,” sighed Jane.
Darcy did not answer.
“Though you were mistaken in me, I know you were acting out of care for your friend,” said Jane. “I cannot blame you for that.”
“But I harmed you by my actions,” insisted Darcy.
“You did not mean to. Lizzy has told me that you often blame yourself too harshly.” She looked at him very earnestly. “You have done much for our family, Mr. Darcy.”
He was aware that Jane knew of his role in the Wickhams’ marriage, but he did not quite feel up to discussing it with her now.
Jane seemed to notice the change in his expression, because she quickly added, “I do not only refer to what you did for poor Lydia.”
Darcy waited for her to continue.
“I have guessed that Charles returned to Hertfordshire at your urging,” she said gently. “Whatever might have happened last year, you have more than atoned for it. All has ended well. There is nothing left for me to forgive.”
Darcy was inclined to argue with this, but there was something quelling in the look Jane gave him.
“You cannot make me dislike you, Mr. Darcy,” she said. “I see that you are sorry for your part in the affair. That is all that matters to me.”
Jane, he was discovering, was just as angelic as Bingley and Elizabeth had described her.
***
“Your eldest sister is more obstinate than I gave her credit for.”
“Yes,” agreed Elizabeth. “That always surprises people.”
***
He tried again with Kitty.
Kitty Bennet was not particularly fond of reading. She did not draw, play, or sing. Each of these negatives was coaxed from her tortuously. Darcy was not in the habit of talking to people he did not know well, and he certainly wasn’t accustomed to asking this number of questions. How did people find this bearable? It always seemed to come so easily for Bingley and Elizabeth.
“I am not trying to interrogate you, Kitty,” he said delicately. “I am merely trying to become better acquainted. We will be family soon.”
Kitty Bennet did like trimming bonnets. She was interested in the latest fashions. She enjoyed embroidery and arranging flowers. She avoided his eyes as she gave him this information, her color heightened. “Mary says there is nothing useful in it and my father thinks me very silly.”
Darcy would be excessively angry if someone mocked Georgiana for her interests.
“If that is what you enjoy, Kitty, then you should be allowed to enjoy it, without comment from anyone else. After all,” he added, when she looked surprised, “what is the usefulness in riding, or billiards, or gambling? Yet no one asks men to account for enjoying them. I am sure that your bonnets and flowers are pleasant to look at. It brings employment to you and enjoyment to others. Is there not usefulness in that?”
Kitty looked more pleased than Darcy had ever seen her when not surrounded by soldiers. Really, he could be surprisingly tactful when he tried to be.
***
To his very great astonishment, Kitty sought him out for their next meeting.
Elizabeth shot a look of mingled amazement and hilarity at him from over Kitty’s shoulder.
***
“What did you talk about?” Elizabeth asked eagerly.
“Dancing.”
Elizabeth burst into laughter. “What did you have to say on the subject?
“Very little.”
“And?”
Darcy raised an eyebrow.
“What else?” urged Elizabeth impatiently.
“Your sister Catherine has quite the memory for every gown she has ever worn to a ball.”
“It is very unfair that you will not allow me to listen in on these conversations, Fitzwilliam. I must confess that I expected rather more solicitousness from my intended.”
***
“I hear that you enjoy books, Mary.”
Mary looked up at him, startled. The silence that ensued lasted so long that Darcy wondered if he could ever expect an answer.
“Yes,” she said finally.
“I am fond of reading myself,” he continued resolutely.
Another silence followed.
“We might compare our opinions,” he said.
He was getting exhausted by the amount of effort that was required to carry on a conversation today.
“I enjoy Fordyce’s Sermons,” said Mary, looking at him with something very much like wonder. Darcy tried not to wince.
“Oh? Have you found them particularly beneficial?” he asked.
He tried to appear interested as Mary launched into her pedantic and very long-winded praise. As soon as a break in her speech allowed, Darcy tried to gently steer her away from Fordyce by engaging her in a discussion of music. Mary, it seemed, was quite ready to talk if the right subject arose. Music, she told him, was of particular interest to her.
Darcy’s mind wandered slightly as she spoke. Mary might be someone for Georgiana to associate with once she arrived in Hertfordshire for the wedding. Mary was quite as silly as her two younger sisters (though her silliness tended in a rather different direction), but it was unlikely that she would lead Georgiana into any harm. Georgiana, he knew, would try to escape talking to anyone when she was here, and would probably be overwhelmed with the anxiety of being surrounded by so many people she did not know. Darcy would not be able to shield her from all of it. Mary would be a safer companion for her than Caroline Bingley, who Georgiana had never been fully comfortable with, or Kitty Bennet, who had not been long enough removed from Lydia’s influence. They could talk of music together. Georgiana, of course, was much more talented than Mary, but she’d had all the benefit of the best instruction and superior instruments. She had grown up surrounded by more elegance and taste.
He felt a sudden stab of pity for Mary Bennet. Here was a young woman who wanted desperately to be considered accomplished, but who lacked the means, both natural and material, to truly be so.
“Have you ever read A Vindication of the Rights of Women?” he asked when she paused for breath.
Mary started a little. “No, sir.”
“I think you might find it interesting. Let me see if I can find you a copy.”
***
“Darcy,” Bingley said, “Elizabeth tells me that you are trying to bribe Mary and Kitty into dancing with you.”
“I am not,” Darcy scoffed. “But it would be a good thing for all of us if we knew each other better.”
“Ah, yes. I know that you must be particularly acquainted with your partners.” Darcy gave him a look, but Bingley only laughed. “Well, you must be tolerably well acquainted now.”
Darcy made a noncommittal sound.
“You know them well enough to dance with, surely.”
“How well do you know them?”
“Hardly at all,” Bingley said unconcernedly, “but does it matter?” When he received no answer, he paused, looking at Darcy with an uncharacteristically serious expression. “This is not really about the dancing, is it?”
No, he had let Bingley think so, but the dancing had never truly been his concern. He had set out to become more agreeable to Elizabeth’s family and, in the meantime, discovered some things that were making him uneasy. His main discomfort was that he could not help comparing Mary and Kitty to Georgiana. The Bennet girls were not much older than his sister, but their lives were so different. Georgiana - orphaned and with only one considerably older sibling - seemed so much more cared for than either of them.
He was already painfully aware of how different Georgiana’s fate had been to Lydia’s.
It appeared to him that Mary and Kitty were young women who were unused to being supported or guided in any way. Was it any wonder that they had turned out the way they had? The greater wonder was that Elizabeth and Jane had turned out so well. Despite the efforts he had already taken, there were some situations he could not fix. His influence only extended so far and he would not be able to lift every Bennet into better circumstances. He regretted it, for he now found that he genuinely wanted the best for all of them.
Families were a very complicated business.
***
It was now late afternoon and Mary and Kitty seemed to have entirely lost their fear of him. Mary approached him to talk of poetry, Kitty to ask his opinion on ribbons. Somehow - and he did not know how he had done it - he had become generally agreeable to people who were not his family or servants.
He prayed that Mrs. Bennet and Mrs. Philips would remain awestruck.
***
Bingley was starting to take on a somewhat fixed expression while talking to their future mother-in-law. Darcy wondered idly whether he ought to go and save him, but found it much more pleasant to remain in Elizabeth’s company.
“Oh, Fitzwilliam, I believe that you have had to endure rather a lot during our season of courtship,” sighed Elizabeth, half-teasingly.
He answered her with a sardonic smile.
“I, for one,” she continued, “am eager for the day when we can finally escape to Pemberley.”
Darcy was all but counting the hours.
She turned to face him, squeezing his hand. “You have been trying very hard today. You have earned a respite. I will distract everyone and you can run to the library.”
Darcy was marrying a wonderful woman.
***
In the library, Darcy and Mr. Bennet exchanged small nods of acknowledgment and then hid behind their books.
“You are always welcome, Mr. Darcy,” said Mr. Bennet, looking up briefly from his reading, “to take refuge in my library when you are visiting at Longbourn.”
“Thank you, sir.” Darcy knew what a compliment this was.
Though there were aspects of Mr. Bennet that he found deeply frustrating - his treatment of his daughters chief among them - he was relieved that this was one Bennet who would not expect him to talk any further.
***
The Bennets’ visit was coming to a close, and there was only time enough to steal one last, quick moment with Elizabeth.
“Well, my dear, Jane was always going to love you, but you have quite won over Mary and Kitty.”
“I did nothing extraordinary.”
“You listened to them. You paid them attention. That is more than what they usually receive from other men. They certainly never receive it from my father.”
Darcy agreed, but thought it would be awkward to say so.
Elizabeth smiled, a bit sadly, and took his hand. “I am very aware of my father’s failings. I have long known that you are the better man.”
***
The day of the ball arrived and Darcy bore it as well as he could, and rather better than Bingley had expected. He danced happily with Elizabeth and resigned himself to an evening spent being agreeable to the rest of the room.
“I am sorry about this,” said Jane.
Darcy looked at her questioningly.
“The ball. Charles rather insisted on it,” she said, smiling slightly. “I know that you are not fond of dancing.”
“No,” said Darcy, “but I doubt that one night of it will harm me.”
They took their places in the set and watched as Bingley and Elizabeth led the dance.
“I suspect, Mr. Darcy, that you have been to Charles what I have been to Lizzy. We are their steadying influences."
Darcy smiled, in spite of himself.
"They are very good, and we love them dearly,” Jane continued, “but they are both rather lively and benefit from our more serious natures."
Jane, he knew, always saw the best in people, but that obviously didn’t keep her from seeing other things as well.
"You are exactly suited for Lizzy,” she said. “I am depending on you to take care of her for me, now that we are to be parted."
"And I am depending on you to take care of Bingley."
"You can be sure that I will."
In his haste to protect his friend last November, Darcy had failed to see that the merit of the match might be largely on the lady's side.
***
When their dance ended, Darcy set off to rejoin Elizabeth, satisfied that he was gaining at least one very valuable sister.
Elizabeth rushed over to him, beaming. “I am so happy that you and Jane are friends. I knew you would be. She was the only one of us who was always fair to you, you know.”
“Yes, but Jane likes everyone.”
“No, she saw something in you that the rest of us were determined to miss. She saw your goodness.”
***
Kitty had been surrounded by young men all evening and Mary had not danced at all. Darcy knew which sister needed his aid the most at the moment.
“May I have the honor of the next two dances, Miss Mary?”
She looked up at him, her eyes sparkling and her face aglow. It was a striking difference from her usual dour expression. “No one ever asks me to dance,” she said, accepting his hand.
As soon as they had taken their places, Mary launched into a speech on Wollstonecraft. As she neither wanted nor required a partner in this lecture, Darcy allowed her to talk without contributing much himself. She was as pretentious and affected as ever, but he hadn’t expected anything else, and he felt more compassion than disdain towards her now.
Mary, for her part, was happy to be dancing and thrilled to have an audience. When their dances were finished, she departed from him thinking that of the new additions to her family this year, Darcy was her favorite one.
***
“If you keep carrying on in this way, I am absolutely certain that Mary will try to steal you from me.”
Elizabeth laughed as he blushed.
“I am teasing you, Fitzwilliam. Kitty is much more likely to attempt it than Mary.”
***
Kitty was delighted to exchange the other young men for her very impressive future brother.
“It is very exciting to be here at all, Mr. Darcy,” she said, “because Papa was determined to keep us all from dancing after Lydia ran away.”
Darcy tried not to grimace at so loud an allusion to that event.
“And it is very exciting to be dancing with you, I declare, and everyone envies me.” She smiled over at Maria Lucas. “They know it is all because of Lizzy, of course, but it is still an honor as you do not usually dance.”
Darcy made a polite answer to this, but was forcibly reminded of Caroline Bingley and Louisa Hurst, both of whom were wont to make dancing an equally awkward experience.
“And I think we look very well together because my gown looks so nice with your black coat. By the bye, Mr. Darcy, do you always wear so much black? I think you should wear blue to the wedding. Blue would be just the thing with your eyes. You have very nice eyes, Mr. Darcy, and Lizzy has said so too.”
He could tell from Elizabeth’s expression, as she went down the dance, that she had heard all of this. He worked very hard to hide his own smile.
Darcy thanked Kitty for the compliment and allowed her to talk on, and he was treated to all of her ideas for the gown that she would wear to the wedding.
***
“I am very proud of you,” said Elizabeth fondly. “I know that Mary and Kitty can be tiresome.”
Darcy was becoming very good at holding his tongue when his opinion was more frank than favorable.
Elizabeth smiled at him. “You need not pretend otherwise, not to me. I love them both, but I know how they are.”
“I believe I will like them better from slightly farther away,” he said measuredly.
“My dear, you are becoming so discreet. Where is my old sparring partner?” She looped her arm through his. “But really, I had an easy task to perform, liking Georgiana. I deserve no credit in comparison with you.”
“We each have our difficult relations. Let us not forget Lady Catherine.”
“Very true, but then there is also my mother.”
They smiled at each other wryly.
“Well,” said Elizabeth with a sigh, “let us be thankful that Derbyshire is not within an easy distance.”
***
“Darcy, I have never seen you dance so much in my life!” Bingley was flushed with the success of the ball, and probably the very good wine. “It is a good thing Caroline was not here. She would have been quite jealous, and, I dare say, very disagreeable to us all.”
Well, at least he had avoided that.
***
After the ball came the wedding, and after the wedding came the leavetaking. Darcy departed from Hertfordshire with the full strength of his new sisters’ approval. He found that he had come to care for Mary and Kitty, in his way. He had sympathy for their situation, concern for their futures. There was still time for them to improve. He could send Mary books to read, and Kitty seemed to have a better temper than Lydia. Things were not yet desperate. Perhaps one or both would visit them in Derbyshire, though he hoped they would stay with the Bingleys first. He truly regretted leaving Jane behind, though he doubted that she and Bingley would stay at Netherfield for longer than a twelvemonth. It would be a great happiness for Darcy and Elizabeth to see them settled nearer.
“Are you sorry to be leaving Longbourn?” Darcy asked Elizabeth as they rode off.
“To own the truth, Fitzwilliam, I am not.” She looked thoughtful. “I do believe that I am headed for a situation much more agreeable to me.”
It was a good thing, and rather soothed the conscience, to be in accord with one’s wife.
Together they headed home, grateful for family and for improved relationships, but rejoicing in the great distance between Longbourn and Pemberley.