“I can call him back, if you wish.”
“Do not dare.”
Spotting Charlotte Collins approaching the tea table, she contemplated how much luckier she was than her friend, in having found a life partner worthy of her respect. Charlotte had gone into her marriage fully sensible of her husband’s oddities, and managed Mr. Collins skillfully, but Elizabeth nevertheless preferred her own definition of happiness.
Darcy followed her gaze. “I am glad your friend Mrs. Collins could be here. Have you had much opportunity to visit with her?”
“Very little. I’ve been trying to devote a bit of time to each of our guests. As a consequence, I feel I’ve spent the morning talking ceaselessly but saying nothing.”
“Then you shall fit right in with the
She looked up at him, this man with whom she was now joined. “Everyone wants a few minutes with the bride,” she said quietly, “and all I want are a few minutes with you.”
“Only a few? I had counted on a lifetime.”
Her mischievous spirit returned. “Did you not realize? I took you on probation.”
“And how have I acquitted myself thus far?” He regarded her with amusement.
“Beyond every expectation. Not that there was ever much doubt of my keeping you, but a man willing for my sake alone to bear the conversation of Mr. Collins has no equal.”
Their social obligations compelled them to part. Darcy went to the Gardiners, while Elizabeth met Mrs. Collins at the tea table. She embraced her friend, noting immediately her thickened waist.
“Charlotte, I must tell you again how pleased I am that you managed to come.”
“I would not have missed it. Had Lady Catherine withheld permission for Mr. Collins to attend, I would have urgently wished to visit my mother once more before my confinement, or developed a craving for cream that could be satisfied only by the Lucas Lodge dairy. My husband is so nervous about my ‘delicate state of health’ that he would not dare refuse me.”
As Charlotte tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear, Elizabeth noted that a few strands of grey had emerged amid the auburn since she last saw her friend. “You are feeling well?”
“Very, despite her ladyship’s insistence that I behave as an invalid — when I’m not attending to matters she deems more important, of course.”
She poured tea for herself and Charlotte. “I wonder that Mr. Darcy’s aunt spared her clergyman leave to attend a wedding she herself has denounced.”
“I suspect she approved our being present so that she could demand an account of all the sordid details upon our return.”
“And what will you report?”
“Let’s see…” She cocked her head, studying Elizabeth with keen blue eyes. “Mrs. Darcy looked radiant in a full dress of Brussels lace over white silk, with a low yet modest neckline, high waist, short sleeves, and a wreath of orange blossoms securing her veil.” Her gaze darted across the room. “Her bridegroom wore a dark blue dress coat, white waistcoat, highly starched cravat, and—” She turned back to Elizabeth. “Really, are gentlemen’s clothes half so interesting? What else? The wedding breakfast featured eight courses and three wines. And so on. But those are the particulars her ladyship will enquire about. What she won’t ask, but what I shall endeavor to reveal, is that her nephew appeared as happy as his new bride.”
“Despite having ruined his great family with disgraceful connections?” Elizabeth mocked Lady Catherine’s contemptuous tone. “She will not be pleased at the knowledge.”
“I am. I hoped for this event when you visited us last spring, you know. Perhaps in time her ladyship will come to accept you.”
“I am told that if I grovel sufficiently, such felicity may be mine.”
Charlotte stirred milk into her tea, her expression turning serious. “I shall surely miss your visits otherwise. You must write often, and tell me about your new life. Do you plan a honeymoon trip?”
“Not immediately. Jane and Mr. Bingley have invited us to stay at Netherfield tonight. We’ll depart for Derbyshire with Mr. Darcy’s sister in the morning. With Christmas approaching, we want simply to get settled at Pemberley before the Gardiners join us three weeks hence. Perhaps we’ll go away in spring.”
She lingered long with Charlotte, conscious that circumstances surrounding their respective marriages meant that this could be her last opportunity to see her friend for quite a while. Periodically, laughter and exclamations erupted from Miss Bingley’s party, drawing their gazes in that direction. Elizabeth had expected the assembly to disperse upon Mr. Collins’s arrival, but Mr. Parrish apparently had such a pleasing manner of address that he’d managed to rescue the conversation from the painful death it would have suffered under the clergyman’s enthusiastic participation. The American was currently sharing a tale from his homeland, his style quite animated.
“Mr. Bingley’s sister has made a good match,” Charlotte noted. “It appears she’ll enjoy both fortune and affection in her marriage.”
“Yes, though one suspects she would have accepted Mr. Parrish for his fortune alone. He certainly seems a better catch than her sister’s husband.” A quick scan for Mr. Hurst found him dozing on the room’s other sofa, an empty sherry glass balanced on his expansive abdomen.
“Her fiance is certainly a handsome man.” In that particular, Elizabeth agreed. Mr. Parrish was tall and slender, with sandy brown hair and an open countenance. “Do you know much about him?” Charlotte asked.
“No more than what Miss Bingley put into general circulation today. She introduced him to me only as ‘Mr. Frederick Parrish of Louisiana.’ I confess to mounting curiosity, however. Shall we make ourselves better acquainted?”
“By all means.”
“Some believe,” Mr. Parrish was saying as they approached, “on nights of the new moon, the poor mademoiselle’s spirit yet haunts the Place d’Armes.”
“Good Lord!” Elizabeth’s sister Kitty exclaimed. “I tremble just to hear it! Have you ever seen her apparition yourself?”
“No, Miss Bennet. Nor any of New Orleans’s other famous ghosts.”
“There are more? Oh, tell us of another!”
Despite Elizabeth’s predisposition to think unfavorably of Miss Bingley’s betrothed, Mr. Parrish did seem a spellbinding storyteller. Even Mr. Bennet, though some distance away, appeared to attend Parrish’s words more closely than those of his own companion. But perhaps that was because her father was presently subject to the befuddled discourse of Mr. Edwards. The elderly vicar who had officiated this morning’s ceremony suffered from declining wits, a condition that had led to some fascinating sermons in recent years.
Mr. Parrish rose upon sighting the two ladies. “Please, Mrs. Darcy, take my seat.”
His address marked the first time someone had called her “Mrs. Darcy,” and she experienced a small rush at the sound of the words. Miss Bingley, however, did not look nearly so delighted by them — unless it had been Parrish’s offer of the place next to her that caused displeasure to enter her eyes. No matter. Elizabeth could think of many places, some of them in the barn, where she would rather sit than directly beside Miss Bingley.
She returned his smile. “I would not separate a newly engaged couple for the world.” She instead sat down across from Parrish and Miss Bingley to better observe them together. Charlotte took a seat beside her husband.
“Allow me to compliment you on a lovely wedding,” said Mr. Parrish. They were words she’d heard often enough today, yet his warm manner made Elizabeth believe he actually meant them.
“Allow me to congratulate you on your forthcoming one. Have you fixed upon a date?”
“Wednesday next, by special license,” Miss Bingley declared.
Elizabeth suppressed growing irritation at Caroline’s timing. First she had announced her engagement today; now she planned to wed next week. Why must the woman schedule her own nuptials so soon after theirs? Merely to broadcast Mr. Parrish’s ability to pay the substantial fee required for the license?
Ruefully, she thought of the idyllic plans she’d just described to Charlotte. She and Mr. Darcy could not with propriety escape attendance at Miss Bingley’s wedding simply to advance their own domestic felicity. Now, instead of retiring to Pemberley for the winter, they would scarcely reach it before having to return. “So soon?” she asked, entertaining an irrational hope that she had somehow misheard.
