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“Lizzy.” Her father's voice was gentler now. “You need not give me your answer today.”

She did not give it. She watched the last of the guests go in at the door below, and wondered whether, after this afternoon, the answer was still hers to give.

Chapter Sixteen

Darcy

“Well, you will have to marry her now. There is no getting out of it.”

Hurst said it from the sofa before Darcy was properly through the drawing room door. He lay with his boots up on a footstool and a glass of Bingley's madeira at his elbow, and he did not trouble to sit up. Darcy had not even taken off his greatcoat. He had ridden back from Longbourn much faster than the road or the horse deserved, all for the chance of reaching his own room without having to speak to anyone.

He ought to have known better.

“Hurst is quite right,” said Mrs Hurst. “Half the county saw you come up out of that cellar. There is nothing else to be done.”

Miss Bingley was standing at the window. She turned round when he came in, and he saw a little red mark on her lower lip where she had been biting it.

“You must admire Mrs Bennet, at least. She has got one daughter married by fair means and another by foul, and all before the cake was cut.”

“Mrs Bennet had no more idea of it than I had.”

“You take her side?”

“I tell you what happened.” Darcy pulled off his gloves and dropped them on the table. “It makes no difference in any case. Miss Elizabeth will not have me.”

Hurst laughed so hard he nearly spilt his wine. “Ten thousand a year and Pemberley, and she will not have you?”

“She cannot bear the sight of me.” Darcy looked across the room. He had watched Miss Bingley lead Miss Elizabeth out of the dining room, all smiles, and he had watched Miss Elizabeth come back without her colour. It had not taken him long to put the two together. “I think Miss Bingley could tell you why.”

Mrs Hurst looked from him to her sister. “Caroline? What does he mean by that?”

“Mr Darcy is upset. I told Miss Eliza nothing but the truth.”

“What truth?”

Miss Bingley did not answer her. So Darcy did.

There was no pretty way to tell it, and he did not look for one. He told them about the actress Miss Bingley had brought down from town, and her story of secret meetings. He told them how Jane's handkerchief had been taken out of Bingley's own drawer and handed to a stranger. He did not leave himself out of it. Miss Bingley had told him she meant to stop the wedding, and he had not done enough to stop her. He had thought the match a poor one, and he had said so. He had talked over the ruin of his friend's happiness as calmly as Bingley talked over his new drainage ditch. The only part he could bear to say aloud was the end, where he had thought better of it and gone after the woman with Miss Elizabeth on the Meryton road.

Hurst put his glass down without drinking.

Mrs Hurst got to her feet. “An actress, Caroline? Is that the woman you met at the inn? The one you told us we had to take you to meet because she was a relation of a wealthy baron who was interested in courting you?”

“I did it for Charles.”

“You did it for yourself. And then, as if that were not bad enough, you went and told Miss Eliza all about it on her sister's wedding day! Whatever were you thinking of?”

“She threatened me. I will not be threatened by a girl whose family relies on my brother for their livelihood now.”

“Then you should have held your tongue and let her threaten.” Darcy could not remember ever hearing Mrs Hurst speak so low, or so firmly. “If Charles finds out, he will put you out of his house, and I shall not blame him.”

“Charles?” Caroline gave a short laugh. “Charles could not put a cat out of doors.”

“He managed to marry Jane Bennet when every one of us was against it.” Mrs Hurst turned to Darcy. “And I do not suppose it would stop with Caroline. You have been his friend a long time, but I doubt he would want you at his table again.”

Darcy said nothing. He had been thinking the same thing all the way from Longbourn.

“Well, he is not going to find out. He will not hear it today, at any rate.” Mrs Hurst shook out her skirts. “Nobody in this house says one word about it to Charles or to Jane. They leave in half an hour, and I will not have their wedding journey spoilt. Caroline, do you hear me?”