Miss Lucas Page 2

  Elizabeth dissolved into giggles and Charlotte summoned up a smile at the thought of her fierce Lizzy ever condescending to declare herself wrong.

  True, it was ridiculous to think Mr. Collins would come back and attempt to win Lizzy yet again, but that was only slightly more absurd than Mr. Collins returning to Longbourn post haste so he might make an offer to Charlotte. Unless Lady Catherine was the sort of person who preferred efficiency to all else, even in matters of matrimony, Charlotte imagined Mr. Collins would soon be writing his regrets to Mr. Bennet about the intended visit. Considering Mr. Collins had no trust in the reliable chain of gossip between neighbors, he would urge Mr. Bennet to offer his heartfelt condolences to Lucas Lodge for failing to return as quickly as he’d hoped. Lizzy would ask why the man had fussed, and Charlotte would jest that Sir Lucas had handled Mr. Collins’ tales with far more aplomb than Mr. Bennet. The next Elizabeth heard of her odious cousin would be of him marrying some serviceable young thing from his own parish, a girl from a family that had dwelt on the de Bourgh land for generations and was now reaping their reward.

  Perhaps that was when Charlotte could share with Lizzy that she’d thought Mr. Collins might make an offer to her, second to Elizabeth’s charm as she was. Lizzy would laugh about that being precisely the sort of deplorable thing Mr. Collins would have done. Then in all sincerity, Lizzy would proclaim how grateful she was that Charlotte hadn’t been put in the uncomfortable situation of having to refuse him. After all, two refusals in less than a week might have damaged even Mr. Collins’ formidable self-esteem. Charlotte would laugh and to her grave she would carry the reality that she had failed to secure the affections of a man as revolting as Mr. Collins. Worse still, that if he had asked, Charlotte would have said yes, and would still say yes if the man managed to defy her predictions and return to Longbourn with the new year.

  “While I am grateful to you for the suggestion that Mr. Collins might not return to us quite so promptly, I’m afraid that not even you can help me see the good in my other piece of news. It seems that Mr. Bingley is not returning to Netherfield. His detestable sister has written and declared that they will stay in town for the rest of winter. She had the gall to make it quite clear that in her schemes to have Mr. Darcy she intends to marry the man’s younger sister off to Mr. Bingley.”

  There was a terrible part of Charlotte that took no small amount of comfort that a woman so stunning as Jane Bennet was just as unable to secure someone’s affections. Mr. Bingley was so far above Mr. Collins as the birds soaring above the garden’s gravel, but so was Jane to Charlotte when it came to marriageability. “How is Jane taking the news?”

  “Not well at all. She puts on a brave face since she knows that our mother will pounce upon her first sign of distress and tell all the world how her daughter was wronged. Jane would rather have people wonder if she ever had such hopes for Mr. Bingley than know of them for sure and pity her for the misfortune. I confess, I haven’t been much help to her. All this time I have been assuring Jane that Mr. Bingley will be back before long and that his sisters’ scheming will come to naught in the face of his love for her. I cannot comprehend how a man who was so fiercely in love not a week ago can be turned astray so easily.”

  “Perhaps it is for the best then.” Elizabeth stared at Charlotte in shock at this poor defense of Jane, but as Charlotte always did when speaking unpalatable truths to Lizzy, she pressed on. “Make no mistake, it is a tragedy to lose a match such as Mr. Bingley. But if he is so easily led by his friend and his sisters, then perhaps Jane shouldn’t be marrying him. While his easy disposition has seemed charming, this might prove to her that the both of them are too agreeable. Their whole marriage would be spent being trodden upon by everyone else. It is a small thing to worry about, to be sure, but now that Mr. Bingley is not returning Jane might choose better in the future.”

  “Why Charlotte, how can you say such things? Who cares that he was ‘too agreeable’! They were in love!”

  “Were they? And was it the sort of stout love that you consider so worthy of praise?”

  “You saw him at the ball, Charlotte. He could scarcely take his eyes off Jane. Twice I tried to converse with him and the man was almost rude in his inability to remember that there were any other people in the room!”

  “Lizzy, you’ve seen me distracted to the point of impoliteness by a piece of music. That does not mean I would devote my life to a harpsichord.”

  “That’s not the same thing Charlotte, and you know it.”

  “Is it not? Jane is lovely, anyone with eyes can admit that. Any man might be forgiven for being distracted by her smiles. However, admiration of beauty does not equal love. Certainly not the kind that you so cherish, the kind that might drive a man to defy his family and stay in Meryton to propose to a woman that his own sisters disapprove of.”

  “What more could Bingley have done that you would have taken for love?”

  Charlotte paused. “Honestly, my dear Lizzy, I don’t know. I haven’t made as particular a study of the emotion as you have. You don’t believe me when I say that I consider love incidental to happiness in marriage, but I speak the truth. Moreso now after we all thought Mr. Bingley in love with Jane, myself included. And yet he’s in town while she pines away at home. But I will give you this, Lizzy, I do not believe that we were all so wholly deceived in Mr. Bingley’s affections.”

  That was insufficient comfort for Elizabeth. “You don’t believe Jane was forward enough in her feelings for him.”

  “I agree that she was quite in love with him, but no, I think for anyone who does not know her as we do it would’ve been difficult to be sure about the way she felt.”

  “But she does love him, and he loves her!”

  “And what, my dear Lizzy, is the good of that when he still goes away?”

  Elizabeth bit her lip. “No. If Jane had pretended more then she felt for Mr. Bingley it would have been a lie, and she would have ceased to be Jane. Such artifice is not in her character and Bingley would’ve fallen in love with a lie. I would not have my darling Jane be a different person than she is simply to secure the proposal of any man, even one so fine as Mr. Bingley. We were all sure that Jane had secured his affections and the reason he did not propose can be squarely laid on the shoulders of his horrid sisters. It was their whispers that drew him away, not something that Jane did wrong. Love should be the only basis for a marriage, Charlotte, not falsehoods. You know my opinion on this and it will not change simply because Mr. Bingley does not have the common sense to see when a woman is in love with him and lacks the strength of will to propose when he’s in love himself.”

  “That is a fine ideal Elizabeth, one that I have heard great talk of but never seen in practice.”

  Elizabeth took Charlotte by the hand. “What has made you think this way, Charlotte? You speak so ill of marriage, and yet I thought you were supporting Jane in this?”

  “I do believe I am supporting her. I think it better to deal with the facts before us rather than what we hope will be. Would it not be a hundred times worse for Jane to discover that Mr. Bingley has married Miss Darcy after she has spent months telling herself that Mr. Bingley loves her and will come back?” Elizabeth pursed her lips but could not argue otherwise.

  “And it is not marriage I think ill of, Lizzy. It is your fanciful notion that marriage must only be a matter of love. After all, if Jane with all her sweetness cannot find love with a man who is perfectly in the mood to adore her, then what hope do the rest of us have that such attachment is even possible? I think it better to choose for the practicalities you can be sure of than for romance that you cannot.”

  “You may speak as ill of love as you like, but I know you too well to believe that you would be content to spend the rest of your days married to some man who you regard as nothing more than a landlord, or one you must endure while you raise your children. You would not be so impermissibly stupid as to condemn yourself to that!”

  Charlotte s
hould have bitten her tongue. She should have thanked Elizabeth for having such a high opinion of her. She should have warned Elizabeth that to a woman of twenty-eight, landlord husbands and unfavorable fathers were less upsetting than no husband or children at all. But Charlotte said none of these.

  “Or perhaps, I am so certain in my foolish beliefs that when Mr. Collins forces his presence upon you once again it will be because he intends to make an offer of marriage to me.”

  Elizabeth’s burst of laughter petered out when she realized she was laughing alone.

  “I’m not teasing you, Lizzy.”

  “But you have to be. Mr. Collins can’t have proposed to you.”

  “He has not, but the last words he spoke to me were that he intends to. I know it seems impossible to you that Mr. Collins might secure any woman’s good favor after he has so spectacularly lost yours, but he would be a serviceable husband, and serviceable is all I might ever have hoped for in a spouse.”

  For perhaps the first time in Charlotte’s recollection, Elizabeth was stunned into silence. “You needn’t fear that it is anything more than contemplation. As I said, he did not propose. Even Mr. Collins knows better than to make offers to two different women in the space of a week. Nor was I lying to you when I supposed he might find himself ‘indisposed’ when it comes time for his next visit. He strikes me as rather the out of sight, out of mind sort of lover. But had he summoned up the courage to make me an offer, I would have accepted him.”

  “But he is ridiculous!” Elizabeth’s outrage lifted her to her feet.

  “All men are ridiculous, Lizzy. I’ve reached the point where I can no longer reject suitors for that defect alone. Mr. Collins can provide me with a comfortable home and a pleasant situation. Though he will never be as charming and worthy a conversationalist as you, my dear Lizzy, he is of a steady character and has connections that I might use for my brothers and sisters. While his deficiencies are such that they would make you miserable, I am convinced that when balanced against all I have to gain Mr. Collins will be a perfectly acceptable match.”

  “You cannot mean this, Charlotte. It is impossible for you to be happy with so conceited and narrow-minded a man. He is silly and stupid in a way that you have never been able to abide in any of our acquaintances and now you would willingly pledge the rest of your life to such a creature?”

  While Charlotte had expected Lizzy’s objections to marrying for anything less than love—and to Mr. Collins in particular—it took all Charlotte’s patience not to say something unpardonable in reply. “Stupidity in an honest man is forgivable. I have waited quite long enough to find a husband superior to Mr. Collins and I have yet to discover a man who is not so stupid in some regard that thoughts of marriage become untenable. When I tell you that I believe it better to know as little as possible about a potential husband, I speak from painful experience. If you come to know any man well you will discover that he is unforgivably absurd in some way. I would like to be getting on with my life Elizabeth, and Mr. Collins is a perfectly acceptable means of doing so.”

  “You consider a man so weak-willed that he did not propose to you before he left to be acceptable?”

  “He considered it reckless to propose without Lady Catherine’s approval. That is not a lack of will, it is common sense.”

  “It is abject idiocy for him not to see your value well enough that he would need anyone’s blessing!”

  “We shall have to agree to disagree on whether a lack of impetuousness is a virtue or a vice in a potential husband. He would be a fool to threaten his future in so blatant a matter as to not have Lady Catherine’s permission before he proposes. Although, I agree that I cannot imagine what objections she might have to me. You can take some comfort that I believe it unlikely Mr. Collins will return to make me an offer. If I were a lady of his own neighborhood I imagine he would propose simply to honor all he has implied to me, but with no connection between us to prick at his conscience I do not think it will happen.”

  Charlotte would have liked Elizabeth to offer her some solace. While disappointment and no small amount of grief were high upon Charlotte’s list of present emotions, humiliation was the foremost. She had been rejected by Mr. Collins. For all Charlotte could tell herself that the man had legitimate reasons for withholding a proposal, this was the rare occasion when practicalities were insufficient to soothe her pride.

  However, it did not seem that Elizabeth was willing to step into the gap and comfort Charlotte’s wounds with reassurances that there would be other men, and it would difficult for them not to be better than Mr. Collins. All Elizabeth offered was an abrupt wish that Charlotte might have a fine day, and that, “You might forgive me for my hope that he will not return, and that you will never be his wife.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Despite Charlotte’s hopes to the contrary, Elizabeth did not soon return to Lucas Lodge. Upon Charlotte’s first visit to Longbourn after their disagreement, Mrs. Bennet had met her with a declaration that her ‘ungrateful daughter had just stepped out for a walk’. Charlotte did Elizabeth the courtesy of finding excuses to keep away from Longbourn after that.

  The Bennets were not Charlotte’s only source of information in the world, so even without Elizabeth’s input she heard from the neighbors how Mrs. Bennet was telling everyone in Meryton how ill Mr. Bingley had used her darling daughter. (And yes, Charlotte had expected Elizabeth at her door to complain about another failed attempt to curtail her mother, but Elizabeth never appeared.)

  Charlotte also knew that one of the officers had proposed to Miss Wright after knowing her only for a week; Mr. Perry, of the regiment, had been discharged for his behavior towards the butcher’s daughter; and Lizzy’s favorite, Mr. Wickham, had transferred his affections to the new heiress, Miss King. However, being in possession of all this information was nothing compared to the chance to discuss it with Lizzy. Charlotte had been so perfectly attached to Elizabeth over their many years that she had grown accustomed to enjoying Elizabeth’s conversation and relying on her opinions. To be lacking in both made Charlotte feel unaccountably lonely.

  Charlotte, Elizabeth, and Jane had suffered their disappointments in these last weeks, and such disenchantment ought to be shared. Charlotte wanted to know how Jane was recovering from Bingley’s probably permanent absence. She wanted to see if more than Lizzy’s pride was wounded by Wickham’s sudden and practical shift in affections. And in truth, she wanted to share her own frustrations about Collins and hope that perhaps Wickham’s choice would be enough to help Lizzy understand Charlotte’s.

  However, Elizabeth never appeared at Charlotte’s door to share her woes and Charlotte thought she was respecting Elizabeth by staying away. While still neither approved of the other’s opinion, both were quite willing to put aside the squabble. But each waited for the other to take the first step and so things remained as they were.

  Without Elizabeth engaging her free time, Charlotte found herself more at the immediate call of her three sisters. To Lucy, the youngest, this meant rambling walks, while Maria asked nothing more than Charlotte’s good opinion on the minutia of her day. Henrietta was the only sister to notice the lack of Elizabeth and thus was markedly cold to their friend whenever they happened across her. Charlotte tried to explain that Elizabeth had done nothing wrong, but Henrietta had just wrapped her in a hug and said she didn’t need to hear Charlotte’s secrets to know her sister was in the right. Then Henrietta had kissed Charlotte’s cheek and urged all four of them out on a walk.

  So it went for almost a month, Charlotte spending time with her sisters while both she and Elizabeth waited for a sign from the other that they might resume their former intimacy. The first break in this routine came with the arrival of the Gardiners for Christmas, and thus to Lucas Lodge for dinner.

  After the meal, the parties settled at their various tables to play the aimless sort of cards that happen when participants are more inclined to gossip than to play. Charlotte was swept away to a
sofa by Maria and Henrietta, their company cause enough to ignore the speaking glances Jane sent her way while Elizabeth focused on her cards.

  Henrietta dropped down with a thump and declared, “La, but I’m exhausted. I don’t think I could talk to another person.” The words were so ridiculous that Maria reached over to check Henrietta’s temperature. Henrietta batted down her sister’s hands. “I’m fine.” Charlotte broke into giggles and her sisters followed.

  “What a charming picture you all make.” Mrs. Gardiner’s appearance before them once would have been a pleasure. “I hate to interrupt, but my nieces have asked that I gather some more young people to dance.”

  Henrietta stuck out her chin and was about to object on account of her exhaustion, but Charlotte gave her hand a squeeze. “Go enjoy yourselves.”

  “But Charlotte—”

  “Off with you. I wouldn’t want you to give up your night for me, and Mrs. Gardiner will be excellent company.” Charlotte waived her sisters on their way, and when Henrietta hesitated Charlotte gave her an honest smile that she would be fine.

  Mrs. Gardiner took the sisters’ place beside Charlotte. The fine lady had enough sense to wait a minute before she leaned in and murmured, “I feel that I ought to confess to you that Lizzy has shared with me about your recent experience with Mr. Collins.”

  “I suppose I ought to be grateful that if Elizabeth must tell people about such a humiliation at least she’s being selective.”

  “My dear Miss Lucas, you know that I would never betray Lizzy’s confidence, or yours.”

  “I know, and though I am grateful for your restraint, I would prefer it if Elizabeth chose not to share how poorly she thinks of me.”