A P&P Christmas Carol: A spirited romp through P&P by Sydney Salier

Author:Sydney Salier [Salier, Sydney]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-11-07T22:00:00+00:00

17.9 Bingley

The spirit had returned Bingley to his study in a rather shaken frame of mind. He poured himself another generous measure of brandy before sitting down to consider what he had been shown.

It seemed that he had two issues to consider.

One was how to rein in his sister Caroline.

The second issue was his own behaviour.

As a very gregarious man, he enjoyed the company of people. And he enjoyed the company of ladies. Having passed his majority two years previously, he had started to look around for a potential wife.

He had realised that he had a particular fondness for a specific type when it came to looks. He could not resist getting to know all those angelic creatures, in the hope that one of them would be his perfect partner.

Whenever he had met one of those angels, he had become completely focused on her, until he discovered that they were not suited. Then he had gone on to the next angel without a thought about the previous lady.

Bingley was ashamed to admit to himself that it had never occurred to him to consider how his attention could have affected the lady. If he thought about it at all, he assumed that like himself, she would realise that they were incompatible for marriage and would be happy to get to know the next gentleman, who might be the right one.

Tonight, he had learnt that ladies thought differently, or perhaps were constrained by society to have different expectations.

He chuckled mirthlessly. It was ironic that he had once advised Darcy that if he danced with many different ladies, he would not give rise to expectations, and still appear more pleasant.

And yet, Bingley himself had raised expectations by focusing on his angels. True, he had danced with many ladies at every function, but there was usually one with whom he danced two sets.

That thought reminded him again of Miss Jane Bennet. He had fallen head over heels in love with her and sought her out at every opportunity.

And then he had gone to London without a word of farewell. Admittedly, he had planned to return, but when his sister and Darcy followed him to Town, he had not made the effort to return and find out if the lady truly did not care for him, the way Darcy had claimed, or if she reciprocated his affections.

According to the vision, she had cared for him, but her feelings might have undergone a change after being abandoned, jilted even.

The question was, did he care enough about Jane to return to Hertfordshire and try to regain her affection? If he did go back, would he be able to convince her that he was going to be more steadfast and not again be swayed by his sister?

How would he deal with Caroline, who was completely against his match with Jane?

Would he be able to stand up to his sisters?

Did he want to go to that much trouble?

Was it worth it?

~~CC~~

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.