A Fine Line: A Pride & Prejudice Variation by Erin Butler & Lydia Lanor

Author:Erin Butler & Lydia Lanor [Butler, Erin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-05-24T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Mr. Darcy rose from bed that morning, his head laden with sleep and his mind a tangled cobweb of conflicting thoughts. After he readied himself for the day, he eyed his calling cards on his desk. He had promised himself at Longbourn that as soon as they arrived in London, he would call upon Bingley’s sister to make her aware of what had happened. He had been writing her letters throughout the courtship and she felt the same as he regarding the relationship between her brother and Miss Bennet. What was he to do about it now?

A part of him still wanted to call upon Miss Bingley in hopes that she would help him remove Bingley from Miss Bennet. The other part wanted to cease contact with her about it all together. They had announced their engagement. He had once thought that not even that would stop him from trying to separate the two, but to see the joy in everyone’s faces that night at the Phillips’s house, he would be a monster to say it did not affect him. Especially since the amount of pure joy on his friend’s face was undeniable. He had not seen him look happier.

Was Miss Elizabeth right? Who was he to determine in what way Bingley should be happy? He could not even say that the love of a woman from such a family would not make him happy anymore. His sleepless night was interrupted many times by Elizabeth’s smile, her eyes, her turn of countenance when he said something she did not agree with. His heart had latched onto something most unwillingly, but latched it had. Bingley and Miss Bennet were not even his true concern anymore.

He looked away from the calling cards. He would not visit Miss Bingley. He would not ask for her help. Bingley, he was sure, would write to his sister and tell her the news and that was that. There was nothing else he could do on that front. But what of the struggle for himself? He knew Bingley was to go wedding clothes shopping with Miss Bennet and Miss Elizabeth this morning. Would it be too much to accompany them?

He stood from the bed and pulled his jacket forward, straightening it around his shoulders before going downstairs for breakfast. Bingley was already there. “Good morning, Darcy.”

“Good morning.”

Still working out his own thoughts in his head, he did not dare say more. They ate in silence. He longed for the artful conversation of one of the Bennet ladies to fill the lull in the conversation. As it was, the only sounds he heard were the scraping of their forks against the plates as they finished their meals.

At last, Bingley spoke. “I am to Gracechurch Street again this morning. I’ve ordered my carriage to be ready by half past ten so that I can retrieve Miss Bennet and Miss Elizabeth to take them to the shops. I would ask you to come, but I do not think you would find much happiness in traipsing about London to find a few bits of wedding clothes.

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