In Netherfield Library and Other Stories by Meg Osborne

Author:Meg Osborne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: 19th Century, Pride and Prejudice, Regency, Persuasion Variation, Jane Austen Fan Fiction, Jane Austen, JAFF, Elizabeth Bennet Darcy, Elizabeth and Darcy
Publisher: Meg Osborne
Published: 2017-10-28T16:00:00+00:00

THE ODIOUS MR DARCY?

Darcy wrinkled his nose. Was it to him these two young ladies referred? He almost stepped out of the shadows to confront them, but to do so would be to admit he had been listening, which was the height of bad manners. No worse than discussing a gentleman in his absence! he blustered, before another thought assailed him. This, in turn, was no worse than the comments of his that the ladies had discussed - comments he himself had made about this particular lady in her absence.

He turned the words over in his head. They had not sounded so unkind when he uttered them, but to hear them repeated before his ears by the very woman they concerned, he felt a wave of shame rise over him. How would he feel to hear a lady of his acquaintance dismissed as “tolerable”? To hear someone refer to Georgiana in such a manner?

His conscience rebuked him, and he briefly considered marching straight up to the woman he had wronged and apologising. Fortunately, in the very next instant he thought better of the impulse, for he would never in a hundred years approach a pair of women so bent on the dislike of him.

“Mr Darcy!” Caroline Bingley’s sly voice appeared over one shoulder, and he turned to greet her with a perfunctory smile. Now there would be no remedying the situation, for if his assessments were unkind, Caroline’s were downright vicious. “And what interests you so intently in this particular corner?” She glanced towards Elizabeth Bennet and her friend, before letting out a wry laugh. “Are you becoming acquainted with the gossip of the evening?”

“Hardly,” he said, with a derisive snort. “I care little for gossip.”

“You admire someone, then,” Caroline pressed. “And you lurk here to observe her without being seen yourself. Pray, which lady has so captured your attention?”

“None, Miss Bingley. I merely wished to avoid further unnecessary conversation.”

This last had been laden with meaning, but one thing he had learnt about Caroline Bingley, to his detriment, was that the lady did not understand, or chose not to understand, the use of tact and subtlety.

“How fortunate for you, then, that I have come to join you. How do you enjoy the evening?”

“It cannot be over too soon for my tastes,” Darcy said, hoping to swiftly bring the conversation to a close, that Caroline would not be encouraged to linger with him for the next quarter hour, offering her own spiteful commentary upon the evening.

“Surely it would go quicker for you if you were to dance, Mr Darcy. Some exercise, a little harmless conversation -”

“Did I not just assert that I am no fan of pointless conversation?”

“Indeed,” Caroline laughed, but it was an awkward, stilted, sound, and Darcy felt sure he had hurt her feelings by his short dismissal. His conscience flared once more but with altogether less ferocity than it had in defence of Elizabeth Bennet. For where the latter was a veritable stranger to him, having done nothing to deserve his unkindness, Caroline Bingley, at least, warranted some verbal dressing down.

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