More Agreeably Engaged by Jann Rowland

Author:Jann Rowland [Rowland, Jann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: One Good Sonnet Publishing
Published: 2022-02-15T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter VII

Darcy could not understand why he had become so angry with Miss Elizabeth. Or rather, he knew exactly why his anger had arisen so quickly. What he struggled to understand was why he had become so angry with her.

It was the same script that had repeated itself since long before Darcy could remember. Wickham, with his charming manners and effortless ability to recommend himself, had insinuated himself close to one of Darcy’s acquaintances, his silver tongue sibilantly whispering his tale of woe. Darcy had enough experience with Wickham’s trails of destruction to know that his stories only contained a cursory resemblance to the truth, details obfuscated, events taken out of context calculated to maximize the effect of Darcy’s treachery.

While this had been ongoing for many years—so long that Darcy could not recall the genesis of it—he recalled with clarity the first time Wickham’s tales against him had come to his attention. No doubt with the vain hope of supplanting him, Wickham had carried stories to Darcy’s father. What he had not counted on was a combination of Darcy’s close relationship with his father and the elder Wickham’s better understanding of his son’s character. It had taken all of Wickham’s skill to convince Darcy’s father that he had merely been mistaken, and thereafter he had confined his endeavors to charming the elder Darcy, eschewing all discussion of the younger as a potential means of his downfall.

Oh yes, Darcy was well aware of the snake’s ability to deceive another into taking the forbidden fruit. What Darcy could not understand was how he had convinced Miss Elizabeth Bennet, a woman whose powers of discernment, in Darcy’s opinion, were without peer.

For a time after his ill-fated separation from Miss Elizabeth, he had wondered if he should not have agreed with Miss Bingley and gone to London. Surely there was nothing for him here, not if Wickham had begun his task of poisoning the neighborhood against him. Then again, now that he knew the truth about Miss Jane Bennet, he would not betray Bingley in such a way—Darcy did not even consider any suggestion that Miss Elizabeth had been lying. But perhaps he should have gone to London, informed Bingley what he knew, and refused to return, washing his hands of Elizabeth Bennet, Hertfordshire, and Wickham all in one.

Sanity soon returned. What would going to London accomplish but running from Wickham yet again? Did he not have the truth on his side? Were virtue and honor not his as well? Further, did he truly wish to leave Miss Elizabeth, a woman with whom he now felt himself in danger of falling in love, to the despicable Wickham’s depredations? Should any hint of Darcy’s recent activities with Miss Elizabeth come to his attention, Wickham would see her as a means by which he might avenge himself upon the man he considered responsible for all his problems in life. Darcy had every confidence in Miss Elizabeth’s virtue, but there had been suggestions in the past that Wickham was not of a mind to accept rejection.

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