Mr Darcy's Christmas Carol

Part 1

"Merry Christmas!"

"Season's greetings!"

Fitzwilliam Darcy plastered a polite smile onto his usually grim features. It cost him no small effort, and as a result, the expression was hardly convincing. He was not fond of London society, even when he did not also have Christmas to contend with.

As if sensing the irritable turn his thoughts had taken, Caroline Bingley appeared from within the crowd and greeted him with a dazzling grin that was almost disturbing in its enthusiasm.

"What a wonderful evening this has been," she declared, glancing around her as if the presence of several members of London's high society served only to emphasise her words. "It was a very good idea of yours, Mr Darcy, to return to London for Christmas. Just imagine how dreary Hertfordshire would have been at this time of year." A malicious gleam lit her eyes. "We might have been forced into attending an advent gathering at Longbourn, rather than an evening such as this."

This comment was engineered solely to garner a reaction, and Darcy was unable to prevent a reflexive grimace from settling over his features. An evening in a crowded London townhouse, marking the season among his colleagues and contemporaries might be scarcely bearable to him, but the thought of a noisy, crowded Christmas party at the home of Elizabeth Bennet was a painful prospect, even in imagination.

"Dreary is not the word I would have used," he remarked, fixing his gaze straight ahead, towards the exit, the route of escape he might take when polite obligation had been met, and he was at last permitted to leave.

Caroline laughed as if his words had been a joke. The noise grated on his nerves, and he recalled another young lady's laugh, at another social gathering he had been pressed into attending. His frown deepened, and he shook his head slightly to clear the memory. He had come to London, in part, to escape one Bennet sister. He certainly did not mean to cede his thoughts to the other at every opportunity.

"Where is your brother?" he asked, little caring if his tone were brusque. Where such a mood might offend or upset a young woman of more delicate disposition than Miss Caroline Bingley, even outright insult would not be enough to deter her interest in him. Accompanying them to London at Caroline's suggestion hardly helped my cause, he thought ruefully. I did it for Charles. Yet, now that they were all here, he wondered at the wisdom of the move.

"Charles?" Caroline shrugged her shoulders, affecting ignorance, although the way her eyes immediately sought out the fireplace betrayed her full and certain knowledge that Charles Bingley was precisely where she had left him, occupying a seat near the hearth and staring morosely into the embers. "I am sure he is quite content," she said, as if discussing her brother with Mr Darcy was the very last thing she wished to do at that precise moment. This served only to irritate Darcy further, for it was concerning Charles that she was forever seeking his attention. It is only concerning Charles, Darcy thought, that I give her my attention to begin with.

This was uncharitable, and he felt the disapproval that Georgiana would have given such a sentiment. Georgiana was not here, and Darcy had had his fill of the social manoeuvres of Miss Caroline Bingley long before that evening. She may have posed the question of London as being in Charles's best interests, pressing Darcy into service to separate Charles from a match neither of them approved of, but she certainly did not act entirely out of altruism. In fact, of the three of them, she seemed the only one content with their current position.

"Darcy!" Sir George Newton joined the duo with a booming laugh. "I thought I saw you lurking here in the corridor. You do not often grace us with your presence here at Christmas!"

"This year seems to be the exception," Darcy said, with a polite smile.

"Well, then you cannot mean to stay hiding all evening! I know you shall not wish to dance, and so I shall offer you escape before my dear lady wife ensnares you for her own ends. A group of us are settling to play a hand of whist: come and make a four."

If there was an excuse, Darcy could not find it, and so it was with resignation that he allowed Sir George to lead him away. It freed him from Caroline Bingley's unfettered attention, however, and for that must be rejoiced in. He liked Sir George, as well as he liked any of the London set, and the game occupied all four men in playing, rather than talking, so that the evening passed relatively pleasantly.

"Well, good evening, gentlemen," Darcy said, standing at the close of what would be his last hand. He had stayed longer than he had originally planned, and certainly long enough to be considered polite, yet even so he was not unhappy to be able to make his excuses and turn towards home. He scanned the crowd as he left, to see if he could make out Charles and Caroline. Mercifully, Caroline was fully occupied - this time in conversation with two other young ladies, evidently observing all around them and passing judgment as they saw fit. His friend was not in his usual seat by the fire, and at last, Darcy distinguished him, dancing with an elegant dark-haired young woman. He could see Charles' partner only from behind but something about her movements struck him as eminently familiar. She turned, then, and for half a moment Darcy recognised Elizabeth Bennet. He was shocked into stillness, wondering what on earth she was doing in London, and why Caroline stood idly by, enabling, if not encouraging, her brother to dance with the sister of the woman they had sought to remove from his circle. He blinked, and the young woman's features shifted She was not Elizabeth at all, but some other young woman, with softer features and a less determined chin. Darcy shook his head, wondering why his mind had chosen to play such a trick - and why, of all the women in his acquaintance, it chose to taunt him with Elizabeth Bennet's apparition. Swallowing his discomfort, he acknowledged that Charles, if not happy, was at least fully occupied in dancing. His sister would, Darcy hoped, see to it that her brother was forced into society more than he would choose in his current mood, and with greater success than Darcy would achieve.

He saw his chance, then, for an unhindered escape, and took it, hurrying out into the winter night without a backward glance, lest any other ghosts of Meryton attempted to assail him.

Usually, the proximity of one house to another was something Darcy disliked about London, but this evening he was glad it would be but a short walk back to his townhouse. He hurried down the street so quickly that he quite ignored several acquaintances, who paused to wish him the greetings of the season. He could not quite let go of the notion of Elizabeth Bennet appearing before his eyes, as if fate determined he would not forget her as easily as he intended. It was a trick of the light and no more, he reasoned, but even so, his anxiety did not completely recede, and he did not slow his pace until he reached his own door-step. There, with the door closed behind him and surrounded by his own familiar belongings, he might relax at last.