Mr Darcy's Christmas Carol

Part 24

The rejoicing at Longbourn was scarcely ceased when both Mr Darcy and Mr Bingley took their leave. Indeed, they were only permitted to part when Mr Bingley had uttered an excitable invitation to the Longbourn party to join them at Netherfield for dinner that very evening.

"With Darcy's sister we shall be an extended family indeed!" he had said, his eyes bright. When Mrs Bennet mentioned in passing the absence of his sister, Bingley had blinked, as if recalling quite by chance that Caroline was not there.

"She will be there in spirit, I am sure," Elizabeth had put in, and the momentary silence had been roundly got over.

Longbourn itself had been taken over by a spirit of joy all day, so that Elizabeth was barely permitted a moment alone with Jane until she stole her sister away to "ready themselves for the evening", which mean dismissing Jane as "perfectly lovely" and working to wrestle her own dark curls into submission, whilst quizzing her sister on every detail of Mr Bingley's proposal.

"I am so happy for you, Jane!" She sighed, turning away from the mirror, at last, to regard the figure of her sister, sitting primly on the edge of Lizzy's bed.

"I think I am happy for myself, too," Jane admitted, with a self-deprecating laugh. "Although I can scarcely credit it to be true. To think, Lizzy, just a few days ago we were convinced we would never see Mr Bingley or Mr Darcy again, and now here they are returned to us just in time for Christmas!"

"Indeed," Lizzy mused, recalling how changed at least one of those gentlemen seemed to have been by their short trip away. She felt as if she and Mr Darcy had spoken more to one another in the past twenty-four hours than in the entirety of their acquaintance, and she was still more surprised to find herself enjoying their interactions. His scowl, which she had become so inured to as to consider it his true face, had faded and been replaced by an openness of manner and feature that was almost...handsome.

"What are you thinking about, Lizzy?" Jane asked, tossing a hair-ribbon towards her. "I have every excuse to be vacant at present, for my mind is already turning with notions of weddings and where Mr Bingley and I might make our home once we are wed." She blushed, prettily, as she uttered the word. "But what is your excuse?" Her happy countenance faded. "You do not regret the match?"

"Regret it?" Lizzy laughed. "Hardly! I only regret how long it took you to reach an agreement, for if I had had my way, you would have been wed after your first dance." She shrugged her shoulders. "I own that Providence perhaps knew better."

"Providence or Mr Darcy," Jane remarked, carelessly. "Do you know, Lizzy, it was at his insistence that the pair returned so speedily to Hertfordshire? Charles - that is, Mr Bingley - credits him entirely with hastening to Longbourn that we might settle the matter just as soon as we could. Do not you think that most kind of him?"

"Most kind," Lizzy agreed, adding this detail to her newly-transformed mental picture of Mr Darcy.

"Apparently he, too, was eager to return to Hertfordshire, despite having his own house in London where he might comfortably wait out the season in solitude, should he have wished it. Bingley reckons on some strange occurrences in Darcy's mind over the past few days." She shook her head. "He spoke of a night of restlessness, bad dreams that propelled Darcy to change. Is that not strange? I thought Mr Darcy an utterly logical man, unshaken by mere imaginings."

Elizabeth laughed, but she was reminded of her own nightly imaginings the previous evening. She would always have said the same was true of herself: that she was too sensible to allow herself to be swept away in dreaming, and yet she had been unable to rid Mr Darcy from her mind, and in fact, had found herself strangely shy around him all day, as if her dream had permitted her to see a side of their neighbour that she had not heretofore known existed, let alone appreciated. Perhaps he was not different at all: it was merely that she was able to see what he previously kept hidden.

"There! You are lost to me again!" Jane chided, with a musical laugh. "I know you said you slept poorly last night, Lizzy. Are you well enough to come to dinner this evening? Whilst you would be missed, I am sure everyone would understand if you prefer to rest..."

"No!" Lizzy said, with an urgency that surprised her. "No," she softened her voice. "I am eager to go, Jane, and see you at pride of place with your husband-to-be." She linked her arm through Jane's and the two girls began to descend the stairs. "In any case, I am excited to see Mr Darcy's sister, Georgiana. I have promised to be her friend, and you must help me, Jane, if she is as stern as he is wont to be."

As she said the words she felt their untruth and frowned.

"Although, I wager you are right, for he has not seemed half so stern to me of late as he did before their party departed for London. Perhaps we must rejoice in whatever bad dreams prompted Mr Darcy's return, for they have sent him back to us a changed man. A far pleasanter one, at that."

"Far pleasanter," Jane agreed, but she shot her sister a surprised, amused look that Elizabeth chose not to notice.

"Girls!" Mrs Bennet heralded them from the front doorway. "Are you ready at last? We are going to be late. Where is Lydia? Oh, Kitty, dear! You cannot possibly wish to wear all that lace. This is only an informal dinner after all. Come here -"

Lizzy let go of Jane's arm, for her sister wished to speak a word with their father, and sidestepped the rest of her family for the door, making her way alone towards the carriage. Her mind was still on Mr Darcy, and she felt her heart speed up at the thought of the evening ahead of them. She was excited to meet the famed Georgiana, as she had confessed to Jane, but she was perhaps even more excited to be reunited with Mr Darcy himself. She bit her lip. How strange it was to feel so differently about a man she had previously counselled herself to dislike. She pinched herself, hard, on the forearm, to determine she was not still in her dream-world of the night before.

"Ouch!" she exclaimed aloud, and rubbed at the offending pinch, fearing it would bruise before the evening was out. She coloured at her silliness, and the warmth remained in her cheeks. It was not a dream, then. She could not blame her excitement to see Mr Darcy on anything other than her own real feelings.

She was glad when her sisters began to pile into the carriage after her, for their excited chatter prohibited any further dwelling on her thoughts or feelings, and she determined to do her best to ignore them and enjoy the evening without worrying.