Elizabeth was torn. Part of her recoiled from the idea. She did not know Mr. Darcy, and, well, he sounded like an exceedingly unpleasant person, all told, but she felt it might be morally reprehensible to maneuver the man into a marriage with Caroline if he would not actually wish it.
On the other hand, it sounded like a challenge, and Elizabeth wanted to try to see if shecould.
“We cannot tell Mary we are going to actually send the letter,” Elizabeth muttered. “She won’t do it unless she thinks it’s play. And then, if Mr. Darcy does accept, we must come clean with your brother, and I doubt very much he will be pleased that we have forged a letter from him.”
“So, you’ll do it,” said Caroline, smiling at Elizabeth. “You’ll help me get a proposal from Mr. Darcy?”
“I really should not,” said Elizabeth. There were ever so many people in the world who would never consent to do something they thought was wrong. Elizabeth did not know what it was about her that meant that she could bypass the guilt if the idea of the triumph seemed bright enough. It was a sinful fault, undoubtedly. No good would come of it.
“You really should, though,” said Caroline.
“I fear it is not strictly a good and moral thing we are doing here,” Elizabeth said.
“Oh, you’re being ridiculous. There’s nothing immoral about matchmaking,” said Caroline, tittering. “Besides, I can think of nothing better that helping to make your close friends happy, and nothing would make me happier than Mr. Darcy.” She beamed. “Besides, I shall help you find a match once I am settled, I swear.”
Elizabeth didn’t say anything, but she didn’t think she would want a match made this way, one that was secured because the man in question would help her rise socially, one in which she manipulated him into taking her on. But she did not say that out loud to Caroline for fear of offending her. “What are we going to do about the letter?” she said.
“I don’t know,” said Caroline. “We send it off and then we have time to wait for the response and to find somethingto say to Charles about it.”
“There is nothing to be said, however,” said Elizabeth. “I think he will be livid. I should be quite angry if someone wrote a letter pretending to be me, and quite angry indeed if someone was being invited to my house behind my back! What could we possibly say?”
“I think you’ll think of something,” said Caroline with a shrug. “You always do.”
Oh, so it was down to her to explain this away, then. “No, Caroline,” she decided. “No, we can’t do this. We simply cannot.”
Caroline scoffed. “Certainly, we can.”
“No,” said Elizabeth. “Here’s what I propose. Contrive to get me to London with you, as you have already said you would do, then introduce me to Mr. Darcy there, and perhaps I can help you there, but trying to get him here, now, it’s too much subterfuge. I shan’t participate, and that’s final.”
Caroline shrugged. “All right.”
Elizabeth hadn’t expected her to give up so easily. “All right?”
“Yes, you’ve made it quite plain that if I want to get Mr. Darcy here, I must do it without you.”
“No, I don’t mean you should do it alone. I mean you shouldn’t do it at all.”
“Yes, I understand that’s what you think,” said Caroline. “I shall handle the subterfuge, then, if you’d rather not get your gloves dirty.” She tittered.
Elizabeth only groaned.
Then she was unsure of what she should do. Should she warn Mary not to write a letter for Caroline? Should she go to Mr. Bingley and tell him that his sister would be forging a missive from him?
She did not think that any of these behaviors would ingratiate her to Caroline, of course, and she was not entirely sure if she actually wanted to prevent Mr. Darcy from coming to stay at Netherfield or if she had to bear the burden of being the arbiter of what was right and good inthis situation.
Still, she knew that saying nothing was a sin of omission.
So, in the end, she likely would have warned either Mary or Mr. Bingley, but as it was, she was distracted when her father announced at breakfast one day that they were to have a visitor that very evening.
Her mother was not the least bit pleased to have such news dropped in on her so quickly but her father indicated that he had just received communication from the man and there was little for it.
The visitor was a cousin of Elizabeth, in fact, the man who would inherit Longbourn upon her father’s death. His name was Mr. William Collins, and the letter he sent spoke of making amends to Mr. Bennet’s daughters on the subject of his being the beneficiary of the entail, which could only mean one thing, Elizabeth determined.
He was there to marry one of the Bennet sisters.
It meant, of course, that it was probably going to be Elizabeth.
She was the eldest, unmarried daughter with Jane off and settled at Netherfield, after all. So, it would mean that she would be secure here, mistress of Longbourn, for the rest of her life.
