Outside the Parlour
Outside the Parlour
by Andrea Demetrius
Part 1
In truth, Darcy knew he could not overcome his fate. Marriage news and prospects of it kept closing in on him, and a decision was to be made soon. He was, after all, a single man of eight-and-twenty and in possession of a good fortune.
When Bingley announced he was looking for an estate and then – true to his disposition – proceeded to lease it the same day he saw the property, Darcy kept silent about the feasibility of his friend’s prospects, confirmed it was a short-term agreement, and assented to accompany him and provide advice when needed.
They were both fleeing.
Darcy had heard only rumours about his young friend’s latest entanglement, but Bingley said enough – warm protestations and eyes distractedly studying the quarters’ furnishing – to know that this season’s ‘angel’ had rejected his offer. Darcy felt a twinge of regret for not being there to support him, but several events had converged and had not permitted him to act otherwise.
Having to bear being reduced to a mere bystander, maintaining his carriage while feeling useless, mortified and undone, until his Pemberley housekeeper – recalled post-haste to London to tend his sister’s situation – proclaimed the matter resolved, was almost causing him to become distempered as well. The normal way of his world appeared now to light his shade strangely and it felt almost as if he were wearing a disguise.
Georgiana was acknowledging their presence, but her written apologies were long and rambling, and barely alluded to the summer’s events, after an initial outburst defending her virtue in a shocked rejection of her full ruin. Mrs Reynolds believed her, and attributed her poor health to the nerves, and the absence of her menses to the lack of appetite and the subsequent loss of weight. These were things Darcy had not expected ever to learn about.
And then there were the other happenings. The news-sheets, the dark whispers in the corners at his clubs, acquaintances leaving the city, or suddenly announcing their betrothals.
He winced internally and firmly avoided unravelling any more of that poisonous thread, and as such he focused on Bingley’s new establishment.
