Pride & Prejudice: The Untold Stories~Mrs Gardiner & Elizabeth Call at Pemberley

Caroline Bingley finds Elizabeth Bennet at Pemberley

Caroline practiced smiling into her mirror. First, her demure smile. Then shy with a touch of seductive. After that, vulnerable, and finally, tender. She would not practice elated, not yet anyway. When it seemed that he might finally come to the point, then she would practice her elated smile. To do so too early would be bad luck.

As she had last autumn, for example. She had been so certain, when Mr Darcy agreed to be one of the party at Netherfield Park, that it was for her. And it might have been, too, save for the fact that among the bumpkins happened to be one that drew his notice. Happily, nothing had come of that; but it had been sufficiently distracting for him that he had paid her scarcely any notice at all!

But that was all behind them now. Now she was here—in a guest apartment, yes, but at Pemberley. Glorious, elegant, massive Pemberley. She glanced around her, already imagining what redecorating she might do, not in this bedchamber but in that of the mistress.

“Now I will need you to remain still,” her maid said, as she always did when she used the curling irons.

Caroline gave her a tight smile. She hardly needed some maid to order her about and in any case, Lawrence was Louisa’s maid, not hers. One too many in the servant’s carriage, her brother had decreed, and no sense she and Louisa could not make do with one lady’s maid between them. Caroline had pouted and stamped, but her brother had been unmoved. “What can your hair matter,” he said, “when you insist on wearing those turbans everywhere all the time?”

As it was, she did not wear turbans all the time, only some of the time and the reason why was because it was the height of fashion.  Not that she could expect Charles to know that. He was as likely to think Miss Jane Bennet in her three-year-old muslins the height of fashion as his own sisters.

Into these thoughts intruded the nattering of Lawrence. She seemed to think Caroline was anxious to hear all the below-stairs gossip. “…when Mr Bingley went to the Inn at Lambton and then—”

“Beg your pardon?” She asked. “Did you say my brother was at the Inn at Lambton?”

“Yes, ma’am, yesterday, with Mr and Miss Darcy.”

“So that was where they all disappeared to so suddenly.” Caroline furrowed her brow, watching herself in her mirror. “Why ever would they go to Lambton when we had gone through there not an hour before.”

“No one knows,” the maid said in an excited, hushed whisper, “but they say it is something to do with the angler.”

“The angler?” Caroline laughed. “Whatever can you mean?”

“Mr Darcy has invited a man to come fish in his stream this morning. Arrived quite early, and they have been at it since,” her maid informed her. With deft hands, she wrapped one curl in a paper to cool, and set up another.

“Who is he? And why should he be so important that my brother and Mr Darcy go racing off to meet him?”

Her maid thought a moment. “I believe they said his name was Gardiner.”

Gardiner! She stiffened, causing her maid to yelp and draw back. “Miss! Your hair! I nearly burnt you!”

“Never mind that! This Gardiner…who is he?” What Caroline wanted to say was that surely Mr Gardiner of Gracechurch Street was not here, in Derbyshire, at Pemberley no less! The absolute last thing she needed was some person associated with Bennets to intrude upon her time again.

The maid was still occupied with fixing Caroline’s hair. “I know no more than that, Miss Bingley, and to say that the footman who received him said he was a little older than the master, and very finely dressed.”

Well, surely that could not be the same Gardiner? But why would Mr Darcy and her brother have sufficient interest in this man that they should rush back into Lambton as soon as they arrived? And to invite him to come to Pemberley and fish?

If once again these Bennets intruded upon her opportunity with Mr Darcy… Caroline gritted her teeth together.

“Perhaps Miss Darcy would know about her brother’s guest,” Lawrence said helpfully. “As she was likely there when the invitation was proffered.”

“That is possible,” Caroline said slowly. Suddenly impatient for answers, she said, “In any case, are you finished? For I think I should do best to go sit with Miss Darcy.”

Lawrence hurried, but she was not accustomed to Caroline’s hair, different from Louisa’s in that her curls always just seemed to fall apart. No matter how impatient she was, Caroline would not walk about Pemberley looking like she had been caught in a rainstorm. She sat, silently seething, while Lawrence clucked and tucked and re-curled the limp strands of hair.

It was after noon before Caroline was at last descending the stairs. In the time intervening,  her hope had been restored. Likely this Gardiner was someone important to Mr Darcy for business or investment something-or-others. Perhaps he wished to introduce Charles. Perhaps it pertained to Miss Darcy’s own fortune. Who knew! But surely…

Hope died as the footman moved to open the door for her. A laugh, a hated laugh, was overheard floating into the hall and worse? Mr Darcy, coming down the hall from the opposite end, also heard it… and smiled! Smiled in a manner she had not before seen, very nearly beaming.

“A moment, if you please,” she said to the footman, the words emerging through the gall which had arisen in her throat. “Have we unexpected guests, Mr Darcy?”

He startled. Had he not even seen her? She was standing right in front of him!

“Miss Bingley. Um, good morning. Yes, the ladies have come to call on Georgiana.”

She nodded, but she was too enraged to say more. Surely not, not again! How had Eliza Bennet found her way here? Shameless hussy! What had she done, simply presented herself at Pemberley’s door?

She forced herself to sound sympathetic, even though Mr Darcy seemed disgustingly delighted by the turn of events. “How good you are, sir! These Bennets seem to have a habit of inveigling themselves, do they not?”

His countenance hardened. “I assure you, Miss Bingley, that Miss Elizabeth Bennet need resort to no sort of artifice to gain entrance to Pemberley. In fact…”

He cast a look at the door that could only be described as longing, but said no more. Instead, with a tight smile, he opened the door and gestured for her to enter.

Eliza Bennet sat like the queen of the castle, with Miss Darcy tight by her side and Mrs Gardiner across from them. They all smiled past her towards Mr Darcy and Eliza had the audacity to blush. Blush!

Well, Caroline thought spitefully, let me see what else I can give you to blush about this morning.

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