An Unexpected Ally

Part 23

"This is not the way to Longbourn," Charles grumbled, when the Netherfield carriage turned yet another corner and succeeded in taking them the long, diverted circuit Darcy had outlined to their driver.

"We shall arrive presently," Darcy reassured him, exchanging a look with his sister. The scheme had been devised between them, to get Charles out into the world again but not take him immediately to Longbourn, where he was certain to cause upset to himself and Jane Bennet's whole family.

"How pleasant this countryside is!" Georgiana remarked, her voice and smile doing the hard work of elevating the stormy mood inside the carriage. "I see now why you were eager to return."

Darcy was not sure if this was directed towards him or Bingley, but as the latter's scowl merely deepened, he threw himself into the breach with an answer.

"It is not Derbyshire, but certainly far prettier than London."

"And you must tell me about Meryton," Georgiana continued, with a desperate look at Bingley. She hoped that the longer they travelled and the louder they talked they might somehow exhaust Charles Bingley completely and persuade him out of his foolhardy errand. "Is it quite large?"

"Compared to London?" Darcy opened his mouth to respond further but before he could, Charles had commented, his voice lacking its usual brightness but with at least a spark of interest.

"We might go there first, I suppose." He wrenched his gaze away from the window to look at each of his friends in turn. "I know you are trying to distract me from calling on Jane in hopes I will forget. I shan't, but perhaps you are right in that I needn't go there right away. If Georgiana wishes to see Meryton, let us go to Meryton."

Darcy opened his mouth to protest. The very last place he wished to take Georgiana was to Meryton, where she would be within walking distance, perhaps even within sight, of the barracks. How could he possibly keep her from being reunited with George Wickham?

He will be working, he reassured himself. And we need not stay long.

He hesitated too long in offering a counter-argument, even if he could have thought one up, for Georgiana's face lit up at the suggestion of Meryton, and before Darcy could say another word their instructions were relayed to the driver and the carriage changed course, lurching along the road that would lead them to town.

"We shall just take a short tour," Bingley said, growing more like himself with every turn of the carriage wheel. "Perhaps I shall purchase some flowers. I suppose it will be better to arrive with a gift than to turn up empty-handed, eh, Darcy?"

He smiled - the first genuine smile Darcy had seen on his friend's face since the party's arrival from London and quite some time before. Darcy managed only a grimace in return.

"I should like to see all the places I heard Mary talk about," Georgiana exclaimed, turning a rapt expression towards the window so that she might be first to glimpse Meryton's main street of shops and see if the reality matched the picture she had conjured in her imagination.

"I do not imagine she had so very much to say about the place," Darcy replied, tight-lipped. "As far as I recall, you spent most of your time talking about music."

"That shows what you know!" Georgiana teased, her eyes rolling. "As if two young ladies could have nothing of interest to discuss except music. We talked about her family, for you know I am always eager to know people, and about her home." She smiled. "I told her about Pemberley, too, of course."

"Of course." Darcy shifted uncomfortably in his seat, not entirely pleased with this intelligence. How often had he been a feature of his sister's conversation? How often had Elizabeth been a topic of Mary's? He frowned, considering the matter, and was distracted enough from his sister's eager chatter that he almost did not hear her trilling observation.

"Oh, is that the barracks?"

Silence swept through the carriage interior, and Georgiana realised too late her mistake.

"No, I am mistaken. It is surely just a building. Oh, look! A book-binders. We must stop there, William."

Bingley's features, which had almost been lightened to a smile, folded once more into a scowl that looked quite unnatural on his fair and amiable face.

"I suppose I might call at the barracks just as easily as Longbourn, and have a resolution to this mess," he growled, stopping only when Georgiana turned and laid a pleading hand on his arm.

"Don't!" Her voice trembled with anxiety. "Please don't! Richard is my cousin, and you are my friend, and I do not -"

"You can hardly do anything until you have spoken to Miss Bennet," Darcy said, cagily. "What good will it serve you to call out her fiancé if she truly spares no more affection for you? You will make enemies on all sides."

It was a bargain Darcy was making. He knew there would be a confrontation before long, one way or another, however much he wished to avoid it. If only he could keep it from taking place today, and keep it from happening at a barracks where more problems than those between Charles Bingley and Richard Fitzwilliam might erupt.

"You wished to buy flowers," he reminded his friend. "Let's make that our aim. I am sure you, like I, could stand to walk a few steps and as Georgiana is fond of reminding me, one can never truly appreciate a place from inside a carriage."

His voice was pleading in a way it did not often need to be with Charles Bingley, and it seemed to work, for his friend's scowl held out only a moment longer.

"Very well," he whispered, unclenching his jaw and attempting to smile. He patted Georgiana's hand warmly with his own. "Don't fret, Georgie. I shall not act rashly any more today."

Georgiana let out a relieved sigh, her gaze meeting Darcy's and mirroring his disbelief. They had avoided two rash acts already and Bingley had been back in Hertfordshire only a couple of hours.

And I fear we have merely delayed, not averted, future disaster, Darcy reflected, feeling his heart-rate slow to something approaching normal as the carriage put the barracks behind them and continued to their destination.