Excerpt & Giveaway: A Quick Succession of Busy Nothings

 

Hello, readers! The blog tour for ‘A QuickSuccession of Busy Nothings’ is winding down - I hope you have been enjoying the excerpts I have shared along the way. There is a very dramatic scene I have been saving for the end, though it is so long that I have had to split it in half, with the second part posting on Saturday….

To set the scene, all the principal characters have gone on an excursion to explore some castle ruins near Oakham Mount. In today’s excerpt, cousins Lizzy Bennet and Mary Crawford engage in some eavesdropping with Lady Susan Vernon, and they don’t like what they hear….

 

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Lady Susan looked around the empty stone room at the top of the tower, and then moved toward the window. It was wide enough for all three women to lean against the cool stones and peer out of it, and as Mary and Elizabeth joined her there, Lady Susan held a finger to her lips in a gesture of silence. 

Elizabeth curled her fingers around one of the stones that lined the window as she peered down and beheld two gentlemen standing some twenty feet below. She could just make out Mr. Darcy’s voice clearly as he said, “Thank you, Bingley. You have done me a kindness, and set my mind at ease. You must allow me to do the same for you, and give you some advice about Mary Crawford….”

Beside her, Mary drew in a sharp breath, her posture tense. Lady Susan laid a hand atop Mary’s, her voice barely audible. “You would know, would you not?” Mary gave one dignified nod of her head before fixing her gaze on the gentlemen below, while Elizabeth closed her eyes as if to hear them better. 

“I know you think her cousin a superior creature,” Mr. Bingley said. “Despite all that you said of her family, despite your hateful silence in the face of Caroline’s criticism – silence which she will interpret as agreement, I hope you know – and even if you are right about their inferiority, I know you care for Elizabeth. How can it be wrong for me to like her cousin?”

“She is an actress,” Mr. Darcy spat. Elizabeth flinched, and she could feel Mary shudder at her side. 

“I do not know what you mean, unless you speak of our theatrical, and you seemed to enjoy certain aspects of that amusement well enough. I saw how you looked at Miss Elizabeth throughout the process. What, because Mary took to the scheme with such alacrity….”

“She is a schemer, through and through,” Mr. Darcy said, cutting his friend off brusquely. “Do not feign ignorance with me. I cannot believe you to be so blind as this. You know what your sister is like, and as your family she has more claim on your affection. Do not let a woman you have known but a few months prevail upon you in such a way.”

“I do not agree that I have been prevailed upon,” Mr. Bingley said, the trace of a question in his voice.

Mr. Darcy sighed heavily. “Bingley, you are my dearest friend besides Richard, and truly one of the best men I have ever met. Your kindness, your affability, and your optimistic approach to living your life are all qualities I admire tremendously, for I do not possess them in abundance as you do. But these things make you vulnerable to those who seek only to take advantage wherever they can.”

“I will admit this may be the case with my sister, though I am endeavoring to resist her poison persuasion. It was Mary who inspired me to do so!”

Mr. Darcy groaned. “Can you not think why? Can you not see she only wishes to supplant your sister as puppet master?”

“I resent that, Darcy,” Bingley cried. 

“Of course – I apologize. It was an extreme thing to say, but I hope you will see what I mean. Mary Crawford would pull the strings if she could – if you allow her to.”

“You mistake her, Darcy. She is cleverer than any woman I have ever met, and clever women are often mistrusted. My aunt says a woman’s wit is her best weapon against a world that seeks to suppress her. She has given me much to think on, of what a woman’s plight must be, and I am proud of Mary for growing so clever. She has adapted to her own hardships far better than I ever have to any of mine.”

“Yes, a clever woman can twist any situation to her advantage, and I see that is just what she has done! I have seen how your Lady Susan and Miss Crawford have begun whispering together, when before I had the impression they held one another in some contempt. Why do you think that may be?”

Mr. Bingley hesitated a moment before making his response. “Well, I am sure you will say it is some wicked scheme, so get on with it.”

“Lady Susan has come to you because she has nowhere else to go. Perhaps it is indeed a very sad thing – I will not dignify the sordid rumors that follow her wherever she goes by repeating them. It does not matter. The reality is that she needs to remain in your favor, just as Miss Crawford hopes to do.”

“Mary loves me, Darcy, I am sure of it. Of course she wishes to be on good terms with my aunt, whom I am happy to support, whatever people say. And honestly, Darcy, even if the rumors are true… she was married to a very old man for so long, poor thing….”

Lady Susan laughed softly, and shrugged her shoulders when the two women looked at her inquisitively.

“So why does Mary not exert herself to be on better terms with your sister, if it is affection for you that has softened her attitude toward your aunt?”

“That may be my own fault,” Mr. Bingley said. “I have confided in her that Caroline is often severe with me – I have given her no cause to be favorably disposed toward my sister. Indeed, as much as she has inspired me to stand up a little more to Caroline, I rather wish she would make free to give my sister the thorough dressing down she deserves. I should be on bended knee in a trice!”

“And can you believe you are really her only admirer?”

Again Mr. Bingley was quiet for a minute or more. “Edmund Bertram?”

“Why do you think she really came here, Bingley? She knew of Netherfield from her cousins, did she not? She and her brother must have known of the place for many years, intimate as they are with the Bennets. And Henry is a long standing acquaintance of yours – he might have recommended the place to you at any time, even before you rented Kellynch last winter. Yet he did not. Neither of them gave a second thought to the place until the Bertrams came into the area. And then, she claimed to have heard of Netherfield from Lady Bertram. She wished Edmund Bertram to believe that she would never have contrived to come here but for his own mother’s suggestion – she wished to appear innocent of any attempt to pursue him.”

“But she does not pursue him,” Mr. Bingley said. “He pays his addresses to her eldest cousin, and Mary makes no objection to it!”

“Do you truly not see the way she looks at him when he flirts with Miss Bennet? Or the way he looks at her?”

“Well,” Mr. Bingley sputtered. “I have been in love with other girls before, you know, and even if I am not so any longer, I should not wish any of my relations to make love to them! It must be exceedingly awkward. You know this well enough, for I saw how you looked when Richard said he would set his cap at Miss Elizabeth.”

Elizabeth’s breath caught in her throat at this allusion to Mr. Darcy’s feelings for her. She had suspected he liked her, even hoped for it – up until the last time they had walked together. But she could no longer countenance his affections, nor could she believe him capable of holding her in any regard while doing his best to ruin her cousin’s happiness. 

Beside her, Mary let out a shaky breath as silent tears streamed down her face. “That much is true,” she whimpered before bringing her fingers to her lips and turning away from Elizabeth. 

At length, Mr. Darcy spoke again. “You admit you have been in love before. Bingley, I have seen you in and out of love a dozen times or more since I left Cambridge. Each time it has been a fleeting infatuation, each time it was a charming, dark haired beauty who ceased to be a goddess in your estimation so quickly that you would laugh at how you ever could have liked her.”

“You are wrong, Darcy.” Mr. Bingley had raised his voice to his friend, and spoke with greater feeling now. “I laughed at them because they all hurt me, and my choices were to laugh or to weep. Every beautiful woman I have ever admired has found me wanting in some way or another, just as my own sister does. I am a tradesman’s son and I cannot change that any more than I can alter the dozen other defects in my character that the fine ladies of the ton have obliged me in discovering. I am not as tall as some men, nor titled, nor even as rich and powerful as the great peers of the realm. I do not recite poetry, speak French, race my horses, fight duels – I am not even a very good dancer, I trip over my own feet when I am partnered with a woman I wish to impress. Shall I go on? Or can you be satisfied that I have, at last, had the good sense to love a woman who can love me as I am?”

Mr. Darcy was not so easily defeated. “I am sorry for what you have suffered, my old friend. It pains me that anybody should find you wanting. You are the very best of men, and I only want the best for you. I am not convinced that Mary Crawford is what is best for you. I am not convinced she loves you.”

Mr. Bingley’s voice trembled. “How can you doubt it?”

“Because I believe that she came here to resolve some unfinished business with Edmund Bertram, and that after suffering a disappointment in that quarter, she has turned to you as a means to an end. Where one scheme of happiness fails, human nature turns to another. You could offer her every security and comfort such women seek, and she understands that by batting her lashes and flirting with you, she can easily attain a most advantageous match.”

“An advantageous match?” Mr. Bingley scoffed. “If what you say is true, and she cherished some hopes for Edmund Bertram, then that is evidence that she does not care a thing for fortune and position, for he is to be a clergyman! And as I have been in love before, I cannot fault her for the same. I will take her far away from here and she will forget him, as I have forgotten all those other harpies of high society. Or perhaps he will see our happiness and he will go.”

“Can I not persuade you at least to wait? There is no great hurry – take your time and be sure of her regard. I see no cause for haste.”

“And I see no reason for delay,” Mr. Bingley retorted. 

“They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder,” Mr. Darcy said evenly. “Take your cousin Miss Vernon back to school in London. Your aunt clearly wishes it, though she will not say so – I can think of no other reason that she should push your poor cousin at that idiot Collins, but to make school seem the better choice. I daresay Miss Vernon shall be quite in agreement.”

“Perhaps you make a sound point,” Mr. Bingley said unconvincingly. “Well, I shall see to it directly. I can go down to London tomorrow!”

“No,” Mr. Darcy said. “You are hosting a ball the day after tomorrow. While I have no doubt Lady Susan is in complete control of the preparations, and surely your sister is assisting her, you ought to remain at Netherfield. Go to London the next day, and spend a week or two in Town. Ask yourself if you are content enough without Miss Crawford.”

The ladies in the tower did not hear Mr. Bingley’s reply, for Mary stepped back from the window and stifled a groan before covering her ears with her hands. “I can hear no more,” she muttered.

***

 

Mr. Darcy is infamously interfering in Bingley’s love life once again! To be continued tomorrow – how do you think Lizzy will react to his abuse of her beloved cousin? You can read the whole story on Kindle or paperback, and don’t forget to enter the giveaway for a chance to win a free ebook!