Detective Mary

Chapter 47

"At Rosings Hall, Mr. Darcy proposed to me."

-- Yet Mary is not as happy as the last time Jane and Mr. Bingley exchanged words. The reason was simple; if Elizabeth had agreed to the proposal, she certainly would not have kept it a secret from her family.

The journey back to Longbourn was noisy, and it was not until they were ready to rest for the night that Elizabeth found the opportunity to tell Jane and Mary.

"Sh-Mr. Darcy?!"

As expected, Jane, who was introverted by nature, showed her surprise.

But given that Mary had secretly spoken to Jane about Mr. Darcy's feelings for Elizabeth long before London, she quickly reacted with a subconscious glance at Mary.

Mary desperately winked at Jane, signaling her not to tell Elizabeth about the conversation between the two.

Elizabeth: "......"

Yet what secrets can there be between sisters? Elizabeth looked at Mary and Jane rather breathlessly as they exchanged signals through the air, "Do you two take me for a fool. Mary was jumping up and down in front of me, saying all sorts of nice things about Mr. Darcy, and then he proposed, and I knew it all, and she must have been bribed by Mr. Darcy! Tell me, Jane, has the girl come up with any more ideas?"

Mary: "I didn't!"

Elizabeth: "You have no credibility with me anymore, and I'm not listening to your defense."

Mary: "Woo."

Seeing Mary's resigned look, Jane giggles.

She shook her head, "You've wronged Mary, Lizzie. She only told me early on that Mr. Darcy had a crush on you."

Thank goodness! Jane had kept her word between them and not told Elizabeth the whole truth.

Mary did have the idea that if they didn't work out, she would try to set them up again. Luckily, Jane was quick, and only told her part of the story, which was enough for Elizabeth to poke Mary in the head with her hand.

"You really are in the know," she grunted as she knocked Mary on the head, "and you knew about it, but you told Jane first and not me?!"

"Ouch!"

Mary covered her head and ducked behind Jane, but she still had to argue, "What do you want me to say? When I say the words 'Mr. Darcy', you act like I don't care and I won't listen, so if you don't clear up the misunderstanding first, will you believe me when I say it?"

This is also true.

Elizabeth was a little embarrassed herself when she thought of her earlier one-sided impression of Mr. Darcy.

But she wasn't sorry that she had been prejudiced, and until Mr. Darcy apologized again and again, Elizabeth's prejudice had come from what he had done, and she didn't see a problem with that. What was problematic was ......

Jane calmed Mary down while she saw the smile on Elizabeth's face solidify and she gathered her easy manner.

"You have not told everyone about this," Jane said worriedly, "because you refused Mr. Darcy, did you Lizzie?"

Elizabeth looked back.

The ever intelligent and clever second sister raised her chin slightly as she kept her tone calm, "Yes, I turned him down."

Mary: "Why?"

In fact, Mary had a general idea in her mind as early as when Elizabeth returned alone and had to privately explain Mr. Darcy's proposal.

"Yes, Lizzie."

In Jane's opinion, Mr. Darcy's qualifications were top-notch; he was a man of integrity and insight, not very articulate and a little arrogant, but a man who knew what was wrong and could correct it.

Such a good man, who is devoted to Elizabeth, is simply a perfect match.

"Since Mr. Darcy has already apologized to you and you have accepted," she said softly, "and know that he is not a small-minded, vile man, why do you refuse him?"

"Because I don't like him."

Elizabeth spoke rightfully, "His sudden proposal of marriage really startled me, it was clear that there was no communication between us other than apologizing, he didn't know me and I didn't know him, I couldn't just blindly agree to get married because he had a lot of money in his pocket."

True to Elizabethan style.

Mary was so surprised to get such an answer. Elizabeth's view of love is the same as that of Jane Austen, the author of Pride and Prejudice - that is, while material conditions are vital, emotional understanding and love for each other are equally essential.

Mary believes that in time, Elizabeth will come to understand Mr. Darcy's goodness as well as the original storyline, and will be deeply attracted to his excellence. But she also agrees with Elizabeth's rejection of the moment: material money is by no means all that can make a woman give in.

"And how did you reply to him?" Mary asked.

The plot of Rosings Hall in the original was quite a drama. Mr. Darcy, on the one hand, was so overwhelmed with love that he directly proposed to Elizabeth; on the other hand, he counted out her whole family with the gesture of I love you so condescendingly that you don't catch yourself being grateful.

Can be described as a straight man to the home, Mary thought of the novel plot can not help but want to laugh.

But now there was no misunderstanding or prejudice between the two. Even if Elizabeth's refusal made sense, Mary couldn't help but wonder about the scene.

"I said it was too sudden," Elizabeth confessed, "at least for the moment, for me to promise him."

Mary and Jane exchanged silent glances at that.

Just because you don't say yes "in the present" doesn't mean you won't say yes in the future. The fact that Elizabeth didn't say anything proved that she still had a soft spot for Mr. Darcy.

That's nice.

Mary let her heart drop. It seemed that without her tossing around any funny ideas, and as long as there were no more misunderstandings, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy would come together out of appreciation for each other. She couldn't help but be happy at the thought of a possible happy future.

Trying to clear up the misunderstanding before was the right thing to do!

Both sparing Jane and Mr. Bingley the torment of a forced separation due to a misunderstanding, and allowing Mr. Darcy to realize the problem early on and talk to Elizabeth respectfully and as an equal, and seeing both sisters hurtling toward happiness without having to endure the grief and torment of the original twists and turns, Mary felt as if she had settled her lifelong affairs as well.

Just ...... she could have more than just two sisters.

"The fact that Mr. Darcy proposed is minor compared to what I am going to relate to you below."

Elizabeth gathered a thoughtful look as she wrinkled her nose slightly, ignoring Mary and Jane's eye contact because of her own concern and anger.

"Though I did not consent to Mr. Darcy's proposal, he was gracious enough to show understanding," she said, "and such a display was all the difference from the Fitzwilliam Darcy Mr. Wickham spoke of."

Ah, Mary understood at once how Elizabeth would blush when she mentioned Mr. Wickham during the day at the inn.

"So I made my exit to confront Mr. Darcy."

Elizabeth spoke with a look of indignation, "Wickham was deceiving us! It wasn't that Mr. Darcy wouldn't give him the parsonage at all, but that he voluntarily gave up the position and demanded a large sum of money to leave. When the money ran out he shamelessly approached Darcy again, and only after being rejected did he come to Meriden, ready to join the militia regiment."

"Sh--"

Jane's eyes widened, "I can't believe this is happening? And why didn't Mr. Darcy state it?"

Elizabeth: "......"

Hearing the question, Elizabeth looked resigned, but she calmed down, "It is the honor of an innocent man that is at stake, and Mr. Darcy told me the facts because he trusted me, and I must bear the honor of others."

She spoke firmly, and Jane and Mary could not afford to press the matter further.

But Mary knew that the innocent person Elizabeth spoke of was Miss Georgiana Darcy. Like Lydia, Mr. Darcy, the beautiful and naïve sister, had been deceived by Wickham's rhetoric and was determined to run away with him.

The difference is being stopped by Mr. Darcy from his own sister's naïve impulses, while Lydia has really done something foolish.

"So it seems," concluded Jane, "that this Mr. Wickham, is not only unreliable, but a villain of low character ...... Mary was right in reading people."

It's all about the superpowers that come with traveling through time and space la.

Looking back at Mr. Wickham himself, if she didn't know the original storyline, Mary wouldn't dare to say that she could see through his beautiful skin at a glance. A scumbag is a scumbag, but Mr. Wickham has a very high IQ, which is why his actions are so convincing and impeccable.

It was a pity that his cleverness was not used in the right way.

"Now the question is," Mary went on at Elizabeth's words, "what's to be done when Lydia is so haunted that she refuses to believe in reality?"

Elizabeth ticked the corners of her mouth, "Don't be a pompous ass, I think you already have an idea, why else would you have to provoke her into betting her hat with you?"

Mary just laughed even at the banter.

She did have a little idea.

In fact, Mary didn't mind Lydia's search for love. In her opinion, boldly choosing one's man of choice and taking the initiative is one of the courageous things to do and one of the signs of enthusiastic self-expression and the pursuit of an independent soul and independent mind.

But this premise is that first you have to have an independent soul and mind.

If Lydia could really marry a guy with a good character, handsome looks and who loves her deeply, even if she were to be a brainless fool for the rest of her life, she would be quite happy instead, wouldn't she? The difficulty now is that no matter what everyone says, Lydia is just confused by Wickham's handsomeness and decides that he is a good man.

According to Mary's opinion, a silly girl like Lydia has to fall on her own feet before she can sincerely realize the error of her ways. And it would have to be a hard fall, the kind that shattered her bones.

But in the twenty-first century a woman who married the wrong man could back out of a divorce, and everyone took that for granted; in the present day the problem was much different.

Besides, this is also her sister ah, Mary can fight with her and bully her, others can not!

"Lydia loves hats in her time," said Mary, "so let her take them as a wager, so that when she loses big, and next time she is foolish enough to disobey her parents and sisters, she will have to think of her beloved hats."

So Mary could only provoke Lydia for the time being by such small means, and reverse the process of leading her to think gradually.

After all, we all know what kind of person Wickham is, and it's easy to get him to reveal his face. The problem is that there are other scum after Wickham, and if Lydia doesn't learn how to recognize human nature on her own, she will sooner or later fall.

And just as Mary was wondering how to get around Miss Georgiana Darcy's past so that Wickham's scummy attributes would be completely exposed to Lydia, he took it upon himself to come to her door and give Mary a ready-made opportunity.

Early in the morning of the following day, Mr. Bennet, seeing that the weather was fine, made a rare decision to leave Longbourn and visit the stage at Meryton. Mary had nothing to do about it, so she went with her father.

She was strolling along the street with Mr. Bennet, when she came face to face with Mr. Wickham, who had already changed into his red uniform.