A/N – This is some old school assignment I found and thought I'd upload it… Possibly OOC, but it's my idea of Caroline's perspective, so can it really be wrong? :P This is just a oneshot, and there's no plot whatsoever!
*All dialogue is straight from the novel
** All rights to Jane Austen… I don't own anything ya da ya da ya da
Mother always said that agreeing with a man will cause a rise in affection. I thought that tonight was my chance. It had been four years I'd been of Mr Darcy's acquaintance and he had not shown the slightest inclination for me! But this stay at Netherfield was changing everything. I was using Mother's advice, in order to render Mr Darcy hopelessly in love with me. I should snub the other eligible ladies in the room, and make their flaws obvious. Though, I smirked, Miss Elizabeth Bennet hardly deserved the word 'eligible'. In the sitting room, while her sister was on her sick bed, she was reading, hardly even sociable!
"Do you prefer reading to cards?" My brother in law, Hurst, asked. I decided here was my chance to act on the advice I had been given many years ago.
"Miss Eliza Bennet despises cards. She is a great reader and has no pleasure in anything else," I said, laying out the cards for Whist. There! Mr Darcy would look for a sociable wife and certainly not one who always read those insufferable books. A quiet, steely voice roused me out of my triumphant reverie.
"I deserve neither such praise nor such censure." Miss Elizabeth said, "I am not a great reader and I have pleasure in many things," I was shocked to hear her be so rude towards me, her hostess! To speak back to one who was willing, albeit reluctantly, to take her and her ill sister in for a week, maybe more. Now that was unattractive independence. How dare she! I was about to interject when my, ahem, darling brother Charles tastelessly remarked about Jane Bennet. I believe Jane to be a sweet girl, but with such relations! She was not very likely to make a good match. I glanced down at my cards, thinking of ways to attract Mr Darcy's attention away from his letter. I saw his eyes follow Miss Elizabeth's figure as she walked over to the small bookshelf we kept in the sitting room. Charles quickly offered our library, in case the books were not to her taste. Her taste! The barely educated brat probably had none.
"I am so astonished that my father should have left so small a collection of books." He was a reader, after all, "What a delightful library you have at Pemberley, Mr Darcy!"
"It ought to be good, as it has been the work of many generations," Mr Darcy turned and stared at me for a short moment before turning back to his letter. That was a start, now perhaps some flattery?
"And then you have added so much to it yourself, you are always buying books." I fluttered my lashes.
"I cannot comprehend the neglect of a family library in days such as these," He didn't even look up. Maybe flattery was not working. How about agreement? Mother said that that was how father fell for her.
"Neglect!" I did my best to sound as indignant as possible, "I am sure you neglect nothing that can add to the beauties of that noble place. Charles," I turned to my brother, "when you build your house, I wish it may be half as delightful as Pemberley," I knew Mr Darcy loved his home and was attempting to find a mistress for it. Oh, how I dearly wished to live in that lovely place! Charles nodded and agreed. "But," I saw another chance for agreement, "I would really advise you to make your purchase in that neighbourhood, and take Pemberley for a kind of model. There is not a finer county in England than Derbyshire." At least this was true, Derbyshire really is a fine place in the summer.
"With all my heart; I will buy Pemberley itself, if Darcy should sell it," I was shocked, surely Mr Darcy wouldn't sell, would he? I wanted to be Mistress of Pemberley, nowhere else!
"I am speaking of possibilities, Charles," I said, casting an anxious glance towards Mr Darcy. Fortunately, he seemed unaffected.
"Upon my word Caroline, I should think it more possible to get Pemberley by purchase rather than imitation." I declare, my brother has no social grace whatsoever. But silence once again fell over the sitting room and I searched for another agreeable subject. My mind fell on Miss Darcy, his beloved sister.
"Is Miss Darcy much grown since the spring? Will she be as tall as I am?" I restrained from smirking. I was known in society for having an exquisite figure.
"I think she will. She is now about Miss Elizabeth Bennet's height, or rather taller." Miss Elizabeth Bennet's height! Why her? He was infatuated!
"How I long to see her again! I never met anybody who delighted me so much." I decided some malicious remark was required to draw his attention back to me, "Such countenance, such manners! And so accomplished for her age! Her performance on the pianoforte is exquisite." Unlike a certain Bennet's playing, I refrained from adding.
"It is amazing to me, how young ladies can have patience to be so very accomplished as they all are." What was Charles on about now?
"All young ladies accomplished! My dear Charles, what do you mean?" I smiled, more like a grimace, as he continued to exalt the fairer sex's talents.
"Yes, all of them, I think. They all paint tables, cover screens, and net purses. I scarcely know anyone who cannot do all this," You have not met Miss Elizabeth then, I thought. I think he kept talking, but I stopped listening, and turned my attention back to gaining Mr Darcy's approval, then hand in marriage, then his wealth.
"Your list of the common extent of accomplishments has too much truth." I shook myself from my daydream to realise Mr Darcy was speaking, "The word is applied to many a woman who deserves it no otherwise than by netting a purse or covering a screen. But I am very far from agreeing with you in your estimation of ladies in general." Miss Elizabeth looked up and I saw her eyes start to smile, "I cannot boast of knowing more than half-a-dozen, in the whole range of my acquaintance, that are really accomplished." In no way did I agree with his statement, but I reminded myself of mother's advice and spoke before that girl, that upstart could get a word in.
"Nor I, I am sure," Mr Darcy glanced at me with, dare I hope, approval?
"Then, you must comprehend a great deal in your idea of an accomplished woman." I almost groaned. That Eliza Bennet!
"Yes, I do comprehend a great deal in it," No! Now she held Mr Darcy's, my Mr Darcy's, attention.
"Oh! Certainly, no one can be really esteemed accomplished who does not greatly surpass what is usually met with. A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing," I rattled off a few more skills, "or the word will be but half-deserved." I stood, eager to demonstrate my accomplished behaviour. Mr Darcy spoke from his writing desk. I began to imagine again. Mrs Fitzwilliam Darcy, Mistress of Pemberley. Such pin money! Mr Darcy and Miss Elizabeth were in their own little world. I started to daydream again. Maybe I needed to think bigger than Mr Darcy.
Perhaps he had a cousin.
A/N: I know that Caroline does stay fixed on Mr Darcy for a while longer, but the line from the 2005 movie just jumped straight onto the page!
Please leave me a review, I'd love to hear some (constructive) feedback!
Also, if you have a plot idea but no idea how to write it, please let me know and we could figure something out!