A/N- Yay-I was able to churn another chapter out...mainly because this one was almost done anyway, can't say that about the next one, so don't expect it as quick. Also, it's going to take me a few chapters to get to the actual murder, I'd say at least two more after this one. And lastly, I tried to fix my errors (most notably spelling Bennet wrong, after I published Chapter 1, but even after saving them, they still appeared in the copy you read). Sorry about that! I did my best to let none escape me this time.
Chapter 2-Summoned to Rosings
The last thing that Elizabeth Bennet felt like doing was visiting Rosings after the morning she had been subjected to endure; first there had been the eye opening conversation with Colonel Fitzwilliam and then the jaw dropping encounter with Mr. Darcy. 'The nerve of that man,' she thought to herself bitterly. And now, when all she might favor to do was crawl under the covers and try to sleep her growing headache away, she received a call from one of Lady Catherine's errand boys informing her that she was wanted for a meeting with Mr. Darcy's aunt. Charlotte looked at her questioningly, but Lizzy had no idea why the Grand Dame of Rosings should want a private audience with her. The lad who stood before her at the moment and who appeared to be no more than fifteen she guessed, looked quite pensive and was out of breath; she supposed the matter was most urgent, or at least that Lady Catherine deigned it to be. Not wanting to get the boy in any sort of trouble, and desiring to get through this visit as quickly as possible that she might return to sleep the rest of the day away, she threw on a light coat (the rain had stopped thankfully, but there was a chill in the air) and was off.
"You can be of no loss, Miss Bennet, to know why I have called you here." Lady Catherine admonished, after Elizabeth had arrived and performed a perfunctionary curtsy.
"No, indeed your ladyship, I cannot account for it at all." Lizzy answered truthfully, noting the familiar look of disdain in the lady's eyes. However, if Mrs. DeBourgh meant to frighten her, she would receive no satisfaction for her efforts.
"A report of a most alarming nature has reached me. Do you deny, Miss Bennet, that you have attempted to ensare my nephew to offer his hand to you?"
Elizabeth looked at her, incredulously. "Has your nephew told you this?" she said, her voice raising as she said it.
"I would not embarrass him with such a scandalous tale; I notice that you do not deny the account." Lady Catherine replied, smugly. Gone was the condescension she prided herself on.
"Your nephew has made me an offer." Elizabeth allowed, managing somehow to keep her tone even; although quite apparently by the way her eyes were flashing with anger, her feelings on the matter were very close at hand. Her reply hung in the air, however, which suddenly felt enormously charged with animosity, although from which lady one could hardly tell. "But, since there is no affection on my side, I did not accept him." There, Lizzy thought to herself, that should put an end to this conversation.
She was mistaken.
"Do you not think, Miss Bennett, that I have seen your kind before?"
Lizzy said not a word in response, not that she was intimidated by any means, but rather that she was trying to remain all that was proper. She would stand her ground, but she feared if she spoke too soon, without giving thought to her words, that she might sink to a level she did not wish to go.
"Somehow you have bewitched my nephew; most probably with your youthful charms, your witty conversation, your come hither eyes. And then when he falls into your trap, you mean to lure him even further by rejecting him." Lady Catherine's icy blue eyes penetrated Lizzie's resolve or tried to, the insolent girl would not budge and it made the older woman angrier still.
Again, Lizzy said nothing. She could not help but to remember a similar recourse by Mr. Collins in his ill advised request for her hand, how he had understood delicate females to first say no, when really they meant yes. Lady Catherine paused and gave her guest the once over; scowling as she did so.
"You can not believe that all these vain attempts have not been devised against the men in this family before; but it is not to be borne!" Lady Catherine told her adamantly, and again, added, "You are of inferior birth Miss Bennet; you have no accomplishments, nothing to recommend you at all; and a mother who doesn't seem to care if all of her daughters are out at the same time. Why I have never heard of such a thing!"
It was the third time that very day that her family had been insulted by a member of Mr. Darcy's family (although she did not fault the Colonel as his insult had been second hand and inadvertant), and if Lizzy's resolve to remain silent was starting to give way; the final assault by Darcy's aunt would catapult it entirely.
"It will cease now, Miss Bennett, your ruse has been discovered." Lady Catherine stated. "You will never be welcome in this house again, do you understand me?" she asked, although did not give Lizzy a chance to answer, "You are a country chit with little if any connections, should the halls of Pemberley be thus polluted?" Lady Catherine stood then, raising to her full height which was a mite taller than Elizabeth. Her look was stern, her resolve steely; but if her intention was to see Lizzy cower, she would be disappointed.
" Your nephew offered to me, quite unbidden, but that is no significance to you-you choose to believe the worst of me. But I do not live on your opinion. As a matter of fact, I shall be glad to never enter this house; I shall dance all the way home knowing that I will never come here again. You may die and I won't mourn!" Lizzy said, all in one breath and quite defiantly.
With that, she quit the room and the house, (so relieved to be gone from all it's inhabitants that she failed to retrieve her coat); the relief caused her to release a breath she had not realized she had been holding; if Lady Catherine had thought that banning her from Rosings was punishment, she was sorely mistaken! She was glad she did not have to return there; and more so, that she would not have to see a certain gentleman who she was certain did not want to see her either. She knew she should be sorry for the words she had only just now said to the Mistress of the estate, and later, she would regret them very much, but for now, she felt lighter than she had all this cumbersome day. She almost felt like laughing, perhaps, she thought to herself, she had gone quite mad! So wrapped up in her own musings, she failed to notice what would not have been so extraordinary any way-the groundskeeper tending to a shrub under the window of the very room she had just been in with Lady Catherine. He looked up when she passed by him; noting to himself at the same time that it looked like rain again; he would have to remember to close the window from which only moments ago, he was able to hear every word that was spoken between the two ladies.
The lightness of her mood did not remove the pounding of her headache, and Lizzy was yet in no mood to return to the parsonage and answer Charlotte's questions and so, she decided to stroll through the park for awhile. As much as she would not miss the estate itself with it's overly ornate décor and stifling air; she would miss the lovely landscape. Whoever kept the flowers and shrubbery in fine order did a lovely job, she mused. After wandering about for almost an hour and a quarter, she had calmed down enough to go back to the cottage. She had much to think on and wanted to appear to her good friend no different than when she had last seen her. Upon entering, that same errand boy was standing in the parlor. 'Oh no, what now,' she wondered?. But he wasn't here for her this time, the message was for Mr. Collins, who looked agitated himself to be called away after the dinner hour. He wasn't a smart man by any means, but even he could tell that this was not a social call. Lizzie gave her excuses to Charlotte and went to her chambers without supper; knowing full well that her Mr. Collins was about to hear all about "her come hither looks and bewitching ways" that Lady Catherine, no doubt, would elaborate to him in due time.