A month later, that phone call that Will kept expecting finally came: from his great-aunt, Catherine De Bourgh .
According to those who had known her the longest, Catherine De Bourgh was once a very kind and generous woman. She came from a poor French Canadian family and at the age of twenty-two, after graduating from a fine arts school in Montreal, she moved to Ontario and became an actress. In the 1930s, she was one of Canada's most well-known movie actresses as well as a devoted activist for the rights of French Canadians. In 1937, she helped start a boarding school for girls of lower income families who wanted to get into the fine arts in Quebec, which helped increase her good reputation.
However, despite all this success, her personal life had been very unstable. Her first marriage was in 1933, in which she had been very happy and close to her husband, but then he died of a severe illness in 1939. After this, Catherine went into a deep depression and disappeared from the public eye for a year. She was very secretive about what happened during that time, but two rumors spread about this: the first was that she spend that time getting treatment at a mental hospital, which could have included a painful psychoanalysis and shock treatment, the other was that she'd been having an affair with a close female friend. Catherine denied both of these rumors, but there had been strong evidence for both of the accusations. In 1942, after getting back into her career a year before, she married again and gave birth to a daughter. However, there were reports of her and her husband getting into violent fights and cheating by the both of them, and the marriage ended in 1945, with Catherine gaining full custody of her daughter. But despite all this, she remained beloved by Canadians, who knew her as a generous giver, a devoted Catholic, a passionate actress, and a proud French Canadian.
Nowdays, she resided in a mansion in the countryside of Prince Edward Island along with her sickly orphaned granddaughter Anne. She provided financially for Will and Georgina when necessary, but mainly they were on their own. However, when scandals occurred, they had to deal with her wrath.
"William, if Georgina wants to come back to Canada, tell her that she may, but under the following conditions," she said with a slight French accent that was most obvious when she was serious about something.
"What is it, Aunt Catherine?"
"First of all, she must stay with me for a year. She shall attend a fine private school nearby and keep Anne company. Also, she may not see any boys or men. After that affair she had with George Wickham, that would be unacceptable."
"Aunt Catherine, what happened wasn't Georgina's fault. Wickham is crazy…"
"Enough of that nonsense, William. I'm not at all happy with his recent behavior and do think that he should seek help of some kind, but he is not insane. If this has to do with the death of that poor girl, I think he's the one that dealt well with it. As for you, I think you're the one who remained troubled. You won't spend time with any women, barely get any sleep, have such rude manners in front of old friends…"
"Aunt Catherine, let me deal with my own problems. I have the show coming up in two months, and if this is your attitude about Georgina, then I would rather have her stay with me. Goodbye."
"William Darcy, don't you dare…"
He hung up. He didn't know what to think about his aunt. There were moments in which she was very understanding, but mostly, she was very stubborn and didn't want to listen to anyone. But then again, this was probably something they both had in common, even though neither of them would admit it.
