Title: Dare to Refuse Such a Man
Rating: T (PG-13) – Most of this story is turbulent, but relatively innocent. However, going forward, there are some scenes which hint at/depict domestic violence.
Disclaimer: Though I write stories based on the novels and characters of Jane Austen, this work belongs to ME and no one else. Unless given express permission, no one besides myself has the right to distribute or profit from my intellectual property. All rights reserved.
Setting: Regency
PSA: I hope that you and yours are safe and healthy during the COVID-19 crisis. Take precautions for yourself and others and please don't hoard any goods that your family doesn't need; we're all in this together, even while we remain physically apart.

Summary: It had never occurred to Fitzwilliam Darcy that, once he had chosen a bride, her father might dare to refuse his consent. However, a woman worthy of being pleased is also worth fighting for. DE, Regency, clean romance.

"He is the kind of man, indeed, to whom I should never dare refuse anything which he condescended to ask."

Mr Bennet, Pride and Prejudice Volume III, Chapter 17

!WARNING! From here we deal with domestic violence issues (NON-sexual in nature). Please be aware before you proceed.

Chapter Thirty

Thursday
November 14, 1811

Bennet rubbed his eyes beneath his spectacles, massaging the ache which rested behind them. It was a sensation which had afflicted him much of late, ever since Lizzy had returned home from Derbyshire with unrealistic expectations for her future. It was presently exacerbated by the whining pitch of his doltish cousin's complaints.

"Lady Catherine is growing most impatient, Cousin! We must hold the wedding as soon as possible, before Mr Darcy returns from London. There is no other choice."

Dropping his hand into his lap, Bennet huffed an impatient sigh at Mr Collins. "And what would you have me do, sir? Mrs Bennet has blocked the reading of the banns and my spineless brother-in-law Philips will not lift a finger to write up any marriage articles against his wife's injunction. Even were these obstacles not in place, I can hardly drag Lizzy up the aisle and force her to accept you before God!"

Collins gave Bennet the kind of patronizing look which he had not been the recipient of in nearly thirty years, not since he had been practically a boy. He could not help stiffening in offense that the imbecile before him labored under some sort of delusion that his elder, more intellectually gifted cousin was somehow lacking in understanding. "And why not?"

"I have not the pleasure of understanding you, sir," Bennet gruffly responded.

"Why can you not...ahem...enforce your authority with your daughter. If you were more firm, I am positive that Cousin Elizabeth would bow to the greater wisdom of her father and future husband."

Bennet seized upon Collins meaning immediately but, hoping that he was wrong for once, barked at him, "Speak plainly, sir."

Collins, with that condescending little simper about his lips, elaborated, "Lady Catherine often advocates the use of physical persuasion to check disobedience in those beneath her. She says that it is the duty of the head of every household to make sure that the rod is not spared lest his dependents become spoiled by his softness. Should you make your point with a cane, perhaps, or a strap of leather – "

Bennet jumped up from his seat, his chair skidding back behind him with a squeal against the floorboards. He was breathing heavily and he could feel the flush of rage rising into his face as he stared into the face of the man who had just suggested that he should – what he implied was unspeakable!

Collins, the worm, had flinched back the second Bennet had ascended to his feet and now cowered upon the seat of his chair – Lizzy's seat, the one she had occupied in better days to entertain her loving Papa with her cleverness – as if afraid that he would be struck. It was tempting, very tempting, to demonstrate upon Collins exactly that which he advocated for Lizzy.

"Am I to understand," Bennet's voice was quivering with the anger radiating from him, "that you wish for me to beat my daughter into submission?"

Collins swallowed thickly and licked his lips. He then began to worry his hands in his lap and Bennet was pleased to see that he was nervous. "Well – erm – Lady Catherine s-says that it is not inappropriate in situations such as these – "

"I care not what Lady Catherine thinks about any subject, much less her attitudes about physical persuasion; I have never, nor will I ever, strike a woman for any reason. A true gentleman is a protector, not a brute who would abuse those under his guardianship! And if I find that you have lifted even a single finger against my Lizzy – or any other lady of this household – you will dearly regret the consequences. You will find yourself ejected from Longbourn so fast that it will make you dizzy. Do I make myself perfectly understood?"

"W-W-Well – "

"Do I make myself perfectly understood?" Bennet reiterated at a bellowing level. Collins scrambled to his feet and knocked over his chair in an effort to distance himself from his elder cousin's rage.

As he slunk slowly away from Bennet toward the door, Collins agreed, "Y-Yes! Yes, of course!"

Acquiescence to his edict calmed Bennet somewhat, but his anger had merely reduced from a boil to a simmer; he was by no means appeased. "Do not make the mistake of crossing me in this, Collins. Lady Catherine may be your patroness and you may feel free to follow any other piece of nonsensical advice she gives you, but I am still the master here at Longbourn and I will not tolerate brutality against any woman under my care. I realize that you have not the sense God gave a goose, but surely even you can understand this explicit injunction. Now, get out of my sight – I am disgusted with you."

Collins tripped over his own plodding feet as he scurried out of the book room, fear spurring him onward. Bennet soon after heard the door to the guest room slam closed and assumed that his cousin must have gone to hide beneath his bed like a cockroach. Good riddance.

Bennet's surge of emotion drained out of him once he was properly alone and his shoulders slumped as the resulting tension similarly dissipated. What in God's name had he done? He had never been in ignorance of his cousin's stupidity – a single letter from the dullard last spring had informed him of that much – but Bennet had never once seen any sign of malice in Collins. He was unreasonably self-satisfied, could barely tell one end of a book from the other and had the grotesque tendency to be sycophantic toward his betters, but not at any time had he shown a propensity for violence. Was this Lady Catherine's influence? Collins had mentioned the old bat in his nasty speech about enforcing his authority with Lizzy. Truly, it would be best to sever Collins' connection to Lady Catherine as soon as possible.

But what if that was not enough? Would Collins continue to follow his former patroness' advice, against all sense, decorum and moral imperative, even after he was settled at Longbourn with Lizzy? Could Bennet ever trust his precious daughter – any of them – with such a man?

Bennet's gaze trailed along the floor until he spotted the chair which Collins had turned over in his haste to flee – Lizzy's chair. It laid there on its side, helpless and battered, after being unfairly abused. Unable to tolerate it sprawled out before him, Bennet stepped out from behind his desk and righted it, setting the chair gently back where it belonged in Lizzy's favorite spot.

As he moved back to more properly judge the angle at which he had set it, Bennet noticed a new blemish, a slight dent, upon the wood which made one part of the backing. The spot was dull where once it had been shiny, discolored from Collins' manhandling, and Bennet felt sick just looking at it.

What in God's name had he done?

o0o

Friday

November 15, 1811

Bennet sipped at his coffee from the tray Hill had brought up and grimaced as the lukewarm beverage flooded his tongue. Well, he could not have expected much better since he had disdained going down to the breakfast table this morning where he might have enjoyed it fresh; such was the price of avoiding his problems.

Setting the cup upon its saucer, Bennet pushed it away and sighed. It would be no help in curing his headache if he could not countenance drinking it. Having indulged a little too much in port the evening before – absent the disgusting company of Collins – Bennet was now going to suffer the throbbing side effects of drowning his sorrows in spirits. Of course, he likely deserved it, considering what he had done. Pushing Lizzy at that...that...oh, his brain hurt far too much to think of an insult befitting his monstrous cousin.

It had taken many hours of incriminating self-reflection and half a decanter of his finest port, but Bennet was finally beginning to see that he had erred terribly in allowing his selfishness, his indolence to influence Lizzy's future happiness. It seemed so bleakly obvious now, but Bennet had genuinely thought his motives nearly pristine when he had insisted upon having his way. It would be magnanimous, he had believed, to make Lizzy his heir as if she were the son he had never been able to father. It would solve all of their problems with the entail if he could keep Collins under his thumb as Lizzy's husband. The logic had seemed perfect.

But what to do now? Should he dissolve the betrothal between Lizzy and Collins, such as it was, and allow Dast – Darcy to marry her in his cousin's stead? It seemed the only reasonable solution, but what if Lizzy were wrong and Darcy actually had abandoned her? Should he then continue with his original plan to give Lizzy to Collins, in spite of his potentially brutal inclinations? Was it better to risk her reputation or her safety? And could Collins be redirected, as Bennet had previously hoped, if he were divorced from Lady Catherine's influence?

There was no clear solution to Bennet's addled mind. Too many variables were at play and his head ached more fiercely with each potentially disastrous issue which occurred to him. For instance, as much as Lizzy claimed to love Darcy, and as determined as the young buck from Derbyshire had seemed when he was last in the neighborhood, Bennet was still not entirely convinced that such a wealthy gentleman would honor his proposals to a penniless lady with no connections. He had seen enough of the world to realize that one could not simply trust in what a member of the upper ten thousand said. Much hinged upon whether Darcy returned to Hertfordshire at all and what sort of deal might be struck if he did. Bennet did not fool himself; there was little other than public shaming he could inflict upon a man of Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy's stature and he could think of no way to force him to honor promises made to Lizzy. Bennet could only hope that his daughter had not been mistaken in her suitor's character and that –

A resounding shriek echoed throughout the house and Bennet sat straight up in his chair, ignoring the renewed pounding in his head. Another scream followed, then another and several more until they all bled into one another as one long, shrill note of sound. Something was horribly wrong.

Scrambling to his feet, Bennet practically flung himself across the room and wrenched open his door. His heart similarly threw itself against the inside of his rib cage with both force and rapidity as he raced down the stairs, through the vestibule and toward the breakfast room, which was gaping wide and glowing brightly in the darkened hallway. There was a gaggle of women – several of his daughters and a couple of servants – blocking his view of what was happening inside and their expressions said nothing favorable about what they were witnessing. Bennet moved a little faster.

Bennet parted the congregation at the doorway, gently setting Kitty aside to make room for himself, and peered into the breakfast room. At the threshold, he stopped suddenly as if his boots had fastened themselves to the floor. His eyes widened at the scene he found within.

What in God's name had he done?

Author's Note: Say what you want about Mr Bennet, he won't stand for actual harm coming to Lizzy. He's a bit of a selfish bastard, but very few people are simple enough to be either good or bad. Such unrepentant villains DO exist, even in real life, but the most evil that your average person gets up to is inaction, entitlement, selfishness and other sorts of common human flaws. Or so has been my experience.

And, before anyone complains that Mr Bennet is too unrepentant and awful to object to Mr Collins' methods, I'll remind everyone that Lizzy vouched for him on this issue in both chapters 17 and 25. Go back and look if you don't remember. And, of course, he would have shown some propensity for violence before now considering the strain of having all the ladies of his household actively working against him. Bennet is a lot of things, not all of them laudatory, but he is NOT Snidely Whiplash standing by the railroad tracks and twirling his mustache. Collins, on the other hand, is a man who lusts after power (hence his adulation of Lady Catherine) yet does not naturally possess it. Hence his willingness to consider "other methods" and force Elizabeth's compliance.

Though I think this chapter explains things pretty well for me, I had a few people express concerns in the reviews last time about whether or not the domestic violence coming up is sexual in nature. IT IS NOT. For future reference and your peace of mind, I will ALWAYS specify sexual violence if that's what you can expect. To me, domestic violence and sexual violence are similar, yet still different enough to have individual warnings.

We're in the final stages now…ten chapters left…

Next Update: June 29, 2020 (MONDAY)
Expected Completion: July 31, 2020

– MrsMarySmythe