A/N: Wondering when the inimitable Lady Catherine will show up? Tell me whether this version of her Ladyship lives up to your expectation!

Chapter 42: Lady Catherine's Defeat

Lady Catherine was indeed sitting on the sofa where Darcy found Lord Fitzwilliam earlier. On entering the sitting room, Lord Fitzwilliam went up to greet his sister, sat down opposite her and said exuberantly, "Ah, Catherine! How good of you to be the second person in the family to wish Darcy joy on his betrothal to the incomparable Miss Elizabeth Bennet of Longbourn, Hertfordshire! Come, come, pat his back, or pinch his cheek to show how pleased you are with this brilliant match! Miss Bennet's connections will make us all shake loose the centuries of dust wrapped around us and become a modern family with inroads into the industrial future."

Lady Catherine was speechless and stared at her brother while Darcy made a deep bow to greet his aunt. Lady Catherine was not one to lose her tongue for long, and once she found it again, she unleashed it with the utmost impetuous passion, "Brother! What kind of scandalous diatribe was that? Darcy is betrothed? And to a woman with connections in trade? And you support this unsavoury alliance? And you throw Anne away as an unwanted…." Lady Catherine's face turned plum colour at this, trying to think of the right word to express her outrage, "last season's dress? Are you out of your mind?"

Lord Fitzwilliam and his nephew exchanged looks, and Mr. Darcy excused himself to go outside to the hall to dismiss the footman on duty, close the doors to the sitting room, and then went back to his uncle's study but did not close the door between the two rooms.

The Earl then put on his most sober mien and said gravely to Lady Catherine, "Catherine, this is my home and I do not tolerate uncivil screaming, even from you. If you would calm down, Darcy will tell you about his engagement and you will congratulate him as the good aunt that you are. If you insist on causing a loud discord in the family and in my house party, I must ask you to remove to your rooms immediately until you are calmed down and able to talk sensibly, or to remove to Rosings if being civil is beyond your ability from this point onward."

Lady Catherine was incensed that her younger brother should have told her off within hearing of her nephew, who no doubt was listening to this exchange out of sight. However, Lord Fitzwilliam was among the most powerful and the wealthiest members of the peerage, and Lady Catherine enjoyed very much the familial association and basked in his prestige and influence. She paused for a moment and said with less venom in her voice but still a severe tone, "Brother, you must know that dropping such distressing news on me so suddenly would cause me immense grief. I ask your forgiveness for the outburst. It was unladylike, but it was a reaction to Darcy's having committed an unpardonable sin against me, against his cousin Anne and most grievously, against his own dear departed mother by turning his back on us and connecting himself to …cretins in trade."

Lord Fitzwilliam replied in his usual calm and serene manner, "Catherine, please refrain from using disgusting language to talk about people about whom you know nothing…"

Lady Catherine interrupted, "I do know about the Bennets of Hertfordshire. They are thieves who stole the inheritance from my vicar, Mr. Collins, the presumptive heir through an entail of their insignificant estate called Longbourn."

The earl turned to Darcy, who had returned to the sitting room just then, with a questioning look.

"Lady Catherine," Darcy replied, "There was no theft as you so uncharitably described. Mr. Bennet and his father broke the entail long ago. Besides, Mr. Bennet has a younger brother living in America and he has a young son. Were the entail still in force, there would be two more male presumptive heirs before Mr. Collins. As the entail was broken, Mr. Collins has no claim whatsoever on the Longbourn estate."

Lady Catherine replied bitterly, "You have been completely trapped by the arts and allurements of a penniless country chit if you believe such nonsense about a conveniently broken entail in a family with five daughters and no son…."

Before Lady Catherine could continue, Darcy responded quickly, "Lady Catherine, you have not listened to what I said just now: there are two other male Bennets in the family, and Mr. Collins has no claim on the estate. Besides, Miss Elizabeth Bennet is an heiress. Her inheritance will be at least three times that of your daughter Anne."

Lady Catherine did not expect that. She did have a healthy respect for wealth and that was the main reason why she gave her brother the Earl so much reverence, and so coveted Darcy as son-in-law. She resented the fact that as the eldest, she could not inherit the Fitzwilliam's fortune just because she was female, and her entire basis for accepting Sir Lewis de Bourgh's hand in marriage was because Sir Lewis owned a magnificent estate called Rosings which yielded more than the Earl's combined estates. But then her brother inherited Lord Rockingham's immense fortune ten years later. As soon as she had given birth to a daughter, she had planned to marry her off to Darcy so that she would own, in her mind, a fortune larger than her brother's.

She pondered for a long moment, and recovered soon enough and countered, "I do not comprehend you. Longbourn brings in two thousand pounds a year. If there is additional wealth, it must be from trade as I recall Mr. Collins mentioning trade connections on the mother's side. Are you going to allow the shades of Pemberley to be so polluted by such a one?"

Darcy retorted, "Longbourn yields two to three times of what was in the entail, and my betrothed's additional inheritance will be the fruits of years of genius innovations and enterprising industries benefitting King and Country. Pemberley has been built and expanded by more than seven hundred years of Darcys through hard work, valour on the battlefield, and an innate acumen to adapt to the times in addition to prudent marriages. Miss Bennet's uncle is Mr. Edward Gardiner who has contributed immeasurably to the war efforts which make England the greatest kingdom in the world. Lord Wellington himself appreciated highly Mr. Gardiner's ingenious and effective methods to strengthen the Army and Navy, and is the foremost sponsor along with Uncle for the granting of a baronetcy to Mr. Gardiner soon and later perhaps elevating him to the peerage when England wins the war against Bonaparte. His contribution to the glory of England is no less than the Darcys who fought for our country in the past. To call him a tradesman is a gross disrespect."

Lady Catherine was by now quite deflated and turned to his brother and asked as meekly as anyone had ever seen her ask, "Is that true, Brother?"

Lord Fitzwilliam nodded and said, "It is true. Mr. Gardiner will be a baronet before the end of the coming Parliament. I am also seriously considering investing in his enterprise, the Gardiner-Bennet Enterprise which is the driving force behind modernizing the country not only in weaponry but also in many other important facets of society such as building gas lighting, steam engines, mining and the like."

Seeing the still defiant expression on his sister's face, the earl continued, "Catherine, when you found out about this house party, you already knew that Darcy would be meeting a multitude of eligible young ladies and might choose from among them one to become the mistress of Pemberley. If he had favoured Anne for the position, I would not have gone through the trouble to organize the invitations. You must accept that. Except for yourself, no one could see Darcy and Anne together as husband and wife. Now that Darcy has chosen for himself a worthy young lady as his life companion without either of our interferences, we should both rejoice with him and wish him the felicitations that he and Miss Bennet deserve. Both you and I understand the heartaches involved in an ill-matched union."

Lady Catherine was silent for a very long moment, but finally surrendered and turned to Darcy, and said, "Darcy, I wish you and Miss Bennet joy in the coming union. In the meantime, there is no point for us to stay for the house party and we shall depart for Rosings in two days' time."

Earl Fitzwilliam interjected then, "Catherine, Anne has not had many opportunities to be out in society these past few years. Why not stay and let her make some friends among young ladies of her circles? You never know, she may make a suitable match with the brothers and cousins of these young ladies. With her fortune and her connections, Anne is quite eligible. Now that Darcy is no longer the targeted prey, I am certain that all the ladies will be relaxed and will enjoy one another's company."

"I shall give your suggestion some thought and let you know by tomorrow," Lady Catherine answered indifferently.

"Aunt Catherine," Darcy said, "Perhaps Anne would like to be involved in making the decision to stay or leave if you would let her." Lady Catherine looked at Darcy with some remnant of animosity for a moment, nodded and then left.

"That was not too hard. I think it was your mentioning of Miss Bennet's inheritance that finally made your aunt give up her hope of uniting Rosings with Pemberley. I often suspect that your Aunt Catherine wants you for her son so that she could boast of her holdings – you had better believe that she would claim everything you own to be hers – being larger than mine. Her discontent could always be traced to my being the heir and not her. I have let it be known that she would still fall short even if you unwittingly agreed to marry Anne, but she has chosen to believe only what she wants to believe. In view of such an immense fortune you will be inheriting, Rosings seems very insignificant indeed! You never know, she might finally admit defeat. Let us hope that she would not shift her goal to ensnaring the likes of Hertford!" concluded the Earl.

He then asked, for he was in fact quite curious about the Bennet's fortune, "Will Miss Bennet in truth inherit three times Rosings' fortune?"

Darcy thought carefully and answered, "Judging from the way the GBE holdings are growing, it is indeed possible. Mr. Bennet's investments into GBE of less than ten thousand pounds in total have grown to almost half a million pounds in assets in the last twenty years. The Bennet men tend to live long lives. In another twenty years, the value of Mr. Bennet's shares in GBE may very likely grow two to three times its present value at the minimum. On the other hand, Rosings, though a substantial estate yielding about ten thousand a year, cannot support lady Catherine's insistence to live far beyond her means. In fact, every year she adds to the debts from Sir Lewis' time and the debt service consumes half of its income. Rosings could produce as much as thirty percent more, but Aunt's willful interference with the management of the estate makes it nigh impossible. Are you aware that last year, Aunt Catherine spent over four thousand pounds on five new chimneypieces in the public rooms at Rosings? Moreover, she is planning to add a magnificent east wing with a park that models on Wentworth-Woodhouse." The Earl looked suitably astounded, and Mr. Darcy continued, "Uncle William, I would have asked for Elizabeth's hand even if she were penniless and her father's estate were entailed away from the female line," Darcy maintained.

"Is it not fortunate that you have your lady love without having to make any financial sacrifice?" Lord Fitzwilliam quipped.

"Indeed," said Darcy and walked with his uncle to their chambers to get ready for tea. He decided to leave it entirely in his uncle's hand to deal with the house guests about his no longer being in the marriage mart as the Earl so deftly handled Lady Catherine and even wrangled out of her a congratulation on his engagement. His face turned sombre when he remembered how at one time, he was in fact weighing pursuing Elizabeth or not precisely based on her perceived lack of fortune and her connections to trade. He muttered under his breath, "What a blighter!" His uncle turned to him and raised his eyebrow. Darcy smiled weakly at his uncle's inquiry and proceeded to his own rooms.

Chapter 42 Notes

1. The Marquess of Hertford was very rich – his income from the funds alone was £40,000 a year! He, however, was also known to be among the worst rakes.

2. About not marrying for love in the upper class in those days, Earl Grosvenor's parents both committed adultery and because of that could not even apply for a divorce. Earl Fitzwilliam had only one son, the heir, and remarried a lady one year after his wife of 52 years had died. The second wife was already 73 years old and died after one year of marriage. This does not mean that the Earl was not happily married the first time, but one could speculate based on the circumstances. Lady Catherine's marital discord will be mentioned in a later chapter. This chapter note was originally in a later chapter where the relevant part has been cut out, but I want to give you some insight into why Lady Catherine finally accepted, though reluctantly, Darcy's engagement to another when the Earl mentioned the heartache caused by ill-matched marriages.