Neither Darcy nor the Earl said much in the carriage during the short ride to Longbourn. They both knew what had to be done, as distasteful as it might be to Darcy. While he knew what he had said was wrong, he hated to have to apologize for his behaviour. He was proud of his family name and rarely, if ever, behaved in any improper manner, at least in his opinion. He had never been forced to apologize for his behaviour before, especially to a young lady. However, he knew that he had no choice.
When they arrived at Longbourn, they handed their cards to the butler and asked to see Mr. Bennet. They were immediately led to the library and were shown in. Mr. Bennet was surprised to see them, especially the Earl, whom he had never heard of. He just waited expectantly. He had been shooting with Darcy several times and although he had heard of his insult to his favourite daughter at the Assembly, he had not said anything about this to him. Following his usual practice, he much preferred to avoid difficult situations whenever he could.
Darcy made the introductions. The Earl said, "Bennet, when I was at Cambridge, there was a young don named Thomas Bennet. Would that have been you?"
"Indeed it was. That was before I inherited this estate. I will admit that I miss the academic world. We will have to find time to talk about those years. Now, what can I do for you gentlemen?"
The Earl looked at Darcy expectantly. "Mr. Bennet, I have come to apologize to Miss Elizabeth. I made some unkind remarks about her at the Assembly last week that I should not have said. My apology is long overdue."
Mr. Bennet looked at the Earl. "My Lord, might I assume that your presence here is what is precipitating this apology? How is it that this apology is to be made now, more than a week after the Assembly, and only with your arrival?" He just stood there, waiting. He looked at Darcy with his eyebrows raised, effectively conveying his thoughts about him.
The Earl smiled, "Bennet, I can see you would have made a great don. I admit that I heard about the insult in town and came here to remind my nephew that his words were not those of a gentleman, and gentlemen just do not publicly insult women, especially gently-born ladies."
Mr. Bennet was not finished with them. "Just heard about it, did you, My Lord? I would like to know the details of that." He then turned to Darcy. "However, you had better be prepared if you really want to apologize to my daughter. She did not take your insult well, which should not be unexpected." Secretly, he was looking forward to her reaction as he knew that she had a temper when she was wronged. Her impertinence would not let Darcy off easily.
"I will call her in." He rang the bell and asked the footman to ask Miss Elizabeth to come to the library.
When she did enter the library, she looked only at her father, ignoring the other two. She had heard that Mr. Darcy had come, but she definitely did not want to see him.
"Elizabeth, I would like to introduce you to our guests." She continued to ignore the others. "My Lord, Mr. Darcy, this is my daughter Miss Elizabeth Bennet. Elizabeth, His Lordship the Earl of Matlock, and Mr. Darcy."
Elizabeth made a proper curtsy to the Earl and ignored Darcy totally. "Elizabeth, be polite."
"Father, I was just returning Mr. Darcy's courtesy."
Mr. Bennet almost laughed out loud at these words, but he forced himself not to. He could see that Darcy's ears were bright red. "Mr. Darcy has something he would like to say to you."
The Earl immediately saw that Darcy had met his match.
"I doubt that this gentleman has anything to say to me that I would be interested in hearing."
"Elizabeth! I said that you should be polite. You know that ladies are supposed to be polite no matter what; even if they are treated rudely by so-called gentlemen. Please just listen to what he has to say." Mr. Bennet also wanted to see Darcy brought to his knees for his unwarranted insult to his favourite daughter.
Mr. Bennet could see that Darcy's whole face was turning very red with either embarrassment or anger. He looked at the Earl and saw that he was also enjoying this confrontation as much as he was. He then looked at Darcy expectantly and raised his eyebrows at him.
"Miss Elizabeth, at the Assembly last week I said some very unkind words to Bingley about you. It was very wrong of me to do this, especially as they were not true. I cannot justify my behaviour and will not try to explain why I was in such a bad mood, but I should not have said those words. No gentleman should have said them. I hope you will accept my apology. I am truly sorry for what I said."
Elizabeth still did not look at him. Her anger and mortification were deep, indeed. She turned to the Earl. "My Lord, may I assume that your presence here is what precipitated this so-called apology? I admit that I cannot understand how you came to be involved."
She did not wait for a response but turned to her father. "Father, if His Lordship forced Mr. Darcy to apologize for his ungentlemanlike words, I expect that you will force me to accept his apology." She just stood there looking at her father. He again could barely contain his laughter. He did not dare look at the Earl or Darcy or he would have lost his composure. This was the most fun he had had for a long time. He had heard how haughty Darcy appeared to be at the Assembly, so he enjoyed watching his daughter put him in his place. While he found Darcy to be congenial while out hunting, he had never been with him in any public place, so he was not sure how he acted in those situations.
"Now Lizzy, Darcy does not have a gun pointed at his head or a sword at his throat, does he? Please remember that you are a lady. A lady is a person who can tolerate almost anything. I will only ask that you accept the apology in the same spirit in which it was offered."
"All right, Father, you may tell Mr. Darcy that I accept his apology in the very same spirit that it was rendered." She then turned, curtsied to the Earl and her father, and left the room. She once again completely ignored Darcy. Once she had left the room she wondered if she should have mentioned Mr. Darcy's insult in the letter to Lady Augusta as her words caused such an uproar. She had been very annoyed about it the morning after the Assembly when she wrote to her. She was curious as to what Lady Augusta had done to cause the Earl to come to Meryton to force Mr. Darcy to apologize to her. She realized that she must have repeated the insult to the Prince, and he would have complained to the Earl.
After Elizabeth had left the room, the Earl could barely contain himself. "Bennet, if this were not so important to us, I would admit that I thoroughly enjoy your daughter. I cannot remember ever meeting such an exceptional Lady. You are to be congratulated for having such a daughter." He was tempted to say that he had never seen such a perfect set-down, but he did not want to embarrass his nephew any further than he already was.
"Darcy, just admit defeat and keep your tail between your legs. You have certainly met your match in Miss Elizabeth. I believe you do not have a fan there. Now you know the truth of the expression that 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.'
"Darcy, you might want to have your vision checked as I would never describe Miss Elizabeth's appearance as being only 'tolerable.' Even I can see that she is a very attractive lady. Did you see how her eyes flashed? Wonderful!
"Bennet, my apologies if I upset you by talking about your daughter's beauty."
Mr. Bennet said, "Gentlemen, might I assume you could use a drink? My Lord, port or brandy? Darcy, I assume that you need a very large brandy." Again, he could barely contain his laughter.
"My Lord, I am curious about your statement that this apology is so important to you. I gather that someone very important took exception to Darcy's insult and let you know their displeasure. I assure you that I have no idea how it was made known in town."
The Earl decided that he had to be truthful about this whole situation. "It was the Prince Regent himself. I have no idea how he heard about this incident or what his connection is to your family. He sent his senior equerry to me to tell me what Darcy had done. I immediately came here to sort this problem out." He did not mention the threat he had received.
Mr. Bennet now understood why the Earl had dragged Darcy here to apologize, but he did not explain how his daughter had met Prince Augustus Frederick and Lady Augusta or the debt they owed her. He decided that he would let them worry about it some more. It was Elizabeth's story to tell, not his.
Once he had poured the drinks, he engaged the Earl in reminiscences about their days at Cambridge, leaving Darcy to his own thoughts. Darcy could not stop himself from thinking about a pair of fine eyes that were made even made brighter by her indignation. He had to admit that he had never before been put down so cleverly and completely by anyone, much less a young lady. He began to regret his unkind words as he had never regretted anything before. He knew that he had certainly underestimated the attractiveness of this lady. She was not only physically attractive, but she was also very intelligent, taking after her father. He almost admitted to himself that he had met his match, which had never happened before.
One topic that neither visitor raised was the connection that the Bennets, or possibly someone else in the area, had with the Prince Regent that induced him to force this issue. The very short time between the insult and the appearance of the royal equerry indicated that the connections were very close and personal. The Earl knew that they did not dare risk having Miss Elizabeth remain angry at them. Darcy would have to continue to try to win the goodwill of the lady.
Both the Earl and Darcy initially suspected that it might be Miss Elizabeth herself, but they could not think of any reason why she might have these connections. The next suspect was Mr. Bennet, but again they doubted that he could have the ability to maintain such a contact as he was not known at all in London society. The only other person who came to Darcy's mind was Sir William Lucas, as he was the only titled resident in the area. However, he also dismissed him as he did not strike him as being a person that the Palace would have taken seriously.
Before the visitors left, Mr. Bennet invited them to come to Longbourn in the morning for some shooting. He extended this invitation to Bingley and Hurst as well. "My Lord, if you did not bring a gun, I can lend you one."
Darcy then spoke up, "Do not worry, Mr. Bennet, there are plenty of guns at Netherfield. The Earl will have a choice of which ones he will use. We can also provide him with a loader."
As they exited the library, Mrs. Bennet was waiting in ambush to meet such an exalted guest, as she had asked the butler who the visitors were. She did not realize how similar her actions were to Miss Bingley's, even though she did not do anything so crass as to expose herself to him. Mr. Bennet could not help but introduce his visitors to his wife and remaining daughters.
"My Lord, Mr. Darcy, may I introduce my wife, Mrs. Frances Bennet, and my other daughters, Miss Jane Bennet, Miss Mary Bennet, Miss Catherine Bennet, and Miss Lydia Bennet. Ladies, this is His Lordship, the Earl of Matlock and Mr. Darcy." He decided to continue to embarrass Darcy. "I believe you did not have the pleasure of meeting Mr. Darcy at the Assembly, even though he was there." He saw that Elizabeth was appreciating his taunt.
They all made polite bows and curtsies but none of the ladies commented on Darcy's behaviour at the Assembly.
Mr. Bennet continued, "I have invited these gentlemen to come to Longbourn in the morning for some shooting, along with Bingley and Hurst."
Mrs. Bennet could not pass up this opportunity. "My Lord, I would be very pleased if you might accept an invitation to dine here tomorrow after your hunt." She then looked at Darcy. "Mr. Darcy, you might come as well." By these words, she made it obvious that she extended the invitation to him only reluctantly.
The Earl certainly noticed that the anger directed at his nephew was not coming from Miss Elizabeth alone. He assumed that the ladies had been discussing Darcy's insult and the reason that he came here today. If Miss Elizabeth had mentioned his attempted apology before they came out of the library, they did not mention this either. He turned to Darcy, "Do we have any other plans for tomorrow?"
Darcy wanted to accept so he could try to do whatever he could to lessen Miss Elizabeth's anger at him. He realized that the whole area must be angry with him, which in turn might reflect badly on Bingley as he was his guest. "We are dining with the Bingleys tonight, so I do not know of any reason why we could not dine here tomorrow."
"Then it is settled. Mrs. Bennet, we will gladly accept your offer. With any luck, we will provide some birds for our dinner. I enjoy eating fresh grouse."
Then Jane thought that this might be a good opportunity for her to be in the company of both Mr. and Miss Bingley. "Mother, what about the others at Netherfield? Should we extend our invitation to them as well?"
Darcy was not enthusiastic at having Miss Bingley here as he knew how she had constantly belittled all the Bennets when they were not around. He tried to think of a way to discourage the extension of the invitation. "Mrs. Bennet, that will not be necessary. I was looking forward to giving His Lordship a chance to get to know your family. With four extra people, that would lessen his chance of talking to each of you." He turned to the Earl in supplication for support of his suggestion.
The Earl picked up Darcy's hesitancy. "Darcy, you are right. It would certainly be more intimate if just you and I were here. As we are dining at Netherfield tonight, they should not be too displeased to hear that we are dining here tomorrow."
Darcy had been watching Miss Elizabeth in the hope of seeing a lessening of her anger at him, but he could not read her expression. She still would not look at him. He could only hope that he would have a chance to talk to her to convince her that he truly was sorry and that his apology had not been forced, even though he knew that it definitely had been.
In the carriage on their way back to Netherfield, the Earl berated his nephew once again for his stupid remarks. "Darcy, I cannot believe you would disparage Miss Elizabeth's looks. She is very attractive. If she is even half as intelligent as her father, she would make a good life partner for you. I bet her conversation is lively, but from how she reacted to you and your insult, you may never have a chance to engage her in polite conversation."
"Uncle, do not get your hopes up. Remember that her station in life is far below ours. As well, from the behaviour of her mother and younger sisters at the Assembly, they would do nothing but embarrass everyone they were with. I assure you that I would never want to appear in public with them. I will admit that there is something quite appealing about Miss Elizabeth's looks, especially her fine eyes. I will never consider her as anything but a passing acquaintance. Once I leave here, I will likely never encounter her again."
"Darcy, if it is Miss Elizabeth herself who has such close connections to the Royal Family, you might want to reconsider your attitude toward her. She could prove to be a great asset for our family." These words made Darcy think more carefully about her, but he could not imagine that she or any of her family could have any connection with any member of the royal family.
When they returned to Netherfield, they mentioned their plans to hunt at Longbourn in the morning and their dinner invitation on the morrow that included only the two of them. Miss Bingley was not pleased to hear this. Neither was Bingley, who wanted another chance to be with his latest angel. Hurst did not care where he dined, as long as they had plenty of food and wine.