A/N:Thank you for your insightful comments! Posting one chapter at a time makes it easier for me to answer your comments, and also to proofread the chapter before posting.

Levenez - I do feel that the first 10 to 12 chapters seem to go on forever, and writing about Lady Catherine's antics exhausted me. Do let me know which parts of these chapters seem superfluous to you (I mean all you readers) and let me know. Guest - Lizzy thanks you for feeling that she has been presumptuously imposed upon, but fear not, her courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate her. You will see. Thank you, loulou25, for taking Darcy's side for a change. It has been only about 3 days since the cruel rejection of his proposal. His ego and his feelings are still beaten black and blue. So he appreciates your sympathy. As for the rest of the comments, I appreciate them greatly!

Here is the long awaited dinner, and ODC finally face each other.

~ . ~

Lady Catherine was fuming silently in the carriage. What had happened to the world? All her subordinates, from that Jenkinson to this country doctor, not to mention that traitor John Coachman, were in collusion to rebel against her. She swore that she saw disappointment in the faces of her staff when she steadied herself from the short fainting spell. Could they all be hoping to have Anne take over Rosings so they could cheat her naïve daughter? What folly! As soon as she reached her brother's house, she would dismiss that insolent doctor, and she would make certain that he would not have anyone better than the refuse of society to patronize his practice in Swanley.

By the time the second carriage from Rosings arrived at Rockingham House, it was almost dark. Lady Catherine stepped off the carriage, turned to Dr. King, and said, "You are no longer needed. Be gone from my presence!"

Dr. King was extremely surprised but acquiesced. He would pay an unannounced visit to one of his best friends and fellow physician to solicit his expert opinion on his newest case, the comatose clergyman with the clever wife. Dr. Seymour, like him, specialized in the ailments of the nervous system. He had not seen his colleague since moving away to the country.

Lady Catherine ordered her footman to pound on the door of her brother's townhouse. When it opened, she pushed through it without paying any heed to Mr. Farnum the butler.

"Farnum, where is my daughter? I know she is here," asked Lady Catherine imperiously.

"Your ladyship, Miss de Bourgh is at dinner with my Lord's family," replied Farnum stonily. "If you would wait in the green parlor, I shall go announce your presence, madam."

"There is no need to announce me. I shall join them for dinner. Go order another place setting for me at the table," commanded Lady Catherine as if she had been the mistress of the house.

Mr. Farnum replied stoically, "Your ladyship, I am afraid that Lady Fitzwilliam requires strict decorum at Rockingham House. Please wait here if you prefer, but her ladyship does insist on announcing all guests."

Before Lady Catherine could ignore the butler and march into the dining room, the Earl himself appeared at the door and greeted his sister, "Catherine, this is unexpected. Would you like to join us for dinner? We have just sat down at the table."

Lady Catherine turned to Mr. Farnum with a sneer and turned back to her brother, saying relatively pleasantly, "Yes, brother, I would enjoy dinner. I started from Rosings rather late in the day, and I do apologize for arriving without notice. If you need me to instruct your staff on the proper treatment of your family, I would be pleased to offer my advice."

The Earl, whose philosophy on dealing with his older sister had always been to evade and to avoid loud discordance, answered serenely, "You are not planning on a long stay, are you? Please do not trouble yourself about trivial matters like that. Your sister oversees such things, and you could bring it up with her next time you visit."

Lady Catherine did not like to be put off, but she was indeed fatigued and famished. She followed her brother to the dinner table without any further comments.

As soon as she laid eyes on Elizabeth, her demeanor changed completely. She turned to the countess and said sneeringly, "Lady Fitzwilliam,"- Lady Catherine always preserved the distinction of rank in the presence of the lower class – "you have invited, inadvertently, a scheming Jezebel to your dinner table. To break bread with one such as her cannot be borne! You must remove this unwanted piece of trash from this house this instant to prevent any further pollution of your home!"

The countess usually ignored her sister-in-law as much as possible, but this time she had gone too far. The totally unacceptable high-pitched invective in her dining room scandalized those present, including the servants, and made everyone gasp in distress. She was fuming inside, thinking that her husband's sister just described herself perfectly with such vitriol, but she swallowed the bile and said with studied grace, "Catherine, you must be tired from your journey and may prefer a tray to be sent up to your room." She signaled a footman to come escort the lady to a guest room.

"Not so fast…."

Elizabeth interjected then, "Lady Catherine, I surmise that your extremely insulting monikers were aimed at me as I am the only outsider in this room. Since I had been invited by your ladyship yourself to break bread with you more than ten times at Rosings, the last time being just two days ago, I wonder whether your ladyship has been polluted beyond recognition?"

Everyone at table sniggered at the bold joke that Miss Elizabeth told with such sweet archness. Mr. Darcy, hitherto reticent and avoiding looking in Elizabeth's direction, could not help looking upon his lost love with a softened countenance. Colonel Fitzwilliam, who had been by Elizabeth's side since she entered the house, smiled widely without hiding his mirth. Miss de Bourgh also felt her courage returning and waited for the opportunity to rebut her mother.

Whenever Lady Catherine got angry, her face turned plum color. This time the color was darker than usual, and the vein in her neck could be seen to be throbbing at an alarming rate.

"You insolent she-devil! How dare you talk to me without the respect due the sister of a preeminent earl, in his home no less…"

Elizabeth interrupted again before Lady Catherine could finish, "Where we are both guests of Lord and Lady Fitzwilliam." She paused and looked around the room, then focused back on the haughty noblewoman before continuing with a forced calmness, "What you plan to discuss is your family business that should not involve me. I came only at the urging of your daughter, Miss de Bourgh. I do not condone such incivility hurled at anybody, let alone myself as an invited guest. I think I have overstayed my welcome."

She then turned to the Countess and the Earl and said with as much composure as she could manage, "My Lady and my Lord, thank you for your gracious invitation to dinner, but I must ask your forgiveness and excuse myself to leave early. This is the second time today that Lady Catherine has insulted me beyond reason. If I were a gentleman and her ladyship a man, I would have already called her out. Since I am not, I should leave now before I do anything against decorum. I wish you a good evening."

Just when she was to turn to leave, Lady Catherine rushed over to her side and pointed her finger at her, "You want to leave now that your filthy scheme has been exposed! Not so fast! I must let everyone here, especially my daughter, know that your attempt to delude her to steal Rosings for yourself will never succeed! In my marriage settlement, I was given the right to have three days to consider any request by my daughter to take over Rosings solely. That means that all I need to do is to withhold my decision for three days until after her twenty-seventh birthday, and your evil scheme to steal Rosings will be dashed!"

Without missing a beat, Elizabeth replied heatedly, "Your daughter has been the rightful mistress of Rosings since she was one-and-twenty regardless of whether you make your decision in one second or three days. There would have been no need for the distasteful proceedings today if you had been truthful in assisting Anne to grow into a competent mistress instead of usurping her authority completely…"

"Stop! Who allows you to call my daughter by her Christian name? You…." screeched Lady Catherine.

Miss de Bourgh shot up from her seat and dashed to Elizabeth's side. She said to her mother in a trembling voice and with a countenance exhibiting a determination that no one had ever seen on her, "I do! Mother, enough! I have been the mistress of Rosings, not you. I no longer want to be mistress in name only. I want to be like Lizzy, to be able to stand up to you. It will not happen instantly, but I am determined to try, and I hope Lizzy will help me. Tomorrow I will sign all the papers to make it official. I also make the solemn vow that I will never treat people as less than animals and call them ugly names that no one deserves."

She then turned to Elizabeth and pleaded, "Lizzy, don't go!"

Lord Fitzwilliam applauded loudly and said proudly to Anne, "Brava, Anne, and kudos to you too, Miss Bennet. Catherine, legally, there is a codicil in Sir Lewis' will that specifically states that the will has precedence over the marriage settlement, and I had countersigned that change. This being so, the three-day consideration period no longer applies. You should know that. You just choose conveniently not to remember it. The purpose of this dinner is for me to judge for myself whether Anne is capable of handling the large responsibility of managing Rosings, as she said she would be able to do with Miss Bennet's help."

The Earl turned toward Elizabeth and said with a friendly smile, 'From what I have observed even in just the last few minutes and also with Darcy's glowing assessment of your character, Miss Bennet, Anne is right. You have brought out the best in my niece. Will you agree to be Anne's helpmeet?"

"Brother! What are you saying? This is unseemly – siding with an interloper over your only sister! I will not allow it!" Lady Catherine thundered and roared. Just when the last sound came out of her mouth, she dropped her cane, cradled her head with violently shaking hands, and would have collapsed on the floor the second time in one day if not for the fast action of Mr. Darcy.

Everyone was alarmed. Two footmen carried Lady Catherine to a sofa in the next room, and the rest of the group except Anne and Lady Fitzwilliam were ushered to another drawing room. Dinner was momentarily forgotten by all. The Earl went to order his own doctor fetched right away.

Elizabeth felt great remorse and blamed herself for not being able to suppress her ire and impertinence, which might have led to Lady Catherine's attack. Just when she planned to sneak out of the door to go back to her uncle's instead of going toward the drawing room, Mr. Darcy came from behind to bow in front of her and said, "Miss Bennet, please allow me to ask for your forgiveness for not coming to your aid sooner. Believe me, if Lady Catherine were a gentleman, I would have called her out myself. I am heartily ashamed that I disparaged your family and connections, when my own is ten times more uncivil and even vicious."

Elizabeth was surprised by Mr. Darcy's approach, as he had been even more aloof than usual when she first saw him in his uncle's home. She figured that he must have been forced into coming to dinner against his will, and he likely abhorred her presence. She decided that since he had broken the ice, she might as well take advantage of his present goodwill to say her piece, "Mr. Darcy, none of us could choose our familial relations. I hope from now on we shall just let them be what they are and not condone or feel responsible for their poor behavior. I must, however, ask forgiveness for my own personal transgression against you in believing a scoundrel's libel of your character and, in the process, said words of which I am thoroughly ashamed. My greatest regret was to have called you ungentlemanly. Could you forgive me for uttering such uncharitable and unsubstantiated rebukes?"

Elizabeth dared not look Mr. Darcy in the face when she said this until the end, and when their eyes connected, both blushed furiously, looked away, and became silent.

"Does this mean that you have read my letter and you believe me?" asked Mr. Darcy hesitantly after a long pause.

"Yes, Mr. Darcy. No matter how awful I appeared to you, and rude, I never doubted your honesty for more than an instant. I had thought your seemingly unjust treatments of both Mr. Wickham and Jane were entirely due to excessive pride, not malice, which led you to disregard others' feelings. Please excuse my speaking plainly."

Mr. Darcy responded directly, "Miss Bennet, your plain speaking is what made me examine my own behavior since I left Kent. There was nothing you said of me that I did not deserve. In fact, tonight after dinner, I shall be meeting with Bingley to confess to him the absurd interference…." he stopped suddenly, remembering how he used the same word to describe Lady Catherine's treatment of others – if he did not correct himself now, would he become a male version of his aunt in twenty years? Upon that sobering thought, he continued, "Bingley is leaving for the north at first light tomorrow, but I do not wish to let this wrong remain for one day longer, let alone months."

"Oh! Mr. Bingley will be away for months?" Elizabeth asked with evident disappointment.

"Yes. He will be in Scarborough until July when he and his family will visit Pemberley… unless he changes his mind after our conversation later tonight."

"Do you think he will instead stay in London and visit Jane?"

"Uh…, what I meant was that he might decide to not call me a friend and therefore would not be visiting me in Derbyshire. Miss Bennet, I have not been in company with Bingley since January, and I do not know his feelings for your sister. He tends to fall in and out of love frequently, and …."

"He might have moved onto another lady," Elizabeth finished the thought for Mr. Darcy.

"I am indeed sorry for my action and my deceit. I am heartily ashamed. I do fervently hope that your sister's heart has not been severely injured."

"Yet it was for protecting your friend's heart that you separated them according to your letter. I am utterly confused about whether Mr. Bingley was true or fickle," Elizabeth commented thoughtfully.

Mr. Darcy felt quite confused as well. He thought he was doing a service for a friend at the time when he advised Bingley that Miss Jane Bennet did not appear to return his attachment. After seeing Miss Elizabeth at Rosings and failing to suppress his own ardent feelings for the lady, he began to think that perhaps he was trying to ensure that he would never be in company with that regrettably unsuitable – though enchanting – temptress again if his friend did not get tangled up with the elder sister. Even now he could not decide whether his sudden surge of love for the lady in front of him had subsided, or if it had grown more fervent for her brilliant rebuttal of his virulent aunt. He decided that there was no need to determine his state of mind now as the lady, even though quite courteous and even apologetic for that cruel refusal of his offer of marriage, had by no means indicated any change of heart. She had said that she regretted calling him ungentlemanly, but not the last man she could have been prevailed upon to marry.