No joke, all of your reviews gave me the inspiration, clarity and push to write this chapter! Hope you enjoy :)
Chapter 6:
Elizabeth Bennet awoke early, eager to enjoy the grounds of Pemberley one last time. She had already promised Georgiana a morning walk and she break fasted quickly and joined her by the garden, where they walked arm in arm until the sun became too hot and Georgiana asked to go inside.
"I shall stay for a little longer" said Eliazbeth, closing her eyes, as she left her bonnet and felt the sun shinning on her face. "This is too delicious" she added with a smile.
Gerogiana smiled watching her new friend. "I shall ask Mrs. Reynolds to have some refreshments for when we get inside."
"That would be lovely, thank you" said Elizabeth.
Elizabeth walked for an hour longer, enjoying the chirping birds, the blooming flowers and the tall and luscious trees. After what felt like time had stopped, Elizabeth made her way into the house, through the gardens, stopping to look at the bench where she had sat with Mr. Darcy. She frowned slightly, looked up at Mrs. Darcy's window, feeling Anne's eyes on her. Elizabeth smiled and knew what she had to do.
With a determined step, she entered the house and into the drawing room. She was about to take some refreshment when a booming voice came from the entrance, doors swung open, and an unpleasent view walked into the drawing room.
"Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?" bellowed Lady Catherine, the servants ruhsing behind her, an apologetic look on their faces.
"Lady Catherine!" said Elizabeth, startled, she even dropped her cup, dripping tea on the sofa and rug.
"Miss Elizabeth" she said, her voice menacing and angry, "What are you doing here, in my daughter's house?!"
"I beg your pardon?" asked Elizabeth, now recomposing herself. "I am here as Miss Darcy's guest" she answered calmly, her courage never failing her.
"You have come to throw yourself at my nephew's feet! I came as soon as I heard the false resports!" she said, clearly out of breath from her journey.
"I have done no such thing—I was not aware of his marriage when I arrived and the details of my being here do not pertain to you" answered Elizabeth calmly.
"No details is above nor below me, silly girl. My Anne wrote to me at once and I knew that you had come to ruin their happy marriage!" she said, her voice still angry and menacing. "You, who have lost everything, have come to beg to be his mistress!"
"I beg your pardon!" said Elizabeth, fearing her voice rising, "I would never stoop to such a level" she said defiantly, "I am a lady and your nephew is a gentleman. I came here respectably and I am leaving as such."
"Do you love my nephew?" asked Lady Catherine, her eyes peering into Elizabeth's soul.
"Your Ladyship has deemed it impossible for me to be here for any other reason than something immoral" answered Elizabeth, her voice calm and serious.
"Your family has lost their reputation and now you wish to pollute Pemberley!" said Lady Catherine.
"My family has lost their reputation, Lady Catherine, a fact I hope you do not revel in. And I, as a woman, am very limited into what I can do. A marriage is the only way for a woman in our society to have any freedom or any power, all depending on the type of husband she marries. As a respectable woman, I would never think of anything else and I am truly offended that you or Anne would think I would" said Elizabeth, swallowing hard as she spoke. She knew this is the type of scandal that would rise if she would stay and she was very happy she was leaving tomorrow.
"Aunt!" said Mr. Darcy, barging into the room, clearly Mrs. Reynolds had informed him of their new arrival. "What is the meaning of this?"
"Have you come to defend your mistress?" remarked Lady Catherine.
"How dare you offend one of our guests? You are my Aunt as well as my mother in law, but I shall ask you to leave if you do not stop this at once!" he said, like the master of Pemberley.
"Have you even done your duty to Anne, Fitzwilliam?" asked Lady Catherine, now sitting down at the sofa and raising an eyebrow in questions.
"Aunt" he responded, in a warning tone. "You knew the arrangement"
"Umph. She is your wife now" said Lady Catherine, shrugging her shoulders.
"This is not a conversation to have now" threatened Mr. Darcy.
"Pray tell me when, nephew. Are you just to wait until she dies, so you can marry your mistress?" asked Lady Catherine, nonchalantly, motioning to one of the frightened servants to serve her tea.
"I will not allow you to disparage Anne nor Miss Elizabeth in that form!" said Mr. Darcy.
"Mama!" said Anne, walking into the room. "I heard noise—I did not know you were coming" she said, walking over and kissing her mother and then sitting down beside her, fatigued from the trip from her room to the drawing room.
"I should go" said Elizabeth.
"Yes, you should" said Lady Catherine, her eyes angry and cold. Miss Elizabeth looked at her with sadness and in an odd form admiration, for she knew Lady Catherine had acted out of love for her daughter. If only her parents had acted in a similar way to protect their daughters, before or after Lydia's incident.
Mr. Darcy watched her go, feeling his chest moving up and down from all the emotions running through his veins.
"I will ask again, Fitzwilliam, have you done your duty to Anne?" she asked, now her voice regal and powerful, as if she had won her battle.
"Mama!" said Anne, blushing.
"If I do fight for you, my dear, who will?" said Lady Catherine, softly to her daughter. Anne shrunk in silence, mortified.
"Did you write to your mother that Miss Elizabeth was here?" asked Mr. Darcy, hurt that she would have done so.
"Yes" said Anne meekly.
"I see" said Mr. Darcy. "Perhaps we should discuss now our marriage agreement. I do not know how much your mother told you, Anne, but I agreed to marry you on the condition that this marriage would be only on paper. I made it very clear to your mother that I have always viewed you as a dear cousin and nothing else."
"Mama did not tell me any of that" said Anne sadly.
"Of course not! He is a man! I thought once you were married, you would surely want an heir!" said Lady Catherine exasperated. She had been willing to negotiate anything and everything in order to Anne married to Fitzwilliam. It was her dying wish.
"Your daughter could die in childbirth!" roared Mr. Darcy, "Look at her! Would you have her give up her life?!"
"She would do so happily in order to fulfill her duty!" spat Lady Catherine.
"I am afraid that is not possible" said Mr. Darcy, finally sitting down across from his wife and mother in law. "I love you Anne, I do, and I think you have been happy at Pemberley but I am afraid I cannot offer you my heart nor anything else. I offer you security and freedom, which with due respect Aunt, you did not have at home."
Anne felt the tears swelling in her eyes.
"We could ask to annul the marriage, if you feel there was fraud" he said softly to Anne.
"Annulment?!" bellowed Lady Catherine, "Absolutely not! That would ruin our family name and yours! Think of Georgiana!"
"No" said Anne, amidst a soft sob, "I would like to stay married, under your conditions" she added sadly. "I love being here and you are kind to me."
Mr. Darcy nodded, knowing full well an annulment was nearly impossible and would only bring scandal to both families. He had accepted that from the moment he saw Miss Elizabeth that he could not annul his marriage.
"I wish you had told me, mother" said Anne, measuring every word, for she rarely spoke if not asked directly. Her mother looked at her in surprise.
"What for?" asked Lady Catherine, as if that was the most preposterous question!
"I fancied myself in love with Fitzwilliam, if you had told me his expectations, I could have adjusted mine" she said, standing up too fast and holding on to the edge of the sofa for support, "I shall retire" she said to Mr. Darcy, who stoop up and offered his arm for support.
"I will bring Anne to her room and then see you off, Aunt" said Mr. Darcy in a serious tone, one not to be trifled with.
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If you do not like long author's notes, feel free to skip!
So I haven't read the story that everyone is referring to, I'm assuming "dear sir" from just glancing? truthfully I haven't read anything resent, i got back into fanfction to write and I try not to read anything while im in the middle of a story as to not by accident take an idea from someone else. that being said, I feel like those upset with the similarities are judging my story based on that story…there is absolutely zero connection. I don't know the details of that story but I want to clarify something:
Mr. Darcy is honorable, he is acting on his emotions. He thought he lost the love of his life, he only married Anne as a family, very clearly stating she would only be "half a wife". So he doesn't feel like he is cheating on Anne bc he has never even kissed there, it's a family economic marriage contract type of marriage. In original p&p darcy was a bit impulsive with his proposal…he is showing a similar trait here. He lost Elizabeth once, he knew then but he is convinced now more than ever, that this is the love of his life. Can u blame him for trying to hold on?
He has kept the marriage contract that he signed to. he hasn't broken any promises nor anything that Lady C and he agreed to.
And for all those saying Anne deserves better or should let him go so she gets better…where and when? Anne from P&p is sickly and not pretty. Only fortune hunters would be interested. She has no personality bc she hasn't been allowed to develop one and her mother would have never agreed to another marriage. If anything, Darcy did the biggest kindness by giving her freedom. and in fact, Anne has flourished being at Pemberley for the past few months, away from her mother.
In terms of Bennets and money: a lot of you keep saying that lizzy is not poor. no, she is not. she did not come to darcy asking for money nor a job, she wanted a marriage, respectability, anything to get her family out of the hole they are in. the bennets may have money, or enough money, but once mr bennet dies they have barely anything and now being ostracized from society, who will help them? everyone has shut their doors to them. every single neighbor. every friend. they have no one. the only chance for survival for the girls is for them to be married before mr. bennet dies. Yes, lizzy acted impulsively but her solution is a wise one. she doesnt need to look to work as a governess bc that would bring less respectability and she is not desperate for money, what is despesrate for is respectability, which is why she would have never crossed a line with Mr. Darcy.
I hope this chapter clarified all of your questions/concerns.
I want to truly thank each and every one of you for your reviews, questions, comments. I am sorry some of you are not enjoying the story but that is okay :) I want to be real to the characters and at the same time real to the idea and plot that I had in mind. I hope the rest of you will stick along for the ride...
I'm hoping this chapter will clarified a bit.