-`o´-

"A letter, Darcy? Really?"

"Fitzwilliam!"

"Yes, yes, I know my name. But Darcy, a letter?"

"You already saw it, you have no need to ask."

"Who else could I ask if not you? Should I go perhaps and ask our esteemed aunt for her opinion?"

Darcy just shrugged and made to go back towards the manor house when he thought better of it. "We have no understanding, Richard."

"Impossible!"

"I wrote her a letter of explanation. She accused me of all manner of misdeeds and I would not have her labour under considerable misapprehensions of my character."

"Your character? Darcy, what are you talking about? You, my good cousin, are going nowhere until I will be satisfied."

"Miss Elizabeth believes I have worked to separate Bingley from her older sister, a certain Miss Jane Bennet."

"Bingley's latest angel was her sister?" Fitzwilliam squeaked.

"Indeed she was. It hardly matters now, but -"

"How can it not matter? After everything you've told me about the family? Of course it matters. Unless they are not as bad as you made them out to be. Is that it? Otherwise I cannot imagine how you could expect us to accept your choice of a wife!"

"They are… The mother is crass; she talked about Bingley marrying Miss Bennet as if it had been decided. I thought I told you that."

"Our aunt does the same all the time. Miss Lucas was telling me the other day she was quite relieved Lady Catherine did not call them so often to dine at Rosings since we are here. She was angry when she found out Miss Lucas and Miss Elizabeth already knew you. A sweet girl, Miss Lucas, but very shy."

"I did not know Lady Catherine took it upon herself to proclaim my supposed engagement to Anne to strangers."

"Of course she does! Are you daft? My mother believes she means to frighten off eligible young women. Your bachelor status at almost eight and twenty leads some to believe it is true."

"If it was, and it is not, nor will it ever be, wouldn't it have been reasonable of me to get married already?"

"Not to our cousin, Darcy. It is understandable that you would postpone your nuptials when the bride is to be Miss Anne de Bourgh. So the mother is crass. What else?"

"The younger sisters lack any education or manners."

The Colonel shrugged unconcernedly. "Why should you care? Aunt would have been proficient in anything, should she have ever learnt. And Anne, we must not forget our cousin. They lack education and manners."

"What?"

"I am pointing out that you cannot very well think meanly of her family for merely being no different than ours. Especially when she just had to endure our aunt. I quite admire her, Darcy, her manners are everything proper and cheerful."

"Her sisters are just as cheerful, a shame they thoroughly lack propriety," Darcy mused. Yes, the Bennets were a rather merry family. "Elizabeth took me to task for it, you know."

"Miss Elizabeth, you mean. Have a care, Darcy."

"Miss Elizabeth, of course."

"What did she say?"

"She did not see any differences between her mother and Lady Catherine. If anything, our aunt is worse, since Bingley did show Miss Bennet a great deal of admiration - practically courting her when at Netherfield."

"Ah. I take her meaning: why would you judge her mother when your relations do the same. She's right."

"In her opinion, her mother was… not wrong. She excused the behaviour as that of an excited mother, happy her daughter was going to make a good match. Unlike Mrs. Bennet, Lady Catherine did not have any encouragement from me."

Fitzwilliam let out a loud guffaw. "The minx!"

"Fitzwilliam!"

"Very well, I will be serious. The lower their standing, the higher the demands the ton puts on families. The same behaviour that is deemed crass in Mrs. Bennet will be excused as eccentricity in Lady Catherine. Her father was an Earl, you see."

"And I did the same. I should have known better, Richard, I always despised this in our set."

"It is the way of the world, Darcy. However, I have two things to say."

"Hm"

"The first is to offer my apologies. I thought you maybe liked the lady, but she was inclined to be offended by you. I took it upon myself to excuse your behaviour as that of a man who has been very unlucky in his friendships. I mentioned Bingley and Wickham."

"What?!"

"I do not believe I mentioned Wickham by name, just the general story of a friendship turned bad, but I did expressly mention that you have been trying to save Bingley from a fortune hunter, only for him to sever ties with you."

Darcy paced a few minutes, trying to clear his thoughts. He wanted to blame his cousin, but in the end, he could not. Elizabeth hinted at knowing about what happened between himself and Bingley.

"I have reason to believe Eliza - Miss Bennet already knew that Bingley and I are not on speaking terms anymore."

"Be that as it may, I should not have told tales. I thought it would help, but it was wrong of me."

"And the second?"

"Darcy, I have to ask: is this the sum of your complaints about the Bennets?"

"What do you mean, Fitzwilliam?"

"To my mind, it is too flimsy a reason to reject the family. You're not a peer, Darcy. You might marry some puffed up daughter of one and be tolerably happy, but it won't make you a peer; nor, may I add, your offspring. If this is your aim, why not seek a peerage? You know pater would help."

"I haven't changed my mind. I have no need for rank."

"Very well. In that case, I am waiting to hear about an awful scandal. Is that it? What are you hiding?"

"There is no scandal. There is nothing else to mention about the Bennets."

"Nothing? How can it be? Then what happened between you and Miss Elizabeth?"

"What do you mean what happened? Nothing happened! I proposed and she rejected me; I do not care for your questions."

"Yes, but why did she reject you? You are rich, powerful, and, I am told, handsome. She is poor and her family would greatly benefit from another son-in-law with deep pockets, besides Bingley. Why so much acrimony between you two? What did you do?"

"I do not know. And why would you suppose it was me who did something?"

Richard scoffed and skewered him with a look that meant he wanted answers. "You proposed, so it could not have been Miss Elizabeth."

"She claimed to not have known I admired her."

"And? That's no reason to say no. That's what courtship is for, is it not?"

"I did not ask for one. I proposed to her and she said I could not have made the offer in any possible way that would have tempted her to accept it. She believes my behaviour was not that of a gentleman."

"She said that?"

"Indeed she did."

"I cannot understand how she arrived at this conclusion. I'm sorry, cousin, it seems a hopeless business."

-`o´-

If Elizabeth, when Mr. Darcy gave her the letter, did not expect it to contain a renewal of his offers, she had formed no expectation at all of its contents. But such as they were, it may well be supposed how eagerly she went through them, and what a contrariety of emotion they excited. Her feelings as she read were scarcely to be defined.

His belief of her sister's insensibility she instantly resolved to be false; and his account of the real, the worst objections to the match, made her too angry to have any wish of doing him justice. He expressed no regret for what he had done which satisfied her; his style was not penitent, but haughty. It was all pride and insolence.

But when this subject was succeeded by his stated conviction that Jane would have yielded to their mother's wishes she could not find that he was entirely wrong. She shuddered to think that in the absence of Mr. Bingley, Jane would have most likely found herself married to their cousin Collins. She would not have had the fortitude to stand up to their mother's incessant badgering and their father would have declined to interfere.

She could well imagine herself trying to prevent such an ill-fated union as that between Mr. Collins and Jane and could not find fault with Mr. Darcy's reasoning. And had not Jane herself declared she would have accepted any decent man her uncle would introduce to her purely out of a desire to be married and insure their family would not remain unprotected? Could she blame Mr. Darcy for being perceptive enough to see all this?

Mr. Darcy was not some villain from the novels her younger sisters read. His judgment was perhaps not always perfect, but from everything she knew about the gentleman Elizabeth could not find any justification for her absolute loathing of him.

Ah, but this is not true, is it, Lizzy? she whispered to herself. There was a reason for her deep-rooted dislike, or perhaps she should be entirely honest to herself and admit there were two reasons. She still remembered his comment about her lack of charms. He must have changed his mind, but she never noticed it.

No, that was not quite true either. She did not wish to notice. She imputed his behaviour to some imagined reasons to soothe her own vanity.

And in this state of spirit she met Mr. Wickham. How eager had she been to listen when he spun his tales! Even after he was sent away in disgrace she still could not believe he was so very bad, at least as far as Mr. Darcy's treatment of him was concerned.

She grew absolutely ashamed of herself. Of neither Darcy nor Wickham could she think without feeling she had been blind, partial, prejudiced, absurd.

"How despicably I have acted!" she cried; "I, who have prided myself on my discernment! I, who have valued myself on my abilities! who have often disdained the generous candour of my sister, and gratified my vanity in useless or blameable mistrust! How humiliating is this discovery! Yet, how just a humiliation! Had I been in love, I could not have been more wretchedly blind! But vanity, not love, has been my folly. Pleased with the preference of one, and offended by the neglect of the other, on the very beginning of our acquaintance, I have courted prepossession and ignorance, and driven reason away, where either were concerned. Till this moment I never knew myself."

When she was back she entered the house with the wish of appearing cheerful as usual, and the resolution of repressing such reflections as must make her unfit for conversation.

She was immediately told that the two gentlemen from Rosings had each called during her absence. Elizabeth could but just affect concern in missing them; she really rejoiced at it. She could think only of her letter.

-`o´-

Lizzy's letters from Hunsford have afforded Jane much pleasure, although not as much as having her sister with her would have. It had been a trying few weeks and some days Jane longed to go back to Longbourn and be Miss Bennet again, with not a care in the world.

Mrs. Hurst - Louisa, had organized a dinner party and she invited them all. "These people are not friends, Jane. They might become your friends, in time, but the truth is we do not know them. I would advise you to say as little as possible about you and our family. This is not Meryton."

In the following days, Louisa has requested that she accompany her during her morning visits.

The dinner was not that bad. She was happy to be introduced as the future Mrs. Bingley and accept everybody's congratulations. They had mingled before sitting down and Charles was always at her side, smiling and talking animatedly, just as he always did.

Things could not have been more different once the ladies retired to the drawing-room. There was no more goodwill from the rest of the party and their questions bordered on rudeness. Her accomplishments, dowry, dress, and beauty were discussed, followed in short order by her father's estate, the heir, her sisters, her mother's family, and the chances that Charles would be saddled with a flock of new sisters to marry off.

Miss Bingley was no help at all, in fact she suspected that Caroline rather enjoyed the whole of it. Until that is, somebody remarked that at least the Misses Bennet were young, so their chances were comparatively better at finding a husband. Better than whose, Jane would have liked to ask, but Miss Tilney looked expressively in the direction of Caroline, her meaning quite clear to all.

The morning visits were all the same: questions, questions, and more questions. Louisa was helpful, but Jane found the task of doing this for any length of time more and more daunting with each passing day. She had asked her future sister if she enjoyed the society, but the answer she received did not satisfy her: "Mr. Hurst enjoys the town and of course I would not have him renounce his amusements to satisfy my whims. Charles is quite fond of London too. Jane, I am sure you believe that we had to work quite strenuously to convince our brother not to return to Hertfordshire last Autumn, but that was not the case. Charles always liked the town best. I can see you spending almost all of your time in London, save for the summer months and some weeks he'd be somewhere for sport. Our father, you see, intended to purchase an estate, but did not live to do it; we are quite anxious that our brother fulfills his wish, but anyone who knows Charles would tell you he may always lease a house somewhere in the country and leave it to his son to join the ranks of the landed gentry."

-`o´-

Author note:

Thank you for your comments, they are wonderful!

Guest who said we disagree completely:

That's alright. There was an advert when I was young: one view, many viewpoints :)

Guest who said Elizabeth has nothing to accuse herself of doing in this case:

I thought about this long and hard. In the end I did not feel I could go this way. Elizabeth did not throw Wickham's supposed mistreatment at Darcy, but she did believe him.

This is only speculation on my part, but the way Elizabeth is described in relation to Darcy and Wickham is a person who is looking for reasons to support a belief they already have. She talked herself into a circular argument and could not see it: Darcy is bad because what he did to Wickham and what he did to Wickham he did because he was bad.

I don't believe it matters that Wickham did not come up in the proposal. Her impressions of Darcy have been heavily based on his tale of woes.

Guest Colleen S:

The Colonel should have kept his mouth shut :) I've read plenty of stories with great characters for Col. Fitzwilliam, but here he's kind of all over the place. Honest, yes, but not especially invested.

Guest sknakfdlnb:

You will be happy to know I discovered Grammarly!

Awesome website, I fervently hope it will improve my grammar and all over phrase construction.

Guest FitzRoy:

I don't know if Darcy knew Lady Catherine was talking about their supposed engagement outside the family circle.

I chose to read it that he did not. If you think about it, she never once mentions the word engagement while Elizabeth is present. I believe that if she did and Darcy did not immediately refute her words, then he would have been considered as good as engaged to Anne.

As a man you could be sued for breach of promise and if someone says "he's engaged to my daughter" and you don't say "No, I am not" right away, then you could be in trouble.

That would have been taking it too far even for Lady Catherine. Mrs. Bennet, of course, was much worse. One could even think she was trying to speak so loud during the Netherfield ball because she wanted to be sure Bingley was well and truly caught.

I explained my reasoning about the proposal and the letter just a few comments above.

Guest Mm:

I'm very glad you like them :)

Guest who commented on the difference between Mrs. Bennet and Lady Catherine:

Yes, basically that's exactly what happens :)

Guest who said that this letter doesn't have the same impact as the original:

Oh, I agree with you.

I explained a few posts up why I could not see my way out it and why Elizabeth will still be rather affected by it.

About Lady Catherine talking to everybody about the supposed engagement, I don't quite agree with your point about Wickham.

Here's what he says:

"Her daughter, Miss de Bourgh, will have a very large fortune, and it is believed that she and her cousin will unite the two estates."

Notice he doesn't say how he came by the knowledge. Just that "it is believed".

Then he says:

"I have not seen her for many years, but I very well remember that I never liked her, and that her manners were dictatorial and insolent. She has the reputation of being remarkably sensible and clever; but I rather believe she derives part of her abilities from her rank and fortune, part from her authoritative manner, and the rest from the pride of her nephew, who chooses that everyone connected with him should have an understanding of the first class."

Wickham seeing Lady Catherine happened most likely at Pemberley. I doubt he heard anything about an engagement, but from Lady Catherine's manner of promoting Anne de Bourgh anybody could understand what she wanted to accomplish.

As I said somewhere else, I strongly suspect JA wrote Lady Catherine as the almost identical double of Mrs. Bennet to poke fun at aristocracy.

Guest who said that the letter only shows Darcy still thinks he was right:

He does!

He really, really doesn't see anything wrong with his proposal - yet.

Guest Jeff:

We all have those relatives, yes.

The problem with Lady Catherine was that she was, by birth, of a higher social standing than Darcy. She was not just any aunt, but one who could do some damage if she really wanted to.

That said, I kind of like both Lady Catherine and Mrs. Bennet. Each one of them, in her own way, in her own world, ruled the roost so to speak ;)