Chapter 21
Oakham Mount
November 27th, 1811
She was waiting at the top of Oakham Mount for him. He walked up behind her trying to control his anger towards her.
"In vain I have struggled, and I can bear it no longer."
She turned her head around in surprise at seeing him.
"I came here with the object of seeing you. I fought against my better judgement, my family's expectations, the inferiority of your birth by rank and circumstance, to ask you to end my agony and be my wife. All for what? I know who you really are- What you really are? Did you think, I would not find out?"
Lizzy stared at Darcy in confusion and said, "I do not understand."
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Netherfield
November 27th, 1811
Two Hours Ago
At Netherfield after the ball, Darcy had hidden away to his rooms, in frustration of his attraction to Elizabeth Bennet. She was everything he wanted in a wife, witty, lively, funny, she behaved like a lady and knew how to handle those who did not behave properly. He had made up his mind she would be his wife, forget duty, and her lack of connections, she was perfect. He needed to tell her how he felt before he would accompany Bingley back to Town. Darcy's thoughts were soon interrupted by the housemaid entering his room from the servant's passageway. Darcy stood up, when the maid entered.
"Beggin' your pardon, sir" said the maid and she turned to leave. Darcy realized it was the maid from his encounter with Elizabeth. He needed to talk to her to alleviate his lingering uncertainty.
"Wait, do your duties, do not let me interfere." Darcy stated. The maid began removing the sheets on the bed, and then began making the bed up with new sheets.
'What is her name?' Darcy thought to himself. 'Juliet? No. Jean? No. Jenny? Yes.'
Just as Jenny finished making the bed and turned to leave through the servant's passage. Darcy realized what was bothering him, about that day.
"Jenny." Darcy called out.
"Yes, sir."
"Do you always use the servant's passage ways to move around the house?"
"Yes, sir, Miss Bingley requires us to or we get docked a shilling."
Darcy then realized, If Jenny must use the servant's hallways, how did Elizabeth see her enter the family wing, during her stay?
She lied to him. What possible reason could she have sneaking into the family wing while everyone was out? His valet never mentioned her trying to come into the family wing while he was sleeping, so she probably was not trying to compromise him. Then why? He thought to himself and threw his cravat in frustration and it landed behind the bed.
Darcy tried pulling the bed out. And it only budged a little. He called his valet, Mr. Reid,
His valet came and said " Sir, how may I assist you?"
"I need you help to move the bed, my cravat is behind there." Darcy said to his valet
Together the two men moved the bed with ease and Darcy was able to reach behind the bed and get his cravat out with ease, just as he was about to stand up, something silver caught his eye. He pulled it out along with his cravat. Darcy wiped off the dust and looked at the locket, it looked like the one he saw Miss Mary wearing last night, except it was a different colour. After turning it over here ready the inscription Elizabeth.
Everything became quite clear to Darcy at that moment and he angrily tied his cravat and set off to his rendezvous with Miss Elizabeth Bennet.
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Oakham Mount
November 27th, 1811
"I found this in my bedchambers! Is this not yours?" Darcy said thrusting the locket her had found only hours before into her hands.
Lizzy paled when she saw her locket.
"Is it yours?!"
"Yes, but-"
"Did you not plot to find my chambers when you were a "guest" at Netherfield? "
"I did no such thing!"
"So you expect me to believe that was not you waiting for me in my chambers?! You faked a headache at the ball to organize a compromise. I went to check on you and you were not in the bed chambers given to you!"
"Is this what you think of me?"
"Do you deny it?"
"You have declared me the worst sort of woman and can nothing further to say to me sir, my only fault, in all of this, is EVER trusting you! Especially after your high handedness with Mr. Bingley."
"Bingley is his own man and makes his own decisions."
"Really is that why I heard you tell him that Jane is indifferent, and he should leave Netherfield?"
"I suggested that he should go and attend the season and he readily agreed."
"Because you suggested it "
"I did it for their own good! Bingley would have left her disappointed and he started raising expectations, that he would have never fulfilled because, he is a notorious flirt and because of his sisters showed nothing, but contempt for your family."
"I do not believe it, I suppose his fortune had some bearing on the matter. "
"It was suggested since your MOTHER, announced a pending engagement at the ball and had both your sisters, Miss Bennet and Miss Lydia pursue him."
"My mother?"
"Yes your mother." Lizzy looked at Darcy in complete confusion, then she realized his error.
"Mrs. Bennett is not my mother, she's my aunt! And you judge my relations, if they were wholly unsuitable, you would be quite shocked to know you have been living in my aunt and uncle's home."
Darcy stared at Lizzy perplexed.
"My opinion of you was formed when Mr. Wickham gave a recital of you many months ago, I knew that no gentleman would let someone spread lies about him and you did nothing to protect yourself from Wickham's slander" Lizzy continued
"You take an eager interest in that gentleman's concerns," said Darcy, in a less tranquil tone, and with a heightened colour.
"Anyone who knows what his misfortunes have been, can help feeling an interest in him?"
"His misfortunes!" repeated Darcy contemptuously; "yes, his misfortunes have been great indeed. "
"And of your infliction," cried Elizabeth with energy. "You have reduced him to his present state of poverty—comparative poverty. You have withheld the advantages which you must know to have been designed for him. You have deprived the best years of his life of that independence which was no less his due than his desert. You have done all this! And yet you can treat the mention of his misfortune with contempt and ridicule."
"I wonder what your connection is to Mr. Wickham? Is he a favourite if yours? Ahhh yes, it is becoming clear to me. Did he help you plan the compromise to gain access to Pemberley? Were you to gain access to Pemberley coffers, run away together and live happily ever after, as his wench?" Darcy asked sarcastically, thinking back to Wickham's use of the governess he hired for his sister to complete his last scheme, it was not above him to do the same thing again, except using a woman to get to him.
Lizzy's fury spiked, and then she reached out and slapped Darcy soundly on his right cheek. He was taken aback by her action and there was a palpable silence between the two, until Lizzy broke it.
"From the very beginning— from the first moment, I may almost say— of my acquaintance with you, your manners, impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others, were such as to form the groundwork of disapprobation on which succeeding events have built so immovable a dislike; and I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry."
Darcy did not reply, he looked at her dumb struck, she hated him and he could not hate her still, after all she had done.
"I am sorry to have taken up so much of you time." Darcy said and walked away, forcing himself not to look back.
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Elizabeth watched him walk away with resentment and melancholy. She stayed on Oakham Mount unmoving for another hour before, Mary and Kitty showed up.
"Lizzy!" called out Mary who had been looking for her sister, who had been out in the cold now for three hours. Mary wrapped her in the extra cloak she brought. "We have been worried sick about you! Why did you not come home, it is much too cold to have been out here this long. Papa is worried sick about you." Mary noticed her sister's red puffy eyes and asked, "What happened?"
Lizzy turned to her sister "I am well, I just got lost in my thoughts and lost track of time. Come now, let us go home, before Papa sends out a search party."
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Darcy rode his horse back to Netherfield hard. His things were packed by his valet and he was ever grateful for his man's efficiency. Bingley had just finished breaking his fast, Miss Bingley and the Hurst's would finish closing the house and then follow them back to London.
Darcy was sure he would collect Georgiana from town and then head back to Pemberley until his uncle or cousin forced him to town to partake in a portion of the season. He would go without a fight this year, he needed to find a wife.
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Longbourn
November 28th, 1811
Dear Jane,
I regret to inform you that my brother has business in town and does not know, when he will be finished, so we have closed Netherfield to return to town to be of assistance to him. I cannot regret the chance to dine on Grosvenor St, at the Hurst's house for they have such a fine cook and I am sure you have never experienced anything close to the fine cooking of his chef, so I will leave out a description, which I am sure cannot be done justice, without experiencing it. I do hope you will have a chance to have such fine cooking. I do not pretend to regret anything I shall leave in Hertfordshire, except your society, my dearest friend; but we will hope, at some future period, to enjoy many returns of that delightful intercourse we have known, and in the meanwhile may lessen the pain of separation by a very frequent and most unreserved correspondence. I depend on you for that.
Yours,
Caroline Bingley
Jane dropped the letter and tearfully excused herself from the room.
Elizabeth moved to pick up the letter, but Lydia grabbed it first. She read the first sentence of the letter out loud, before Elizabeth snatched the letter out of her grasp.
Mrs. Bennett was in hysterics at the news that Mr. Bingley left and had no return planned. "Removed to town!" She wailed "Will he ever return? What about Lydia?"
Elizabeth rolled her eyes at her Aunt's hysterics and left the room to check on Jane.
Jane was sitting on her bed in a melancholic state. Lizzy hugged her sister.
Jane spoke and said, "Do not worry about me Lizzy."
Lizzy responded "How can I not? You gave your heart to Mr. Bingley and What does he do? Run away!" Because of Darcy, Lizzy thought.
"If Mr. Bingley truly loves me, he will come back and if he does not come back, I will be fine, because I do not want to be married to a man who follows other opinions rather than his own judgment." Jane said cheerlessly "Or only cares about wealth or connections."
"Jane, you are too good for this world." Lizzy remarked. Jane smiled and hugged her sister.
