So this is a filler chapter for sure. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. Hope you enjoy! More to come.
Chapter 19
It was the next morning, and currently Darcy was standing in the drawing room, enraged, as Elizabeth was listing out the details of her late husband's will. They were waiting on Mr. Bingley, who after receiving the express late last night, wasted no time getting on the road to London to deal with his sister.
Elizabeth was explaining the details of her title, and the letter patent, when Darcy responded angrily. "I WILL NOT HAVE A WIFE OF MINE CLAIM A TITLE THAT IS NOT MY OWN."
Elizabeth was taken aback, primarily because he had never spoke to her before, "surely you cannot mean that."
"I mean every word, I will not have my wife have any part of the Devonshire name."
"Mr. Darcy, if you refuse me as a Devonshire, I rather wonder at the point if you wanting to marry me at all."
"YOU are not a Devonshire."
"My husband was a Devonshire, as am I, along with my children as well."
"Husband?! You use that term loosely madam."
"He was my husband ."
"On paper only, YOUR GRACE. It doesn't seem to me that he was at all that last year."
"You have no right!."
"I have every right! You are every bit of mine as you are as his right now. You are my wife!"
"I AM NOT YOUR WIFE!"
"Physically, yes you are," he hissed. "And I will not allow you to have claim to that name."
"Is it so much the name that rebukes you, or the fact that he had me first.?!," Elizabeth cried.
"Your pride does you no justice, Mr. Darcy."
"As does yours."
"And I suppose, that if I were to marry you, my children must do the same."
"You know that is not what I meant, They are his kin, they deserve their due. YOU are merely their mother."
"MERELY THEIR MOTHER?!"
"That is not what I meant."
Elizabeth sat down her voice full of sarcasm, "Do go on, Mr. Darcy, for I dearly would love to know EXACTLY, what you meant."
"We are Darcy's we do not like the Devonshire name."
"As I am well aware, do continue, for this is very interesting, and well against your favor, as my children are quite connected to their name. "
"You know the history between our families, the old Duke."
She nodded. "Indeed I do, what is that to do with me?" The first Duke of Devonshire, was very much a man of bad reputation, especially after he took Darcy's great aunt, four times removed, Madeline Darcy, from her home in the middle of the night and carried her off to Gretna Green. If not for the Duke being the Duke, the Darcy family would have been forever shamed.
The Duke said it was mutual between them, the Darcy's, of course disagreed, and since, they spoke not one word about Madeline or saw her no more. Though the feud between the Darcy's and the Devonshire Dukedom, was just beginning.
The Darcy's were a proud family, the trait passed down for generations, so it was no shock that Darcy would feel this way as if he had lived it.
"Might I remind you," Elizabeth's voice filled the silence, "That your aunt, is in all actuality, my children's great, great, great, great, great grandmother. And you still spurn them."
"She is not my aunt," he hissed.
"She is in every way your aunt, blood does not die through the generations."
"I see now madam, where your allegiances lie."
"My allegiances are where they should be, you however, should carefully reconsider yours."
"And this is your opinion of me? Thank you for explaining it so fully, perhaps this might had been overlooked, had not your pride, been hurt by MY HONESTY of the scruples of our relationship. Do you expect me to rejoice that you were another's before mine?"
"My pride?!," Elizabeth was astonished how things could have gone this far. "The moment I met you, your arrogance and conceit had shown through. I thought them a mistake until now, perhaps I misjudged you. Now I see that Your arrogance and conceit, and your selfish disdain for the feelings of other, makes me realize that you are the last man, in the world that I could ever be prevailed upon to marry!"
Darcy stepped back in shock, his head reeling his heart racing. He had not expected the turn this conversation has taken.
"Might I also say Mr. Darcy," Elizabeth's composure after her last verbal attack, "That the Devonshire's are related to the de Bourgh's. Might I enquire if they are tarnished as well by being attached to the Devonshire name?"
Before he had a chance to respond, the footman entered, announcing the presence of Mr. Bingley. The young man who entered the room, looked drawn, and irritated, and like he had been traveling all night, which he indeed had. He was all politeness, until after he was presented, then as the door closed and his weariness got the better of him.
"Tell me about my sister," he slumped into the chair, clearly exhausted.
Elizabeth felt pity on the man, but her anger for Darcy was too great. "Oh, didn't you hear, Mr. Bingley? Darcy has agreed to marry your sister. He finds she is most suitable for him, for she will be a most compliant wife," with that she exited the room, in a flurry, while Darcy's eyes were shooting daggers at her retreating form.
"I did no such thing!" His anger was plain to see as Mr. Bingley looked up at him astonished.
"What did you do to her," Bingley demanded, referring to Elizabeth. "Darcy, I swear, if you have done something to hurt her, I will demand swords at sunrise, and as my expertise is far superior to yours, you better come prepared." Bingley was overprotected of his future sister, her happiness far outweighed the loyalty he had to his friend. "Now tell me about MY sister. What exactly happened? And do start at the beginning, for I could dearly use a good joke."