Chapter 25

The sun rose on the day after the Netherfield Ball to a Longbourn House whose inhabitants arose much later than any ordinary Saturday. When Elizabeth Bennet heard the birdsong, she rolled over with a groan rather than rushing her toilette to manage a walk in the quiet dew of the morning, as she would usually do - especially since her walk had been so pleasant the previous day, as she had happened upon a handsome companion. With this foreknowledge, one may expect for her to rush to repeat her morning rambles and seek a quiet interlude with the gentleman in question.

However, this particular Saturday she relished the soft feeling of sheets on her bare legs and remained immobile, half-asleep, dreaming of the perfect evening that had preceded her lazy morning. Her head was not entirely clear, thick with the remainder of the punch she had consumed to keep her hydrated as she danced at the single most enjoyable ball of her life. Through her groggy brain, she allowed herself the pleasure of remembering the ball from start to finish. Two dances stuck at the forefront of her reminiscence, and she tried to contain her heart racing when she thought of them - of him. Mr Darcy's piercing blue eyes swam behind her closed lids and she smiled to remember them. Jane stirred next to her, and she turned to greet her sister.

"Good morning, dear Jane," she said with a croaky voice.

"Good morning, Elizabeth," came the sing-song reply from her angelic sister. Jane lingered in her excitement, remembering the event of the season. "What an enjoyable evening, I do not think I have ever smiled so much in one night."

"I daresay you are correct," Elizabeth stated.

"Can you die from happiness?" Her sister asked, breaking into laughter. It took them a while to recover. By the time Lizzy was in a fit state to reply without laughing, they were both much more awake from chuckling together.

"I do not believe that you can, but I am very glad to see you bursting with it," she replied. "Mr Bingley is very handsome, and I don't believe he ever took his eyes from you when the dance did not prohibit it."

Jane blushed scarlet.

"Your Mr Darcy was very attentive for the whole night," she redirected, uncomfortable with talking about the charming master of Netherfield Park when she was not yet certain of her feelings in the matter. She took care in choosing a topic she knew her sister to be very vocal about. "You have found a jewel there, Lizzy. He is just what a young man ought to be, sensible, good humoured, handsome, conveniently rich-"

"You know very well that I do not believe marriage should be driven by thoughts of money," Lizzy interjected.

"But alas, poor Mr Darcy can't help being so very rich. So you may have to just accept this one small - or large - aspect of his character," she teased.

"I said 'driven by money'," Lizzy replied, rising to the bait. "It does not necessarily follow that I cannot love him simply because of his wealth. I am afraid I am above that kind of prejudice."

"Lizzy, I was joking, you silly mare," Jane said in an exasperated voice. They both fell into easy laughter, which did not subside for half a minute.

Jane's next words were softer. "But it is sweet to see you defending your love so. I did not think I would ever see such a day. Do you remember when you told me, after that frightful proposal from Mr Collins, that only the deepest love would persuade you into matrimony, which is why you would die an old maid and spend your waning years doting on your many nieces and nephews?"

"I remember saying something similar. Gosh he was truly awful, wasn't he? Imagine saying so many words and not one of them even about me, let alone with any tenderness."

"Yes, well I am very happy to see you prove yourself wrong and find your deepest love," Jane said, embracing her sister.

"I did not expect to do so," she said wistfully, remembering again how much joy had sprung from her meeting Georgiana in the pen shop over the summer.

~.~

The house was once again thrown into chaos about an hour later, as the family were enjoying a late breakfast, even though it was a more appropriate hour for luncheon by the time they had all gathered to partake of it.

Miss Bingley had remained good to her word after her conversation with Mrs Bennet at the ball, and indeed it was not she who had come to wreak havoc on the Bennet household.

The disquiet had begun with a shriek from Lydia when she saw a carriage grander than any she had ever seen pull up in front of the house. It was more ornate than even Mr Darcy's carriage, which itself was quite something to behold.

The occupant of the fancy carriage made herself known a few moments after Lydia had announced its arrival in her own way.

"The Lady Catherine de Bourgh requests the presence of our Lizzy in the parlour," the housekeeper announced in a trembling voice. "I am sorry, I tried to say that it was not proper, that none of you are acquainted, but she would not take no for an answer."

"It is ok, Hill," Elizabeth reassured her. She looked at the six pairs of questioning eyes around the table. "She is Mr Darcy's aunt - and whilst I have not had the dubious pleasure of meeting her as of yet, this visit is not wholly unexpected."

Mrs Bennet's frame was charged with burning curiosity when she spoke. "Very well, Lizzy. You must see what is so urgent for her to say if she drove all the way here from wherever she lives. She is not local, so she must have left very early indeed."

"Ok, mama." She took one last gulp of milk for courage and headed through the house to the parlour.

She opened the door to reveal a rather ridiculous-looking woman, who appeared around ten years older than her mother and father. She was wearing the most embellished dress that Elizabeth had ever seen, and everything about her appearance was a signpost, demanding attention and taking up space.

"Ah-" came a posh-sounding drawl, directed her way the moment she stepped across the threshold into the room. "So you are Miss Elizabeth Bennet," she sneered.

"Indeed, I am she," Elizabeth replied, unsure of herself - a rare occasion indeed. "It is a pleasure to welcome you to my home and to make your acquaintance," she curtsied. Might as well try to be polite, she thought wryly. For all she had gathered about the woman across from her, she did not quite know what to expect, so opted to treat Lady Catherine as she had the Lady Matlock.

"You can be under no misapprehension as to why I am here," the older woman accused. Her tone told Elizabeth all she needed to know about Lady Catherine's intentions in coming to visit her. And they were not good.

"Indeed, you are mistaken, Madam. I am quite unable to account for the honour of seeing you here," this was said in half truth, for she had an inkling of Lady Catherine's purpose in attending her. It was only natural that she would want to come and take stock of the woman her nephew was betrothed to.

"Miss Bennet, you ought to know I am not to be trifled with. But however insincere you choose to be, you shall not find me so. A newspaper containing an announcement of an alarming nature reached me yesterday morning. In plain words on that sheet of paper, it stated that you, Miss. Elizabeth Bennet, would be soon afterwards united to my own nephew, Mr Darcy."

Lizzy was mildly surprised to learn that Mr Darcy had not informed his aunt of their betrothal, if she had first learned of it through the newspapers. She reasoned that things had moved rather quickly since they had become engaged, and he may have wanted this confrontation to occur in person. But she had not expected to be the recipient of her shock at hearing such a report. It was becoming clear that Lady Catherine was the sort who needed to be contained when they heard such momentous news for the first time.

"The moment I read this scandalous news, I instantly resolved to set off for this place to make my sentiments known to you," Lady Catherine continued her tirade.

Lizzy remained silent, refusing to rise to the sharpness in Lady Catherine's tone. It was becoming clearer why she had earned the dubious pleasure of this woman's attention. Her eyes grew a glint of anger and hurt at the older woman's words. For all their ridiculousness, they had also insinuated what Lizzy had been concerned about for a long while, that she was inferior to her beloved Mr Darcy. Her indignation rose to think that this woman who had never met her, who had no idea of her accomplishments or her character, could think so ill of her just because she had gained the affections of a beloved nephew.

"Such an engagement ought very much not to have occurred; but evidently your arts and allurements seem to have made him forget what he owes to himself and all the family." She spat a little on speaking. "You appear to have drawn him in-"

"If I had deliberately tricked the gentleman in question, I should be the last person to confess it," Elizabeth interrupted.

"Miss Bennet, do you know who I am?" Lady Catherine bit back, affronted. "I have not been accustomed to such language as this. I am almost the nearest relation he has, and I am entitled to know all his nearest concerns."

"But you are not entitled to know mine, nor will such behaviour as this induce me to be explicit."

"Let me be rightly understood. This match, to which you have the presumption to aspire, can never take place. Mr Darcy is engaged to my daughter. Now what have you to say?"

Elizabeth was confused, for Mr Darcy had never spoken of another engagement, and there had been ample opportunity over the kerfuffle in this very room when he had been upset to learn of her previous proposal.

"I think it is I, rather than you, who has rightly understood, Lady Catherine. For my engagement with your nephew has been reached by careful design upon his part. It has been happily circulated with our loved ones, and a great deal of the paperwork is already in progress."

Elizabeth paused, daring her opposition to speak with a furious glint in her eyes. Satisfied she had shocked the lady into silence, she continued.

"And where is this engagement you speak of? I have not seen it writ in the papers, or mentioned by Mr Darcy. And where is the licence for such a union to be built upon?"

"The engagement between them is of a peculiar kind. From their infancy, they have been intended for each other. It was the favourite wish of his mother, as well as hers. While she was in her cradle, we planned the union; and now to be prevented by the upstart pretensions of a young woman without family connections or fortune! Is this to be endured? It shall not be."

Elizabeth scoffed at her ridiculous suggestion. She did not understand why the lady had taken the trouble of coming so far. Surely an announcement in the papers was sufficient to rid her of the notion of Mr Darcy marrying her daughter. What was there to be gained from such a trip?

She did not dignify her counterpart with an answer, unwilling to entertain her hopes.

"Your alliance would be a disgrace. Your name would never even be mentioned by any of us."

"I have already met with the Lord and Lady Matlock, and their sons. Well, they did not appear to share your feelings. Though even with the reassurance of those members of his family, I would not intentionally cause a rift with any of Mr Darcy's relations - to do so would bring heavy misfortunes, indeed."

"Obstinate, headstrong girl! I am ashamed of you. I have not been in the habit of brooking disappointment-"

"That will make your ladyship's situation at present more pitiable, but it will have no effect on me," Elizabeth interjected, unwilling to budge.

"I will not be interrupted. If you were sensible of your own good, you would not wish to quit the sphere in which you've been brought up."

"Lady Catherine, in marrying your nephew, I should not consider myself as quitting that sphere. He is a gentleman. I am a gentleman's daughter. So far, we are equal."

"But who is your mother? Who are your uncles and aunts? Do not imagine me ignorant of their condition. Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?"

Elizabeth held back furious tears at the older woman's words. To be so insulted! And in her own home! She hated that she was able to see the truth in them. She longed to be the sort of wife that would be immediately accepted and lauded by his family, and she was sensible enough of the differences in their situations to know how much he was disappointing his family to join himself with her. To see the evidence of such disapproval shouting itself at her face, it was almost too much to bear. Almost.

She squared her shoulders and arched an eyebrow at Lady Catherine.

"Whatever my connections may be, if your nephew does not object to them, they can be nothing to you."

"You--you have no regard then for the honour and credit of my nephew? Unfeeling, selfish girl! You refuse to oblige me. You refuse the claims of duty, honour, gratitude. You are determined to ruin him and make him the contempt of the world."

"I am only resolved to act in a manner, which will constitute my own happiness, without reference to you or to any person so wholly unconnected with me."

"And this is your final resolve?"

"Indeed it is," she said simply, endeavouring for no further misunderstanding. She paused a beat, just short enough to ensure that Lady Catherine would know she was not finished, before adding, "I will not renege on a promise I have made to a gentleman who I very much admire and respect, to satisfy the whimsy of a relative who has offended me in every possible manner with which I am able to be offended. I must instead ask you to leave."

"Very well. I shall know how to act," came the reply. As much as Lizzy longed for a version of this conversation which allowed her to be approved of by his relatives, she knew that no such version was possible. She resigned herself to the sadness that had come with the heavy reminders of her own shortfallings.

"Good day, Lady Catherine," Lizzy curtsied.

"I take no leave of you, Miss Bennet. I send no compliments to your mother. You deserve no such attention. I am most seriously displeased." The reply, spoken over her shoulder as Lady Catherine stalked her way past Mr Bennet's study, was pompous and biting.

It left Elizabeth with no satisfaction, as much as it amused her father. One look at his brave, strong daughter fighting back tears was all it took for the humour to morph into concern, as he pulled her into his arms and allowed her tears to wet his shirt.

~.~

Mr Darcy received similar attentions from his aunt not half an hour later, when Lady Catherine de Bourgh arrived in all her state to the parlour of Netherfield and requested an audience with her wayward nephew.

As soon as he heard the words "selfish, unfeeling girl," fall from his aunt's lips, he told her in no uncertain words what she could do with her concerns, and with the fictitious engagement she had imagined for him and his cousin. Affronted as one could expect, Lady Catherine raged and stormed - and stormed and raged - and raged and stormed again.

"Aunt Catherine," he said in his firmest tone of voice once he found a pause in her tirade. "I am sorry to have disappointed the hopes you had for myself and cousin Anne, but I must ask you to avoid them marring your vision from seeing what a wonderful creature my fiancée is. She is all that is good, intelligent and kind, and she will make a wonderful wife."

"The wild upstart I just spoke to in that small, disappointing estate next to this one can not be the woman you speak of Fitzwilliam, or you have been blinded by her arts and allurements."

"I forbid you to say such horrible things about her in my presence," he shouted, "or at all, come to think of it."

"Where are your manners - am I to be spoken to in such a way? It is worse than I thought."

"Aunt Catherine," he said, exasperated. "We have a special licence, the announcements have been made, she has been lauded by all the rest of my acquaintance. If you are unable to see brilliance in her character, it is because you are blinded by prejudice. There is nothing at all you could say that would deter me from my current course of action-"

"-this is not to be borne," she interrupted.

"There is nothing at all you could say," he reiterated. "So you have two options before you. Either you shun her, because she is not Anne, and you lose the right to visit us in Pemberley. If you choose this, I will not come to help you to manage your Estate next Easter, or the Easter after that. You will be choosing an estrangement that is entirely of your doing."

He paused, and she harrumphed her distaste at the path this conversation had taken. When he was certain she was listening, he continued.

"Alternatively, you can climb down from your high horse and we can attempt to rebuild the bridge that you have broken between the two of you with your unpleasantness towards her today. Miss Bennet is a forgiving person, and I am certain her good humour would provide an easy resolution."

Lady Catherine appeared genuinely cowed.

"I can see she has rendered you so distasteful. So unreasonable-" she began.

"I can see how you have chosen. I am truly sorry," he replied.

"Your mother would not stand for this behaviour," she said cuttingly. He recoiled. He took a moment to compose himself before replying.

"I do believe you are correct, Aunt Catherine. But it is your behaviour she would be referring to, not mine. She would not stand for you driving a wedge between us as you have done. I must ask you to leave."

For the second time in one day, she was marched from the premises with her tail between her legs.

"If you should ever change your mind and decide to accept my marriage, you would be welcomed back to Pemberley." He said to her retreating form. "But should I hear one peep from you disparaging me or my future wife in any manner via the rumour mills of the ton, the consequences will not be pleasant for you. I wish you well on your travels, and sincerely hope you reconsider your position. Until then, good day. I must ask you once again to importune me no further."

Mr Darcy went to find a stiff drink, and then excused himself from the afternoon of fun that Miss Bingley, of all people, had planned. He had to go and reassure Elizabeth of his steadfastness in the wake of his aunt's awfulness.