Battle of the Dragons Chapter 18, a pride and prejudice fanfic

I hope you enjoy this chapter. It is predominantly D&E talking.

~O~

Talking Dragons

Once Elizabeth and Darcy had achieved this small rapprochement, Isabella suggested, 'I recommend a walk for both of you now that you cleared the air.' Looking at Richard, she added, 'Perhaps you and your lovely fiancée could go along to ensure propriety is observed?'

Each of them agreed with alacrity for various reasons.

Richard just wanted to spend time with Jane.

Elizabeth needed a walk to overcome the stress of the past half hour. If she had to be saddled with company, she would be able to ignore it if it became too onerous.

Darcy just wanted to spend time with Elizabeth, and perhaps get a chance to improve her opinion of him. It had been quite a shock to his pride when he had realised that she did not like him. Darcy, in his hubris, had thought that Elizabeth was flirting with him during her stay at Netherfield. Now, in light of the revelations, it was more likely that she had considered their debates to be arguments.

Following Isabella's advice, the trio collected Jane and set off on the path to the grove. The direction came about as Elizabeth was in the lead, with Darcy at her side.

Richard, with Jane on his arm, quietly related not only the high points of the discussion she had missed, but he also mentioned that Darcy had expressed hopes as regards to Elizabeth on their way to Rosings.

'Based on his reactions, I gather you have not informed your cousin about our relationship to Aunt Isabella,' Jane surmised.

'Knowing your sister, I thought it best if she discovered he likes her for herself. It just took him a while to work it out.'

'I shall look forward to seeing his reaction when he finds out.'

'I had never expected such a streak of cruelty in you,' Richard claimed but did not bother to hide the small smile.

'I am afraid that while I tried to excuse his behaviour to Lizzy, his insult hurt her very badly. I consider a small retribution to be only fair.'

~O~

The pair in the lead walked in silence for several minutes.

Elizabeth felt conflicted. It had been satisfying to have put Mr Darcy in his place, but she now felt as if she had sunk to the level of Miss Bingley. After all, while it had taken Aunt Isabella to beat her over the head with it, she had to acknowledge that apart from that one insult, Mr Darcy had always behaved with politeness and courtesy towards her. And she had had the pleasure of sinking his reputation amongst the inhabitants of Meryton by disseminating his insult to all.

When the silence had stretched for too long, Elizabeth gathered her courage and said, 'I too owe you an apology, Mr Darcy. After that assembly, I delighted in spreading the story of your insult to all my friends and acquaintances. It was not the act of a lady to do so.'

'Think nothing of it, Miss Elizabeth. If I had not acted the boor, there would have been nothing for you to tell.'

They walked in silence for another couple of minutes until Elizabeth remembered something. 'Your cousin mentioned that the reason you are so surly in company is because all those women in town keep throwing themselves at you. Yet, while you were in Meryton, did you notice that not one person attempted to throw any of the single ladies at you… despite the fact that your income was reputed to be twice that of Mr Bingley's?'

Darcy stopped in shock for a moment as he searched his memory and found her statement to be accurate. Realising his position, he took a few long strides to catch up with Elizabeth. 'I had not noticed it at the time, but now that you mention it I can see it.'

'Even my mother had her say. When she heard of your words, she advised me, another time, Lizzy, I would not dance with him, if I were you.'

Hearing the opinion of Mrs Bennet, whom he had considered a most mercenary mother, of himself gave him pause. He gave a self-deprecating chuckle as he said, 'I confess, I would never have expected such an opinion. But then again, in my hubris I thought that you were flirting with me while you were at Netherfield. And since I was losing my heart to you, I did my very best not to raise your expectations, never realising I had no need to do so as you disliked me… I was such a fool.'

Elizabeth happened to glance at Darcy when he was speaking, which was why she noticed he appeared to be lost in remembrance and did not seem to be paying particular attention to his words. And such words. They were full of contradictions. She wanted to be angry at his arrogance when he said that he thought she had been flirting with him. She wanted to laugh when he said he now knew that he had mistaken her attitude and called himself a fool.

But the words which left her almost breathless were when he said he had been losing his heart to her. Surely, that was impossible. It was utterly impossible that this devastatingly handsome man who had spurned her for her looks could have said what she thought she heard. But he was not finished yet.

For months Darcy had restrained himself from speaking. But now that his eyes had been opened to the reality of the situation, the dam broke, and words kept pouring out.

'When I encountered you this morning, I thought that seeing you so unexpectedly was a sign and all my prayers had been answered. Yet I was as tongue-tied as ever and the words I wanted to say would not come out.

'When I returned to Rosings, I pestered my cousin to accompany me to the parsonage as soon as it was time for polite visiting hours, just to have another chance to try to speak to you… to… I do not know what.

'For months I tried to get you out of my mind. I kept telling myself that my family expected me to make a brilliant match. You know, all the standard things society considers important. Wealth, position and status. Nobody seems concerned with character or even intelligence, much less kindness. But I had years and many opportunities for such a match, yet I could not bring myself to marry any of those ladies.

'Then in an out of the way corner of the country, I met a lady who was everything which I desired. But I could not get past the values with which I had been indoctrinated. It took me months to overcome that attitude… only to find to my chagrin that the lady did not like me.'

'In my arrogance it had never occurred to me that any woman could resist my… eligibility. In town, not a single lady objected to my behaviour. All they saw was wealth and an absence of inconvenient in-laws. Now, for the first time in my life I have been judged on my own merits and have been found wanting.

'I could not keep my eyes off you.'

At last, there was something to which Elizabeth could respond. 'I thought you were staring at me to find fault.'

Darcy shook his head with an embarrassed smile. 'Every time I looked at you, I tried to confirm my first impression.' He paused before he added, 'I failed miserably.'

'You paint a very different picture from what I had concluded about you.'

'I am not surprised. While I was in Hertfordshire you saw the very worst of me. But now that we have cleared up my misconceptions, would you allow me to show you that there is another side to my character? Perhaps one which you could come to… like?' Darcy had wanted to say love rather than like but thought that would be pushing too much. He told himself, one step at a time, otherwise I fall flat on my face again.

'Mr Darcy, I need to ask. Is your change of heart due to my aunt?'

'Miss Elizabeth, I must quote Bingley who once said when his sister mentioned your relations in Cheapside, If they had uncles enough to fill all Cheapside, it would not make them one jot less agreeable.'

'While I appreciate that you have overcome your aversion to my relatives in trade, that was not the aunt I meant. I was speaking of Aunt Isabella, although to be accurate, she is my great aunt.'

Darcy gave her a puzzled look. 'I do not believe I had the pleasure of meeting any of your relatives while I was in Meryton, outside your immediate family.'

The honest confusion decided Elizabeth. She gave Darcy a big grin. 'You did not meet her in Meryton, you met her right here… in the parsonage.'

'The only lady I met in the parsonage was…' Darcy trailed off as words failed him. He stared at Elizabeth who kept grinning widely. 'Are you saying…? No, surely, it cannot be. But Miss Bingley assured me that you had not relations of any consequence.'

'Mr Darcy, only a fool would take the word of a jealous social climbing daughter of a tradesman.'

'We have already established that I am a fool. I simply had not realised how big a fool I have been.' Darcy shook himself as if to rid himself of those uncomfortable thoughts. 'But why did you not say?'

'I confess, we only discovered the existence of Aunt Isabella a week after you decamped from Netherfield. But in hindsight I am pleased about how things have turned out. I can just imagine how Miss Bingley would have fawned over us in her endeavour to achieve recognition by a member of the first circles.'

'At least Bingley would have been happy as his sister would have been only too happy to encourage his match with Miss Bennet.'

'Please forgive me if I am selfish, but while in the short term, Jane would have been happy, I believe in the long term she would have been most unhappy married to your friend.'

'He is a good man,' protested Darcy.

'No, he is a good boy. A man would not have allowed anyone to influence him in his choice of bride. He might listen to advice, but he would make up his own mind. Although perhaps I do Mr Bingley an injustice. Perhaps he did only listen to advice and decided of his own free will that Jane was not right for him.'

Darcy sighed and shook his head. 'I am afraid that Miss Bingley badgered him into giving up your sister. I confess that I did mention that I had not detected any particular partiality towards my friend in Miss Bennet. To my shame, it did not occur to me at the time that your sister only acted with the utmost propriety under the circumstances. But still… I was concerned for my friend's happiness.'

'I can forgive concern. I will never forgive deliberate and cruel machinations.' Elizabeth paused as she considered whether to pass on some information to which she was privy. 'I have learnt from your cousin that your sister is still full young.'

'Yes. She only recently turned sixteen.'

'That makes Miss Bingley's claim even worse.' When Darcy frowned at the non-sequitur, Elizabeth explained. 'The day she closed Netherfield, Miss Bingley sent a letter to Jane. In it she not only claimed that they would not return to Netherfield, but she also intimated that Mr Bingley was interested in your sister. Also, that they and you were much in favour of the match.'

'That lying harpy,' exploded Darcy.

'That is what I thought,' murmured Elizabeth.

'I must return to town and–'

'Stop,' barked Elizabeth. 'Please, Mr Darcy, there is no need for you to take action. Only Jane and Aunt Isabella know of the content of this letter. I doubt that Miss Bingley would dare spread this rumour further since it would not promote her ambitions.' Now Elizabeth gave a grin of mingled malice and mischievousness. 'You should know that Aunt Isabella has already taken steps to clip Miss Bingley's wings. I mean no offence when I say that she is much better at this than you are.'

'Why are you telling me this?'

'I just wanted to make the point that I am pleased that my most beloved sister will never be related to that, what did you call her? Ah, yes, harpy.'

Darcy calmed down and could not help but agree. 'I hope Miss Bingley likes goose. It seems that she cooked hers.'

'Mr Darcy, was that a joke? Or worse a pun?'

That tease was rewarded with a smile. 'I have been known to joke on occasion.'

'Who would have thought. The stone-faced Mr Darcy has a sense of humour.'

'That reminds me that you have not yet answered my question… Would you allow me to show you that there is more to me than just pride and arrogance.'

Elizabeth gave an open smile. 'As you have already made a good start on that endeavour, I suppose we can continue. Especially since I expect to be here for another two weeks before returning to town. I assume we will have more opportunities to speak.'

Darcy heaved a sigh of relief.

~O~

Once the two couples had left the parsonage, Charlotte arranged for fresh tea for Isabella.

As soon as they had settled, Isabella said, 'I must apologise for causing a scene in your home and I thank you for acting the way you did.'

Charlotte smiles in reply. 'I am quite glad that you forced this confrontation on Eliza and Mr Darcy. No one else could have done it. I always thought that Mr Darcy admired Eliza, but she was too stubborn to see it. And until he apologised sincerely for his insult, they could never move on.'

'Jane mentioned that she thought the same as you. I am afraid that I have developed a habit of meddling, and the situation was too good to let it go to waste.'

'If it results in the happiness of my dearest friend, meddle away,' Charlotte laughed at Isabella's confession.

Isabella gave her hostess her biggest happy smile. 'But what about yourself. How do you like married life?'

'On the whole I like it quite well. I have a home of which I am mistress and I have nothing to greatly vex me.'

'I am pleased to hear that. But tell me something of the work you do with your parishioners.'

Charlotte was happy to recount that she had started visiting with some of the wives and was learning of their concerns. They chatted pleasantly with Isabella making occasional suggestions until they were interrupted by the arrival of the parson.

Mr Collins was smiling as he entered the parlour until he saw Charlotte's guest. After the barest greeting, he said to Isabella, 'I am sorry, madam, but I must ask you to leave as you are keeping my wife from her duties.'

Charlotte blushed as she addressed her husband, 'Mr Collins, please allow me to–'

'I am sorry, Mrs Collins, but we have discussed this before. Lady Catherine would disapprove of you entertaining a tradeswoman in our home.'

'But Mr Collins –'

'No, my dear. I have the highest opinion in the world of your excellent judgment in all matters within the scope of your understanding, but permit me to say that there must be a wide difference between the established forms of ceremony amongst the laity and those which regulate the clergy; for, give me leave to observe that I consider the clerical office as equal in point of dignity with the highest rank in the kingdom—provided that a proper humility of behaviour is at the same time maintained. You must, therefore, allow me to follow the dictates of my conscience on this occasion, which lead me to perform what I look on as a point of duty. Pardon me for neglecting to profit by your advice, which on every other subject shall be my constant guide, though in the case before us I consider myself more fitted by education and habitual study to decide on what is right than a lady like yourself.'

Charlotte blushed even hotter for her husband's intransigence, but Isabella patted her hand and rose, saying with a smile, 'Do not concern yourself, Mrs Collins. I have no wish to create discord in your home. I shall leave and make my farewells to Elizabeth outside. I am certain we will meet again another time.'

Collins look on in satisfaction as the visitor made her departure. 'At least she has the grace to know her place,' he commented to his wife who struggled with the temptation to hit him over the head with the teapot. But that would only waste the tea.

~O~