Till the End of Time, Mr Darcy

by Erin Berkeley

  Till the End of Time, Mr. Darcy

  By

  Emma Berkeley

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Till the End of Time, Mr. Darcy: A Pride and Prejudice Variation Novella

  Till the End of Time, Mr. Darcy | © August, 2019. Emma Berkeley

  THANK YOU!

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, places, businesses and incidents are from the author’s imagination or they are used fictitiously and are definitely fictionalized. Any trademarks or pictures herein are not authorized by the trademark owners and do not in any way mean the work is sponsored by or associated with the trademark owners. Any trademarks or pictures used are specifically in a descriptive capacity. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead, is coincidental.

  Edited By: Leanore Elliott

  Till the End of Time, Mr. Darcy

  © August, 2019. Emma Berkeley

  BOOK DESCRIPTION

  A MOMENT IS ALL IT takes for Elizabeth Bennet's reputation to be shattered. There is little anyone can do to repair it, except one thing, for Lizzy to marry the most disagreeable man in all of England, Mr. Darcy.

  Elizabeth is quite certain she has put the high-handed Mr. Darcy in his place for good. After his thoughtless proposal – which she considers an insult to her personality in all its presentation – and her rejection of it, she considers all connections with the man over and forgotten. The entire Bingley party has left Hertfordshire, so it should not be too much of a task for life, as she knows it, to return to normal.

  But suddenly, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are thrown into a delicate dilemma when at a ball they are found in a situation that calls for nothing but nuptial ties. However, she vows not to allow any feelings in her heart for this man who is responsible for her sister Jane’s failed love...not even on their wedding night when it seems her skin burns upon his touch.

  While Lizzy struggles with her emotions, her life as the Lady of Pemberley is a far cry from anything that she has envisaged. The estates are vast and there is a lot to learn. Darcy’s friends think her unworthy of him. The Bingley women certainly hold no reservations in calling her out for using her wiles on Dear Darcy. Lady Catherine de Bourgh, scorned that her hopes for her daughter to be married to Darcy is shattered, goes to great pains to discredit Elizabeth.

  Will one of Lady Catherine’s schemes excellently disrupt the growing sense of ease and attraction the newlyweds are beginning to feel for each other?

  Chapter One

  Elizabeth grimaced at the recollection of the past weeks as the chaise went rickety rackety on its way to Gracehill Manor. Nigh a few days ago, she had been enthralled by the prospect of attending a huge ball in London and anticipated the telling of the entire evening to her sisters when she returned back home to Longbourn.

  It was a much anticipated ball, for in the last weeks, Elizabeth had been with her aunt and uncle, the Gardiners, on a tour of the north of England and verily, they had seen naught but the best of sights with a fortnight spent chiefly on the road and in countless inns. Hence, two days afore, they had come thither to Lambton, the town where her aunt had been raised before marrying Mr. Gardiner, the brother to Elizabeth’s mother.

  No sooner had they arrived in town and met some old acquaintances of Mrs. Gardiners had there come to them an invitation for a ball at Gracehill Manor. Her aunt had been very much excited at the invitation and proceeded to regale her niece of the grandness of the manor and how fashionable a lady, the lady of the manor was. As Mrs. Gardiner was not one to be caught in the trappings of useless excitement, Elizabeth soon became excited herself.

  That was, until she remembered Mr. Darcy.

  Perhaps it was because Lambton was only one or two miles away from Pemberley, the home of the blasted Mr. Darcy. With their coming so near to him, many ideas were such connected and she could not help the recollections, mortifying as they were.

  It was the most embarrassing thing, thought she, Mr. Darcy coming to her in such a manner. She could only derive gratification – and what a small bit it was – that she had done well to set him in his right place. For indeed, she now felt more acutely the sordidness of the entire affair, thinking constantly about him as she did in the past few days since the announcement of their coming to the ball.

  He, the man who was chiefly responsible for her sister’s misery had come to profess his ardent love for her and request – nay, demand her hand in marriage. She wondered at how he could have conceived such a course of action where she was concerned. He had contrived and succeeded at causing her sister immeasurable pain as was disclosed most unwittingly by his cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam, whom unlike him, she held in perfect regard owing to his gentlemanly civility and strength of character. And, but of course, Mr. Darcy should not have known that she and his cousin had engaged in such revealing discourse – he must have thought that his abominable act was well covered as to make her totally acceptable to his proposal of marriage. Particularly, considering her station which was well beneath his as he had so very kindly pointed out during his ill-presented proposal.

  In that regard, he had found himself very much disappointed. Mr. Darcy was not a man she considered in favourable terms.

  The last summer, Mr. Darcy had formed a party of the newest neighbour to buy the Netherfield Park which was just some small distance from her home, Longbourn. The last occupants had quit Netherfield Park and left it empty. Therefore, it was with such raptures that the people of Hertfordshire had perceived that the park was to be let at last – and by a young single man of large fortune from the north of England, no less! The news had brought such lively hopes to the hearts of mothers who fancied that this young man might fall in love with one of their unmarried daughters.

  Mr. Bingley, before he came, quite had his course charted for him. And he certainly was no disappointment. He had doubled his regard by bringing with him a veritable party to liven up all expectations of his connections. His party included his two sisters and two men – one a friend who was richer than he was, and the other, the husband to one of his sisters. To his credit, Mr. Bingley was all air of condescension and affability that all was endeared to him most unavoidably.

  The Bennet family, especially Elizabeth’s mother, had received so much joy when Jane Bennet, Elizabeth’s older sister, even with all her beauty and mildness of manner had been the object of Mr. Bingley’s attention from the very first day and the match had seemed certain.

  But then, he had gone from Netherfield one day and his party joined him the next without an explanation, leaving Jane with a broken heart and spirit, though her sister’s sweet disposition was wanting to hide her hurt. Knowing the conniving nature of Mr. Bingley’s own sisters and the extreme sense of importance of his friend, Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth held her suspicion but knew nothing with a certainty.

  But it could no longer be denied.

  In March, she had gone to Kent to visit her best friend, Charlotte who was married to Elizabeth’s cousin, a clergyman whom the entire Bennet family only got to know by virtue of the Bennet property, Longbourn, being entailed on him. The visit had seen her dining at Rosings Park, the home of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mr. Darcy’s aunt, and the lady’s two nephews had come there to stay for some weeks whilst she was there. Though Mr. Darcy was not her favourite, Colonel Fitzwilliam had been a warm, intelligent fellow and it was a great thing that he made himself amiable to her and thus precipitating the occasion of his revealing the truth about the Bingley’s party removal from Netherfield.

  “He congratulated himself on having lately saved a friend from the inconveniences of a most imprudent marriage.” Those were the
colonel’s words and there could be no doubt to whom such could be spoken of.

  Her anger had been absolute. Who was he to think himself the judge and aide of all within his acquaintance? Bestowed as he was with wealth and affluence, he was no divine being and she detested his interference in the matter which would have been a most probable cause of happiness for her sister. Because of his feeling of importance and pride, he had dissuaded his friend, Mr. Bingley, from pursuing a proposal to her sister, Jane. In Elizabeth’s sight, there could be no greater blemish to his reputation which was never anything particularly noteworthy to begin with.

  To think that in spite of the audacity of his actions, he had felt such security of her acceptance of his proposal. The thought was one that affected her gravely. She could never imagine herself being in a marriage with such a man.

  Never.

  From the very beginning, from the first moment of her acquaintance with Mr. Darcy at the Merryton Ball in Hertfordshire, whence he had made no attempt to make himself agreeable to herself and to the other populace of the ball, his manners had impressed upon her with the fullest belief of his arrogance, conceit, and selfish disdain of the feelings of others. Subsequent relations with him at Netherfield were such as to form the groundwork of disapprobation and built such an immovable dislike. She had not known him a month before establishing the emotion that he was the last man in the earth with whom she could ever be prevailed upon to marry. As a matter of fact, not once had it crossed her mind to think of him in such terms at all.

  And now, staring up at the grandiose of the manor which was everything her aunt professed it was, Elizabeth found herself in bitter recollection of the most mortifying scene of her adult life.

  So much as she endeavoured to restrain from abusing his person, at least to his face, his own debasement of herself and her family had been so acutely felt on that ill-fated day that she found herself refusing him most vehemently.

  “Could you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your connections, to congratulate myself on the hope of relations, whose condition in life is so decidedly beneath my own?” he had said when she laid bare accusations of the vile things he had done.

  Her indignation at such abuse had been great and she had retorted in a like-wise manner. "You could not have made the offer of your hand in any possible way that would have tempted me to accept it,” she had said to him most emphatically. She wished him to know in clear terms exactly how the idea repulsed her.

  He had not tarried for long after that, apologizing for making known his feelings. She certainly had no wish for his attentions and was glad to see him go.

  The next day had seen him gone with the colonel from Rosings Park, much to the consternation and depression of his aunt, who had designs of her own to secure him as a husband for her sickly daughter.

  Elizabeth had removed herself from Kent and many months had passed since the day. As much as she preferred to remain unaffected by the incident, Elizabeth could not deny that she remained very much flabbergasted by the entire happenstance. Her astonishment, as she reflected on what had passed between them that day, was increased by every review of it.

  That she should receive an offer of marriage from Mr. Darcy! That he should have been in love with her for so many months while she was very much unaware and liked him not a little! So much in love as to wish to marry her in spite of all the objections which had verily made him prevent his friend's marrying her sister, and which must appear at least with equal force in his own case. The possibility was almost incredible and she thought, indeed, how mightily gratifying to have inspired unconsciously so strong an affection. But in face of his shameless avowal of what he had done with respect to Jane and his cruelty towards Mr. Wickham, for which he mentioned not a denial of his role in both circumstances, Elizabeth knew that she was right to refuse such a man.

  However, to his domain she had come and not even the rapture of the beauty of Oxford, Blenheim, Warwick, Kenilworth and Birmingham that she had seen on their tours, could distract Elizabeth from now thinking about him.

  She had no wish of encountering him at an assembly but, perhaps, it was best she fortified herself adequately of its likelihood. From her aunt and the chambermaid, she heard that the Lord and Lady Poppington were of great influence and that the grandness of their estates was superseded only by Pemberley Manor. Lizzy was certain that such an invitation as extended to her aunt would not be thought amiss to go also to the Lord of Pemberley, Mr. Darcy himself. While he had detested the company of the common people at Hertfordshire, such people as the duke and duchess of Gracehill were surely in his inner circle.

  The resignation of having to face the odious man elicited such profound sigh as to generate her beloved aunt’s attention.

  “Eliza,” called her aunt, “it would be most remiss of me to speak not of your apprehension in the last few days. Had I known you to be a silly girl excited by the prospect of a dance and men, I would have said that was the case. But you are a sensible girl, my love, and I know that what ails you this moment must be great indeed.”

  Of course, unlike her sister in marriage, Elizabeth’s mother, her aunt was always one who observed things most shrewdly and spoke candidly about them.

  “Dearest aunt,” said she, “I cannot but fret over this assembly tonight. I have every reason to believe that Mr. Darcy would be in attendance and as you well know – I am not extremely fond of his character.”

  Eliza and her aunt had extensively discussed the lord of Pemberley Manor at a time when Mrs. Gardiner came to visit in Longbourn. Elizabeth had told her aunt of the many grave things that Mr. Wickham, a good acquaintance of the Bennet family, who was in the army and had grown up with Mr. Darcy, had related about him.

  Now, her aunt stared at her in a grave manner. “If this thought is all that is present in your mind at the moment as to put you in such melancholic mood, then I daresay I am surprised. You are too sensible a girl to allow the presence of some person or the other to ruin your enjoyments. So if there is ought to the matter other than that, I insist you reveal them to me.”

  But Elizabeth could not bring herself to divulge the entire truth to Mrs. Gardiner, dear as her aunt was to her. As such, she was pressed to summon an appearance of composure and acceptable delight. However, the appearance soon made itself genuine as the Manor finally came to full view.

  It was a most delightful sight though the sun was at the moment lowering itself in the sky. The garden sloping and running by the sides of the road, the house standing atop a hill while surrounded by the verdure of a well-tended grove, it all bespoke of wealth and good standing. The brightly coloured liveries of the menservants in wait for the arriving visitors and the many carriages which like theirs, now trudged up the road leading to the manor. All of this pronounced to Elizabeth that they were arriving at a grand place indeed.

  Never one to be cast down for long, her spirits were soon in a state of increasing excitement as she observed the scenery before her. The Bennet family was not one to be well off as to be granted entrance to such an assembly as this and she decided instantly that she should enjoy the opportunity thus presented by being in the company of her aunt and uncle. Then she could go away with much delight to share with her sisters, who she knew would be wanting such details as the most fashionable clothes, hats, mittens and hair styles. Her mother and youngest sister in particular would be desirous to know which kind of men were there and how many she danced with and if they were eligible for matrimony. Elizabeth herself was certainly uninterested about fetching that particular intelligence but she could very well concern herself with such things as clothes and fashion.

  With some determination, Elizabeth banished all fear of a re-encounter with Mr. Darcy, though she found that every hint of any tall gentleman or the subtlest pair of grey eyes made her heart beat most embarrassingly faster.

  Chapter Two

  Every person she saw was new and interesting to Elizabeth.

  The Lady of the mano
r, Lady Beatrice, a most grand woman who could be no older than her aunt herself welcomed them at the large oak doors. She was a handsome woman with a strong chin and a decided air of importance. Her face was wide and angular and her eyes bore right into a person as though she would have all the secrets a person held to her heart.

  Mrs. Gardiner, though was never one given to speaking ill of a person, had warned her niece what a satirical eye their hostess had and that she took great pleasure in recounting and magnifying every bit of information she gleaned to be interesting.

  Seeing a new addition to the Gardiners certainly held some interest for Lady Beatrice and she kept them some minutes at the vestibule to hear and satisfy her inquiries about Elizabeth after the due necessities of asking after the family and Mr. Gardiners’ businesses were done away with. Mr. Gardiner could not be bothered by such trivial talk and was soon away with a vague smile on his face.

  “Come from Hertfordshire, has she?” Lady Beatrice repeated after her aunt. “You are quite a distance from home, miss. Tell me how you find your travels and our dear Lambton.”

  Elizabeth was perfectly willing to oblige the Lady in telling rapturously the beautiful sceneries in Dovedale and Matlock that she had seen – it was quite a small effort to compensate for her unobserved assessment of the lady’s attire which she planned to recount to her sisters.

  When at last they gained entry into the hall, Elizabeth was impressed with the entire grandeur before her. The hall was brightly lit here and there. Curtains fluttered at the walls leading to large welcoming patios, there was an orchestra set to the side ready to beguile the assembly with their songs and instruments. Verily, she could already see the grandiosity of the display of food being carted about by the maids.

  The evening proceeded with such fun and gaiety that it was impossible to retain any sense of melancholy. Her aunt ensured her acquaintance with all whom she was favourably disposed in the room and they were not in want of the company of both men and women. Such that as it was, by the time the dance commenced, Elizabeth had two men interested enough in her wits to ask for a dance. She formed no opinion of the men whilst they danced and simply set her mind to enjoying a good evening. After her third dance, Elizabeth decided that she had very much better take a seat before her head spinned off on its own.