She was making her way over to her aunt who sat amongst a group of ladies observing the dance when a shadow fell in her path. Her gaze descended on shiny leather shoes and long legs and before her eyes could wander all the way up to those pale, subdued eyes with the shimmering blue highlights, she knew who it could only be. He looked just as surprised to see her that she smirked. No doubt, he thought her too lowly to be invited to such assembly as this.
“Mr. Darcy,” she curtsied a little.
“Miss Bennet,” he returned.
There could be no other two people in the room with the least to say to each other. The last time they had been within an inch of each other in this manner, he had proposed marriage to her in the most absurd of ways and she had thrown severe accusations in his way that he had made no effort to deny.
“How fare you and your family?” he asked in a mild manner.
The very air between them fairly crackled with hostility. She answered that they were all well indeed, seeking only to escape his company. He made some noise in his throat that she considered a dismissal. She contemplated leaving his presence for a moment but decided that perhaps Jane would not mind some news of her Mr. Bingley, though the man had used her so poorly – which was no fault of his, Elizabeth thought to add to herself.
“And Mr. Bingley and his sisters? Are they come with you tonight?”
He shook his head. “No, Bingley has some business away and his sisters went thither with him.”
Elizabeth felt a mild disappointment but hid the feeling behind a smile. “Then would you relate my best regards to Mr. Bingley?” Of his sisters, she had no intent mentioning at all. “The whole of Hertfordshire was sorry to see him go, though he designed not to inform his neighbours.” She said the last part with an arch of her brows and waited for Mr. Darcy’s blush but the man had not the decency to feel some remorse for his part in the matter.
At present, his brows were arched in a way that suggested great censure at her. “Would you have this dance with me, madam?” he requested quite suddenly. “There is an urgent matter I wish to discuss with you.”
Elizabeth was all astonishment. Were they not just now eyeing each other with dislike? What did he mean by asking her for a dance? If there was one thing to be said about Mr. Darcy—and there was plenty to be said—it was that he was not lacking in intrepidity. The nerve of the man was most appalling.
Some feet away, she could see their hostess looking their way with a liveliness in her eyes that bothered Elizabeth. She had not come to Lambton to be the focus of some conjectures to be brandished about. Elizabeth was certain that the woman was listening to their conversation with much interest.
“Thank you, kind sir, but I have not the least intention of dancing one dance again,” she told him with a tight smile and in a voice that she was sure carried to the ready ears of Lady Beatrice. She desired that the woman realized that there was no mistaking the perfect indifference between herself and Mr. Darcy. “My feet ache most painfully and I covet nothing else but some cool breeze and wine. And surely, there really can be naught that you have to say to me on any dance floor, Mr. Darcy. ”
So said, she made a quick bow and quit his company. She felt her face suffused with warmth as she made her way past Lady Beatrice, but continued on after a quick curtsy to their hostess. She thought she saw some calculations in the woman’s eyes but dismissed the thought as her own conjecture. Her steps took her away from the hall onto one of the patios and looking for a poorly lit corner, she sat, staring blindly into the night before her. To her mortification, her fingers shook a little and she muttered crossly.
What had Mr. Darcy meant by seeking her out so – and right in the middle of the ball? She had felt more than Lady Beatrice’s pair of eyes observing them and it was the strangest feeling to be so regarded in the company of one she disliked. In him, she had sensed a need to hold a discourse with her, though whatever for, she could not imagine. The last time, neither of them had minced words on their thoughts about each other.
Elizabeth, unable to keep still for the variety of thoughts in her head, took off in the direction of the gardens. A walk should surely set her head right. Lamps dotted the way and it was an easy thing to keep her steps on the right path to the lushness of the gardens. Before long, her turbulent thoughts were teased away by the gentle breeze and shadow of colours cast about by the blend of the manor’s lights and the night. Her mind conceived aught else except the enjoyment of drawing in rewarding breaths of beautiful scents and increasingly feeling at peace. She sat on a bench in a quiet copse where there was little chance of an intervention from anyone. Indeed, she had not gleaned a soul on her way thither at all. The quietness soothed her fraying nerves.
Before long, however, her mind was drawn back to the very man she wished it would rather not dwell upon.
Being of a very curious nature, conjectures as to the meaning of such act, rapid and wild, hurried into her brain as to why he sought her out tonight in spite of the precarious situation in which they last held each other. Surely, he had not sought her out to profess his love a second time. Whilst they were together in Hunsford, he had declared his love for her and she had rejected it in all its ill presentation; what more could he have to say to her? No explanation that she could contrive made sense to her and naturally of a curious nature, she was already determining to allow him a chance for a discourse the next time he desired such. Elizabeth Bennet could never bear ignorance when the promise of enlightenment was within grasp.
And on such meditations was she quite distracted that she did not realize that someone was near upon her until it was rather too late.
Her mouth fell open when a shadow descended upon her and a hand flew to her chest – such was her state of fright.
“I am sorry, Miss Bennet, it is only I.”
Her skin tingled and she struggled to steady her breath in a bid to bring to a close the spate of breathlessness that threatened to overcome her at the sight of Mr. Darcy in front of her again. There could be no doubt as to his having sought her out this time around. “Mr. Darcy, what do you mean by following me about in this manner?” she cried.
“I have been a long time since our last encounter in the hope of meeting you,” said he. His voice seemed harried to her ears. “Indeed, I had come to this ball knowing that you and your relatives are in town and would be in attendance. Will you do me the honour of permitting me to sit down with you but for a moment? I really do have quite a bit to discuss with you, all of which I have taken the liberty to write in a letter but would rather much speak to your face.”
What to make of this, Elizabeth had no way of discerning. How had he known that she was in town with her aunt and uncle? What was so pressing as for him to urgently continue to seek her out? Indeed, he was a strange man and she knew no way to deal with this situation.
She said nothing which he took as her acquiescence for he took the extreme end of the bench for himself.
“Though I am entirely deserving of the many ills that you may think of me,” he began, “I seek a redress on account of your misperception of my intentions and activities about the case of your sister and the gentleman with whom you so much concern yourself. In regard to the gentleman, I am afraid that you have been entirely brainwashed by Wickham and made to see the situation in a light other than the truth—”
Here, Elizabeth hastened to interrupt him. “If this is the subject upon which you wished to speak, then I bid you talk no more, Mr. Darcy. This is surely a situation of exonerating yourself from guilt and I would have none of it.”
She carried herself up and meant to leave his presence but her gown caught on the edge of the bench and quite suddenly, she found her feet spiralling from under her and was at the immediate peril of falling to the ground uncontrollably.
A pair of strong hands held her, breaking her fall. Shaken from the near fall, her eyes stared widely into the face of her rescuer though she had been about to dismiss him only some moments ago. His bre
ath was hot across her face and for the craziest of moment, she imagined that he was about to bestow a kiss on her lips. Such was the intensity of his gaze on them. But his concern relayed to her from the strength of his grip on her whilst she struggled to comprehend the tingle that set her skin aflame where his hands rested against her arms and back.
But no further deliberation was allowed on the matter as they were both surprised by a gleeful cackle of laughter.
Quickly, Elizabeth regained her senses and drew herself up and away from Mr. Darcy’s hold. But verily it was the barest second too late. Raising her eyes, she beheld the intruding presence of Lady Beatrice.
The woman was gazing at them with such interested look while a manservant held a torch upon them.
Elizabeth knew then that trouble had found her.
Chapter Three
Had Elizabeth's opinion of the matrimonial home been all drawn from her own family, she could not have formed a very pleasing opinion of conjugal felicity or domestic comfort. As it were, her mother was a woman of weak understanding who saw everything and anything to fret about and allowed herself to be most times, swayed by irrelevances as due only a sixteen year-old lass. Her father was a man who was very plain minded and whose principal enjoyments were of the country and of books. His wife’s ignorance and folly merely contributed to his amusement and he generally allowed her to go on about her way of things with the satisfaction of being amused at her daily antics.
As a consequent of their weak characters, the Bennet adults neglected a great portion of their children’s education and the girls: Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Catherine and Lydia all had to learn from what they could if they so choose. Verily, those of them who wished to learn some skills never wanted the means as they always were encouraged to read, and had all the masters that were necessary. Also, those who chose to be idle, like Lydia, the youngest chose, certainly might.
Elizabeth realized each of her parents’ follies and bearing that she could not change what was existing before she was conceived, endeavoured to forget what she could not overlook, and to banish from her thoughts that continual breach of conjugal obligation and decorum which frequently occurred in their household.
But never had she felt as strongly as now the disadvantages which had attended her and her sisters from the ill-suited marriage between her mamma and papa. If she and her sisters had been well tutored in the right and wrong concerning decorum, she certainly would not avail herself in such a predicament as she was at the moment.
Right from the moment Lady Beatrice observed her in Mr. Darcy’s arms, she should have known that the woman would endeavour to dig her nose into what she must have thought a juicy story indeed. After the debacle of being caught in Mr. Darcy’s arms and trying to stutter out an explanation for her predicament, Elizabeth found herself back in the hall and subjected to rapid whispers and scornful looks as the news flew from lip to lip. By the time she reached her aunt’s side, she perceived that the enjoyment of the evening was certainly over.
Without saying a word to the two, Lady Beatrice had returned to the hall before Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy with an evil smile on her lips. From her aunt, Elizabeth learned that their hostess had placed herself in the centre of the room and in her most carrying voice called on Mrs. Gardiner saying, “Why, your niece is a quick one, isn’t she? She just met Lord Pemberley and already hooked the young Lord in a love tryst in my very garden!”
Elizabeth was mortified and filled with indignation.
“Why she saw no such thing!” cried she, but Mrs. Gardiner only shook her head.
“Not a single person care about what Lady Beatrice saw, my love,” said Mrs. Gardiner. “The bon ton thrives on gossip, caring only for what is said. I am afraid that we must leave now.”
Elizabeth had a half mind to turn on her heels and go in search of the vile lady but her aunt was pulling her by the hand with one hand and signalling to her husband with the other, who even now was heading in their direction with a grim look on his kind face.
Realizing that her aunt and uncle would rather they leave the party without attempting to deny the outrageous accusations, left Elizabeth in a dismay which robbed her of speech and articulate thoughts. A particular young lady who had earlier gushed about Elizabeth’s dress enough to ask for her dressmaker spat at Elizabeth as they went past her, muttering that she was a gold digging lowlife seeking to better her lot by seducing the richest man in the county.
Elizabeth, who had never been an object of such attention and abject ridicule, wished to retort in like manner, but for her aunt’s hand on her back urging her away.
“Dearest, Lizzy, I am most confident in your virtue as you may well know,” began her aunt as they entered upon the house.
None of them had said a word the entire ride back from the manor. Her uncle took their coats and turned back to instruct the servants in low tones.
“I also cannot emphasize enough how sensible a girl you are and how much of your judgment I have absolute reliance upon,” her aunt continued. “However, this business of tonight is not one that we may easily wish away. I must prepare you for the events that in all likelihood will unfold come morning.”
Elizabeth looked earnestly into her beloved aunt’s face and then her uncle’s as he joined them. “I am grateful that you believe me, for what shall I do if you do not? I had only been in the garden but a few minutes when Mr. Darcy sought my audience on an important matter. I should rather have known better than to entertain him in such secluded state but that, dearest aunt, is the only charge I am guilty of. Lady Beatrice is a bald face liar and I detest that she is so much believed while nobody care that the little of the Bennet name that I can protect is even now dragged in the mud.”
“Be that as it may, the deed is done, Eliza,” said her uncle in a solemn manner. “You shall be subject to much scorn and derision and it is our duty to take prodigious care to forestall this as best as we possibly can.”
The graveness of his pronouncement alerted Elizabeth but her indignation at such probability of undeserved shame and scorn eclipsed all other awareness. “I shall hold my head high and disregard any scorn which is to come my way,” declared she most vehemently. “Seeing that I am only a visitor in these parts, I shall depend on it that as soon as I am gone – which I am afraid would now be sooner than we had schemed, the people shall get tired and get back to their businesses.”
Mrs. Gardiner sighed and Elizabeth could only imagine the serious grievance she was inflicting on her aunt who had kept the jolly acquaintances of all the people in her town. She endeavoured to again apologize for her thoughtlessness
“You may not depend on that, Lizzy,” said she in a reasonable voice. “I have known many of those people in the room at the ball all my life but aught would prevent them from believing the worst of me if such was declared by one such as Lady Beatrice. You may rest assured that even now as we speak, the news of your wickedness is well on its way to Hertfordshire.”
Elizabeth was saved from the necessity of an argument by the arrival of a visitor who was ushered in by the butler. She gasped to see Mr. Darcy. “You!” she cried. “What business have you here? Have you not injured my family and me enough?”
Much to Elizabeth’s incredulity, her uncle ignored her tirade and offered the gentleman a seat. “This is a circumstance which calls for agitation, indeed,” said her uncle to Elizabeth, “But we shall engage our heads over our hearts in settling such matter as this and I can only request, dearest Eliza, that you allow this man to state his mission heretofore.”
Mr. Darcy thus given permission sought Elizabeth’s gaze.
She gleaned some earnestness in those clear eyes of his before she turned away, none too pleased that she was prevailed upon to stay in the same room as him. He seemed to be one too many a cause of miseries for herself and her family and she determined that the sooner he finished with this insipid business of his, the better.
“I am very much aware how poorly you think of me, and I
am afraid that there is little to be done of your opinion, solidly formed as it were at the moment. However, I can but wish for your affability in considering this only recourse which we are presented at the moment and therefore, accept my proposal of marriage.”
For a moment, Eliza could only think that the man was too thick in the head to reason suitably. Her name was to be dragged in the mud and he could talk about marriage at a time like this? He continued in a manner suited only to him, imputing his visit to a wish of seeking her hand in marriage and obtaining a license this very night if her uncle so wished. He would never wish disgrace upon her and would not mind in the least, doing this act to defend her honour to all whom may think her fallen in shame.
Much as she was not a connoisseur in the business of love, Elizabeth was of the opinion that Mr. Darcy’s second proposal to her was no better than the first. This time, he made no mention of his sense of her inferiority or of a marriage with her being a degradation in his ranking. However, the manner of sacrifice and gallantry affected in his rendition was as much very unlikely to recommend his suit any better than it had done the first time.
When he was done, Elizabeth was looking to her aunt and uncle for a protest to the ridiculous scheme of his, but she found that they didn’t seem entirely perturbed by the idea and seemed rather pleased with Mr. Darcy.
Elizabeth determined that it was thus up to her to handle this matter. “Do not flatter yourself, Mr. Darcy. While my aunt is determined to make me comprehend the full impact of this unfortunate situation tonight, I seriously maintain that your proposition is preposterous and rather lacking in feeling. Though your title and wealth be as such that you get your heart’s desires fulfilled most of the time, I can assure you that this desire is beyond me to satisfy and I shall not have you... were you to be the last man on the surface of the earth.”
Till the End of Time, Mr Darcy Page 2