by Leenie Brown
Darcy wished to take her aside and assure her once again that nothing would change his love for her and that his relations were just as likely to be ill-behaved this evening, but he did not wish to draw Mr. Bennet’s displeasure any more than he had yesterday. Nevertheless, if things became unbearable for Elizabeth, he would pull her aside and run the risk of having to wait six months to be wed.
“You do not mind if we rush you into dinner, do you?” he asked his aunt. “We were just about to go in.”
“She does not mind in the least,” Lady Margaret replied. “I am famished. Richard, your arm,” she instructed. “Darcy, lead on.”
And so the party was in short order ensconced within the dining room. Conversation flowed with some awkwardness around the table due in a large part to Lady Matlock’s desire to point out the failings of the Bennets.
“I have heard your estate is not substantial?” Lady Matlock asked Mr. Bennet.
“It is modest,” the gentleman replied.
“And Mr. Gardiner is your wife’s brother?”
“Yes,” Mr. Gardiner answered. “I have three sisters, who have all been well-settled. Mrs. Bennet, whom you have met, Mrs. Philips, whose husband is a solicitor in Meryton, and Mrs. Clark, who is settled in Sussex. Her husband is a parson.”
“And you have no brothers?”
“Not any longer,” Mr. Gardiner replied. “The sea can be cruel.”
Lady Matlock’s brows rose. “How dreadful!”
Mr. Gardiner shrugged. “It is the way of things in the navy, is it not? Some return with tales of glory while others remain behind and have their part of the glory in the details of the tale.”
Lady Matlock fell silent.
Darcy knew that Mr. Gardiner had hit a chord with his aunt. She had never been one to disapprove of her son’s choice of joining the military, but she was the reason he had settled on the militia rather than the regulars or the navy. Darcy knew that even with Richard not being called away to foreign soil, his aunt worried about him. Lady Matlock might be a lady who sought attention and the praise of her peers, but there was one place in her life where she had not striven to be as many of her station were. She had always been, and still was, greatly attached to her children.
“My brother did look smart in his uniform.” There was a fondness in Mrs. Bennet’s tone. She sighed. “There is something about a uniform,” she added softly before turning her attention back to her food.
Darcy chuckled softly to himself as he watched her. “She is trying not to look at Richard,” he whispered in answer to Elizabeth’s questioning look.
Jane smiled. “That is because a colonel would be just the thing for one of her daughters.”
“She is thinking of Lydia, no doubt,” Elizabeth replied. “My youngest sister,” she explained quietly to Richard, who was sitting across from her and next to Lady Margaret.
“The lively one?” asked Lady Margaret.
Elizabeth nodded.
“How old is your youngest sister?” Lady Margaret asked, with a sidelong, teasing look at Richard and curiosity suffusing her features.
“She is not yet sixteen,” Jane replied.
Georgiana, who sat next to her great aunt, gasped.
“Are you well, my dear?” Lady Margaret turned toward Georgiana.
“Yes,” Georgiana replied with a blush. “I was just startled that Miss Elizabeth’s sister was my age and…” She pressed her lips together and glanced at her brother.
“What is it?” Lady Margaret pressed.
Georgiana shook her head.
“Whisper it in my ear. I must know.” Lady Margaret bent her head toward Georgiana, who complied, causing Lady Margaret to laugh. “I guess he is rather old compared to you,” she said with a wink at Richard.
“I am not old,” Richard retorted.
“You are to a girl of sixteen,” said his great aunt.
“I should not like to see you attached to someone so young,” Lady Margaret continued, raising an eyebrow imperiously at her grandson and giving him a stern look.
“There is no fear of that,” Richard assured her.
“Not even if the young lady has a fortune?” His grandmother queried.
Richard shook his head. “I have more sense than you suppose.”
She shrugged. “Perhaps you do. However, if such a young heiress of say eighteen or nineteen were to capture your attention and possessed sense as large as her fortune, I should not object. In fact, if she were penniless, sensible, and were to work her way into your affections, I would also not object. It is not as if you are without funds.” She lifted a hand to prevent protest. “I know they are not what you would like them to be, but you are far from poor.”
“I do not know why I bother attending these functions,” Richard grumbled.
“Darcy’s cook is excellent,” Bingley said with a smirk.
“It was not a question,” Richard muttered.
“We would miss you if you did not,” Georgiana added with a smile.
Darcy agreed readily with his sister.
“All five out at once!”
The exclamation from Lady Matlock at the other end of the table drew the attention of the others.
To Elizabeth, the shock in Lady Matlock’s tone sounded very familiar. It was very like how she had been questioned at Rosings, and she was both curious and anxious as to what her mother’s reply would be. She glanced at Darcy, who was watching her with concern, and smiled reassuringly at him.
“You would miss all this entertainment if you were not here,” she whispered across the table to Richard as Lord Matlock gently chided his wife for her outburst.
Richard lifted and lowered his shoulders and with a nod of his head said, “Mothers.”
Elizabeth’s smile grew at that one-word reply. It seemed not only daughters had mothers who could be trying.
“Do you have any daughters?” Mrs. Bennet countered at the opposite end of the table.
“We have three sons,” Lady Matlock replied. “There is one younger than Richard who is studying the law.”
“The law is a very good profession,” Mr. Gardiner said.
“Indeed it is,” Mrs. Bennet agreed. “And it is fortunate that a son can learn a profession and see to his own welfare. Such is not the case with a daughter. One must do her best to see her daughters well-settled.” Mrs. Bennet lifted her chin and looked as if she was going to say more. However, a commotion in the corridor caught her attention, and whatever else she might have said was lost to the entrance of Lady Catherine.
Chapter 10
Darcy rose as his aunt bustled into the room ahead of his frazzled butler.
“Is Anne here?” Lady Catherine demanded without so much as a word of greeting. She looked around the table. “Oh,” she said, her shoulders sagging as her eyes completed the circuit of startled faces without seeing the one she sought.
“As you can see, Anne is not here,” Darcy said.
“And who are these people?” Lady Catherine asked with a wave of her hand toward the Bennets.
“If you had entered as you were taught,” Lady Margaret replied before Darcy could say a word, “you would know as introductions would have been made.” She pushed herself out of her chair as if it was a great effort. “These are the Bennets and the Gardeners. This beautiful young woman is Miss Bennet, and I believe you already know Miss Elizabeth,” Lady Margaret motioned to each person as she mentioned them. “This,” she said to the room at large, “is my youngest daughter, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Now, Catherine, please explain your rudeness so that I might eat my cake.”
Dessert had only just arrived, and Darcy had been certain to request his grandmother’s favourite, Apples à la Parisienne, be prepared for tonight’s dinner. Lady Margaret would forgo nearly any part of a meal save dessert. It was her favourite course, and when it was a much-loved cake, she was even more determined to savour every morsel placed before her.
Lady Catherine lifted her chin and looked disapprov
ingly at the Bennets. “Perhaps it would be better if we discussed this without visitors present.”
“They are not visitors,” Darcy crossed his arm and smiled as her head snapped around towards him. “They are my soon-to-be relations.”
A great gasp was heard from both Lady Matlock and Mrs. Bennet.
Mr. Bennet cleared his throat and rose. “We had thought to make our announcement at the end of the meal, but seeing as an explanation is needed…It is my joy to announce the betrothals of my eldest daughters.”
“Betrothals?” Mrs. Bennet squealed and clapped her hands. “Oh, I knew you could not be so beautiful for nothing, Jane, and you, Lizzy…” she stopped as if uncertain what to say, but the pause was only momentary, for her delight would not be suppressed into silence. “Oh, I do not know what any man would see in you, Lizzy, but I am glad Mr. Darcy had the good sense to see it!”
“Darcy is betrothed to my daughter,” Lady Catherine declared. “No matter what this…this…” she waved her hand in Elizabeth’s direction, “daughter of yours has done to make Darcy forget himself and his duty.”
“My daughter has not done anything untoward,” Mrs. Bennet’s tone was indignant. “Have you, Lizzy?” she added, ruining any argument she was attempting to make.
“Of course, she has,” Lady Catherine refuted. “Darcy would not neglect his duty if she had not. Does Anne know of this? Is that why she has run off?” Lady Catherine asked, turning back toward Darcy.
Darcy shook his head. “Two things,” he said much more calmly than he thought was possible in his current state of displeasure. “First, I have never been betrothed to Anne, and second, Miss Elizabeth is all that is proper.” He shook his head again. “No, not two things — there is more. I do not appreciate your disruption of my dinner, nor will I allow you to remain under my roof if you continue to be uncivil and unwelcoming to either Miss Elizabeth or her family.”
Lady Catherine took a step back as if she had been slapped. “I had thought you better than this,” her eyes slid from her nephew to Elizabeth and back.
“Madam,” Darcy growled, “I would choose my words carefully if I were you. Now, state your business.”
Lady Catherine’s eyes narrowed at Darcy’s terse command. “My daughter is missing.” She drew a letter from her reticule. “Mrs. Jenkinson found this in Anne’s room this morning.”
Darcy crossed to his aunt and took the missive from her. Unfolding it, he read,
Dear Mother,
Wish me happy. I am to marry and before I am one and twenty! Please have Sally pack my things so that when I return, they can be easily transported to my new home.
Anne
“It seems she is to be married,” Darcy said as he finished reading.
“Yes, I can read,” Lady Catherine snapped as she snatched the missive back from Darcy. “But if she is not here, marrying you, then where can she be?”
“On the road to Scotland, no doubt,” said Lady Margaret.
“Scotland!” Lady Catherine gasped. “But with whom?”
“Not Darcy,” muttered Richard with a smirk, earning him a glare from his cousin. He pushed up from his chair. “How long has she been gone?”
Lady Catherine shook her head and slumped into the chair to which Darcy had led her.
“She retired to her room early last evening.” She shrugged and, taking the handkerchief Darcy handed her, dabbed at her eyes. “That is the last I saw of her,” she whispered.
At that moment, Elizabeth felt compassion for her and a greater love for the man who knelt beside his aunt, holding her hand. The woman might have moments ago riled him to anger, but now as she faced the loss of a child, he had moved from being affronted to being attentive. It reminded her of how he had appeared at the parsonage. He was such a mix of noble traits. Commanding in one instance. The embodiment of kindness in another. How she had ever thought it possible on short acquaintance to unravel the complexity of such a man was beyond her comprehension now. How foolish it had been to think him simple and easily deciphered. She smiled as she looked on as more questions were gently put to Lady Catherine. He would not forever remain an enigma to her as she had claimed. She knew precisely who he was. He was the best of men. And he was hers.
“Mr. Bennet,” Mrs. Bennet had risen to her feet and was pacing the room, “you must do something.”
“I do not see what I can do,” Elizabeth’s father responded.
Mrs. Bennet huffed. “A child is missing. You must help find her, for she has no father to defend her.” She wrung her hands and, walking to the window, peered out into the night as if she might be able to discover something in the blackness.
“Very well,” Mr. Bennet said. “Would you care to ride to Scotland with me, Gardiner?”
“It might be best if someone who knew what Anne looked like rode with you,” said Lord Matlock.
“And what will you do when you find her?” Lady Matlock asked. “The damage is done.”
“Why insure a marriage takes place!” cried Mrs. Bennet. “Unless he is, of course, completely unfit as a husband, then…” she tapped her lip, “you, my lady, might know of someone in need of a wife who would with a bit of persuasion be willing to marry a lady of means. I assume the niece of an earl would be a lady of means, would she not be?”
“Anne has a fortune,” said Lady Margaret.
Mrs. Bennet gasped. “Oh, Mr. Bennet, you must not let him have her fortune if that is all he wishes!”
“No marriage papers have been signed,” Lord Matlock assured her. “But your concern does you credit, madam.” He went to the door of the dining room and requested a runner be sent to Matlock House to prepare his things for travelling.
Things were swiftly arranged. Lord Matlock would ride out along the north road with his youngest son, who was always looking for a bit of adventure, as he checked for evidence that Anne had indeed gone to Scotland. Mr. Bennet was happy to remain in town, and Mrs. Bennet was pleased to be thought of as a kindly sort of woman by one so distinguished as an earl.
Elizabeth was certain she would hear that story repeated often when they returned to Hertfordshire. It was, as Mrs. Bennet said at least twice, nearly as good as having been to St. James’s.
When dessert had been cleared away, and the ladies left for the drawing room, Darcy slipped out into the corridor and took Elizabeth by the arm.
“Come,” he said in a whisper.
Elizabeth followed him down the hall and into what appeared to be his study.
“Are you well?” he asked as he closed the door and turned the lock.
“Yes, I am perfectly well.”
“My family,” he began, “are ridiculous at times.”
Elizabeth smiled. “Indeed, neither of us are without such relations.”
“It illustrates how wrong I was to disparage your family.” He could feel his ears warming with shame.
“You are forgiven,” Elizabeth said, placing a hand on his cheek. “You have aunts and uncles of great standing who have made — and likely will continue to make — life challenging for you for having chosen me. You were not wrong to consider their reaction.”
“You will marry me despite my trying family?” he asked.
“If you can tolerate my mother and sisters, I can abide your relations.”
He drew her into his embrace. “I am not entirely certain how I was so fortunate as to win you.”
She drew back from where she had lain her head against his chest and once again touched his face, running her finger along the yellowish bruise around his eye. “Does it still hurt?”
He shook his head. “Only if I rub it too hard in the morning. It itches a bit, however.”
She ran her finger gently along his bruise once again. “I would have never thought to see the Mr. Darcy I first met with a cut lip and a blackened eye.” She laughed lightly as she returned her head to resting above his heart. “But then you are not who I thought you were.”
“I am not who I was,” he said
. “I have been working to untie the tightly woven mantle of duty and responsibility that presented itself in arrogance.”
“Do not change,” she said as she looked up at him.
“I am only amending the ungentlemanly parts,” he replied with a smile.
She returned his smile. “I love you just as you are.”
“And I you, my dearest Elizabeth,” he dipped his head and kissed her briefly. “I was thinking,” he said before kissing her again, “I have a fine travelling coach, and Scotland is not so very far away.” He kissed her a third time.
“Mr. Darcy!”
“Fitzwilliam,” he corrected.
“Fitzwilliam,” she said shyly, “I am shocked that you have proposed an elopement. It is not a proper thing at all.”
He found himself grinning with delight at the impertinent lift of her left brow. “If it would not distress your mother, I would steal you away this very night.” He kissed her once again, but not lightly as he had done before. This was a long, lingering, delicious sort of kiss.
“Mr. Darcy,” Mr. Bennet called through the door, “have you seen my daughter?”
Darcy smiled down at Elizabeth as he called back a “yes.” Then he kissed Mr. Bennet’s daughter once more as the doorknob rattled behind him. “You must work on him to allow us to marry soon,” he said to Elizabeth. “Or we will be going to Scotland.” He kissed her one last time before releasing her, turning to open the door and facing her father.
“You say you have a comfortable carriage?” Elizabeth blushed at the breathiness of her voice.
“Yes, it is well-sprung with plush seats.” His hand rested on the doorknob.
“I will keep that in mind.” She lifted onto her toes and pressed her lips against his. “If he will not agree to a month…” She left the rest of her consent to his plan unspoken.
The way her smile danced in her eyes held his gaze captive for a moment, and then, offering her his arm, he opened the door to face whatever might come — together.
~*~*~
Read Anne’s story in
Becoming Entangled
Available Late Fall 2017