by Maria Grace
“If you believed it impossible, why would you give it credence by addressing me on the point? What could your ladyship propose by it?” Control, she must maintain control. It would not do to stoop to Lady Catherine’s level.
“Can you declare that there is no foundation for it?''
“I do not pretend to possess equal frankness with your ladyship. You may ask questions which I shall not choose to answer.”
“This is not to be borne. Miss Bennet, I insist on being satisfied. Has he, has my nephew, made you an offer of marriage?”
“Your ladyship has declared it to be impossible.”
“It ought to be so. It must be so while he retains the use of his reason. But your arts and allurements may, in a moment of infatuation, have made him forget what he owes to himself and to all his family. You may have drawn him in.”
Elizabeth balled her fists in her lap. “If I have, I shall be the last person to confess it.”
“Miss Bennet, do you know who I am? I have not been accustomed to such language as this. I am almost the nearest relation he has in the world and am entitled to know all his dearest concerns.” Lady Catherine waved a pointing finger.
“But you are not entitled to know mine; nor will such behavior as this ever induce me to be explicit.” Elizabeth folded her arms over her chest, shoving fists under her arms.
“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?” Lady Catherine slowly rose.
Was that supposed to be menacing? The gesture had far more impact coming from a dragon.
“Only this; that if he is so, you can have no reason to suppose he will make an offer to me.”
Lady Catherine stopped her next rebuttal before it passed her lips. She closed her mouth, brow furrowed, and blinked. “The engagement between them is of a peculiar kind. From their infancy, they have been intended for each other. While in their cradles, we planned the union. And now, at the moment when the wishes of both sisters would be accomplished in their marriage, it is to be prevented by a young woman of inferior birth, of no importance in the world, and wholly unallied to the family! Are you lost to every feeling of propriety and delicacy?”
“What is that to me? If there is no other objection to my marrying your nephew, I shall certainly not be kept from it by knowing that his mother and aunt wished him to marry Miss de Bourgh. If Mr. Darcy is neither by honor nor inclination confined to his cousin, why is not he to make another choice? And if I am that choice, why may I not accept him?”
“Because honor, decorum, prudence, nay, interest, forbid it. Do not expect to be noticed by his family or friends if you willfully act against the inclinations of all. You will be censured, slighted, and despised by everyone connected with him. Your alliance will be a disgrace; your name will never even be mentioned by any of us.” Lady Catherine turned her back.
Oh, what a flair for the dramatic. Had she not been born to fortune, she might have been an actress.
“These are heavy misfortunes, but the wife of Mr. Darcy must have such extraordinary sources of happiness necessarily attached to her situation that she could, upon the whole, have no cause to repine.”
She whirled on Elizabeth. “Obstinate, headstrong girl! I am ashamed of you! I will not be dissuaded. I have not been used to submit to any person's whims. 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.”
“I will not be interrupted. Hear me in silence! My daughter and my nephew are formed for each other, and what is to divide them? The upstart pretensions of a young woman without family, connections, or fortune? Is this to be endured? But it must not, shall not be! If you were sensible of your own good, you would not wish to quit the sphere in which you have been brought up.”
“In marrying your nephew, I should not consider myself as quitting that sphere. He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman's daughter; we are both Dragon Keepers of the Blue Order. So far we are equal.”
“Tell me once for all, are you engaged to him?”
“I am not.”
Lady Catherine heaved a labored sigh and dabbed her forehead with her handkerchief. “And will you promise me never to enter into such an engagement?”
“I will make no promise of the kind.”
“Do not deceive yourself. I shall not go away till you have given me the assurance I require.”
“And I certainly never shall give it. You have widely mistaken my character, if you think I can be worked on by such inducements as these. How far your nephew might approve of your interference in his affairs, I cannot tell. But you have certainly no right to concern yourself in mine. I must beg, therefore, to be importuned no farther on the subject.”
“You are then resolved to have him?” Lady Catherine shook her fists at her side.
“I have said no such thing. I am only resolved to act in that manner which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness, without reference to you or to any person so wholly unconnected with me.”
“And this is your final resolve! Very well. I shall now know how to act. Do not imagine, Miss Bennet, that your ambition will ever be gratified. I came to try you. I hoped to find you reasonable, but depend upon it, I will carry my point.”
They glared at each other for a moment. Elizabeth turned on her heel and fled the room.
She nearly tripped over Quincy who waited just outside the door.
He bounced on his toes, hood opening and closing. “Is it true then, that you will have Darcy? Oh, that is very good news. Very good. There is no one better suited to little Pemberley. And he is a very good Keeper, you know, very good to dragonkind. Such a spectacular match—”
She caught his face between her hands and held his gaze. “I have said no such thing, and would pray you to keep your thoughts to yourself on such matters. Do not spread gossip or speak about this anywhere.”
“Of, course, of course. I would do nothing to displease you.” He scurried away.
The little scamp must have been listening at the door. Anyone listening might have drawn the same conclusions. She pressed her hands to her face. To have heard it all, it did sound as though she were quite set on having Mr. Darcy.
Of course it was not true. Not at all, she had only just come to understand he was not the man she had thought him to be. No longer despising him was hardly the same thing as having her cap set on him.
He was a good man and did not deserve to have an arranged marriage forced on him the way one was still being forced on her. That was why she spoke out as she did.
Of course it was. She smoothed her skirt.
Still, though, there was little chance that Quincy would believe her or keep any sort of intelligence to himself. Soon every dragon on Rosings Park would think them engaged!
Pemberley must not hear such a rumor. The setbacks this could cause! Only Rosings herself could put an end to the notion.
Elizabeth rushed out through the kitchen.
Why did the path to the dragon’s lair have to pass by the parsonage? Perhaps if she ran very quickly—
“Cousin Elizabeth, how delightful to see you this morning. I had hoped to call upon you at Rosings manor, but this is far more agreeable.”
No, this definitely was not!
And what was that stench? Was he wearing some sort of cologne? And a silk cravat?
Deep breath. Panic would not serve her now.
“How is a rather muddy garden path more agreeable than a parlor at the manor? You have very strange tastes indeed.”
He laughed and gave her a condescending look that he must have learned from Lady Catherine. “There are some conversations that one would like to have in a more ... private setting.”
No, no, no! Not again. “Forgive me, sir, but I am in a great hurry—to see my sick relation, you see.” She curtsied and stepped around him.<
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He turned and matched her stride for stride. “I can be silent no longer. In vain, I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”
Such a vivid imagination for so early in the day!
“Mr. Collins! Please now is neither the time nor—”
“I think nothing of the obstacles, the degradation that the association might be, to myself or my esteemed patroness.”
She stopped short. “Degradation?” Had not Lady Catherine tried to manufacture the connection herself?
He braced his hands on his thighs as he caught his breath. “As a vicar and a gentleman, I must consider my connections carefully. The situation of your mother's family—a merchant and a solicitor are no gentlemen, I must remind you. Though they are objectionable, it is hardly one’s choice to whom they are related. I am sure those connections can be ignored. At the very least, there is nothing to be done for them.”
“And you think this magnanimous?”
“But they are nothing in comparison of that total want of propriety so frequently betrayed by your mother, by your three younger sisters, and occasionally even by your father. Consider their behavior at nearly every social occasion in Meryton. How can you defend them? Even simply walking into the village, your sisters draw the stares and censure of nearly every proper citizen. I can hardly conscience my own ardent desire to be so tied to them as to call them my own sisters.”
“You have said far too much, sir. I pray you desist immediately.” She lifted open hands and edged away.
“I understand your displeasure at this representation of them, so let this praise give you consolation: you and your eldest sister have conducted yourselves so as to avoid any share of the censure.”
Her jaw dropped. “I am at a loss how you can consider that praise—”
“It is a testimony to the warmth of my attachment that, in spite of all my endeavors, I have found it impossible to conquer. My thoughts wander to you. I dream of you. I find myself whispering your name in odd moments.”
No doubt it was draconic persuasion that was at the root of his malady. Somehow, Longbourn must have found a tone of voice which the man could actually perceive.
That he should be subject to persuasion should be a good thing. It would make him easier to manage. She had a duty and now, with some proof that he was susceptible to persuasion she should—
“Despite the compromises I have made to my own character, I hope now to be rewarded by your acceptance of my hand.” His eyes traveled down her body and he licked his lips.
Her stomach roiled.
“In such cases as this, it is, I believe, the established mode to express a sense of obligation for the sentiments avowed, however unequally they may be returned. If I could feel gratitude, I would now thank you. But I cannot.”
He gasped and stammered, obviously trying to cut her off with more blathering of his own.
She waved him down. “I have never desired your good opinion, and you have certainly bestowed it most unwillingly. I am sorry to have occasioned pain to anyone. It has been most unconsciously done, however, and I hope will be of short duration. Pray excuse me now.”
She only made it three steps.
He grabbed her arm and spun her toward him. “And this is all the reply which I am to have the honor of expecting? I might, perhaps, wish to be informed why, with so little endeavor at civility, I am thus rejected.”
“I might as well enquire, why, with so evident a design of offending and insulting me, you chose to tell me that you liked me against your will, against your reason, and even against your character? Was not this some excuse for incivility, if I was uncivil?”
“You have been most uncivil, especially considering what your own behavior has been.”
“You just said—”
“In Meryton, perhaps, but I have it on excellent authority that you have been shockingly inappropriate here at Rosings Park.”
“Of what have I been accused?”
“You behavior toward Mr. Darcy has been entirely inappropriate, so much so, the entire village expects an announcement of your betrothal to him.”
Lady Catherine—and now Quincy—was the only one who believed that. She must have set him to this!
“You have absolutely no concern for the hopes of Miss de Bourgh which you have been treading upon like a swath of wildflowers in your way.”
“I have done nothing to Miss de Bourgh.”
“You know she is meant for Mr. Darcy.”
“You take an eager interest in that lady’s concerns.”
“Anyone who knows what her misfortunes have been cannot help feeling an interest in her.”
She stamped her foot. “Her misfortunes! Yes, her misfortunes have been great indeed. She is heiress to a great estate, not entailed away to a male heir. She can make any choice she pleases without consideration to the limitations of her future or that of her sisters. I would say those are great misfortunes indeed.”
“You have come in and seduced away from her the only man she had been interested in. Stealing away her future, her children, all the advantages which she has been born for. You have done all this, and yet you can treat the mention of her misfortunes with contempt and ridicule. What kind of woman are you?”
“And this is your true opinion of me! This is the estimation in which you hold me despite your declaration of ardent love?”
“You suggest I should have concealed my struggles, and flattered you into the belief of my being impelled by unqualified, unalloyed inclination? I suppose you would have enjoyed the fabrication, but disguise of every sort is my abhorrence.” He pressed a hand to his chest and tossed his head.
“Indeed, sir. That is good to know, particularly in that the sentiment is so strong that you will sacrifice every finer feeling and sentiment to it.”
“Heartless, unfeeling creature! I am not ashamed of the feelings I related. They were natural and just. 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? Or to ally myself with the behavior of young ladies so at odds with every moral teaching I conduct?”
“You are mistaken, Mr. Collins, if you suppose that the mode of your declaration affected me in any other way than to spare me the concern which I might have felt in refusing you had you behaved in a more gentleman-like manner. You could not have made me the offer of your hand in any possible way that would have tempted me to accept it.”
His eyes grew wide, and he slipped half a step back.
At last a bit of room to breathe!
“From the first moment of my acquaintance with you, your manners impressed me with your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others. I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry.”
His expression mingled incredulity, mortification and something that resembled seething anger. “Your father wills that you marry me. Lady Catherine wills it. You cannot—”
“I can and I will most definitely make up my own mind considering the issue of marriage!”
He lunged for her. “Then you certainly will live to regret it when I put you out of the house as soon as your good father is—”
She pelted headlong down the path. Who knew what he could be capable of?
***
Darcy set the package of bones by the remains of Pemberley’s old nest in Rosings’ cavern. There was little left of it, save a few stray leaves and twigs. No doubt, sharing her lair with another major dragon, even a baby, had been a trial.
At least she had been more gracious than Longbourn.
Rosings nosed the package. Darcy opened it and handed her the largest bone, almost the length of his arm. Who would have thought she would have taken to gnawing the same big bones that Pemberley liked. He would have to tell Elizabeth.
&nbs
p; “You should know Pemberley made her first kill yesterday. She caught a hare.”
A little warm spot ignited in his chest. “Is that not a full fortnight sooner than you expected?”
“More like a month I would say.” Rosings ripped a shred of meat from the bone, flipped it in the air, and caught it before it hit the ground.
“You do not say it like it is a good thing.”
“It is not.”
Something in her tone chilled his blood.
“I will not share my hunting grounds.”
“Of course not.” Hares? Rosings did not bother with such small game. She would begrudge Pemberley something she would not be bothered with?
“Lady insists I should.”
“I have told her otherwise.” Darcy pinched his temples. “It would be helpful if you would explain to Aunt Catherine and Anne your stand on the matter.”
“I am a dragon and a cowntess. I do not need to explain myself to her or anyone.”
“Of course not, still, it would be helpful—”
Rosings puffed a hot breath, smelling vaguely of sulfur, in his face.
Not a good sign.
“Brother! I did not know you would be here!” Georgiana skipped up to him.
Rosings snorted and turned aside to attend her bone, but the conversation was far from over.
“I just came from the butcher.”
“Bones?” Pemberley and Wellsbey said together.
“Yes, I have bones—for all of you.” He opened the package completely and handed out the treats to both dogs and dragons alike, setting all tails wagging.
“I like bones!” Pemberley settled down where her old nest had been and began chewing. Now that some of her teeth had broken though, she made vague crunching sounds as she gnawed. Dog and Puppy crowded close to her sides, wagging tails and slobbering.
Wellsbey set the bone at his feet. “Thank you very much, sir. She had an excellent walk. Chased down several hares. Her agility is quite remarkable. I think she could have caught them had she been hungry.”