Pride & Prejudice and Plain Speaking
Chapter 1
Rosings
Kent
9 th April, 1812
Elizabeth Bennet pulled in deep draughts of air as she strode briskly along her favorite path on the great estate of Rosings. She was not fond of the mistress of the estate, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, who was rude and overbearing and officious, but Rosings itself was glorious, especially at this time of year, with the trees covered in new leaves and a riot of wildflowers running amok in the fields.
She had been here in Kent for a little more than a month visiting Charlotte Collins, who had been her closest friend back in her home town of Meryton in Hertfordshire. Charlotte, the eldest daughter of Sir William and Lady Lucas, had recently married a rector named Collins, who was the heir to Longbourn, the Bennets’ estate.
Elizabeth found Mr. Collins entirely ridiculous and was still bewildered at Charlotte’s desire to marry him. However, her cheerful conversations with her friend, and long walks on Rosings paths, and a few weeks away from her own noisy home of Longbourn made the visit very pleasant indeed.
“Miss Bennet!” a voice cried from behind her, and she turned and lifted her hand to shade her eyes. To her profound relief, the man approaching her was not the thoroughly irritating Mr. Darcy, but Colonel Fitzwilliam, Darcy’s congenial cousin.
“Colonel,” she said as the gentleman drew close to her, “I did not know that you ever walked this way.”
“I have been making the tour of the park,” he replied cheerfully, “as I generally do every year, and I intended to close it with a call at the Parsonage. Are you going much farther?”
“No, I should have turned in a moment.”
And accordingly she did turn, and they walked towards the Parsonage together.
“Do you plan to leave Kent on Saturday?” she asked.
“Yes, if Darcy does not put it off again. But I am at his disposal. He arranges the business just as he pleases.”
“And if not able to please himself in the arrangement, he has at least great pleasure in the power of choice,” Elizabeth replied drily. “I do not know anybody who seems more to enjoy the power of doing what he likes than Mr. Darcy.”
“He likes to have his own way very well,” replied Colonel Fitzwilliam. “But so we all do. It is only that he has better means of having it than many others, because he is rich and many others are poor. I speak feelingly. A younger son, you know, must be inured to self-denial and dependence.”
Elizabeth cast an amused look on her companion and said, “In my opinion, the younger son of an earl can know very little of either. Now, seriously, what have you ever known of self-denial and dependence? When have you been prevented by want of money from going wherever you chose or procuring anything you had a fancy for?”
“These are home questions, and perhaps I cannot say that I have experienced many hardships of that nature. But in matters of greater weight, I may suffer from the want of money. Younger sons cannot marry where they like.”
“Unless they like women of fortune, which I think they very often do.”
“Our habits of expense make us too dependent, and there are not many in my rank of life who can afford to marry without some attention to money.”
Elizabeth winced at this. The colonel had been quite attentive during his fortnight at Rosings, and she had harbored mild hopes that perhaps the man was interested in more than mere friendship. Mr. Fitzwilliam’s words put an end to such thoughts; not that she was surprised. She had no dowry, and her companion could reach high in society due to his connections.
“And pray,” she asked cheerfully, “what is the usual price of an earl’s younger son? Unless the elder brother is very sickly, I suppose you would not ask above fifty thousand pounds.”
He answered her in the same style, and the subject dropped. To interrupt a silence which might make him fancy her affected with what had passed, she soon afterwards said, “I imagine your cousin brought you down with him chiefly for the sake of having somebody at his disposal. I wonder he does not marry, to secure a lasting convenience of that kind. But, perhaps, his sister does as well for the present; and, as she is under his sole care, he may do what he likes with her.”
“No,” said Colonel Fitzwilliam, “that is an advantage which he must divide with me. I am joined with him in the guardianship of Miss Darcy.”
“Are you, indeed? And pray what sort of a guardian do you make? Does your charge give you much trouble? Young ladies of her age are sometimes a little difficult to manage; and if she has the true Darcy spirit, she may like to have her own way.”
She saw the colonel turn alarmed eyes on her. “Why do you say that?”
She frowned at such a question but said immediately, “You need not be frightened. I never heard any harm of her, and I dare say she is one of the most tractable creatures in the world. She is a very great favorite with some ladies of my acquaintance, Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley. I think I have heard you say that you know them.”
“I know them a little. Their brother is a pleasant, gentlemanlike man – he is a great friend of Darcy’s.”
“Oh yes,” said Elizabeth sarcastically, “Mr. Darcy is uncommonly kind to Mr. Bingley and takes prodigious care of him.”
“Care of him! Yes, I really believe Darcydoestake care of him in those points where he most wants care. From something that he told me in our journey hither, I have reason to think Bingley very much indebted to him. But I ought to beg his pardon, for I have no right to suppose that Bingley was the person meant. It was all conjecture.”
“What is it you mean?”
“It is a circumstance which Darcy, of course, could not wish to be generally known, because if it were to get round to the lady’s family, it would be an unpleasant thing.”
“You may depend upon my not mentioning it.”
“And remember that I have not much reason for supposing it to be Bingley. What he told me was merely this: that he congratulated himself on having lately saved a friend from the inconveniences of a most imprudent marriage, but without sharing names or any other particulars; and I only suspected it to be Bingley from believing him the kind of young man to get into a scrape of that sort and from knowing them to have been together the whole of last summer.”
“Did Mr. Darcy give you his reasons for this interference?” Elizabeth demanded, her breast puffing out in her outrage.
“I understood that there were some very strong objections against the lady,” the colonel replied, gazing at her with a pucker between his eyes.
Elizabeth stopped in place, pulled her hand from her companion’s arm and spun to glare into his face.
“Objections, you say?”
“Yes?” Richard Fitzwilliam replied, now looking thoroughly alarmed.
“And what objections might those be?” Elizabeth snapped, her face pink with fury. “Was it her charming manners? Her exquisite countenance and form? Her delicacy? What reasons did your cousin have for separating my most beloved sister from the man she adored?”
Mr. Fitzwilliam paled before her furious eyes and took a horrified step back. “Your sister? I … I do apologize…”
“It is not for you to apologize,” Elizabeth replied as she began pacing up and down the path, unable to stand still in her anger. “It is your cousin’s pride and caprice which are the cause for all that Jane has suffered and will continue to suffer. Do you know that Mr. Bingley asked Jane to dance three times at a ball? That was tantamount to an offer of marriage in our little society, and then he left for London the day after and never returned! I had thought it was Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst who had kept their brother away, but now I know it was Mr. Darcy! The cruelty! The pride! I am … it is hard to believe. I knew he was an unpleasant man after he insulted me on first acquaintance. I knew that he disliked me thoroughly. But to be so merciless toward Jane, who is everything good, who cried her eyes out mourning the loss of the man she loved. I am so angry! If I were a man, I would challenge him to a duel! Alas, I am not and can do nothing, but…”
She sputtered into silence and then turned and began marching towards the parsonage, her rage obvious in every movement. The colonel, who had been watching with an open mouth, hurried after her.
“Miss Bennet, please! I am certain Darcy had his reasons, and...”
“If you please, Colonel, I would prefer to walk by myself,” Elizabeth snarled. “I need some time alone before dealing with any member of your despicable family!”
He halted at these vehement words and watched in dismay as the lady strode away, indignation in her every step.