Prologue #2
As she snapped herself out of her reverie, she noticed the forlorn look on Mr. Darcy’s mien as he sat opposite her in the rocking equipage.
He had been sitting opposite Louisa when she boarded the coach, but it was the work of a moment to have her sister swap places with her.
“Come, Mr. Darcy,” Miss Bingley cooed, “surely there is nothing or no one you will repine not seeing in this backwater?” Miss Bingley batted her eyelids at Mr. Darcy in what she believed was a coquettish manner.
“There are, in fact, some things I will miss sorely,” Darcy replied.
“If it is Miss Eliza, or the soon-to-be Mrs. Collins,” Miss Bingley said spitefully, enjoying the way Mr. Darcy blanched at her intelligence, “according to the sweet Miss Jane Bennet—who is not the person she seems—dear Eliza will be betrothed to that idiotic parson by now.” Caroline took pleasure in crowing about her news.
‘Please tell me I will not have to see the woman I have fallen in love with as the wife of that dunderheaded sycophant my dear Aunt Catherine appointed to the living at Hunsford? Dear God, what have I done?
‘I did not want to raise her expectations so I left her vulnerable to this.
Her mother will not allow her to refuse, neither would she have allowed Miss Bennet to refuse my friend.
He may have offered for her if I had not told him the truth about her and what she attempted with me.
She is my match in every way, but I have allowed my pride and misplaced sense of duty to cause me the loss of a magnificent woman.
‘Look at the way the harpy that is Miss Bingley crows over thoughts of my Elizabeth’s suffering.
One of these days, I will reach the point where I will be unable to hold back any longer and I will tell the shrew exactly what I think of her and that she has no chance of ever becoming my wife, even if she were to compromise me.
‘She should have been my Elizabeth, but now I have lost her forever thanks to my damnable pride. If I cannot have her, I will not marry. Pemberley will go to Giana’s first born.’
Darcy decided that as soon as they were out of Meryton, he would do what he had on the way to Hertfordshire when he refused to suffer the over-scented woman’s company. He would stop the coach and swap places with his valet. He did not care a whit how much fury the shrew was sure to display.
Elizabeth noticed the Darcy carriage and the enigma of a man himself.
She was glad neither he nor the other occupants saw her.
The last thing she needed was scorn from any of that group of people.
As she sat and waited, she noticed the handsome Mr. Wickham, who had been so wronged by Mr. Darcy, approaching the post. He bowed to her when he was next to where she was seated.
After ascertaining there was at least ten minutes before departure, Elizabeth exited the mail coach.
“Is what your sister Lydia told me true, are you leaving the area?” Mr. Wickham asked.
“Yes Mr. Wickham, I am,” Elizabeth confirmed.
“If you will stay with me in my room tonight, and we have some fun together, I will make sure you get to London tomorrow,” Wickham stated suggestively. Before he knew what was happening, he was writhing on the ground clutching his manly parts.
“How blind I was! Charlotte warned me you were not what you seemed! How dare you suggest thus to a gentlewoman, or to any woman. You, sir, disgust me.” Elizabeth wheeled and returned to her seat on the post as an audience of dismayed townspeople looked on.
As it departed, she thought about how she had been taken in so easily by an obviously dishonourable man.
It must have been Mr. Darcy’s slight at the assembly.
Elizabeth had laughed it off but the handsome Mr. Darcy calling her tolerable and not handsome enough to tempt him hurt her vanity much more than she had ever admitted.
She had looked to find fault in Mr. Darcy and left herself open to Mr. Wickham’s manipulations.
As she thought back on his tale of woe now, she could easily pick out inconsistencies and downright contradictions.
Charlotte had been correct, and she had been too obstinate to listen.
She still did not like Mr. Darcy very much, but at least she was able to acquit him of the worst cruelty she had believed of him.
Elizabeth sat back on her uncomfortable seat in the cramped quarters of the post and closed her eyes to try and get some sleep. She tried to put all thoughts of the handsome man from Derbyshire out of her mind, without much success.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Just as he planned to do, as soon as Meryton was behind him, Darcy struck the ceiling with his cane and alighted before Miss Bingley had time to react. At least, after he spoke to Bingley he would never have to put up with the over scented harpy again.
As he rode towards London on Zeus, Darcy was just as miserable after hearing the news about Miss Elizabeth as he felt when he discovered what was happening on his arrival at Ramsgate two days earlier than he had planned.
Due to his unexpected arrival, he caught his sworn enemy, George Wickham, with his sister at the house. His sister Georgiana, called Giana, was but fifteen and told him of her planned elopement, unable to keep such momentous news from her brother who was more of a father than a sibling.
Darcy had two of his largest footmen detain both Wickham and Mrs. Younge, his sister’s companion and Wickham’s cohort, while he tried to convince his sister of Wickham’s perfidy. In the end, she had agreed to stand outside the drawing room where Darcy had confronted both perpetrators.
It had hurt his sister to hear how the man she believed she loved was only using her to gain her dowry and hurt her brother, but it had helped her begin to recover, as had the stinging slap she had gifted Mr. Wickham’s cheek—removing the smirk from his face.
Both conspirators had been turned out of the house after being threatened with arrest, Wickham for his debts and Mrs. Younge for fraud, if they ever breathed a word to a living soul.
Darcy snapped out of his reverie, he had none other to blame but himself for losing Miss Elizabeth.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“Reggie, Tiffany will be seventeen soon and we need to replace her companion,” Lady Elaine Fitzwilliam, the Countess of Matlock, told her husband, Lord Reginald Fitzwilliam, the fifth Earl of Matlock.
Lady Tiffany Fitzwilliam was their only daughter, almost seventeen, a gift from God—born more than thirteen years after their second son, Richard, a Colonel in the Royal Dragoons.
The couple had believed there would be no more children after Richard, but miraculously, a little more than twelve years after his birth, Lady Elaine found herself with child again.
Eight months later and after a difficult confinement, Tiffany joined the family.
As their only daughter, she was indulged, but not spoilt.
Lady Elaine wanted Mrs. Annesley as her daughter’s companion but, given what she knew of her niece Giana’s experience in Ramsgate, she had taken a step back and not competed for the lady’s services.
She had been hired as Georgiana’s companion by her nephew, William Darcy.
“You have my agreement, my love,” Lord Reggie responded. “I am sure you will find someone soon.”
“Knowing our Tiffany, it should be a younger and more active sort. Even though she did not dislike Mrs. Brookes, our daughter felt restricted by how little the lady was able to do physically. It was a relief for Tiffany when she retired two months ago,” Lady Elaine mused.
“Perhaps when your committee meets in a fortnight, you can ask the ladies if they know of anyone who you would be willing to interview,” Lord Reggie suggested.
“That is a good suggestion, Husband. If I have not found a companion by then, I will do so,” Lady Elaine decided.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Thomas Bennet stood in the doorway of the bookseller on Meryton’s High Street.
He saw his favourite daughter exit the post, Mr. Wickham say something to her, and in the blink of an eye, her leg shot up and kicked the man in his nether region.
He watched as she barked something out at the writhing man, smoothed her skirts, and with as much dignity as she could, boarded the conveyance.
A little before the officer approached his daughter, Bennet had noticed an expensive carriage pass with Miss Bingley sitting in the forward-facing seat closest to him with the proud Mr. Darcy seated opposite her.
The caterwauling by his wife caused by the closing of Netherfield and Mr. Bingley’s leaving the area not to return was the reason he had escaped the house to visit his favourite store in Meryton.
His wife and, to his great surprise, his outwardly mild-mannered and serene daughter, Jane, had both blamed Elizabeth for Mr. Bingley’s defection.
After hearing Jane’s suggestion to his wife, he now knew she was not the person she pretended to be.
There was no logic to their vitriolic complaints against Elizabeth, but that did nothing to stop their bemoaning, blaming her, and vilifying her.
His daughter, when she had begged him not to give into his wife, had said something about Jane not being as she seemed.
Until he had seen Jane’s performance and heard her words this morning, Bennet had dismissed his second daughter’s opinion.
Elizabeth had disclosed information about Jane which had shocked him to the core.
He knew his cousin was not a man who could make his Lizzy happy, but he hoped her refusal to marry him, even in the face of his order to do so would let him off the hook.
When he had given in to his wife to try and preserve the peace, as he always did, Elizabeth’s words cut him to the quick and, worse, they were true.
He had hoped against hope his Lizzy would return home and comply after his wife forced him to agree to banish her, but he knew it was a vain hope. Unlike him, Lizzy had strength of character and will.
As he watched the post pull away, he feared it would be the last time he would see his second daughter.