Chapter XII #3
“Darcy knows Catherine all too well,” interjected the earl with a shaken head.
“Catherine is never so happy as when she is meddling in another’s business.
As the disposition of Pemberley was of such interest to her for so long, I cannot imagine it will be even a sixmonth before she inserts her long nose into your business. ”
With a sigh, though belied by her grin, Elizabeth nodded. “Then I suppose I must endure her. I suppose Jane will endure the same scrutiny, though not quite the same attention.”
“Yes, you are correct,” said Lady Susan. “For years, I have tried to persuade her that Anthony was a much more logical choice for Anne, but Catherine would hear nothing of it.”
Then the countess smiled at Jane and touched her hand. “It has all worked out for the best, for I find that I like Anthony’s choice very well, indeed.”
Jane blushed and responded with a smile that was so very like her—calm, shy, but possessing depths of confidence that were not clear to the casual observer. Though the earl was not so open, the way he nodded told Elizabeth that he already approved of Jane.
“What will happen with Miss de Bourgh?” asked Elizabeth. She fixed William with a saucy grin and added: “Now that I have stolen her future husband, she will need to find another.”
The company laughed—it was the earl who answered.
“Anne is taciturn with us all, so I cannot say that I understand her wishes.”
“She never wished to marry me,” said William.
“No, that much I understand. Though Catherine coddles her to excess, Anne’s health is a concern. If she wishes to marry, she will have her choice; with Rosings as her dowry, she will be much in demand.”
“She will also be a temptation for every rake in society,” observed Colonel Fitzwilliam.
The earl shrugged. “Anne is intelligent. We will provide her the protection she requires until she decides what she wants.”
After a moment’s thought, the earl shook his head. “We may also need to intervene—I would not put it past Catherine to barter Anne off to the highest bidder now that Darcy has bowed out.”
“Then we should watch her,” said Lady Susan. “Perhaps I should invite Anne to join us in London. There is still time for her to enjoy the season.”
“Has she ever been in society?” asked Elizabeth.
“Not much,” confessed Lady Susan. “She had her coming out, and she has attended occasionally, but she and Catherine have spent much more time at Rosings than in London.”
“If you ask me,” said William, shaking his head with disgust, “Lady Catherine never considered Anne’s acceptance in society essential, as she was to marry me.”
“Yes, you are correct,” said the earl.
The conversation turned more general, and soon the Bennet sisters rose to depart, though not without expressions of pleasure from the earl and countess and a few plans to attend events together.
Darcy and Fitzwilliam walked the sisters out to their carriage together for the journey back to their uncle’s house on Gracechurch Street, already missing Elizabeth’s company.
When they handed the sisters into the carriage and watched it depart, they stood long after it had rounded a bend and passed from sight, each caught in their own thoughts. Then Fitzwilliam turned to Darcy.
“We are fortunate men, Darcy. Most in society will consider me foolish for saying it, yet I cannot but suppose our ladies are worth more than all the wealth, connections, and standing of any lady in society.”
“With that, you will receive no disagreement from me.
UNFORTUNATE THOUGH it was, their predictions about Lady Catherine’s actions proved correct—and far sooner than any had wished.
As the earl had suggested, Lady Catherine proved eager to find a husband for her only daughter to show Darcy what he had given up.
That plan, however, was foiled by none other than Anne de Bourgh herself.
Lady Susan invited them to London, but Anne declined the invitation—later that spring, they understood why.
While Lady Catherine plotted and created lists of wealthy, prominent, and single men, Anne was executing her own stratagem.
Before the end of June, she had married a man from a nearby estate, and later they learned it was a culmination of a long, slow romance.
Lady Catherine was not happy about it, but she had no choice but to accept it.
“I had no idea that Anne was so resourceful,” said Mr. Darcy when he learned of the sudden marriage.
“I had no notion she was even awake most of the time,” said Colonel Fitzwilliam.
It was Elizabeth who received the intelligence of it from a most amusing source, for Anne had presented herself and her beau to the church at Hunsford and demanded that Mr. Collins perform the ceremony.
“According to Charlotte, it was a most amusing scene,” said Elizabeth, the day she received her friend’s letter; because of her engagement and Lady Catherine’s opposition, they had not deemed it prudent for her to visit her friend at the parsonage.
“Charlotte is the wife of Lady Catherine’s parson, is she not?” asked Lady Susan.
“She is,” agreed Elizabeth. “Her demand put Mr. Collins into a dilemma. His loyalty is to Lady Catherine, but Anne is of age, wished to marry, and her future husband had a license.”
“Given what I know of the man,” said Colonel Fitzwilliam, “I wonder that he recovered from his stupor long enough to perform the ceremony.”
“Charlotte writes it was a near thing, indeed,” said Elizabeth, enjoying the telling. “Miss de Bourgh—or should I say Mrs. Ashdown—persuaded him that it was his duty, notwithstanding his loyalty to Lady Catherine, with Charlotte’s assistance.”
“I can imagine his stupefied expression,” muttered Darcy.
They all could, as they all could well imagine Lady Catherine’s reaction.
In time, the lady became accustomed to the situation, but she regretted the recalcitrance of the younger generation that had led to the collapse of her dreams of reuniting Pemberley and Rosings.
That no one agreed with her, did not improve her temper, but she seemed to sense she was alone in this, so she did not raise the subject much when they were in company—not much for Lady Catherine, anyway.
Fitzwilliam Darcy and Anthony Fitzwilliam met their Bennet sisters at the altar and were deliriously happy in their relationships.
While it should come as no surprise that Elizabeth and Darcy quarreled more often than the other couple, given their confidence and stubbornness, Fitzwilliam commented frequently on his wife’s determination, especially when she felt she was in the right.
Colonel Fitzwilliam, as he had designed, remained in the army and fought in the final battle at Waterloo, earning himself much distinction. When he retired from active service thereafter, he did so with the rank of brigadier general, enhancing his ability to support his wife.
Using that money, and with the assistance of his father, Colonel Fitzwilliam purchased Netherfield Park and settled down with his wife near her childhood home to raise their family.
Had it been anyone with less than his moral fiber, the presence of Mrs. Bennet situated so near to them might have been a cause for strife, but in time, he convinced her that she need not visit her daughter every day.
Mr. Bennet, though amused, assisted, and soon they settled into welcome amity.
As for Mr. Bingley, his estrangement from the Darcy family was permanent.
Though Darcy could not have imagined it, he kept his resentment, refusing to acknowledge Darcy whenever they attended the same event.
This was a detriment to his position in society, but his marriage to a young woman several years later established him, though not so much as if he had married a woman like Georgiana Darcy, as his sister intended.
Miss Bingley also married, though to a man of less than half the consequence than she had aspired to—whether she was happy, the Darcys neither knew nor cared, for they were not inclined to associate with her.
To their surprise, however, the Hursts were something resembling friends.
Mr. Hurst, long fatigued with his sister’s excesses, grew more tolerable when Miss Bingley married, and his wife grew less insipid and dependent on her sister.
While they never became bosom friends, they were close enough to visit and associate without the ill feeling that forever remained with the two younger Bingley siblings.
The Darcys remained close to their Fitzwilliam relations, and with Colonel Fitzwilliam and Jane forever after.
Though Darcy had departed from Meryton, intending never to return, his cousin’s insistence that he deal with Mr. Wickham—who was never seen in England again—drew him back; his attraction to Elizabeth did the rest. Their families, though separated by distance, were the closest and were often in each other’s company.
In this, the two cousins were the most fortunate of men.
The End