Chapter 10 #2
“Miss Bennet, good day to you. I trust you are feeling better than when I saw you last. My parents missed making your acquaintance yester-evening,” Fitzwilliam said jovially.
“I was sorry to miss meeting your family, Colonel.” Elizabeth paused and decided she needed to be direct. “May we speak somewhere relatively private? I have questions which are not for the ears of anyone not acquainted with the facts.”
“This is a somewhat irregular request,” Fitzwilliam stated carefully.
“I would expect that we would be chaperoned, as long as we speak unheard. There are some things your cousin conveyed to me which he said I could confirm with you and other members of your family.” Elizabeth looked around to make sure no one was close to them. “He wrote me a letter,” she whispered.
Fitzwilliam remembered the crumpled pages on his cousin’s floor, then his mysterious departure this morning. “I think it is time for you to meet my parents and brother.” It was not a suggestion.
Elizabeth followed the colonel into the house without delay. “I am very sorry to hear about your cousin, Miss de Bourgh,” Elizabeth said as they walked.
That William had obviously shared the truth about Anne was surprising.
“The amount of time she has left in the mortal world is in His hands,” Fitzwilliam stated.
He led her up the stairs to his parents’ suite as he knew they were in the sitting room.
He believed Andy was with them as well. He gave a single knock and opened the door; his parents and brother were within.
They were keeping away from Aunt Catherine and her complaints about William’s early departure.
“Richard, will you introduce the young lady to us?” Matlock requested. His eyebrows were raised in question, as were those of his wife and eldest son.
“Father, Mother, Andy, I present Miss Elizabeth Bennet to you, the lady being hosted at the parsonage who did not attend dinner yester-evening. Miss Bennet, Lord Reginald and Lady Elaine Fitzwilliam, the Earl and Countess of Matlock, Lord Andrew Fitzwilliam, Viscount Hilldale.” Fitzwilliam looked at his family members.
“Miss Bennet requested to speak to me, with chaperonage, because William wrote her a letter.”
“William would never write to a lady who was not his… Young lady, has my nephew made you an offer of marriage,” Matlock demanded.
“Yes, my Lord, he did,” Elizabeth replied truthfully. “However, I refused him.”
“You WHAT!” Matlock exclaimed.
“Do you have great connections and are in no need of his?” Hilldale asked.
“Or are you an heiress who does not need to consider wealth when she marries?” Lady Matlock added.
The only one who remained silent was Fitzwilliam. Miss Bennet’s information explained much of William’s behaviour before he made his precipitous departure. He was amused at the confusion on his family members faces.
Elizabeth should have been offended by the impertinent and intrusive questions, but she could not be.
“I am not in love with your nephew, so I refused him. No, I have no connections of note, and no, I am not an heiress. My dowry is but one thousand pounds, and that is only when my mother is called home to God.” Elizabeth addressed all the questions in one.
“William proposed,” Matlock verified again.
“If by William, you mean Mr Darcy, then yes, my Lord, he did,” Elizabeth confirmed. She had wanted to speak to the colonel, not face an inquisition.
“You are aware he has stellar connections, are you not?” Matlock pressed.
“I am,” Elizabeth responded.
“And his wealth did not induce you to accept him?” Matlock enquired as he shook his head. This did not make sense to him.
“No my Lord, I am not mercenary,” Elizabeth returned.
“He came to see you when you did not attend dinner, did he not?” Lady Matlock realised.
“That is true, my Lady,” Elizabeth replied.
“Were you chaperoned?” Lady Matlock quizzed.
“We were not. If I did not accept his offer of marriage, I am certainly not about to claim a compromise,” Elizabeth anticipated the next question.
“You are a very singular young lady. Will you tell us why you refused him?” Matlock queried.
“I suggest you read his letter first, and then, if you still have questions, I will be happy to answer them.” Elizabeth extracted the missive and passed it to Colonel Fitzwilliam.
He handed it to his father, then he and his brother stood behind the settee their parents were on so they could all read at the same time.
“William insulted you during the proposal, and why did he mention that miscreant, George Wickham?” Lady Matlock demanded indignantly.
“Elaine, sons, let us read in silence. We will be able to ask our questions once we have read it all,” Matlock commanded.
When at last the multi-page letter was read, the Fitzwilliams were in a state of shock for some moments.
It was both because of how William had behaved and that he had shared everything with Miss Bennet.
If she had a mercenary bent, which she did not seem to have, she could ask for any sum to keep what was in the letter private.
Additionally, if she was mercenary, she would have been William’s affianced already.
“That bast… sorry, Mother and Miss Bennet, Wickham is in the militia in the town near your father’s estate?” Fitzwilliam growled.
“He is. I was such a fool for believing him,” Elizabeth admitted.
“William’s insult combined with the fact the snake can charm most people until they see the truth of him would not have made you suspect him,” Lady Elaine stated kindly. “By the by, what did William say at that assembly?
“He said, ‘She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me; I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men. You had better return to your partner and enjoy her smiles, for you are wasting your time with me’. I accept that he never saw me or meant to direct the slight at me,” Elizabeth responded.
“It did not help his mood that Miss Bingley began spreading the amount of his income about the hall as soon as she entered. I suppose she thought that added to her consequence.”
“That uppity, high in the instep, shrewish harpy of a tradesman’s daughter’s days are numbered in society.
I have epistles ready, and as soon as William ascertains some facts in London and asks me to do so, they will be on their way.
How dare that woman use my niece’s name in her machinations,” Lady Matlock said with some asperity.
When her sons and husband looked at her questioningly, she explained about her conversation with William after his return from his walk and before his departure.
“William found the only gentlelady in the realm who would refuse him,” Hilldale said amusedly. “That must have shocked our staid cousin.”
Elizabeth felt more shame. She had judged the earl, countess, and viscount before ever meeting them, and like so much of late, she had been wrong.
They were nothing like Lady Catherine, or like she had believed Mr Darcy to be before this morning.
She had been properly humbled, but she knew she still had much to correct in her character.
“Given how damaging this could be for our family if it ever fell into the wrong hands, do you object to destroying the missive?” Lady Matlock asked. She already knew the lady was not mercenary, but this would show her if the very pretty young lady was vindictive.
Without a thought, Elizabeth took the epistle from Lord Matlock and tossed it into the low burning fire in the grate. The fire flared up as the flames hungrily consumed the pages.
‘Perhaps Andrew will form an attraction to Miss Bennet,’ Lady Matlock thought. ‘She would make a wonderful viscountess and future countess.’
After meeting them, Elizabeth decided the Fitzwilliams were estimable people.