Chapter 44 Obstinate, Headstrong Girl #2
“What?” Finally, she had shocked me with something other than rudeness.
“Do not pretend surprise. Is this not your doing?”
“My doing? How could I do this?”
“By industriously circulating rumors that you will soon be married to my nephew and that you will demand he surrender his ancestral home. Though I know it is a scandalous falsehood.”
That was an astounding accusation in many ways. After a moment, I asked, “Which part?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Which part do you know to be false? That I would marry your nephew, or that I would demand he give up Pemberley?”
“Disrespectful girl! They are both false.”
“Well, I quite like Pemberley,” I said. “So, that part is false.”
“Like Pemberley! What temerity. Who are you to like Pemberley?”
“Her ladyship must choose what she wishes to be false. I either like Pemberley and covet it, or I dislike it and demand your nephew surrender it. It is not the sort of thing I would be undecided about.”
Abruptly, I remembered Mr. Darcy’s last words to me: “I will conquer this, whatever the cost. I swear it.” Giving up Pemberley was exactly the kind of foolish plan he would invent over his fixation with the “darkness of Pemberley.” A noble sacrifice for an imagined problem.
He would reveal it after the damage was done, accompanied by many distractingly handsome bows.
Lady Catherine was staring in disbelief, apparently beyond words.
Another question occurred to me. “Is it only Pemberley that concerns you?” I was a little surprised by that.
“Certainly not! You cannot mean there is a foundation for this unthinkable rumor of marriage?”
“I do not pretend to possess equal frankness with your ladyship. You may ask questions which I shall not answer.”
I heard steps. Mary and Miss Darcy had come out.
Miss Darcy was wide-eyed with surprise. “Aunt Catherine.”
“Georgiana!” exclaimed Lady Catherine. “Heaven and earth! Why are you here?”
“I am visiting Miss Mary Bennet,” she replied in a defiant tone.
Her ladyship appeared overwhelmed by irritating Bennets. She turned to me. “I wish to confirm, Miss Bennet, that you have acquired no brothers. I will be most disappointed if there are rumors about my niece as well.”
“I remain without brothers,” I said. “May I ask your purpose in visiting today?”
Lady Catherine eyed Mary and Miss Darcy, loath to continue with an audience. But they showed no signs of leaving. In fact, Miss Darcy took Mary’s hand and set her feet, as if she feared her aunt would drag her into the carriage.
Lady Catherine answered with heavy emphasis, “I have come to insist you immediately and publicly contradict this impossible report, which I shall not name.”
Just to irritate her, I asked in puzzlement, “You refer to the report of Mr. Darcy’s and my impending marriage?” There were loud gasps behind me.
“Obstinate, headstrong girl!” shouted Lady Catherine. “There will be no marriage!”
I addressed Mary, who was flabbergasted. “Her ladyship has declared it impossible. Does that not mean contradictions are unnecessary?”
Miss Darcy asked breathlessly, “Are you engaged to my brother?” Her eyes were circles.
While irritating Lady Catherine for sport was amusing, it would be unfair to mislead Mr. Darcy’s sister. “I am not.”
Miss Darcy’s face fell into huge disappointment.
Lady Catherine, however, was smiling. “As I thought! Now, will you promise me never to enter into such an engagement?”
“I will make no promise of the kind,” I said. What nerve.
Lady Catherine stared in disbelief. Then her smile returned, but it was cruel. She pointed to our empty draca house. “What has happened to your firedrake?”
The memory tightened my throat. “Gone,” I said softly. “After my dear father’s death.”
“Then your mother is weak. Miss Bennet, your status as gentry is lost. Know that I can find a respectable heir to Longbourn in days. I will send them to claim your home.”
I had never liked Lady Catherine, and after I learned she owned slave plantations, that had deepened into active distaste. Even so, this surprised me.
“You hold Rosings as a woman alone,” I replied. “You have faced prejudice. Would you strip away our estate because my father had no son?”
“Without a moment’s hesitation. You have drawn this upon yourself with your pretensions. No Darcy would lower himself by marrying a common woman. Despite your arts and allurements, my nephew will marry whom I intend. My daughter.”
I looked down at myself in a well-worn, plain white dress. Allurements?
“You do not know my brother!” shouted Miss Darcy. “You do not know Darcys!”
I held out a cautioning hand. There was no need for her to fracture her relationship with her aunt. Lady Catherine’s threat was empty. Jane and Charles would arrive within an hour for their week stay at Longbourn, and their wyvern would fend off any challenger.
But now, I was angry.
I thought, Will you come, please?
Lady Catherine was gloating. “I expected to find a reasonable young woman. Instead, I find a selfish social climber in a fallen family. Do not deceive yourself that I will waver out of pity. I will use every tool I have to end this.” Her smile widened.
“I am no stranger to the particulars of your youngest sister’s infamous elopement.
I will share that information with my nephew.
And with the papers. Darcy will be disgusted. ”
“I am rather disgusted by Lydia myself. But you will be disappointed by your nephew’s reaction.”
A shadow flashed, then Lady Catherine’s wyvern winged to a neat landing at my feet, blowing leaves and twigs across the ground and flapping my skirts.
Lady Catherine retreated several steps.
I said musingly, “If the prestige of draca is so important to you, I should replace our drake. Perhaps I shall take your wyvern. That would be a pleasant elevation of our status.”
I had no intention of stealing anyone’s draca; I had called Lady Catherine’s wyvern for show.
But it was nice to meet her again. I reached out and rubbed her scaly head.
She pressed her crest into my hand, then threw her head back in a silly pose so I could scratch under her chin. Not now, I thought.
“You are like her!” Lady Catherine had thrown out a hand to ward me off. “An unnatural woman! Have you come to boast like she did?”
“You came to me,” I pointed out. “But what do you mean, I am like her?”
“My sister! Arriving when we had finally bound, after trying for weeks, then brazenly displaying her witch’s skills. Stroking our wyvern. Speaking to the animal.”
Trying for weeks? One did not try to bind for weeks.
I closed my eyes. My anger fell away—it was irritation, really. My breathing settled. The world of draca revealed itself.
The bronze wyvern shone. I could sense much more now than when we had last met. With my fingers on the wyvern’s skin, I searched for the silver link of binding to Lady Catherine.
There was nothing.
Are you not bound? I asked in silent disbelief.
the great wyfe summoned me for her sister. the sisters of great wyves are revered, so i remain
I opened my eyes, astounded.
Lady Catherine de Bourgh—the sole widow to hold a wyvern—had never bound. It had been Mr. Darcy’s mother, a great wyfe with extraordinary power, who summoned a wyvern. Who created a pretense of binding.
Lady Catherine’s raised hand was trembling. Her dominating persona had shattered. The person exposed before me was cringing and insecure.
do you wish me to leave her? the wyvern asked.
I looked at this woman, whom at first I had respected for her independence, then came to dislike, then condemn.
Her life was built on a fraud. No, fraud was the wrong word.
Lady Catherine herself did not know. This was another Darcy intervention, unasked for and concealed.
Lady Anne Darcy had acted in secret to save her sister’s reputation.
Are you unhappy? I asked the wyvern.
i am content
It is your choice whether to stay or go, I replied.
Lady Catherine pulled her posture into a fragile semblance of her proud self. “You have ensorcelled my nephew, but I am unintimidated by your tricks. You are an upstart, inferior woman without honor, determined to ruin my nephew and make him the contempt of the world.”
“You have now insulted me in every possible method,” I said. “I must ask you to depart.”
“I will go. But I take no leave of you, Miss Bennet. I send no compliments to your mother. All society will follow my example. You will be shunned and condemned.” She drew a huge breath for her final riposte. “I am most seriously displeased.”
Lady Catherine stomped off to her carriage. The driver snapped the whip. Loose bolts clattered.
The wyvern pushed at my hand until I scratched her thoroughly under her chin. Then she launched into the air, blowing the pins from my hair, and followed the carriage.
Miss Darcy and Mary came up, standing together beside me.
“She is a horrid aunt,” Miss Darcy observed.
“Mary,” I said, “can you manage the estate while entertaining Miss Darcy?”
“Of course.” Her brown eyes assessed me. “Where are you going?”
“Pemberley,” I answered, and Miss Darcy clapped her hands with excitement.