Chapter Three
Rosings Park
Iknew it!” Lady Catherine screeched. “I would never, never have let that happen!”
Anne, who had dropped her fork in surprise, said, “What is it, Mama?”
“Listen to this,” Lady Catherine said. And she read aloud from The Morning Post.
We have just learnt that a certain Miss GD of Derbyshire was one step away from eloping with the steward’s son before her brother caught the unlucky pair just in time. We can only wonder what possessed her! Perhaps Mr. FD is not as attentive a brother as one would hope?
“Could they possibly mean Georgiana and Darcy?” Anne wondered.
“Of course!” Lady Catherine snapped. “Who else could it be?”
“This is bad,” Anne said.
Lady Catherine stared at her daughter. Was the girl simple?
“Bad? Bad? It is a disaster, Anne! Georgiana’s reputation will never survive this!
I told Darcy years ago that he should send Georgiana here, that he was not capable of raising a girl, and he refused me!
And this – this! – is the result!” She threw the newspaper down onto the table before getting up and striding purposefully to her writing desk.
Darcy,
I knew something like this would happen! You have only yourself to blame, you know, for I told you that you could not raise a girl! Georgiana should have been brought here to Rosings Park years ago, and then none of this would have happened! I demand that she be sent here now, at once!
Aunt Catherine