Chapter Fourteen
T he next day saw Lady Anne and Lady Catherine in quiet conference at the breakfast table. “Well? Will he do his duty?” Lady Catherine demanded.
“I fear he will not.”
“Then a compromise must be arranged to force his hand.”
Lady Anne winced. “You are willing to have it known that your daughter was forced to wed because of a compromise?”
“I am willing to do whatever it takes!” Lady Catherine insisted.
After a brief hesitation, Lady Anne said, “As am I.”
***
It took some effort to arrange for Mr. Darcy to take his cousin Anne on a farewell drive, as he had determined to leave with Richard early that morning. Mr. Darcy protested that Evans had already left for London with his trunks; why was he to delay following?
“One last drive, that is all I ask!” his Aunt Catherine insisted.
“That is not a good deal to ask,” his mother agreed.
Richard pulled Mr. Darcy aside. “Something is very wrong here,” he hissed into his cousin’s ear.
“It feels that way to me as well,” Darcy admitted.
“Do not go!” Richard insisted.
“I will insist on a chaperone,” Mr. Darcy whispered back. He had spent a wakeful night thinking of how he might have handled his conversation with his mother better; he would go on this final drive as a sop to his conscience.
And so it was that Mr. Darcy, Anne de Bourgh and a maid set out together in a light phaeton for a drive around the Park and the parsonage. As they passed the parsonage and headed into a small woodland, Anne reached over and pulled hard on the reins. The horses reared up in surprise, but obediently stopped.
Anne then reached up to her cousin and kissed him hard.
He pulled away from her in horror. “Anne! Good heavens! What in the world are you about?”
“Hilda! You saw it! He kissed me!” Anne cried.
The maid responded, “I saw it! Compromise!”
As if conjured by magic, two men emerged from the forest. Anne called out to them, “Did you see what happened?”
The two men chorused, “He kissed you! A compromise!”
Mr. Darcy was white. He could never have imagined his aunt capable of such a plot, and his mother – his own mother! – had obviously agreed to it.
He turned to his cousin, outrage on his face; her thin face was expressionless as she spoke. “I am sorry, Cousin. My mother and yours forced me to agree. And now you will have to agree as well, and marry me.”
“I will not and I never shall,” he replied, face hard. He took the reins in hand and drove back to Rosings Park. He did not assist his cousin from the conveyance; instead, he left her sitting there and marched into the house, pushing past the butler to confront his relations in the parlour.
He called out, “You were right, Richard; the so-called final drive was an attempt at a compromise.”
“You were seen,” Lady Catherine said, infinite satisfaction in her voice.
“By a maid and two labourers, but it would not matter if I had been seen by the Regent. I will never marry your daughter. All your machinations have come to naught, and I will never visit Rosings again. Come, Richard, we are behind our time.”
“I am ready,” his cousin replied, voice hard.
“And as for you, dearest Mother,” Mr. Darcy said, pausing to stare stonily at his parent. “I will not soon forget this.”
***
At the parsonage, Elizabeth watched as her trunk was strapped to the back of her father’s carriage.
“I am so, so sorry, Elizabeth,” Charlotte said for the hundredth time.
“It is not your fault, Charlotte.”
“No, indeed, it is not Mrs. Collins’ fault at all,” her husband agreed, readily. “It is your fault, Cousin Elizabeth, that Lady Catherine requires your absence.”
“Yes, it is my fault,” she said, nodding vigorously. “It is my fault that Anne de Bourgh is plain-faced and rag-mannered, with no accomplishments, no training, and in general so lacking in everything that makes a young lady appealing that her own cousin refuses to wed her, despite that being the fondest wish of his mother and aunt. I can certainly see how that is my fault.”
“Cousin Elizabeth!” Mr. Collins was outraged.
Without another word, Elizabeth hugged Charlotte and Maria and climbed into the coach.
She had a good deal to think about as the carriage made its way back to Meryton. Would Mr. Darcy be able to go against his mother’s wishes and actually visit Netherfield Park? And if he did come…then what?