Protests

Chapter 18

The announcement of the marriage of Mr. Darcy and Miss Elizabeth Bennet was to appear in the next day’s papers. Elizabeth was in the music room with Georgiana when a harried looking Cornwell announced Miss Bingley’s arrival.

“Thank you Cornwell” the overdressed and overly bejewelled woman who followed him into the parlour without waiting to be invited in said dismissively. “I shall ring if I need you.”

Elizabeth noticed Georgiana’s instant cringing and her retreat into a total silence after the quick curtsey which politeness required her to give the visitor. Some of the staff’s reaction when William introduced her as his wife now made more sense to Elizabeth. Probably they were all fearing that this woman who just insolently invaded her home, would become its mistress since she behaved as if she already were.

“Miss… ” Elizabeth rose to meet the importuning visitor, although she was not formally introduced to her, as Georgiana was resolutely looking down on her hands neatly folded in her lap.

“Ah, I see that Mr. Darcy did finally manage to hire a companion for you my dear Georgiana!” the intruder gushed shrilly, causing the poor girl to recoil into the cushions of the sofa she was sitting on, her eyes wide, unable to utter a word. “Is your brother at home? I did hear that he returned from the Peninsula” the overbearing woman closed in on the terrified girl. “It would give me great pleasure to greet him” her lips curved up in a predatory smile.

“Miss… err Bingley, I think the name was?” Elizabeth pulled on the bell cord.

“You shall not speak to me until you are spoken to” Miss Bingley hissed. “Companions should know their proper place” she said looking down her long nose at Elizabeth.

“So should interlopers who barge into someone else’s house and act as if they own it” Elizabeth said with a sweet smile which did not reach her eyes. “I do not know who you are but you are obviously not welcomed by my sister, therefore you have no business here.”

“Your sister?!” Mis Bingley cried. “Why you presumptuous…”

“Mr. Cornwell, this person is to be escorted out of the house and never again to be admitted unless Miss Darcy, Mr. Darcy or myself confirm that she is to be received” Elizabeth instructed her butler who materialized almost as soon as she rang for him.

“Yes Madam” the butler could hardly withhold his wide grin.

“ I am to be Mrs. Darcy, the Mistress of this house. Surely you ought to know that, therefore you should obey me and not this presumptuous nobody” Caroline Bingley rounded on the butler, “you abominable excuse of a…”

“What is this ruckus?” Darcy’s deep voice came from the door. “Ah! Miss Bingley of course” he grimaced.

“Mr. Darcy!” Caroline Bingley shriek-purred making to grab his arm. “I am so happy to see you! This impertinent person had the audacity to imply that she is to be dear Georgiana’s sister. You must dismiss her immediately as she is obviously scheming to entrap you into…”

“Elizabeth dearest, I am exceedingly sorry that you had to suffer Miss Bingley’s notoriously abominable manners” Darcy said in a matter-of-fact tone, astutely sidestepping Caroline’s grasping talons, turning to Elizabeth with a very serious mean, although his eyes twinkled mischievously. “Please do not feel obligated to put up with her vulgarity and just ignore her, like most of the ton does.” Turning to Caroline he donned his stoniest mask. “I assure you Miss Bingley that Elizabeth is not to become my wife” he smirked, causing Caroline Bingley to sneer with satisfaction. She was incensed by his insult about her manners but, deciding to address that later when she can corner him in private, she threw a triumphant glare at Elizabeth. “You see, she will not become my wife because she already is Mrs. Darcy” Darcy continued with a sneer of his own.

Caroline Bingley’s eyes bulged, almost popping out of her head and they were almost as wide as her wide-open mouth, to the point that for a moment Darcy and Elizabeth thought that she might faint.

“That cannot be true!” Caroline shrieked when she found her voice. “I have seen no announcement that you have married, Mr. Darcy” she turned towards him smiling, hoping that all this was a prank, although she did not know of him ever indulging in such a pastime. “I see you have found your teasing streak, my dear Mr. Darcy” she batted her eyelashes at him flirtatiously.

“Not at all Miss Bingley” Darcy said with the straightest face. “But if you need written proof, I suggest you buy tomorrow’s newspapers.”

Caroline gaped at him again, in utter disbelief.

Cornwell looked at his mistress for direction and at her slight nod, he materialized by Caroline Bingley’s elbow. “I believe that Mrs. Darcy suggested that you return at a later time, sometime when you are actually invited Madam?” he subtly but firmly maneuvered the stunned woman out of the parlour.

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“It seems that the Prince of Wales will become the Prince Regent in just a few days” Lord Matlock leaned back comfortably in his chair, savouring his cigar and the exquisite brandy that his nephew was always sure to have on hand, after the sumptuous dinner that he just enjoyed at Darcy House. “I wonder how long it will be until he completely ruins the country…” he mused.

“He will most likely defer all state matters to his ministers and continue to lose himself in the arms of his mistresses” Fitzwilliam growled.

“You are likely right there, Son” the Earl frowned, “although I have not yet decided if that is a bad or a good thing. He is not fit to rule.”

“His mother is though” Fitzwilliam smirked. “She will have him in check.”

“The Prince and his mother had their fair share of disagreements but she still holds a great deal of power, I grant you that” the Earl agreed.

“Speaking of power, was your parlour much invaded by the hungry mobs Darce?” Fitzwilliam grinned at his cousin?

The wedding announcement had appeared in the papers two days before and indeed, Darcy House had been besieged by callers. They were mostly ladies who had held hopes for themselves or for their daughters to become the next Mistress of Pemberley, ready to shred to pieces the unknown interloper who stole their prize from under their noses.

“Yes, and my admiration of Elizabeth’s fortitude and patience just grew tenfold. She had put up with the barely concealed rudeness of the so-called ladies of the High Society with admirable forbearance” Darcy grimaced. “I am thankful for Aunt Rebecca’s support as her presence in my parlour and her overt censure of the worst of them helped maintaining at least a modicum of civility. And they wonder why I did not marry any of them ” he scoffed.

Just then, they heard a great commotion from the foyer.

“What the…?” Darcy muttered and dashed out of the dining room, Fitzwilliam and the Earl following hard on his heels.

They arrived at the drawing room door just in time to hear the imperious voice of a lady bellowing.

“You girl! Get out of this house this very instant!”

“Bloody Hell!” Darcy ran into the room, grabbing the left arm of his Aunt Catherine and the back of her cloak just as she was launching herself, claws outstretched towards Elizabeth. “Desist Madam or I shall throw you in the street myself this instant!”

“Darcy!” the furious lady tried to turn towards him ineffectively, as he still held her arm and her clothes firmly in his grip. “Unhand me you ungrateful…!” she snarled.

“What ungratefulness would you accuse me of, Madam?” Darcy retorted, not loosening his grip one bit. “The fact that I suffered you barging into my house as if it were yours for years without reprimanding you? However, I have to admit that even I am surprised at the appalling behaviour you are displaying now. In the past at least, you were only overbearing and demanding.”

“How dare you!?” the elderly woman screeched trembling with fury. “I came here to rid you of this fortune hunter. You shall marry my Anne and no one else! You were…”

“Cathy! You are making quite a spectacle of yourself!” Lord Matlock intervened. “Desist this instant. Darcy is married to a lovely lady and that is the end of it.”

“He is engaged to my Anne!” Lady Catherine bellowed. “I will sue him for breach of engagement. I shall have Pemberley, you can be assured of that!”

“Oh yes, Pemberley!” the Earl laughed sarcastically. “You want it more than anything else in this world, don’t you Cathy?” Lord Matlock smirked at his sister. “You could sue him, if indeed there would be a formal engagement between Darcy and your daughter and settlement papers had been signed, although I doubt that even in that case Pemberley would be your prize. But as you very well know, there is no official agreement.”

“It was the dearest wish of our sister Anne and mine that they marry” the irate woman glowered at her brother.

“If it was, I never heard our sister speak of it. It was only you who was proclaiming such a wish, and oddly, only after both poor Anne and George Darcy were dead, I should add. It is nothing more than your wish alone Cathy, so that you could get your greedy paws on Pemberley. Everybody knows that you coveted it from the moment you laid your eyes upon it.”

“Do you dare to insinuate that I am lying?” the outraged harridan shrieked.

“I am not insinuating that Cathy” Lord Matlock said in an almost bored tone. “I am stating it. Besides, even if Anne did express such a wish, which I most seriously doubt, it is nothing more than that, a wish. It is by no means a legally binding betrothal.”

“Darcy should do his duty and abide by his mother’s wish…”

“Which is exactly what I did ma’am” Darcy said with such coldness that Lady Catherine shivered involuntarily. “When she was dying, Mother asked for me and, holding my hands, she made me promise that I will listen to my heart when I choose my bride. There was no mention of any wish of hers that I marry my cousin. Nor did my father mention any such arrangement ever. In fact, he too tried to impress on me the importance of marrying a lady in whom I can find a kindred soul and a helpmeet, someone who will help me ensure Pemberley’s wellbeing and future. No offence to Cousin Anne, but she is not qualified to be the mistress of any estate. What’s more, it would be sheer unkindness to place her into such a position as her health and strength are not up to it.”

“This is utter nonsense!” Lady Catherine bristled. “Anne is more than capable of fulfilling her role as the mistress of Pemberley. It is true that her health is delicate but I can step in for her and ensure that your households are properly managed.”

“No doubt, as this is what you dreamed of doing for more than three decades” Lord Matlock sneered. “There is however a very important task of the Mistress of Pemberley that you cannot fulfil Cathy. You cannot provide Pemberley with an heir and neither can Anne. However” he raised his voice seeing that his sister was about to interrupt, “this whole discussion is moot, not to mention extremely unseemly. Pemberley has a mistress, a very capable one and that is the end of it.”

“I will not accept this!” Lady Catherine screeched. “I will…”

“You will go back to Rosings immediately unless you want the Darcy and the Fitzwilliam family to cut all ties with you” Lord Matlock said firmly. “Do not forget that I am the head of the Fitzwilliam family not you, even though you are the oldest by far.”

“How dare you!?” Lady Catherine roared. “You are supposed to side with your family not some brazen fortune hunter who…”

“I don’t think that anyone in England can match your greed Cathy, so you better not mention fortune hunting as you are the very picture of the notion“ Lord Matlock sneered. “You failed to compromise George Darcy into marrying you and you have been bitter about it for almost thirty years. You claim that you and Anne planned this marriage together, but the truth is that Anne could barely abide your company after the scandal you tried to provoke merely weeks before her wedding, in hopes to break up her engagement to George and force yourself upon him. Thank God for Wilson, George’s excellent valet who discovered you in time to avoid further embarrassment, although how he managed to take you, stark naked back to your rooms without being detected by any of the staff is beyond me. On a second thought, they probably did see you in your disgrace but no one at Pemberley wished to have you as their mistress so no one spoke a word of it.”

Lady Catherine looked on the brink of an apoplexy. “Well, I have never been this insulted in my life!” she spluttered. “I shall…”

“You shall what, Cathy? You have no power in the ton, at least not when compared to mine and that of Rebecca. Unlike you, Elizabeth is no fortune hunter and anybody with eyes to see will perceive that her and William’s marriage is a love match. Your friends are few and not much more popular with the ton than you are. You better go back to Rosings and pray that not too many will remember your boasts that Darcy is as good as engaged to your daughter, as that will make the both of you the laughing stock of the ton.”

“At least Anne would add to the Darcy coffers” Lady Catherine scoffed. “What does this chit bring into the marriage besides having given up all claims to gentility by becoming a common nurse? Darcy may keep her as his mistress if he so wishes, after he marries my Anne. She is not fit to be more than that.”

“The Darcy coffers need no lining, unlike yours Madam” Darcy said in the coldest tone he could muster. “You forget Lady Catherine that I audit your business yearly and that I know exactly just how much your expenses exceed your income. Taking on Rosings, for whoever is willing to attempt it, means losing money for quite a number of years until it becomes profitable again, which also means removing you Madam from its management and drastically limiting your funds. Furthermore, to make it profitable, Rosings would need a considerable cash infusion to implement more modern farming techniques and to make the tenants cottages liveable for tenants who are actually willing to work their farms instead of the lazy bunch who you currently employ and who are content to live in squalor as long as they don’t need to put in an honest day’s work. So as far as pecuniary advantage, far from adding to the Darcy coffers, I see Rosings more of a liability than a gain. As for Mrs. Darcy’s character, there is no lady of the ton that could hold a candle to it, least of all Cousin Anne who is not the brightest of the ladies, nor the most compassionate of them or the most accomplished in anything.” Lady Catherine glared at him with thinned lips but said nothing. “Declaring that a lady gave up her status as a gentlewoman by helping England fight against Napoleon, borders on treason Madam. And I will not even dignify your suggestion that I should take a mistress, which though it is well known that it was your late husband’s habit, it is not something that Darcy men do, not to mention that suggesting that I make Elizabeth, who is fifty times the lady that either you or Anne could ever be, my mistress while marrying Anne is laughable. So I suggest you listen to your brother, the head of the Fitzwilliam family and return to Rosings as soon as you may if you want to be still considered part of this family. Cornwell will assist you to your carriage ma’am.”

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