Chapter Fourteen #3
“Not so hasty, if you please!” Lady Catherine said. “Your sister was overwrought and retired to her chambers for the night. I promised her that she would not be disturbed until morning. Perhaps by then, you will have come to your own senses.”
“I will speak no more on the subject with you,” Darcy snapped.
“Nor will you importune Miss Elizabeth, as I have no doubt you mean to. If you do, I shall break with you and sever all ties between Pemberley and Rosings. I mean to act in a way to secure my own happiness, and if I do not have your blessing, that is no cause to repine.”
He turned abruptly and left the room, leaving Lady Catherine gaping after him.
He climbed the stairs with the intent to retire to his own chambers.
Where on earth had the colonel been during that episode, he wondered.
It would have been nice to have his cousin there to relate the earl’s opinion on the matter.
But then, Lady Catherine would likely not have believed him.
Darcy’s cousin appeared in his chambers just thirty minutes later, completely unaware of the chaos that had descended on the house.
“Your Miss Elizabeth will do well in society, I think,” he said without greeting. “Did you see her parry Aunt Catty’s attacks with ease? Father and Mother will adore her, I am certain.”
“If I can repair whatever damage was inflicted today, I think you might be right,” Darcy sighed, running a hand over his face. He gestured to his cousin to sit across from him and related what had happened that evening in its entirety.
“How on Earth did Miss Elizabeth learn of what you said?” the colonel mused. “We had that conversation at Christmas!”
“It had to have been Georgiana,” Darcy said grimly.
“I do not know what game she is playing, but I have had it with her refusal to speak to me. And now she is interfering in my very happiness. I am respecting our aunt’s promise that no one would approach her tonight because I wish for time to cool my own temper, but on the morrow, we must sit down and discuss her behavior. ”
“I agree,” Colonel Fitzwilliam said. “She must not be allowed to wallow in her heartbreak any longer.”
The two cousins shared a glass of port before retiring. Darcy laid in his bed for a long time before he finally drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, before breakfast, the two cousins met in the hallway outside of Georgiana’s room. They knocked loudly and waited. When no one answered the door, they knocked again, this time more loudly. Still silence.
“Georgiana,” Fitzwilliam called out. “Open this door right now, or we shall enter without your invitation.”
When there was still no reply, Darcy reached out and tried the doorknob. “Locked,” he said.
The housekeeper was quickly summoned, and she produced a key to open the lock. The door swung open, and the cousins entered the room.
The bed was made; it looked as if it had not been slept in. The fireplace was cold and the doors to the wardrobe were open, displaying its emptiness.
“Where is she?” Fitzwilliam asked.
They walked around the room. Georgiana’s trunk was at the foot of the bed, but her smaller trunk and traveling case were missing.
Most of her gowns were gone, though there were a few of them stuffed haphazardly in the larger trunk.
They poked around the room, and finally, in the drawer of the writing desk, they found a letter.
It was addressed to Darcy in his sister’s hand.
Dear Brother,
I hardly know where to begin. I suppose the events of last May are as good a place as any. I have never dared to speak my mind, or of what is in my heart, and so now I shall hope I can convey every repressed emotion here in this letter, so that you might be in no doubt of my sentiments.
I am greatly offended that you think me so young and na?ve as to not know my own heart.
You evicted my dear Mr. Jones from the house, not even waiting long enough for me to tell you of the deep and abiding feelings I hold for the gentleman.
Is it any wonder that I felt the need to elope with him, rather than to seek your approval?
For did you not prove you would have disdained my decision and forbidden the match the instance you learned of my affection for the gentleman?
But there was hope for me, through all my pain and suffering.
Tobias wrote to me soon after we left Ramsgate, his letter enclosed in one from his younger sister, Miss Amelia Jones.
He declared his undying love, and said he would wait for me, so that we might marry with or without your approval.
We have been corresponding for months, waiting for our chance, and you were none the wiser.
I must be sure to pen a note of thanks to Aunt Catherine for her assistance in providing an opportunity for my departure.
And so, here we are. Or rather, here you are, for I am away.
Fear not, for my old companion shall journey north with us.
Mrs. Younge has been very kind in arranging everything.
I hope, by the time you discover my absence, that I shall be long gone, and far beyond your reach.
Since we are so near the coast, perhaps we shall take a ship.
Or perhaps not. You shall not stop me this time.
I shall marry Tobias Jones and be the happiest creature in the world.
And if I am truly blessed, the other seeds I planted over the past months will bear the fruit of my own revenge.
I shall come to collect my dowry by the end of May.
Georgiana Darcy
Darcy lowered the letter and stared at his cousin. Neither spoke for several minutes as they passed the letter back and forth, reading it again and again.
“She does not know,” Fitzwilliam finally said, “that her dowry will not be released until she is twenty-five.”
“I told this Mr. Jones that he would not see a penny of the dowry last May,” Darcy said. “But I was not specific. And Georgiana is not aware that the terms of her dowry forbid its release if both her guardians do not approve of her choice of husband.”
“Then I suppose we should set out immediately and try to catch them,” Fitzwilliam said. “If we can tell Georgiana and this Mr. Jones of the terms of Uncle’s will, perhaps her suitor will reveal his true colors.”
“Or he will wait for her,” Darcy grimaced.
“If he waited until she is eighteen, I would give my consent,” Fitzwilliam said. “After she has a season in town, of course. It would prove his loyalty and his motives.”
“Yes,” Darcy said. “But we must away. There is no time to lose. I shall take the road if you go to the coast and see if they have been seen in that direction. I shall send word to my house in town if I find them.”
Fitzwilliam nodded and they were off in less than thirty minutes.
It was not until many hours later that Darcy remembered Elizabeth and silently groaned. When the carriage arrived at the next inn, he would pen a note to Mr. Bennet, he decided. The lady’s father could inform Elizabeth of his whereabouts.
Elizabeth waited in the grove for nearly three hours before a threatening storm had her hurrying back to the parsonage.
Her heart ached. He had not come. Her impulsive words sounded in her head as she hurried down the well-walked path back to the shelter of her friend’s home.
Perhaps Mr. Darcy had come to the same conclusion she had, just as she so rashly stated the night before, that poor Miss Elizabeth Bennet was not worthy of his name.
She made it inside the front door just as the first drops fell.
Charlotte met her there, taking Lizzy’s coat and bonnet and ushering her into the little parlor at the back of the house.
“Where have you been?” she demanded. “Everything and everyone are in an uproar. Lady Catherine arrived demanding to see you, and when you could not be found, she ordered Mr. Collins to attend her. She would not tell my husband what she wished to say to you, but Mr. Collins has gone with her to Rosings and not returned. And then a note from Mr. Wickham arrived indicating his arrival shall be a full two weeks early to retrieve you, and to review documents with my husband! Everything is such a muddle. I do not know what to think.”
Elizabeth gaped at Charlotte and sat slowly on the settee. Charlotte sank next to her and put her face in her hands. They sat in silence for a time before Elizabeth spoke.
“Mr. Wickham shall be here tomorrow then? And I shall leave with him the day following?” she asked.
Charlotte nodded.
“I am sorry to leave you so soon,” Lizzy said. “I have greatly enjoyed our time together.”
The front door opened, and Mr. Collins’s voice was heard. He did not immediately appear, but when he did, his hair and clothing appeared to be slightly damp.
“You walked from Rosings in the rain?” Charlotte asked incredulously.
“Lady Catherine refused to call her carriage for me,” her husband said miserably. “And she refused to let me stay to wait out the storm.”
“Surely Mr. Darcy or the Colonel would have assisted you,” Elizabeth cried.
“The gentlemen and Miss Darcy have gone,” Mr. Collins replied.
“Lady Catherine woke to a short note informing them of their departure. She does not know where they have gone and why they left so abruptly. For some reason, she believed you would know, cousin. I assured her it was preposterous to assume you privy to such personal information.”
Elizabeth wilted as her cousin spoke. “Yes,” she said quietly. “Quite preposterous. Silly, even.”
Charlotte reached out a hand and patted the back of Elizabeth’s. “Perhaps there was some emergency that required their departure?”
“Would they not have taken their leave of us in a note, even?” Elizabeth asked. “What could possibly have prompted such an abrupt leave-taking?”
“Lady Catherine is most seriously displeased,” Mr. Collins said. “Her displeasure is evident in her lack of condescension to my person. I have never been made to return home on foot amid inclement weather.”
“I am sure Lady Catherine’s pique will pass shortly,” soothed Charlotte.
Elizabeth stopped listening as the two spoke back and forth, Mr. Collins complaining and his wife attempting to soothe his ruffled feathers.
The pit in her stomach had grown, and she bemoaned her short temper and sharp tongue.
Why, oh why could she not have approached him about Miss Darcy’s revelation in a rational manner?
And now, she had likely lost him, the only man she could ever be prevailed upon to marry.
“I shall never see him again,” she whispered to herself. Standing, she pled a headache and retired to her room.
Charlotte shot her a pitying glance and informed her that she would send the maid up after the evening meal to begin packing her trunk.
Upon reaching her room, she lay down on the bed and closed her eyes. Tears trickled down her cheeks and into her hair as she quietly cried for the loss of the man she now knew she loved.