Page 30 of Losing Lizzy
“Only this; that if he is so, you can have no reason to suppose he will make an offer to me.”
Lady Catherine hesitated then.“The engagement between them is of a peculiar kind. From their infancy, they have been intended for each other. It was the favorite wish of ‘his’ mother, as well as hers. While in their cradles, we planned the union: and now, at the moment when the wishes of both sisters would be accomplished in their marriage, to be prevented by a young woman of inferior birth, of no importance in the world, and wholly unallied to the family! Do you pay no regard to the wishes of his friends? To his tacit engagement to Miss de Bourgh? Are you lost to every feeling of propriety and delicacy? Have you not heard me say that from his earliest hours he was destined for his cousin?”
Elizabeth wondered for a few brief seconds what Mr. Darcy would have said to this madness, but she was alone in defending herself.“Yes, and I had heard it before. But what is that to me? If there is no other objection to my marrying your nephew, I shall certainly not be kept from it by knowing his mother and aunt wished him to marry Miss de Bourgh. You both did as much as you could in planning the marriage. Its completion depended on others. If Mr. Darcy is neither by honor nor inclination confined to his cousin, why is not he to make another choice? And if I am that choice, why may not I accept him?”
“Because honor, decorum, prudence, nay, interest, forbid it. Yes, Miss Bennet, interest; for do not expect to be noticed by his family or friends, if you willfully act against the inclinations of all. You will becensured, slighted, and despised, by every one connected with him. Your alliance will be a disgrace; your name will never even be mentioned by any of us.”
Irritated beyond reason, Elizabeth had said curtly,“These are heavy misfortunes. But the wife of Mr. Darcy must have such extraordinary sources of happiness necessarily attached to her situation, that she could, upon the whole, have no cause to repine.”
“Obstinate, headstrong girl!”her ladyship had wailed.“I am ashamed of you! Is this your gratitude for my attentions to you last spring? Is nothing due to me on that score?”Her ladyship had sat on the bench, and Elizabeth had had no choice but to follow suit.“You are to understand, Miss Bennet, that I came here with the determined resolution of carrying my purpose, nor will I be dissuaded from it. I have not been used to submit to any person’s whims. I have not been in the habit of brooking disappointment.”
By this point, Elizabeth’s patience had worn thin.“‘That’ will make your ladyship’s situation at present more pitiable; but it will have no effect on ‘me.’”
Lady Catherine barked,“I will not be interrupted. Hear me in silence. My daughter and my nephew are formed for each other. They are descended, on the maternal side, from the same noble line; and, on the father’s from respectable, honorable, and ancient—though untitled—families. Their fortune on both sides is splendid. They are destined for each other by the voice of every member of their respective houses; and what is to divide them? The upstart pretensions of a woman without family, connections, or future! Is this to be endured! But it must not, shall not be. If you were sensible of your own good, you would not wish to quit the sphere in which you have been brought up.”
Fury had rushed through Elizabeth’s veins, but she made herself not physically lash out against Lady Catherine.“In marrying your nephew, I should not consider myself as quitting that sphere. He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman’s daughter; so far we are equal.”
“True. You ‘are’ a gentleman’s daughter. But who was your mother? Who are your uncles and aunts? Do not imagine me ignorant of their condition.”
Elizabeth had so wished to strike the woman. To demand an apology. Yet, she knew in many ways Lady Catherine de Bourgh had the right of it. Through tight lips, she said,“Whatever my connections may be, if your nephew does not object to them, they can be nothing to ‘you.’”
“Tell me, once and for all, are you engaged to him?”
Though Elizabeth would not, for the mere purpose of obliging Lady Catherine, have answered this question, she could not but say, after a moment’s deliberation,“I am not.”
Lady Catherine seemed pleased.“And will you promise me never to enter into such an engagement?”
“I make no promise of the kind.”It had felt good to say the words aloud, for another offer of Mr. Darcy’s hand had been her most cherished wish.
“Miss Bennet, I am shocked and astonished. I expected to find a more reasonable young woman. But do not deceive yourself into a belief that I will ever recede. I shall not go away till you have given me the assurance I require.”
She had stood her ground.“And I certainly never shall give it. I am not to be intimidated into anything so wholly unreasonable. Your ladyship wants Mr. Darcy to marry your daughter, but would my giving you the wished-for promise make their marriage at all more probable? Supposing him to be attached to me, would my refusing to accept his hand make him wish to bestow it on his cousin?”Elizabeth knew such was not true, for she had already refused his hand—months earlier, and Mr. Darcy had made no attempt to join with his cousin in that time.“Allow me to say, Lady Catherine, the arguments with which you have supported this extraordinary application have been as frivolous as the application was ill-judged. You have widely mistaken my character if you think I can be worked on by such persuasions as these. How far your nephew might approve of your interference in ‘his’ affairs, I cannot tell, but you have certainly no right to concern yourself with mine. I must beg, therefore, to be importuned no farther on the subject.”
“Not so hasty, if you please,”Lady Catherine had insisted when Elizabeth made to return to the house.“I have by no meansdone. To all the objections I have already urged, I have still another to add. I am no stranger to the particulars of your youngest sister’s infamous elopement. I know it all: that the young man’s marrying her was a patched-up business, at the expense of your father and uncles. And is ‘such’ a girl to be my nephew’s sister? Is ‘her’ husband, the son of his late father’s steward, to be his brother? Heaven and earth! Of what are you thinking? Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?”
Elizabeth resentfully stated.“You can ‘now’ have nothing further to say. You have insulted me in every possible method. I must beg to return to the house.”
Elizabeth had risen, but Lady Catherine had followed her to her feet. Her ladyship was still highly incensed and would not concede her efforts to be futile.“You have no regard, then, for the honor and credit of my nephew! Unfeeling, selfish girl! Do you not consider that a connection with you must disgrace him in the eyes of everybody?”
In truth, Elizabeth had considered that reality, but she would never permit Lady Catherine to know her ladyship’s words had found their target.“Lady Catherine, I have nothing further to say,”she repeated.“You know my sentiments.”
“You are then resolved to have him?”
Elizabeth had turned on her then. She had hissed,“I have said no such thing. I am only resolved to act in that manner, which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness, without reference to you, or to any person so wholly unconnected with me.”
“It is well. You refuse, then, to oblige me. You refuse to obey the claims of duty, honor, and gratitude. You are determined to ruin him in the opinion of all his friends and make him the contempt of the world.”
She had replied,“Neither duty, nor honor, nor gratitude have any possible claim on me, in the present instance. No principle of either would be violated by my marriage with Mr. Darcy. And with regard to the resentment of his family, or the indignation of the world, if the former were excited by his marrying me, it would not give me one moment’s concern, and the world in general would have too much sense to join in the scorn.”
In reflection, Elizabeth wished she couldtake all those words back. Wished she had never confronted Lady Catherine de Bourgh. For her ladyship had finished the conversation with a threat to which Elizabeth had not paid close attention. Such was now her nightmare.“And this is your opinion! This is your final resolve! Very well. I shall now know how to act. Do not imagine, Miss Bennet, that your ambition will ever be gratified. I came to try you. I hoped to find you reasonable, but, depend upon it: I will carry my point.”
“I am grieved we could not reach Tunbridge Wells this evening,” Mr. Sheffield said as he squeezed the back of her hand. They had taken refuge at an inn still in Sussex, unable to reach Kent before an evening storm had driven them from the road.
She nodded sadly. “At least, we have reason to believe Mr. Darcy arrived in Tunbridge Wells and has continued the search for Lizzy.” Tears pooled in her eyes. “Even so, I cannot bear to consider how frightened Elizabeth Anne must be without her mother and her Uncle Albert to tuck her into her bed with a kiss.”
“Just be comforted by the idea Mr. Darcy will never rest until he finds his daughter. The master is singular when it comes to family,” Sheffield declared with a hitch of emotion in his voice.
Elizabeth belatedly realized if she and Lizzy became part of Mr. Darcy’s household, Mr. Sheffield would be alone in the world. He had done so much for her, the idea made her sadder. She smiled weakly. “I have no doubt. If I require any evidence to the gentleman’s tenacity, I have only to look to our unconventional courtship.” They sat in silence for several minutes before she asked, “Should I have told Mr. Darcy what measures we executed to protect Elizabeth Anne?”
