Chapter Forty-One

T he moment Mr. Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam left Longbourn, Elizabeth ran upstairs, with Jane on her heels. Elizabeth threw herself face down on their bed.

"Lizzy?"

There was no response.

"Lizzy, talk to me. I know you are upset."

"He asked me for a courtship; I declined."

Jane was astounded. "You declined? But why?"

"There is a family situation…I have his permission to tell you about it. Oh, Jane, it is everything dreadful." Elizabeth told Jane everything she knew about Georgiana and her terrible decision to elope with a villain.

Jane listened with a hand to her mouth and tears in her eyes. "But she has been found? And that is why they both had to leave?"

"Yes; the Colonel is one of her guardians, so of course he had to go with Mr. Darcy."

"But I still do not know why you declined to enter into a courtship with him before he left!"

"He is angry with his sister, Jane, terribly angry. Sad, of course, but beneath it is rage. He gave her everything, you see, and he feels deeply betrayed that she repaid him in such a way."

"I see," Jane replied, thoughtfully.

"I could not commit my future to a man filled with so much anger. When might it spill over onto his wife? His children? No, he must find his way through the anger, release it from his heart, before that heart can be filled with love. But, oh, I am so unhappy!"

"I understand, Lizzy, of course."

And then in unison, the two sisters said, "Mama will be so upset."

***

Upset did not begin to describe Mrs. Bennet's feelings. Upon hearing that her daughters' suitors had departed, she bewailed her fate, long and loud, to the embarrassment of her entire family. Her husband spent even more time than usual in his study.

Thus, when Mr. Collins approached her and suggested that he might marry one of the Bennet daughters, she was nearly incoherent in her enthusiasm. "Marriage? Oh! Oh, indeed, Mr. Collins! Marriage? Yes! Yes, indeed! Any one of them! You choose which one you prefer!" And she began to count on her fingers the ways in which each daughter might find favor with Mr. Collins. Jane's beauty, Lizzy's wit, Mary's religious studies, Lydia's liveliness, Kitty's…and here she was stuck, as she could not think of any reason that a man would want Kitty.

But no matter, for as it turned out, Mr. Collins was, when all was said and done, a man. And what man would not want the beauteous Jane Bennet on his arm and in his bed? Who cared for wit, religion or liveliness, when a goddess like Jane Bennet was on offer?

"Jane?" Mrs. Bennet faltered, when Mr. Collins expressed his preference. Jane was the daughter she had counted on to marry a wealthy man. But the Colonel had left, as had Mr. Bingley. A Mr. Collins in the hand was certainly worth more than a Colonel in the bush, as it were, particularly as the Colonel had nothing and Mr. Collins would one day have Longbourn!

"I will speak with Jane, Mr. Collins," she told him.

Wisely, though, she first went to speak with Mr. Bennet. "Mr. Collins is willing to marry Jane," she announced.

Her husband surveyed her over the top of his glasses. "I do not have the pleasure of understanding you, Mrs. Bennet. Willing? To marry our Jane?"

"Yes. I told him he might choose any of the girls."

Mr. Bennet rose from his chair. "And why would you do that, Mrs. Bennet?"

"Why? Why? Because all the others are gone!" Her voice neared hysteria.

"Control yourself, Mrs. Bennet; the servants have ears. What others?"

"Mr. Bingley, Mr. Darcy, the Colonel – all gone! And not a proposal in sight!"

Her spouse had to admit that this was correct.

"Well, then, Jane is free to marry Mr. Collins."

Her husband spoke with grave determination. "Mrs. Bennet, Jane will never consent to such a match and neither will I. Even you must see that the man is a fool."

"Does it matter? He will inherit Longbourn!"

"Mrs. Bennet, if he wants Mary, he may have her. If he wants Kitty, he may have her. If he wants Lydia, I will have him sent to an insane asylum, and Lydia may accompany him there. But he will never, never while I draw breath, be permitted to take Jane or Lizzy to wife. Is that perfectly clear?"

Mrs. Bennet gave her husband a look that would have felled a lesser man.

"I see that you understand me," he told her, returning to his seat. "I leave it to you to inform Mr. Collins of my decision. Please leave and close the door behind you."

Mrs. Bennet steeled herself for a distasteful conversation with Mr. Collins, thereby sparing Jane the mortification of enduring a marriage proposal from that source.