Chapter 14

“I would be delighted to help you with the covers, Charlotte,” Elizabeth said.

Charlotte Collins considered the bolt of cloth lying on the wooden table and asked, “Are you quite certain? It will be rather tedious work, I fear.”

“Nonsense,” Elizabeth declared, striding forward to examine the blue fabric decorated with ivory-colored leaves. “This is lovely material, Charlotte, and this room will look much better when all the chair covers are finished. If Maria and I help you, it should not take long.”

“Indeed, we will be very glad to assist you, Charlotte,” Maria assured her older sister.

“Thank you,” Mrs. Collins said, gazing around the drawing room of the parsonage with pride. She had entered into her marriage with her eyes wide open, aware that her husband was neither sensible nor wise. However, Mr. Collins’s position as parson made him respectable, his income was sufficient to provide for her and any future children with ease, and best of all, Mr. Collins was heir to the estate of Longbourn. Charlotte could not repine her decision.

Elizabeth, while still surprised that any woman of sense could be content with Mr. Collins as a husband, could only be happy for her dear friend. She had received an offer of marriage from Mr. Collins and turned him down without hesitation. The parson, whom she could see happily mucking about in the garden behind the parsonage, was not a vicious man, but he was tiresome, stupid, and his groveling enthusiasm for his patroness, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, was remarkably irritating. Even as these thoughts passed through her mind, she observed Mr. Collins staring over the hedge which faced the grand manse of Rosings. A moment later, Mr. Collins rushed toward the house, his expression that of a startled rabbit, and within a minute, the side door banged open, heavy feet thundered down the hall, and the man himself burst into the room, his face red with excitement and breathlessness.

“Charlotte, Cousin Elizabeth, Maria!” he cried out. “Make haste, make haste! Mr. Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam are coming to visit!”

The ladies exchanged surprised glances and then scurried around restoring cushions in their rightful places, moving the bolt of cloth behind the settee, and gathering up needlework and the like. Mr. Collins, after being assured that the drawing room was sufficiently tidy, rushed to the front door, the better to greet their distinguished guests.

“I must thank you, Eliza, for this piece of civility. Mr. Darcy would never have come so soon to wait upon me,” Charlotte said.

Elizabeth chuckled at these words. “My dear friend, I assure you that you are quite in error. I was admiring the tulips out front when Mr. Darcy’s carriage came by, and he caught sight of me and quickly hid himself. The poor man – I cannot blame him! He must think it impossible to escape from me as I keep appearing wherever he goes!”

Charlotte shook her head reprovingly and then turned as her husband entered the room with Mr. Darcy and an unknown gentleman at his heels. After the overly long, elaborate introductions by Mr. Collins, Elizabeth found herself sitting side by side on the couch with Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam, a man of medium height with a warm demeanor and a ready tongue. Mr. Darcy made his way to a chair across from the twosome, and proceeded to stare at Elizabeth.

“Darcy has been telling me about your family, Miss Bennet,” the colonel said. “I understand that Charles Bingley is to be congratulated on recently winning your elder sister as a bride!”

“I assure you that Jane considers herself equally fortunate,” Elizabeth answered merrily. “She and Charles are made for one another.”

“It is a blessed man who can find such a wife,” the colonel said genuinely.

“That is true enough,” Mr. Collins added importantly. “I consider myself equally blessed as Mr. Bingley, for my dear Charlotte and I have but one mind and one way of thinking.”

“Mr. Collins,” Charlotte said hastily, “I wished to tell you that I met with Lady Catherine, and she was pleased to approve the blue fabric with white leaves for slipcovers for this room.”

“Oh, how kind, how munificent, of Lady Catherine to give of her time and wisdom in this matter,” Mr. Collins exulted. “I do hope, my dear, that you will make haste in making them up? Lady Catherine has always said...”

Charlotte nodded, and smiled, and responded to her husband, and with a little help from her sister Maria, she kept Mr. Collins agreeably engaged, thus allowing Elizabeth to speak with Colonel Fitzwilliam and Mr. Darcy without irritating interruptions.

“Yes, Miss Bennet,” the colonel said in answer to a question, “I have spent many months on the Continent, though I have not had much time to enjoy the cultural and artistic wonders of Portugal or Spain.”

“I am grateful for your service, Colonel,” Elizabeth responded. “I hope that those men who fight for England have the opportunity, someday, of enjoying a time of peace and pleasure in such places.”

“May God let it be so,” Darcy said with sudden fervor, causing Elizabeth to glance at him with an approving eye.

“Have you ever been overseas, sir?” she asked courteously.

Darcy found himself, as was usual these days, nearly tongue tied when faced with the lady he adored, but he finally managed to say, “I fear not. There was some talk of my going on a restricted Grand Tour to Italy and Greece when I graduated from Cambridge, but my father was ailing, and I felt it necessary to return immediately to Pemberley.”

“And you were entirely right,” Elizabeth said decisively. “I am certain your father was relieved to have you home as he prepared to pass into his Eternal Reward, and your dependents were doubtless reassured as well. It is a hard thing for those who depend on an estate for their livelihood to have an ill, incompetent, or absentee master.”

“That is true enough,” the colonel observed. “The same can be said of an army unit. I know that I always felt relieved when Old Hooky arrived on the scene to oversee our battles!”

A lively conversation continued from this observation and Elizabeth and Colonel Fitzwilliam discussed the political and military situation with occasional remarks from Darcy. At the end of half an hour, the two gentlemen rose from their chairs, thanked their host and hostess, and departed in a general spirit of good will.

/

Rosings loomed above them on its hill, grand and imposing, like a monarch set among the subjects that were its tenant cottages. Its many windows looked out on the lush grounds around, and the vast wings swept back toward the bounteous stables behind the manor. Smoke wisped from many of the dozen-odd chimneys, briefly staining the sky the same gray as the brick-and-slate structure below before dissipating against the late afternoon sun.

Darcy, indifferent to the glories of his aunt’s mansion, walked rapidly along the carriage way toward Rosings, which provoked his cousin to say, “Do slow down, Darcy. I can march quickly if I must, but I prefer not to do so, and your limbs are longer than mine!”

Darcy did slow down and, after an agonizing wait of a minute, glanced behind him toward the parsonage and decided they were most definitely out of earshot.

“Well, Richard, what do you think of Miss Bennet?” he demanded.

The colonel, setting aside an ignominious urge to poke fun at his unusually emotional cousin, said, “I think you have chosen a delightful lady with whom to fall in love.”

“Truly?”

“Yes. She is beautiful, but beauty is fleeting as the Holy Book says, and I would be concerned if her primary attraction lay in her good looks. But Miss Bennet is so much more – intelligent, charming, well read and, as you said, not at all inclined to grovel conversationally over you. Indeed, I cannot remember the last time that I was in company with you and a marriageable lady, and the woman in question focused more on me than you.”

Darcy heaved out a deep sigh of joy. “Thank you, Richard. You have made me very happy. I will offer for her as soon as possible.”

The colonel made a non-committal sound at this statement, even as he wandered off the road and under a spreading elm tree, whose newly leafed branches shivered in the slight breeze. He stopped and looked directly into Darcy’s eyes, which caused master of Pemberley to ask worriedly, “Do you think I ought not to offer for Miss Bennet’s hand? You just said...”

“I see two potential problems,” the military man interrupted judiciously. “Firstly, Lady Catherine will be furious.”

Darcy shrugged his shoulders impatiently. “I care not about that. Yes, our aunt has long believed that Anne and I would make a match of it, but given that Anne is five and twenty and I am nearing thirty, it should be obvious to Lady Catherine that I have no interest in wedding her daughter.”

“I have no doubt you can hold the line against our irascible relation,” the colonel said with an amused smile. “Indeed, if you succeed in winning Miss Bennet, I will enjoy the ensuing fireworks, as it will be a battle royal. However, has it occurred to you that Miss Bennet, as a guest of Mr. and Mrs. Collins, might feel uneasy about blatantly snatching you from under Anne’s very nose?”

Darcy frowned and said, “I cannot imagine that Miss Bennet will allow any fear of Lady Catherine’s ire to sway her decision. Our aunt is all bark and no bite, and when one considers the very great advantages for Miss Bennet – well, surely she will not give way to Lady Catherine’s shouting?”

“That is the other issue I wish to speak of, Cousin. You speak as if you have only to offer for Miss Bennet and she will immediately accept, but that is, if you will forgive me saying, a remarkably foolish assumption.”

Darcy blinked at his cousin stupidly and then said, “Of course she will accept me!”

The colonel raised his eyes heavenward and said, “Why?”

“Because I am one of the most eligible men in the kingdom, intelligent, well connected, wealthy – she would be a fool to refuse me, and Miss Bennet is no fool!”

“Indeed she is not,” Richard said drily, “but in the same way that Miss Bennet will not pay much heed to Lady Catherine’s protestations against the match, I think it probable that she will refuse you if she is not genuinely fond of you. Given your history, and especially your interference with her sister’s courtship, not to mention the matter of Wickham, I think it likely Miss Bennet does not particularly like you.”

Silence fell between the men, and Darcy found himself staring blankly down at the mossy earth between his well-polished brown boots.

“I suppose,” he said hesitantly, “you are correct about that. The vast majority of single ladies would accept an offer from me, but Miss Bennet is not like most ladies.”

“Indeed she is not, which is why you fell in love with her.”

Darcy gulped and felt his eyes itch a little. “What must I do?” he asked disconsolately.

The colonel wrinkled his nose in thought and said, “I think you should offer your hand, but do so humbly and meekly, and with a willingness to accept a courtship if she is unwilling to commit herself to marriage. Do not discuss her lack of fortune and connections and most importantly of all, do not talk about how her mother and sisters are vulgar.”

“Are you certain?” Darcy asked in surprise. “Would it not be reasonable for me to mention all three of those concerns so that she knows that while I am well aware of her unfortunate antecedents, my love for her is so strong that...”

He trailed away as Richard Fitzwilliam shook his head vigorously and exclaimed, “No! No, no, no, no, no! No woman of spirit likes to be considered the beggar maid to her own King Cophetua. I would not suggest a flowery address, as you are not suited for such a thing, but do not speak negatively of her family.”

Darcy bit his lip in deep thought and then said, in a subdued tone, “Very well, Richard. I will accept your advice.”