“By God! By God! You want to kill me? Just because he did not come up to scratch does not mean that he’ll forget her. I’ve seen Darcy shoot. The bullet goes where he wants.”
Elizabeth did not think that Mr. Darcy would fight a duel for her sake, nor did she wish him to. But she was happy that Mr. Sykes believed that he would.
“By Gad! Damned fellows.” Mr. Sykes stood, and he threw his now empty glass hard against the marble fireplace. It shattered loudly. “Another lady in the neighbourhood has showed me far more encouragement than shapely spinster Lizzy. God damn it all, I’ll make an offer to her. Doesn’t matter that she isn’t half as good looking. There’s more money there, and I can find loose pieces of muslin easily enough for other matters.”
With only a slight stumble, Mr. Sykes left the drawing room.
“Lord, oh Lord! What shall become of us?” Mama wailed. “Lizzy, you must make Mr. Sykes come back! Convince him to marry you, since Mr. Darcy will not.”
Was it Charlotte?
Her friend had most kindly distracted Mr. Sykes, and after their arguments upon whether Jane had acted wisely in marrying Mr. Collins, Elizabeth did not think that Charlotte would refuse any eligible gentleman.
Mr. Collins paced back and forth. “Most unfortunate. Most unfortunate.”
“She would have got Mr. Darcy if she could,” Mama said. “My Lizzy is not too obstreperous to marry. She would have gotten him if she could. I beg you to not be angry.”
The gentleman continued to pace back and forth.
Elizabeth felt sick for Charlotte. Mr. Sykes was a man who might hurt his wife, simply because he delighted in the way that she could not escape from him. Perhaps if she ran across to Lucas Lodge, she could convince Charlotte to not be a fool.
But Mr. Sykes was faster, and she would make a spectacle of herself, Charlotte would not listen, and Mama and Mr. Collins would not let her leave yet.
Once she’d agreed to marry him, Elizabeth suspected that nothing she could say to Charlotte would dissuade her. Maybe it was a different woman that Sykes meant to make his offer to.
Elizabeth felt coldly certain that could not be true.
At last, Mr. Collins sat down heavily. “Most unfortunate. Cousin Elizabeth, I am deeply disappointed in you. Most deeply disappointed. Any statements might you proffer in your own defence? Spurning an eligible man, who had the approval of both your mother and myself, to pursue the delusion that you might catch one of the greatest gentlemen in the land with your arts and allurements?”
Mr. Collins’s glare was a pathetic and small thing.
And she felt a small glow of warmth towards Darcy once more. From Mr. Collins’s manner she was certain that he would not defy Mr. Darcy’s orders to treat kindly with her family. Even though there was little Darcy could do concretely to harm Mr. Collins, the gentleman was still frightened of him.
Tears came, sadness about Mr. Darcy. Elizabeth let them flow. She wiped at her eyes.
“Oh, don’t cry. Oh my, oh my.” Mr. Collins looked helpless. “I did not mean to make you cry. Oh, do not cry.”
Mama sat next to Elizabeth and put her arm around her. “‘Tis a great pain when your heart has been broken. You’d have gotten him if you could. Lord! You would have.”
“I love him,” Elizabeth choked out. “I do. I do. I know I am stupid, but I do. I could not help myself. I tried.”
“Oh, Lizzy, Lizzy, Lizzy.” Mama embraced her, stroked her hair, and kissed her cheek. “My dear, dear daughter. ‘Tis a hurt like no other. I know, I know. But you’ll be better in time. I know, I know.”
And to her surprise, Elizabeth embraced her mother back, and sobbed into her shoulder in a way that she had not sobbed since Papa died.
Mr. Collins, after a while of watching them, sighed and stood. “Apologies. Apologies. In any case, I will have a joyous duty to convey to the noble Lady Catherine the information that Mr. Darcy has made a firm, I dare say unshakeable, and impassioned determination to never enter the bounds of conjugal joy again. Apologies.”
As Mr. Collins went to walk out of the drawing room, the door was shoved open, slamming him backwards.
Mr. Sykes stalked into the room, his face red and furious. “Damn you, Collins! Damn you! Damn you! I’ve a mind to throttle you! Damned, damned county! Damn you all!”
“Whatever happened?” Mr. Collins exclaimed. “What is the matter?”
“Damn that ugly whore. What business does a girl that ugly have refusing anyone? On any grounds! Damn her. And damn, damn Darcy.”
“Miss Lucas refused you?” Elizabeth asked, a surprised smile crossing her face. She wiped at the remains of her tears.
“Damn you too. Damn you above the rest. Thinking you are better than an honest man simply because your face is pretty. You aren’t worth anything. I am worth ten of you. Twenty of you.”
