As much as he wanted to warn the populace, none more so than Miss Elizabeth, he could not take a chance. If the miscreant thought Darcy had moved to curtail his activities, he would make sure Giana was ruined. Surely, his first obligation was to his sister? He could not allow her to be harmed, he had failed once already by employing Mrs. Younge, so not again.
As much as he did not desire to be in the shrew’s company, he knew good form dictated he spend some time with his hosts in the drawing room before dinner. If Miss Bingley had any sense, she would take his hints her company was undesirable and steer clear of him.
It did not help that Darcy still felt guilt over his outburst imputing his own concerns regarding a Bennet sister who had bewitched him body and soul as his reasons for Bingley to recede.
At the same time, Darcy understood the implied rebuke in Bingley’s words. He soothed himself by telling himself not having grown up in his circle of society, Bingley could not understand the pressure on him to make a brilliant match.
He scolded himself for allowing maudlin thoughts. Darcy was not sanguine with anything which made him feel weak. He had his valet assist him in changing for dinner and made his way downstairs to brave the lioness’s den.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“Mr. Bennet, Mr. Collins, there you are, it is time to go into dinner,” Fanny admonished when the two men joined them in the drawing room.
“If you please, Fanny, I beg your indulgence as I have an announcement to make,” Bennet stated. “Mary, join us please.”
Fanny watched as her daughter joined her husband. She knew Mary had a conversation with Mr. Collins, but as yet, had no clue if he had requested a courtship or engagement, and what Mary’s reply had been.
If it were the former, she was sure it would not be long before it became the latter. “We are all ears, Mr. Bennet,” Fanny responded.
“It is my pleasure to announce our Mary is engaged to our cousin, William Collins. He proposed earlier this afternoon and I have bestowed my permission and blessing,” Bennet informed his family.
“But I wanted to marry first!” yelled Lydia as she stamped her foot and pouted.
“Which is the reason you find yourself back in and why you will have your dinner in the schoolroom.” Seeing Lydia was about to unleash her vitriol, Fanny looked at her husband who nodded as she raised her hand. “It is as good a time as any to tell you your Aunt Maddie has found a companion-governess for you and Kitty. Mrs.Cara Buxton will arrive in two days.”
“Now, unless you would like to lose more of your allowance, take yourself up to the schoolroom as your mother ordered,” Bennet said in support of his wife.
Lydia loosed a scream of frustration as she stamped her way out of the drawing room and up the stairs culminating in the slamming—as hard as she was able—of the schoolroom’s door.
Bennet escorted his newly engaged daughter into the dining parlour while Collins had the honour of offering his arm to his soon-to-be mother-in-law. The other three sisters followed, with smiles on their faces. It was hard not to when Mary looked so very contented with her change of circumstances.
While the soup course—the soup had been a hearty vegetable soup, ideal for a cold early December evening—was cleared away, Mary leant over towards her fiancé who had come to sit next to her after helping Mama to her seat.
“William, did you know if it had not been for our long-dead relatives fighting, your name would have been William Bennet?” Mary asked innocently.
“Really, I knew that not,” Collins replied. “Is it sure?”
“Yes. Papa has the history in his study and I read it. You had a great-grandfather Ignatius, did you not?” Mary enquired.
“Yes…come to think of it, there are no Collinses in our line before him and his family name in the family bible is struck through many times and Collins written next to it,” Collins recalled. “Do you know how this all came about?”
“Yes, there were twin brothers, the older was Thomas and Ignatius was less than ten minutes younger. Evidently, as he got older, he refused to accept he would not inherit Longbourn for being born ten minutes after Thomas,” Mary related. “They both attended university and after graduating, Ignatius demanded Thomas be disinherited in his favour. Their father refused and that is when your great-grandfather left Longbourn. He married a woman named Collins and took her name rather than keep the name Bennet.”
“But that is not right! A lady takes her husband’s name, not the other way around,” Collins insisted.
He had always been proud of the name Collins but now he remained unsure. How could he honour a name which his ancestor should not have adopted? He would wait to talk to Lady Catherine. He was sure she would have wise counsel for him.
Normally loquacious at meals and in the drawing room thereafter, this night Collins was deep in thought as evidenced by his furrowed brows.
Chapter 16
Caroline Bingley had no compunction refusing the invitation to attend the card party at Mrs. Philips’s home. She would not even relate the fact they had received an invitation to her brother as she was sure he would have insisted they attend.
There were two main reasons Miss Bingley would not be seen dead in the woman’s home. Firstly, she was married to a tradesman, the town solicitor, and if that were not bad enough, she was the vulgar sister of Mrs. Bennet. That led to the second and much worse offence—the lady was aunt to Miss Eliza Bennet. That meant the Bennet chits would be present, thus putting the insipid Miss Bennet in her brother’s company and even worse, Mr. Darcy would be able to admire Miss Eliza’sfine eyesonce again as he seemed to do whenever in company with the Bennets.
She was not worried Miss Eliza, with her non-existent dowry and terrible connections, would be real competition for her becoming the mistress of Pemberley and Darcy House. However, it was better not to put the hoyden in Mr. Darcy’s path so she could use her arts and allurements on him.
Making sure no one was observing her, Miss Bingley consigned the invitation to the fire. Someone as vulgar as Mrs. Philips did not even deserve a refusal from one as high in society as she was.
