Darcy could not recall ever being thus enraged. “I will countenance no further censure of Miss Bennet, either in this house or abroad. If you can say nothing civil, I strongly recommend you refrain from speaking at all.”
“I came to you, hoping you would discredit Mr Collins’ report, and you have all but confirmed it!”
“I have confirmed nothing. You have drawn your own conclusions.”
“Indeed I have, and I am most seriously displeased. Depend upon it, I shall carry my point. Do not imagine that Miss Bennet willeverbe your wife!”
Darcy turned his back on his aunt under the pretext of ringing for the butler and pressed his clenched fist to his lips ’til the sting from his aunt’s blow passed. Then he squared his shoulders and turned back to the room. “You will have to leave immediately if you are to return home before nightfall. Godfrey will show you to your carriage.”
Lady Catherine gave a wheezy splutter of indignation. Darcy gave a curt nod and left the room.
Lord Matlock eased slowly into his chair, unsure which creaked more loudly, the furniture or his knees. His man handed him his tincture, which he swallowed greedily. It had been a long and tedious day, and all he presently desired was to spend his evening in quiet reverie with a book, a cigar and some port.
He had taken up none of these before the door was flung open, and to his great surprise—and immeasurable displeasure—his sister swept into the room.
“Reginald!We must act immediately! Darcy has lost his wits!”
The improbability of any such thing convinced him he need not act at all, and he made no reply.
“He will not marry Anne! He will not have her! Obstinate, selfish boy! He would hear no reason! He refuses to honour the agreement of his mother, his father…”
On she raged until Matlock began to wonder whether he might enjoy the whole of his book ere she exhausted her ire. Perchance if he lit his cigar, he might smoke the shrew from the room. Alas, the door was then opened a second time, and all hope of a peaceful evening was lost.
“What is this frightful commotion?” enquired his mother-in-law as she came into the room.
“My sister waits upon us.”
“Is that all? I thought the French had arrived.”
“Oh,” Catherine said with undisguised loathing. “Mrs Sinclair is here.”
“Pray, continue,” the older lady said, settling herself on the sofa and propping both hands atop her cane as though awaiting a performance. “I shall be in nobody’s way here.”
“My brother and I are discussing afamilymatter.”
“How fortunate then that I am here.”
Regardless of his desperate wish to the contrary, Matlock could not deny that Mrs Sinclairwasfamily. Eager to be done with the vexatious ménage à trois, he waved away his sister’s protests and bade her continue, which, after several rancorous glares and some unpleasantly noisy clearing of her throat, she did.
“Our nephew has reneged on his engagement to my daughter.”
“Gracious me!” Mrs Sinclair interrupted immediately. “When I saw Mr Darcy a little over a fortnight ago, he was quite unshackled. If he has indeed offered for and forsaken your daughter sincethen, I think your displeasure perfectly reasonable.”
“The engagement has obviously not come about in the last fortnight.”
“How then has he reneged?”
Catherine hesitated for a moment before replying. “The engagement between them is of a peculiar kind. From their infancy, they have been intended for each other. It was the favourite wish of his mother as well as of hers. While in their cradles, we planned the union.”
“Yes, and that is certainly the best time to forge an alliance—when the man and woman are insensible of each other. But now this! Has he recently come to know her better and changed his mind?”
“Mr Darcy and Miss de Bourgh have been well acquainted all their lives. My sister and I made sure of it!”
“So he has had ample time to find reasons to object to her?”
“Upon my word, I have not been accustomed to such language as this!”
Mrs Sinclair shrugged. “I was only trying to help.”
