“Cannot a lady wish to visit her mother?”asked Mr.Darcy smoothly.“And escorting her sister and Miss Bennet to Town is a great kindness on her part.”
Collins looked more flustered and said, “A maid can accompany my sister and cousin.My wife is not required.Lady Catherine may need her.”
Charlotte looked to the ceiling, the closest she would come to rolling her eyes in public.
“Surely you cannot put Lady Catherine’s comfort above that of your own wife!”Darcy scoffed.He looked incredulous at the very notion and Elizabeth bit her lip to keep from laughing.
“I, well, what can you mean?”Mr.Collins spluttered even more.He finally stopped speaking, took a deep breath, drew himself up to his full height and said, “Mr.Darcy, I understand my cousin may have tempted you into a declaration you now regret, but you cannot allow her wiles to ruin the union that has long been planned between you and your cousin.”
Darcy sat up taller and the room became eerily still.
“Mr.Collins, I am my own man and as such, I will decide whom I will marry, not my aunt, and certainly not her parson.I have no understanding with my cousin, nor will I ever have.She is well aware of this, as is her ladyship for I told them both myself.Kindly disabuse yourself of the notion that a wedding will be forthcoming at Rosings.”
Collins paled and gulped loudly enough for everyone in the room to hear it.
Elizabeth felt so proud in that moment, she would have kissed Darcy had they not been in public.She settled for squeezing his hand and gifting him a warm smile when he looked her way.He returned it as Mr.Collins continued to stare at them, utterly dumbfounded.Elizabeth thought to gloat to Mr.Collins that he had been wrong—she would receive another marriage proposal, and a significantly better one than what he had delivered in her mother’s drawing room, but she refrained.
Soon Charlotte took pity on her husband and guided him into a chair.
Mr.Collins continued to gape at them another few minutes before he said, “I do not understand.”
Charlotte hiccupped rather loudly and Elizabeth refused to meet her eye, knowing she would burst into laughter if she did so.
“It is simple, Mr.Collins,” said Darcy patiently.“Lady Catherine wished me to marry her daughter, but I did not wish it.There has never been any formal arrangement of any kind and no contracts were ever signed and therefore have not been broken.I fell in love with Miss Elizabeth in Hertfordshire last autumn, and when I met her here this spring, I asked to court her.She very kindly allowed me the privilege, and I will speak to Mr.Bennet when I escort her to Longbourn.”
Mr.Collins’s eyes were bulging comically now.He clearly had no idea how to behave in this situation, and Elizabeth was squeezing Mr.Darcy’s hand fiercely to keep her merriment in check.
Finally, Charlotte said, “We are very happy for you, Mr.Darcy.Are we not, Mr.Collins?”
“Hm?Oh, yes.Quite.”
It was not much in the way of congratulations, but it was a step in the right direction.
“It is very kind of you to offer to see me to Meryton, Mr.Darcy.”
“I am happy to do it, Mrs.Collins.I could do no less for such a close friend of Elizabeth’s.”
Mr.Darcy was very careful with propriety, so Elizabeth knew he had used her name so familiarly on purpose.Did Mr.Collins understand?Mr.Darcy would make a powerful ally and a formidable foe.It would behoove him to choose appropriately.Charlotte seemed to grasp this and was quick to make sure Mr.Darcy knew she approved of his choice.
“I shall have Mrs.Hopkins prepare a basket for the carriage in the morning.Eliza has said you are fond of her muffins.”
Darcy nodded.“That I am.Thank you, Mrs.Collins.It is thoughtful of you.”
And so the conversation would have ended, on a harmonious if not pleasant note, had not Lady Catherine chosen that moment to burst into the parsonage.
A Better Ending to a Strange Day
“Strumpet!”
“I beg your pardon!”retorted Elizabeth at the same time Darcy stood and said, “Aunt, you forget yourself.”
“That woman,” said lady Catherine, her voice low and threatening, “has come into my home and stolen that which does not belong to her.”
Charlotte took this opportunity to pull Mr.Collins out of the room and into the hall before he could jump into the fray and defend his patroness.He fell onto the bench there and looked at his wife like a lost puppy.She could do aught but sit beside him and hold his hand, listening shamefully to what was being said in the parlor.
Darcy pulled his shoulders back and lifted his chin.“I am not your property, Lady Catherine.I cannot be stolen.”
She sniffed.“You were set to marry Anne until she came along!”She pointed angrily at Elizabeth.
