“You know how gossip works, Lizzy. There is nothing these meddlesome society busybodies enjoy more than digging up information, especially if betting is involved. They will do everything within their means to uncover the truth. They will find out who you are, by hook or by crook. If not today, then tomorrow. All they need is a careless word by a servant.Loyalties can be bought. Do not forget. You spent time under Mr. Darcy’s roof.”
It was Elizabeth’s turn to jump to her feet and pace the room in agitation. Why did people love to gloat over other people’s misfortunes? It was not even a misfortune of her own making. She had not deliberately sought out Mr. Darcy and gone to his house.
“I had no choice in the matter.”
“No one is saying you had a choice,” said Mrs. Gardiner, soothingly, “but the fact is, you did, and now Mr. Darcy is good enough to save you from that unfortunate situation. But it is not only that. The fact is, half of London saw you in a state of— well, let us say that well-bred young ladies do not appear in public in wet clothes.”
“That is ludicrous. Was I supposed to emerge from the lake in dry clothes?”
“The fact is, you did not need to jump in the river,” said Uncle Gardiner. “You could have left it to Mr. Darcy.”
“So you are telling me that, while Maggie was drowning, I should have stood quietly by, hoping someone else would rescue her? I jumped in just after Mr. Darcy jumped in. And I would have jumped even long afterwards, because I was worried that my cousin was dying. I was not thinking about my reputation.”
Aunt Gardiner took Elizabeth’s hands in her and squeezed them. “We know, dear. Of course you were thinking of Maggie. And we are grateful for it. But that is precisely the issue at hand, you didnotthink about your reputation, and that has now come back to bite you.”
“It is a great fuss over nothing.”
“It is not a great fuss over nothing,” said Mr. Gardiner, emphatically. “Mr. Darcy would not have offered to marry you if he thought it was nothing.”
There they were, back to the point she had made earlier. It seemed like they had gone round in circles and came back to the same thing.
“That is why I am refusing to marry Mr. Darcy. He cares nothing for me. I care nothing for him.”
“He cares enough about you to make this offer,” Mr. Gardiner was relentless. “It may not be the type of love expressed in sonnets, but it does tell you something.”
Elizabeth squeezed her eyes shut. Her head was starting to pound. She was feeling the weight of her family’s expectations. She had deliberately not mentioned that Mr. Darcy had given her until the end of the day to return her final answer. The Gardiners would not leave her alone for a second if they knew. They would pressure her to accept.
“The Darcys have a reputation in Derbyshire for fairness,” said Mrs. Gardiner, with a kindly smile. “I am sure he will treat you well,”
Elizabeth had no doubt at all that he would treat her well. He was, after all, a true gentleman. But that was not the point. Elizabeth did not want to argue any more. She was losing her sense of perspective.
“I am too tired to argue. I need time to think about it.”
Her uncle shook his head. “There is nothing to think about,” he said, in a dispassionate voice. “You will have to come around, or you will be ruined.”
“If you will excuse me, Uncle, I really have to go to my bedchamber.”
As Elizabeth made her way up the stairs, she could overhear the Gardiners talking.
“I blame Mr. Bennet,” Mr. Gardiner was saying. “Lizzy takes after him. She is whimsical and impractical, like her father, and he has always encouraged it.”
“Is Mr. Darcy very angry?” Mrs. Gardiner’s voice sounded worried.
“He is more surprised than angry. We need to sit down and have a long conversation with Lizzy. I do not think she understands what is at stake.”
Elizabeth had heard enough. She hurried to the guest bedchamber where she was sleeping, shut the door, and sat on the edge of the bed, trying to calm her distress. She was not as impractical as all that. She understood perfectly what was at stake. The Gardiners assumed she had rejected him out of some notion of injured pride.
Of course, Mr. Darcyhadhurt her pride. She wanted to lash out at him and argue that she had many good qualities. Elizabeth may not be as pretty as her sister Jane, nor as noticeable as her youngest sister Lydia, but Sir William had often introduced her at their local Meryton assemblies as ‘one of the prettiest young ladies in the neighborhood’. She was well-read and well-informed, and people generally found her amiable.
Mr. Darcy’s offer seemed to suggest that none of these things mattered. He was too concerned about his status to think her worthy of him and his family.
She did have some dignity. She could not imagine a worse fate than marrying a gentleman who, even with the noblest intentions, looked at her only to find fault.
But those were not the reasons she was determined to stay steadfast in her refusal to marry him. She had given him a catalogue of reasons, but there was only one that actually mattered.
She respected Mr. Darcy too much to allow him to make a sacrifice like this on her behalf. She could never live with her conscience knowing that he had been compelled into a loveless marriage, trapped forever in a disadvantageous connection, just because he was a noble person.
He did not deserve such a fate. He had already done enough for them.
