After Elizabeth Bennet, Elizabeth Ashcombe was indeed the best choice…yet, observing Darcy, the colonel perceived that his cousin’s feelings were far from settled.
“I am exceedingly angry.”
“With…her?”
“With her, with myself, with this accursed situation, in which Georgiana must remain near her, and I am obliged to see her.”
“You are not obliged to see her.” The colonel made a grimace which Darcy could not interpret. Though they resembled each other in feature, their expressions rendered them quite different: Darcy seldom betrayed his thoughts, whereas the colonel’s face was their faithful mirror.
“Not in person, perhaps; yet Georgiana will assuredly be captivated by her, and all her talk will henceforth concern Miss Bennet. Whilst I came hither, I wondered whether it might not be better to remove her from the Academy and take her to Pemberley. She is near sixteen, and other young ladies of her age already think of marriage.”
“I am glad you refrained. You would have created a stir far beyond the importance of the matter.”
“You are right.” Darcy nodded, relieved that his cousin approved of his decision to let Georgiana remain…in Elizabeth’s hands. “Yet I am so incensed when I think of her. She behaved with such want of civility. She used words which she must have known would wound me. I do not believe I was ever so humiliated.”
“Darcy, you know that I am with you, body and soul, whatever the case may be. But you cannot claim that you were perfectly civil, or that you offered for her in a joyful manner. You do not even know—”
“I do not even know?” His astonishment was visible, for the colonel had stopped mid-sentence. “Pray finish what you mean to say.”
“You supposed that she answered thus because she felt nothing for you, no affection. But did it never occur to you that the manner of your declaration might have so shocked her that her feelings could not signify—”
“Enough.” His tone, far from harsh, was merely weary.
“Yes, you are right—enough. There is no use in pursuing it. Your future is now, Lady Elizabeth.”
And upon Darcy’s countenance, till then immovable, there spread a look of wonder, as though he had forgotten who Lady Elizabeth was.
“Your betrothed,” the colonel added unnecessarily.
Again, Darcy nodded, but then a certain animation returned.
“When I left Rosings that afternoon, I intended only to ride two hours for weariness and then return to sleep and forget.”
He paused; the colonel thought he would say no more, but after a while Darcy continued in the same subdued tone, as if relating another man’s story.
“In Hunsford, I encountered Lady Elizabeth. She was on horseback likewise. I cannot tell how it happened, but I escorted her home. She rides remarkably well, and when she is in her own element, her timidity vanishes. You think I proposed to her from resentment, yet it could not be so, for the resentment would have fallen upon myself.”
“Exactly.” The colonel appeared calmer now.
“I scarcely understand it even now, but we spoke as we dismounted. She invited me in, and we walked for nearly ten minutes from the stables to the house. You must understand something. Whilst I struggled to determine whether I ought to marry Miss Bennet, something changed within me. In deliberating whether to marry her, I resolved that I wanted to get married. Suddenly, I began to desire a wife and children at Pemberley—all that a man might possess. When I found myself deprived of her, it was not only my love that was disappointed, but also my wish for a family. And there, beside that intelligent and modest girl, who rides admirably and takes pleasure in the management of an estate, I felt a revelation—that, in the absence of Elizabeth Bennet, she was the wife destined for me. Before we reached the house, I had asked for her hand.”
“Oh.” The colonel’s voice softened. “Thensheaccepted.”
“Yes, I spoke to her first—and her parents rejoiced.”
He was disappointed. He had hoped that Darcy had spoken only to the father and that the daughter had been pressed into the engagement; then there might yet have been hope that she would resist and break it, but not so.
“You will marry.” The words came almost as a sigh; yet Darcy did not perceive the dismay in his cousin’s tone, being wholly absorbed by his recollections.
“Yes. That is my intention. The three months will pass, and Georgiana shall not return to the Academy…and Miss Bennet shall vanish for ever from my life.”
The colonel thought Darcy seemed all at once too calm compared with how he had entered. He would almost have preferred that his cousin’s anger had remained, for behind anger there might still dwell strong feeling. But with Darcy, one could never be certain.
Chapter 16
“I am so tired that I could fall asleep the moment I sit upon a chair,” she confessed to Mary. Yet, her smiling countenance conveyed but one message—she was happy. The Academy resembled a vast household, with fifty rooms to be maintained and daily meals prepared for at least sixty persons. In her naïveté, she had imagined her task would consist solely in organising the instruction of the young ladies; but in real life, every trifling difficulty within that establishment passed through her hands.
For some days, Mary had been residing at the Academy, proving an unexpected help in whatever direction Elizabeth required. Oftentimes, when overwhelmed by business and wishing to conceal her fatigue from the rest, she was thankful to have both Mary and Jane near her, to whom she might confide every thought. She had invited all her sisters, together with Mrs Bennet, to visit the Academy before the arrival of the young ladies. Amidst the bustle of those days, Jane and Mary had remained to assist her, and it afterwards became their habitto come every morning, even after the girls had arrived. It was no surprise that Jane should continue to lend her aid, for she had ever been ready to do so; but the genuine astonishment was Mary.
