“You are not making any sense Richard, could you start from the beginning please?”
Richard took a deep breath, walked to the bedside table where there was a decanter of brandy and helped himself to a generous serving. He sat down, slowly using a breathing exercise technique he had learned in battle to calm himself, then herelated the meeting he had had with Elizabeth on his tour of the park earlier on that day.
Darcy listened paralysed in his chair and when Richard finished his tale he stood up abruptly and walked to the window. For a long time neither said a word.
Eventually Darcy turned slowly to his cousin and glaring at him he hissed, “How could you Richard?”
Richard looked annoyed, “I did not know it was her sister, how could I?”
“You are the worst gossip… I mean… you are… blast man! You are worse than an old hag. How could you relate to Miss Bennet what I shared with you in confidence?”
Richard just looked at his cousin silently, feeling properly chastised.
“She hates me?” Darcy said with a strangled voice. “I am the most odious man she has ever known? She cannot bear to look at me?” He shook his head in confusion and anger, “and now she wants to leave immediately.” Darcy glared harder at his cousin, “How could you Richard?” He repeated feeling betrayed while despair took hold of his whole being.
“Well do not imagine for a moment that I am solely responsible for her dislike of you. She began detesting you ages ago, long before she heard how you meddled with the affections of Bingley and her sister.” Richard glared back angrily, “And let us not forgetdear old George; he has naturally been busy spreading his honeyed but toxic nonsense. Thanks to him and his charming lies she now believes he floats somewhere just beneath the angels, while you my dear fellow are consigned to and firmly lodged at the bottom, at the very depths, ranked among the most objectionable demons of the infernal regions, likely quartered with misers and wholly unrepentant card-cheats.”
Darcy looked at his cousin as if he had grown horns all of a sudden, “What? She likes Wickham? Bloody hell! This gets worse and worse. How am I supposed to fix this mess now?” Darcy raked his fingers through his hair in desperation. “What else did she say Richard?”
“What do you mean? Do you need more? I should think the matter perfectly clear,” Richard declared, raising his voice, “She hates you. Quite thoroughly I might add. I will wager she would rather swallow a thimbleful of Cousin Anne’s disgusting health tonic than set eyes on you ever again.”
Darcy stood there with the expression of a man on his way to the gallows: pale, stricken, and altogether desperate, as though the hangman were already adjusting the noose.
“I love her.” He blurted out at length.
“You what?”
“You heard me. I want to marry her.”
“Darcy, are you out of your senses? I know she is beautiful, but marriage? I mean, you could find in one miserable ballroom in London a dozen women more eligible than Miss Bennet to become the mistress of Pemberley. I myself can introduce you to any number of beautiful women… way more enticing… and richer than that harpy, at any time of your choosing.”
“Do not call her that, she is not a harpy.”
Richard raised his eyebrows, “You have not seen her angry. She was screaming like a fishwife… definitely a harpy.”
Darcy shook his head in denial and astonishment, “I doubt that very much.”
Richard blinked rapidly as he normally did when he was lying, “do you doubt me? Just go and speak to her yourself and do not forget to mention her sister, or even better, mention dear Wickham and his debauched life style then watch the fireworks go off.”
Darcy sat down, rested his elbows on his knees and grabbed his head with his hands.Richard sat next to him, “Darcy, let us return to town. Let us get drunk and visit Madame O’Kelly’s brothel. Let us forget Miss Bennet, our aunt, insipid cousin Anne and this whole damned waste of a place.”
“I cannot, Richard, and since when do I visit brothels anyway? And right now all I want is Elizabeth.”
Richard got up abruptly and looked at his cousin angrily all over again, “Darcy, what the hell… are you a glutton for punishment? If you insist on being this ridiculous I will tie you to the bed until she leaves the neighbourhood.”
Darcy got up as well and argued just as angrily, “mind your own business, will you?” He spat furiously. “Do you not think you have done enough?” He glared at his cousin with murder in his eyes, “Who are you to decide what is to constitute my happiness? My partner in life will be decided by me and myself alone. I will brook no interference from anybody, least of all a consummate bachelor like yourself.”
“Oh,” Richard yelled back, “do you mean the same way you interfered and decided what constituted Bingley and Miss Bennet’s happiness? Is their felicity something you had the right to decide?” Richard glowered, “Is their happiness less important than yours?”
Darcy sat down again heavily, as if he had been punched in the stomach, then he rested his elbows on his knees once again; he hid his face behind his hands and looked as if he might break into sobs.
Richard walked towards his cousin again and grabbing his shoulders he shook him, “Stop feeling sorry for yourself, Darcy. You messed up and at this moment the lady you claim to love hates you. Maybe it is actually a good thing, a blessing in disguise as you seem to have been kinder towards Bingley than towards yourself.”
Darcy shook his shoulders free from his cousin’s grasp angrily, “Thanks Richard, do you have any other pearl of wisdom to impart?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact I do. If you really love her and you want her in your life, I will not interfere like you have done to others.” Richard allowed a few moments of silence to stretch for his cousin’s benefit before he continued, “But what I want to know is what you are prepared to do, are you going to sit here and cry?”
“What can I do? She hates me man.”
