“Yes, trade. One uncle is a country solicitor, the other retains a warehouse in Cheapside, and he lives nearby. Darcy would have an earl for one uncle and a lowborn salesman for another!” Lady Catherine said.
“Who are her father’s family? Has he any decent connexions, someone from our circle?” Lady Romsley asked.
Lady Catherine scoffed. “That would be a miracle. The estate is exceedingly small and ill-kept. I was there just yesterday. The mother is vulgar, and as for Miss Elizabeth Bennet, she was rude and?—”
“You went to Longbourn?” Darcy exclaimed. How could Lady Catherine have thought that was appropriate?And how can I ever apologise enough to Elizabeth? No doubt Lady Catherine was unconscionably rude.“How dare you interfere inmyaffairs!”
“That is not the material point,” the earl stated, speaking loudly enough to be heard over the other voices in the room. “Does Mr Bennet have any connexions that help make up for Miss Bennet’s other deficiencies?”
While resenting the way the question was posed, Darcy knew it was best not to mention it. “No, I have not heard of Mr Bennet having any relations you might know.”
Lady Romsley sighed, and Lord Romsley said, “What are you thinking, Darcy? Why would you choose?—”
He got no further; Lady Catherine interrupted him to share her next objection. “This girl who has beguiled him—I need not say how—is also poor.”
“Your implication is disgusting, madam, and I hardly need a bride with a large fortune!” Darcy asserted.
“Mind your manners, Nephew. Your aunt is not to blame for you becoming entangled with an unsuitable girl,” the earl reprimanded.
“She isnotunsuitable,” Darcy insisted, doing his best to sound reasonable.
But then Lady Catherine told them the one thing Darcy had planned to disclose very, very carefully.
“Besides the disgraceful situation of her mother’s people, her youngest sister recently eloped. Her new brother-in-law?—”
“Lady Ca—” Darcy stepped forwards, his arm outstretched, hoping to stop her.
His efforts were in vain; before her name had passed his lips, she announced, “is George Wickham, the son of my brother Darcy’s steward! My nephew, the brother of a servant’s son? Never!”
A bomb might as well have gone off in the room. Suddenly, everyone was standing, demanding to know whether it was true and how he could possibly consider forming a connexion to Wickham. Lady Catherine calmly sat and watched; no doubtshe was satisfied with the result of her interference, even if she did not understand its significance.
“Enough!” the earl barked. “Catherine, leave us. Your presence willnothelp us resolve this, not when we all know what most vexes you is that Darcy refuses to marry Anne.”
Lady Catherine did not wish to leave, but after a short exchange with her brother, she returned to her chamber, saying, “If I do not have my way in this, you will hear more about it. I shall not rest until I know Darcy has given up the notion for good.”
Once she was gone and the earl had ensured no one was listening at the door, he turned to Darcy. “You cannot do this. It is unthinkable!”
“Uncle—”
“Absolutely not, Darcy!” Fitzwilliam was on his feet, and his hands were clenched into fists, his face bright red. “I admit, I liked Miss Bennet when we met last spring, but how could you contemplate an alliance with her—even as a friend—when her sister is married to that beast?”
Holding his hands up in an appeasing gesture, Darcy said, “I am not proposing to marry Wickham.”
“True, just his sister. I do not say that is much better,” Bramwell said.
“Even if one overlooks that there was an elopement, the involvement of that-thatman— How could you do that to Georgiana?” Lady Romsley asked.
“They would never meet, and neither would he and I. Elizabeth would not expect it of me or my sister,” Darcy insisted, desperately trying to make them see the situation from his perspective. “I have considered the difficulties of the situation—of course I have! Do you not trust me to always act in Georgiana’s best interests? Having a sister as kind as Elizabeth willbe to her benefit. It is sure to do more to help her recover than all the doctors and other supposed experts we have consulted over the months.”
Fitzwilliam gave a derisive laugh and closed the distance between them. “He is married to her sister. Of course she will want to continue to support her. I am Georgiana’s guardian just as much as you are, and I will not agree to her being anywhere near the Bennets so long as Wickham is connected to them—not even if you are stupid enough to marry one of them.”
“Georgiana has met Elizabeth. She likes her, and she knows I hope to marry her. I have always intended to explain the situation to her, and I am confident that—if she is told carefully and reassured that I shall never allow that man anywhere near her—she will accept Elizabeth as her sister. I truly believe she is as pleased at the prospect as she can be in her present state.”
“And I am confident she willnotaccept being connected to Wickham in any manner. You cannot ask it of her!” Fitzwilliam cried.
The conversation did not improve. After perhaps half or three-quarters of an hour, the earl decided they should set aside the issue for the remainder of the day. They would take it up again after they had composed themselves enough to discuss it rationally. Darcy agreed. He departed but did not immediately return to Berkeley Square. He required a long walk to ease his agitation.
The scene he found when he arrived home was heart-breaking. Someone had told Georgiana of his intentions. They must have immediately called on her to share the news; he had not been absent that long. He suspected it was Lady Catherine, but it might have been Fitzwilliam. All of Darcy’splans to disclose Elizabeth’s connexion to Wickham calmly, offer his assurances that the man was far away in the North and they would have nothing to do with him, were for naught. It was too late. Whatever Georgiana had been told, it must have been full of dire predictions of her having to share a house with Wickham when he and his wife visited Elizabeth, if not worse. She was nearly frenzied, sobbing until she was breathless, pacing, pulling at her hair, and hitting herself.
