“No. We are over, finished. We are not to marry at all. No marriage. No connection between us.” Elizabeth’s voice was like a tolling church bell declaring the end. “I am not to marry Mr. Darcy. Not at all. Our engagement has been ended. Our friendship, our relationship. Over. Everything over.Finis. Terminated.Done.”
Mrs. Bennet peered at Elizabeth with concern.
Mr. Peake exclaimed, “Not on my count! I pray he did not break your engagement because you pushed my cause.”
“I do not understand.” Mrs. Bennet touched Elizabeth on the shoulder. “You do not look any older than you did yesterday — though your eyes are pained and you are unhappy — but that is because — Oh my poor, poor girl.” She embraced Elizabeth. “That perfidious man! After the engagement was even announced in the papers! To throw you over then. He knew your opinions and manners, and he hadnocause to complain after the engagement when he discovered you would behave the same way you always did — was that it? That you would not cease to run about as you always have? I have told you, Lizzy — but now is not the time. My poor girl! Upon my honor, he should not have treated you in this infamous manner.”
The tight hug was comforting. And surprising. She expected to be accused. Yet…somehow the assumption that Darcy had been the one to end matters due to Elizabeth’s behavior still irked.
Mr. Gardiner frowned. He gestured widely with his hands. “No. I believe it not! Not a man like I thought Darcy was. He broke with you over your support for Peake’s suit? — too far on his part. Too far. He is deserving of thorough disrepute and opprobrium. You ought to sue for breach of contract. But you would not wish to. The scandal. Such a man. Such a man! I am shocked.”
“No.” Elizabeth stepped away from Mrs. Bennet. “It…he did not.”
Mrs. Gardiner had come next to Elizabeth. She embraced her niece. “What happened, Lizzy?”
“I…”
“Lizzy, my dear daughter.” Papa came close and touched her. Elizabeth threw herself into his arms and sobbed.
The numbness was gone, and though kindly meant, each word spoken by her family was a claw scratching and scraping raw flesh. This morning, she had known this morn what happiness was.
She had ended her engagement: And the fire burned in the grate; and the rain, its drops splashed against the window; and the others in the room, they breathed easily, though she barely could draw breath.
“What is this, Peake?” Mrs. Bennet asked in a confused voice, as Elizabeth cried. “Yourcause?”
“I hoped to marry Miss Darcy, but Mr. Darcy refused my suit, and Miss Bennet argued my case.”
“Mr. Darcy jilted her forthat? And he cared nothing for his sister! Sweet Georgie, so sweet! She deserves happiness — anyone could see you are intended for each other. And thirty thousand! My dear brother’s firm could use such money very well.”
“I swear, that was no motivation for me,” Mr. Peake replied quietly.
“Heavens! Perfidious man! Lord! Such a creature. To think I liked him — to think I forgave him — to think what a dishonor it shall be. What infamy! Everyone will know he dishonored you. I’ll speak. I’ll not be silent. I’ll ensure the entire world knows how Mr. Darcy betrayed you. I swear, Lizzy, I’ll make the whole shame stick unto him, and I’ll—”
“You’ll tell no one nothing.” Elizabeth pushed herself away from Papa. She brushed her tears roughly away with the sleeve of her woolen dress, which scratched the skin around her eyeballs.
“He jilted you. Lord!” Mrs. Bennet looked to the plaster of the ceiling as she called upon deity. “And to treat his sweet, sweet sister so. He deserves to bedespised!”
“I! Me! I did it. I jilted him. I ended that damned engagement.”
Elizabeth looked around the room. Papa frowned. Elizabeth said to him, “Pardon — I ought not use the damned word damn. Ladies cannot speak as gentlemen are suffered to. But I’ll not be controlled. I’ll not be silent. I’ll not let adamnedman dictate me. I’ll speak as I wish. I’ll be listened to or I’ll leave. Darcy would not suffer me to run on as Papa suffers me.Iended our connection. Scream at me as you will.”
Elizabeth stared fiercely at Mrs. Bennet. Her mother had shrieked, shouted, and sworn never to speak to her again when she refused Mr. Collins’s suit years before.
Mrs. Bennet’s eyes nearly popped from her face. Her mouth went into a big O, but she said nothing.
Mrs. Gardiner put her arms around Elizabeth again, “My dear girl, are you entirely sure? At present you are in a passion. This…this is sudden — you had been so happy.”
“Damned fool womanliness. He wasrightthat I could not control my passions. If I must be angry to be sane, so shall it be.”
“But how — what did he say?” Mrs. Gardiner tapped her hand against her cheek. “Is no compromise possible? Is there a chance yet to speak with him and reconcile? Such a decision should not be taken suddenly or lightly. Never in anger. And such a man, with such grand consequence. He should not be lightly spurned. Though we couldwishhe would choose otherwise, you could notexpecthim to give permission for his sister to marry Mr. Peake.”
“If I’m a fool in a rage, then I am a fool in a rage. I have no expectation for others to understand.”
“Lizzy, you should reconsider. You…” Mrs. Gardiner cleared her throat. “I see you are angry. But bewisealso. I beg you:Thinkwhile you yet have opportunity. I hope you have not offended him too greatly. A couple must learn to manage through difficulties, and not to abandon each other the first time that they differ on an important matter. And a wife must learn to submit herself to her husband’s will. You will not be happy if you cannot learn to accept that gentlemen are not as you wish, and—”
“Fanny!” Mrs. Bennet cut her sister-in-law off. “Lizzy is different from you and me. Lord! You give excellent advice, but Lizzy has chosen well enough for her own happiness in time past. We have security enough that she need not marry except if she wishes to. Lizzy, I do not understand you but you are my daughter. You shall never hear a word of reproach or advice from me.”
“You were so happy that I was marrying.” Elizabeth studied her mother’s face. “You will bear the shame of my action amongst our neighbors, and—”
