“I am not blighted. And if I might not beas desirableof a companion as I once was, I assure you, I shall have no difficulty finding an ample number of women who would be willing to enter the married state with me.”
“Yes, but your cousin is the best option — or at least the best sure option.”
Darcy again glanced at Anne.
He could not imagine being spoken of in such a way, but then none of them had ever seemed to show an excess of concern for her feelings. Perhaps that had been wrong of them.
But Anne was simply not to his taste.
“Darcy, I insist you cease making us wait and finally do this,” Lord Matlock added.
“You insist.”
Lord Matlock winced at Darcy’s tone of voice. “Eh. You know what I mean. You are your own man, you know that I would never dream of actually trying to dictate your business to you, however—”
Colonel Fitzwilliam interrupted, “Papa, Darcy gets picky with small untruths — confess it. You woulddreamof dictating to him.”
They all laughed, dissolving much of the growing tension in the room. Lord Matlock cheerfully agreed, “It certainly would be a dream, and never could I have a more fanciful one.”
“I have no present intentions to immediately marry,” Darcy cautiously said, hoping to not insult Anne further.
“You’d suggested a few months ago that youalsothought the time had come,” Lady Catherine said. “Do you mean to claim that you have been too inconsistent to hold to one resolution for so long?”
Lord Matlock peered anxiously at Darcy. “Not marry? — I thought you implied that your illness had not interfered with your hopes to sire an heir — did some weakness progress further since?”
“No! All of those faculties are yet fully intact.” Darcy looked pointedly at Anne. “This is hardly a proper discussion in any case.”
Colonel Fitzwilliam laughed.
Lord Matlock waved that consideration away. “If you are going to marry her, she will learn about such things soon enough.” He laughed, rather crudely.
“What things?” Anne said with a quiet smile. There it was again — that little flash of humor in her eyes, as though she’d asked the question chiefly to tease Lord Matlock, and maybe her mother.
“Nonsense,” Lady Catherine said to Darcy, ignoring her daughter’s question. “Besides the point anyway — the essential consideration is this: You two are formed for each other, descended on the maternal side from the same noble family, and on the father’s from respectable, honorable and, though untitled, ancient families.”
“Only three generations since a de Bourgh came back with all that money as a nabob,” Colonel Fitzwilliam gaily exclaimed.
“I will not be interrupted. Hear me in silence.”
To that order Colonel Fitzwilliam pantomimed retching, but he did notsayanything else.
“The fortune on both sides is splendid,” Lady Catherine continued. “They are destined for each other according to the voice of every member of the respective families of any significance—” She glared at Colonel Fitzwilliam, clearly implying that he was of no significance. “Darcy, if you are sensible of your own good, you shall immediately make your proposals to my daughter, and we can see you both married by special license before the week is out.”
A silence followed this ringing demand.
Darcy sighed after it began to appear to him that Lady Catherine was preparing another speech. He said to Anne, “Dear cousin, I must apologize for this scene, and for any disappointment that you may feel, but my feelings make it wholly and entirely impossible for me to enter into matrimony with you.”
“I know.” She smiled back at him.
“You do?” Lord Matlock exclaimed in surprise.
“We planned your engagement in your crib! Darcy, you are honor bound to marry Anne! Your honor demands it. Your standing as a gentleman would be ruined if it came to be known that you had jilted your cousin. Your position in the world — if you do not marry her, you will expose yourself to the scorn of the world, of society in general, of all your friends, of all your relations, and of everyone who has ever shown the slightest pennyworth of concern for you.”
“Catty,” Lord Matlock said, “that goes rather too far — besides we’d agreed we could not browbeat Darcy into anything. Now, Anne, you mean to say you have no particular desire to marryDarcy?”
“No, not at all.”
“Why not?”
