“Grandmama? Please, I need your help. You have shown me what I must avoid. Now I need you to show mehowI may avoid it. Please!”
She waited for several minutes, but Grandmama had gone, leaving Elizabeth alone with her thoughts.
She threw herself onto her bed and wept.
She thought about each moment with MrDarcy.Every time he offered tenderness, I turned away. Through my callousness, I have moulded him into the man I settled for, and never the man I wanted.
He had tried in every way to be that man—the man she should have wanted—but she never permitted it.He refused to give up on me, but I fought until there was no fight left in him.
Her thoughts turned to her eldest daughter.Emily looks up to me in the same way I have always looked up to Papa. I could have taught her to be loving and kind. Instead, every time she tells me that her father is a fool, intending for him to overhear, a part of him dies. When that happens, a part of the beautiful person she could have become withers away with him.
But all of this was in the future—a future that had not yet come to pass and might still be avoided. Could Elizabeth behappy in a marriage with MrDarcy and thus save her daughter from a similar fate? She had no idea where to begin. No—Grandmama had shown herexactlywhere she needed to begin: with herself.
The wedding was still three weeks hence. Three weeks for Elizabeth to salvage an impending marriage that she still did not want, but to make the best of it for her future daughter’s sake as well as her own. Could she learn to love MrDarcy? If she somehow came to love him, would it change everything? Would it change anything?
Elizabeth needed something—anything—to take her mind away from her brooding. She returned to the sitting room at the parsonage and perused the shelves. She found a novel titledHer Ladyship Strikes Backby Stephanie Vale. “Strike back,” she murmured.“That is what I must do. I must strike back against the person I do not wish to become.”
She made herself comfortable in a chair and began:It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single gentleman with a good fortune, a strong intellect, and a huge problem will believe that he can solve the problem single-handedly.
Chapter 13: Her Ladyship Strikes Back
by Stephanie Vale
Rosings Park, Kent
Tuesday, the 7thof April, 1812
The last man in the world. The last man in the world.The. Last. Man. In. The. World.
Darcy stormed out of the parsonage, having failed in his mission to see the “indisposed” Miss Elizabeth Bennet. Was she avoiding him?
How long must I endure this torture? What must I do to secure her hand?
Judging himself entirely unfit for company, Darcy embarked on a circuit of the park in an attempt to regain sufficient equanimity to return to the house. Passing the stables, he borrowed a lantern before the sun set entirely.
This is intolerable. I cannot allow it to continue. It will consume my life if I allow it.
He had always loved the outdoors. The scents and sounds of spring soothed his temper as expected, and as he calmed, he slowed his stride around Rosings Park.
Darcy’s absence had not gone unremarked. Angry, Lady Catherine had refused to delay the meal, and the party had dined without him. She suspected he had gone to call upon Elizabeth Bennet at the parsonage for reasons she vigorously disapproved of. It was time to put an end to his foolishness and whatever silly flirtation was going on with Miss Bennet. And she knew exactly how she would do it. Every minute he stayed away caused her more consternation about the possibility that he played at something irrevocable. Still, whilst she could not snapher fingers to drag him back to Rosings, she certainly could take appropriate measures under her own roof.
With a sideways look at MrCollins, Colonel Fitzwilliam pointedly eschewed any separation of the sexes, so the party had all gone through to the drawing room together after the meal and drank their tea with little conversation. After a short time, MrsCollins begged her Ladyship to excuse her family to return to their home so she might check on her friend. Lady Catherine, already planning her next move, agreed with alacrity, and a carriage was summoned to return the Collinses and Maria Lucas to the parsonage.
Charlotte was somewhat relieved to see that MrDarcy was not present and that Elizabeth had already retired. Waiting for her husband and sister to find their own beds and promising to follow soon, she went to the kitchen to speak with her housemaid, Sally.
“Sally, did MrDarcy visit this evening?”
“Aye, ma’am. He came to see how Miss Bennet fared, but she remained upstairs and did not receive him.”
This did not sound very romantic to Charlotte, and she wondered where MrDarcy had gone afterwards. Of course, Sally could have had no idea about this, so Charlotte excused her for the evening and sought her own bed.
At the great house, Lady Catherine set her plan into motion.
“Mother!” Anne almost shrieked. “You want me to dowhat?”
“You heard me, child. You are going to Darcy’s rooms and getting into his bed. When he returns and gets into the bed with you, I will enter with MrsJenkinson, and I will force his hand.”
“Mother, I do not want to force Cousin Darcy to marry me.”
