Stone-faced and silent, Colonel Fitzwilliam stooped to kiss his aunt’s proffered cheek.
“There, that is better. Have you no kiss for your mother, Fitzwilliam?”
Mr. Darcy approached his mother and kissed her quickly. “You left Georgiana?” he asked, tautly.
“Georgiana is fine,” Lady Anne waved her hand, unconcerned. “Mrs. Reynolds is with her.”
When Anne de Bourgh entered the room, Lady Anne called to her, smiling, “And there is my namesake!”
“Aunt Anne, how lovely of you to visit us!” Anne de Bourgh threw Mr. Darcy a sly look as she bent to kiss her aunt’s cheek.
“And how are you and my son here getting along?” Lady Anne enquired.
As Anne de Bourgh opened her mouth, Mr. Darcy interjected, “Oh, Anne and I get along well enough. But it is my opinion that she and I have seen quite enough of one another, and Richard and I plan to depart for London on the morrow.”
His mother looked at him for a long moment. “And the matter of which we spoke before you left Pemberley?”
“Has been resolved to my own satisfaction, though I suspect not to the satisfaction of everyone in this room.”
Lady Catherine thumped her stick on the floor angrily. “Can we not speak plainly? Darcy refuses to marry Anne!”
Lady Anne took a handkerchief from her sleeve and used it to dab at her eyes. “Fitzwilliam, you assured me…”
Mr. Darcy knelt at his mother’s feet and took her hands in his own. “Mother, you know I love you dearly. But I cannot condemn myself to a life of unhappiness and I cannot understand how you could want that for me. But more importantly, I cannot condemn Pemberley.”
“Condemn Pemberley? Whatever can you mean?”
“Mother, for all of Anne’s amiable qualities, she is in no way capable of being the mistress of Pemberley. Surely,surely, you must know that.”
“But I will be there to help her!”
“You cannot always be there, Mother.”
“Of course I will!” the lady insisted.
“Mother, by God’s grace, you will have many years before you. But you know, youmustknow, that someday you will no longer be with us, and long before that there must be a new mistress of Pemberley.”
His mother stared at him. “You wish to replace me?!”
“Mother, you have always known that I would marry and that there would be a new mistress of the estate!” Mr. Darcy felt increasingly confused.
Lady Anne rose to her feet, head held high. “I will go to my room now, Sister.”
Lady Catherine and Anne de Bourgh also rose; all three ladies left the drawing room as Mr. Darcy stared after them, baffled. “Richard, what just happened here?”
Richard said, “Perhaps it is your mother’s fear of death? I cannot tell!”
“But that is insanity!”
“I am sorry, Darcy. There is no easy path forward for you.”
Mr. Darcy said, “I knew my mother did not want to relinquish her role; heavens, she has yet to move out of the mistress’ quarters at Pemberley! But I never realised –“
The Colonel broke in. “Your mother is still in her old rooms at Pemberley? I did not know that.”
“Yes, and at Darcy House as well.”
“Well, that must be deuced awkward, if you are occupying the master’s bedroom!”
