Page 21 of Regrets

“Ah, Mr. Darcy! We have never met, of course, but I knew to expect the noble mien and regal bearing that I see before me! No one could be so closely related to my dear patroness, Lady Catherine, and not bear such symptoms of elegant breeding!”

He went on in this vein for some time before Lady Catherine finally cut him off. “Very well, Mr. Collins. Was there anything in particular you wished to tell me?”

“Oh! Oh, yes, indeed! The Crawfords received a basket of foodstuffs from a cousin in Paddock Wood, and so should not need assistance from your ladyship for at least a week, perhaps two.”

“Mr. Collins,” Lady Catherine began, testily. “You will recall that I told you that you need not report to me on my tenants in the future.”

He began at once to protest, but she would not listen to him, and he finally took his leave.

“That is your rector, Aunt Catherine?” Mr. Darcy asked, his voice raised in disbelief.

“Yes,” she sighed. “I know not what I was thinking when I gave my permission for him to occupy the living, but I certainly regret it now.”

***

Later that day, Lady Catherine managed to find her nephew alone. She immediately took advantage of this by saying, “Darcy, do you not think Anne much improved?”

“I do, certainly, Aunt.” Mr. Darcy spoke cautiously, wary of where this conversation might be leading.

And rightly so, for his aunt’s next words confirmed his fear. “Might you not now consider offering for her, Darcy?”

Mr. Darcy shook his head. “I insist on being permitted to select my own bride, Aunt. You and I both know that there never was a cradle betrothal; even had there been one, it certainly is not binding.” He wondered if he might be entirely frank with his aunt, and decided that there was nothing to lose and possibly something to gain – understanding, if nothing else. “Aunt Catherine, why are you so very set on me as Anne’s husband? I have long suspected that it was so that I might spirit her off to Pemberley, leaving you to manage Rosings Park. Is that it?”

Lady Catherine stared at her nephew for a long minute, causing him to fear that he had offended her, but finally she uttered a harsh laugh. “That is what you think of me? That I would marry off my daughter so that I might live in solitary splendour at Rosings? I assure you, I am not nearly so scheming as all that.”

“What is it, then?”

She was silent for a long minute and then apparently changed the subject, for she said, “You recall your mother, of course. Would you say that Anne was beautiful?”

“Extraordinarily so; and even did I not recall it myself, we have a portrait of her hanging in the family drawing room. Even allowing for the biased eye of the painter, she was everything lovely.”

“She was, I agree completely. Whereas I…less so.”

There was nothing Mr. Darcy could say to this, so he remained silent.

Finally, she went on. “My sister received three offers within the first four weeks of her come-out. She chose your father, and rightly so. He adored her, and if she did not immediately love him, she learnt to do so soon enough. In any case, her Season was called a great success.”

She looked away before continuing. “By the time my sister Anne came out, I was in my third Season, and had received no offers at all. I sat and watched my younger sister marry a handsome, wealthy man, and had only to look in a mirror to understand why our prospects had been so very different. I was an embarrassment to my parents and was on the verge of becoming a laughing-stock when Sir Lewis de Bourgh offered for me. There was no affection between us; he needed money and I needed a husband.”

Mr. Darcy felt his heart go out to his aunt. He had known some of this, of course, but had never considered what this must have been like for her. He thought now that he understood her. “You are afraid that something similar will happen to Anne.”

“I am, yes.” Her proud head was bowed now. “I suspect you thought that I kept Anne deliberately weak, but oh, Darcy! If you could have seen her as a little girl, so very sick, so very still, that I feared for her life! Yes, I wrapped her up well and kept her safe, and thought she seems quite strong now, the habit of a lifetime is not so easily broken. I would do anything, anything at all, to protect my girl from hurt.”

“She need not be hurt in London, Aunt, you know it! Anne was rather quiet and – if I am honest – a bit drab, but she has changed beyond recognition. Her cheeks are rosy, she holds her head high and her smile is genuine. She needs some polish, of course. She needs to learn to dance, how to address others – well, all the usual social requirements – but there is no reason to think that she would not be a success in London.”

Lady Catherine stared past him, as if she had not heard. “The ideal husband, as I think on it, would be a second son. Someone who does not have an estate, so he would come and live with us here at Rosings.”

“And you would live with them?” Mr. Darcy could not keep the skepticism from his voice.

Her eyes focused on him again. “Oh, not at all! For the Dower House is quite enough for me, Darcy, and I would not be at all opposed to living there. As long as I knew that Anne was well, that she had not been made to endure what I had endured in London, then I would be happy indeed at the Dower House.”

Mr. Darcy bowed his head. He had misjudged his aunt for many years, and was glad to learn now that she was only doing everything possible for her daughter’s well-being. But clearly, there was no need for Mr. Darcy to offer for Anne.

Chapter Twenty

Anne and Georgiana spent the next morning together packing for Georgiana’s journey to London and then to the country. When it was time for Georgiana to leave, they bid one another farewell with many tears and solemn promises to write most faithfully. Anne swore to take the greatest care of Socks, and to take the phaeton out at least thrice a week.

Georgiana spent the entire journey to London telling her brother of the many things she and her cousin had done together, and it was clear to Mr. Darcy that his sister was not the same shy young girl who had journeyed to Kent so many weeks ago! Serving as an older sister to Anne de Bourgh, despite the fact that Anne was actually the elder of the two, had done a good deal for Georgiana’s confidence.