The doors of the drawing-room flew open. Darcy stormed inside the room. “What have you done?” he demanded.
“What is the meaning of this, Nephew? How dare you march into my home and speak to me in such an appalling manner—in front of servants, no less?”
Darcy threw an angry glare at the young women attending his aunt. “Leave us!”
Upon receiving a confirming nod from her ladyship, the servants quit the room.
“I hope the purpose of this visit is precisely what I think it is,” said Lady Matlock. “Pray, have a seat so that we may proceed calmly.”
“What did you say to Elizabeth?” Darcy demanded, refusing to sit.
“I did what I had to do! I can only hope she was prudent enough to heed my counsel.”
Darcy knew how much his aunts liked to get their way. Unlike Lady Catherine de Bourgh, however, Lady Matlock was an amiable creature, much adored among her sphere.
She generally avoided too much conflict but had a strong inner desire to take over when need be and do things the right way—steadfast in her insistence that whatever she did was for the good of her family. Moreover, she could be combative, creating adversarial relationships with those who stood in her way.
Darcy’s restraint and respect for boundaries and Lady Matlock’s usual aversion to conflict had often complemented each other. Both of them valued independence. But now, Lady Matlock had gone too far.
“You had no right!”
“Nephew,” cried Lady Matlock, “you are out of your senses to align yourself so willingly with such a family after all evidence confirmed their appalling lack of decorum. Someone had to do what is right.”
“Pray, your ladyship, before you embark on a long litany of reasons against my marrying Elizabeth, let me assure you that there is nothing you can say that I have not already considered.
“In vain, I struggled. It would not do. My feelings would not be repressed.
“I considered what I was about from every possible angle: my sense of her inferiority by rank and circumstances—of its being a degradation—of the family obstacles.
“All these things and more, I considered and found they meant nothing to me. I love Elizabeth, most ardently. I have found in her everything I have ever wished for in a woman.”
Lady Matlock drew a deep breath. “How can you be so nonchalant when it comes to such things as you espouse? Miss Elizabeth is a lovely young woman, but beauty fades, and girlish wit and charms quickly grow thin with the passage of time.”
“She is now, and no doubt always will be the handsomest woman of my acquaintance—the passage of time will only amplify her beauty in my eyes and, most importantly, in my heart,” Darcy declared.
“Will you be just as enamored of her wit, which egregiously straddles the line of impertinence and impudence, in a couple years as you are now?”
“I am sure I will never grow bored with her, which is more than I can say about any other woman of my acquaintance.”
“It seems no matter what I say, you shall remain determined to have her—which is a grave mistake on your part. It is one thing to choose a woman who, through no fault of her own, lacks good breeding, but to be totally devoid of accomplishments. What must be her excuse? If you care not how this will affect the Fitzwilliam family as a whole, then consider your sister, who shall soon make her own debut in society? Surely you can see that having relations the likes of that wild Lydia Wickham,” she spat out the appalling appellation, “will redound to Georgiana’s detriment should the former’s scandalous behavior be more widely discovered than it already has been.”
Darcy would not be dissuaded. “But by the grace of God, the scandal that befell Elizabeth’s youngest sister might have easily touched Georgiana. I dare not allow that to affect my own future felicity.”
“I beg your pardon! How dare you compare that — that harlot to your own flesh and blood? Has your so-called love for Elizabeth Bennet poisoned your mind against your own family to such an extent as to cause you to cast aspersions on my niece?”
“I resent your insinuation, your ladyship!”
“No more than I resent yours. Georgiana is a paragon of virtue and not to be besmirched as a means of justifying your marrying into a family so far beneath your own, in consequence, as to be considered laughable.”
Weighing whether to shed light on his purpose in comparing his sister and Lydia to his aunt took little to no time to consider. He had never betrayed his sister’s confidence for his own purposes. Now was not the time. The point was that in his heart, he could never be so hypocritical as to judge Elizabeth’s sister or even her family for a fate that his own sister had barely escaped. If others in his family chose to do so, so be it. His sister, as well as his closest friend, his cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam, knew the truth. None of his other relations really mattered.
As his aunt said, he was determined to have Elizabeth. Nothing anyone might say or do will change that.
“I love her, and beyond that, nothing else matters,” Darcy said, his voice resolute.
“As heartless as this seems, nephew, I tell you this from a place of deep affection: fall in love with someone else.
“You would be far better off. Do you know that young woman had the audacity to suggest that were you forced to choose between your family and her, that you would choose her?”
His voice stern, Darcy replied, “You have seriously misunderstood my character, your ladyship, if you suppose for one instant that I would not.”
All alone some hours later, Lady Matlock had much to consider in the wake of Darcy’s stern rebuke. She hated being at odds with him, but what had she said that was untrue?
Her nephew was a young gentleman who was blessed, in a peculiar way, with everything the heart of mortal man could most desire: splendid property, noble kindred, and extensive patronage. None of which mitigated the trials he had suffered during his life, the likes of which she would not have wished on her worse enemy: the loss of his mother and a most beloved father, the first while he was but a boy, the latter on the heels of his reaching majority, and both far too soon.
Her thoughts on all he had endured and all she had done on behalf of her nephew in the ensuing years filled her mind: how long Darcy had been alone and how she had tried and failed to put suitable young ladies of the ton in his path thinking he might never fall in love. Not that falling in love was a prerequisite for an advantageous alliance. Not in their sphere. Her own marriage had been arranged for the purposes of combining two great families, and looking back over the years, she found she had no cause to repine.
The fact of the matter was that she wanted more for her nephew. He deserved to have both: a love match and an advantageous alliance.
He claims to have found the former in Miss Elizabeth Bennet, and I can have no reason to doubt he believes it. However, there is nothing advantageous about their alliance, especially in the aftermath of her family’s tarnished reputation.
“If wanting nothing but the best for my nephew, and by extension my niece, is wrong, then I am guilty as charged,” her ladyship spoke out loud.
Elizabeth’s parting words about living with Darcy’s resentment entered unbidden into her head. What if all the young woman espouses is true?
Am I really willing to take that chance?