“Anna, tell me, has something happened? I feel as though this is the most inopportune time for me to be here.”
Anna took in a sharp breath but shook her head fervently. “I know Miss Darcy would not want you to leave before seeing her. Unfortunately, she is not here, and neither is Mr. Darcy. That is why everyone is in an uproar.” Her eyes turned to the door. “She will just not see reason.”
Elizabeth looked confused. “Miss Darcy?”
“Oh, no! Not Miss Darcy!” Her nervous laugh was accompanied by a creased brow.
The sound of strident footsteps approaching grew louder, and Anna’s eyes widened. A singular pounding of one foot signalled that someone had stopped. Elizabeth turned to see who had prompted such a look of fear on Anna’s face.
Elizabeth’s jaw dropped as she beheld the woman before her. A look of anger mixed with great suspicion swept across her features as she noticed Elizabeth. In a loud voice directed at no one in particular, she exclaimed, “What, may I ask, is she doing here?”
Elizabeth politely curtseyed, and when she lifted her head, she pursed her lips and swallowed to moisten her suddenly dry mouth. “Good afternoon, Lady Catherine. It is an honour to see you again.”
Lady Catherine threw her shoulders back and stood erect, her eyes narrowed, and her lips puckered tightly together before saying, “You are Miss Elizabeth Bennet!”
“Yes, madam, you are correct.”
Lady Catherine’s grey eyes almost appeared closed save for the glint that peered through. She took several steps forward, bringing her into the room. Looking at Anna, she told her, “You may go. We have no need for you here.”
Anna looked at Elizabeth as if waiting to be excused. Elizabeth gave her a resigned nod.
Lady Catherine turned back to Elizabeth with a stern look etched on her face. “I come expecting to find my nephew or my niece, and instead I find you!”
“I have also come to see Miss Darcy.” Elizabeth tried to smile, but knew it was a futile attempt. “I understand she has not yet returned from an unexpected errand.”
“What business have you with my niece?”
With a start, Elizabeth readily recollected the insolence this woman exhibited when she met her at Rosings. “This is a social call. She invited me for tea.”
Lady Catherine let out a disgusted huff. “This is insupportable!” The cane Lady Catherine held tightly in her fist pounded to the floor. “My niece has no reason to take notice of a mere governess! Yes, I know that is what you are. Why would she invite you to tea?”
Elizabeth’s eyes widened, appalled at her words. “I beg your pardon, Lady Catherine, but my current vocation as a governess was only prompted by my good father’s death, and…”
“That does not signify!” Her words were unleashed in fury, a frown settling across her features. “I am well aware who you are… and who you are not! The Darcy family is esteemed well above your insignificant family. The associations of my niece and nephew must be kept to those of distinction of rank or fortune! Your family has not even the slightest connections worthy of anyone’s notice.”
“Perhaps Miss Darcy should be allowed to make her own choice of associations.”
Lady Catherine shook her head for emphasis. “Headstrong girl! I cannot believe that my niece, for no other purpose than a social call, invited someone so far beneath her to her home for tea!”
“I am aware of no other purpose that Miss Darcy may have had in inviting me,” Elizabeth replied.
Lady Catherine studied Elizabeth with an unwavering gaze for a brief moment, and then began wagging her finger at her. “Do not think that I do not know what you are about, Miss Bennet! I am not unaware of your recent stay at Pemberley.” In a severe tone, she voiced her dreaded suspicion, “Was it your design to use your arts to draw my nephew in whilst you were there?”
Elizabeth coloured as she listened with increasing astonishment. “I had no part in the decision to go to Pemberley. The family for whom I worked was invited. I knew nothing of it until it was a settled matter!”
“You expect me to believe that you journeyed to Pemberley without any thought of how you might secure my nephew’s notice?”
Elizabeth let out a breath, almost a chuckle, and shook her head. “When I departed for Pemberley, I had no reason to believe, no designs or even hopes, that he would harbour even the slightest regard for me. I went dutifully and solely as Miss Emily Willstone’s governess.”
“Then you must know that any aspirations you may have to secure his regard, any arts you employ, would be futile.”
“You assume that I intended to use feminine wiles to secure Mr. Darcy’s regard. You cannot be further from the truth.”
“Do not trifle with me, Miss Bennet! You know you can never marry him!”
While the sound of muffled footsteps and hushed voices outside the door suggested to Elizabeth that some of the servants were perhaps listening, she steeled herself to reply, “Lady Catherine, whether or not I marry your nephew will solely be determined by whether or not he asks me, not by your empty threats!”
“You are an insolent girl!” she cried out. “Have you no respect for our family? He has been promised in marriage to my daughter since their birth! Both his mother and I wished it!” Lady Catherine’s body shook with the fervency of her words.
“I came to know of that even before my visit to Rosings,” she answered, her voice steady. “If Mr. Darcy chooses to honour that wish, then you ought to have nothing to worry about.” Elizabeth paused. “If his understanding is compatible with yours, I wonder why you feel so inclined to caution me.”
Lady Catherine again pounded her cane sharply against the floor. “Tell me, Miss Bennet, whether or not you harbour any designs on my nephew! Do you seek to become engaged to him?”
Elizabeth felt her ire rise, but made a concerted effort to suppress it. “You claim that to be an impossibility. If he is engaged to your daughter, how can he become engaged to someone else?”
Lady Catherine threw her shoulders back and lifted her chin in the air. “You must promise me this, Miss Bennet! If my nephew asks for your hand, you must not accept him!”
The pounding of footsteps coming toward the room abruptly stopped. Elizabeth hoped it was someone coming to rescue her from Lady Catherine’s abuse. But no one stepped in.
Elizabeth swallowed and straightened her shoulders. She lifted her head and looked directly into Lady Catherine’s eyes. “I may be insupportable and headstrong, but one thing I am definitely not is easily intimidated. You insist that I refuse an offer of marriage from your nephew. I cannot promise anything of the sort. I will only reply that I would be more than delighted to accept an offer if he were ever to make one.”
“This is not to be borne! I have never met with one so devoid of propriety! Do you not know…?”
“That is enough!”
The voice boomed across the room with such force that even Lady Catherine started. They both turned to see Mr. Darcy stride with determined steps toward them. He came to a halt at Elizabeth’s side, his breathing ragged, his eyes glaring.
“I will hear no more of your tirade against Miss Bennet. What right have you to treat her—a guest in my household—in such a rude, disparaging manner?”
Without waiting for his aunt to answer, he turned to Elizabeth. “Pray, forgive me for the reception you received here.”
His aunt seemed momentarily stunned by his unexpected appearance, and her nose flared as her upper lip curled under. She directed an accusatory glare toward Elizabeth. “Miss Bennet is a pretentious woman with no connections, rank, or fortune. Stay as far away from her as possible. She has aspirations that would ruin you and dishonour your family name.”