Fan Fiction ❯ An Infamous Conversation ❯ One shot ( Chapter 1 )

 

 

 

Pride and Prejudice

 

 

Author's Note: I am a big fan of Pride and Prejudice. I love the book and the movies. I can drive my friends nuts when I get going on my P&P, and now I've finally decided to write a fic for it. This is really only a one-shot; it deals with in infamous conversation between Mr. Darcy and Lady Catherine after her talk with Elizabeth at Longbourn. Not sure if anyone has tried their hand at this conversation or ever wondered what happened but I have always wondered lol and maybe it went something like this. Hope you like it and please review, would love to know what fellow fans think.

 

 

 

Darcy sighed deeply and looked out the window of his carriage as he slowly approached the main entrance to Rosings. The last time he had been summoned to discuss something of `great importance' and listened to the suggestion of `come immediately' he found the only thing Lady Catherine wanted to discuss was his lack of engagement to Ann de Bourgh. The entire matter proved to be a great waste of his curiosity and a test of his patience. Aside from complete frankness and harshness, all attempts to let Lady Catherine know his mind on the subject failed, and as she was his nearest living relative, aside from his sister, he was hesitant to use such methods.

 

“If only I were more like Elizabeth.” He whispered to himself with a mischievous smile before his face settled into lines of complete sadness. Elizabeth. She was the main reason he wished he had it in him to ignore Lady Catherine's request and remain at Pemberly. He was at home in an attempt to heal his broken heart. His sister was to be his only company. It was a time for making peace with everything that had happened, and to evaluate how he had changed.

 

About a week after his return home a messenger arrived like the devil himself was chasing him to deliver Lady Catherine's note, which read:

 

Darcy,

 

There is a matter of great importance that I must speak with you about. Please come immediately.

 

Lady Catherine

 

It was short and to the point but gave him no clue to what she wished to discuss, and naturally he answered her summons. He sighed again.

 

“I hope my trip has not been in vain.” He said softly before the footman opened the door and he jumped out and climbed the stairs two at a time. He didn't wait for servants to open the door for him, he knew she was waiting so he simply let himself in and tossed his coat on the chair near it as the butler came quickly to collect it.

 

“Good evening, sir.” He said bowing slightly.

 

“Good evening.” He said pleasantly. “Is she in her sitting room?”

 

“She is, sir.”

 

With a nod of his head Darcy made his way to the sitting room and stopped just outside the door. Thoughts of his trip being a waste of time vanished as he observed with great interest as his aunt actually paced back and forth across the room. He raised an eyebrow in wonder.

 

She's truly upset, he thought, this can't be about marrying my own cousin. What has happened? There had been only one other time he'd seen her this upset, when his uncle died, and he'd only been a boy.

 

“His carriage has arrived!” She said loudly, sounding as upset as she looked. “He should be in here by now.”

 

Taking that as his cue, he stepped away from the doorframe, squared his shoulders, and entered the room. “Good evening, Lady Catherine.” He said cheerfully, ignoring her sneering looked and asked, “How are you?”

 

Even upon his entrance she continued her pacing, but upon hearing the happiness in his voice she stopped in her tracks and stared at him. Hard. Sizing me up? He wondered as he cast a quick glance around the room and found it blessedly empty. Ann was not around to be talked in front of as if she were an arrangement of dull flowers, never to be thought of after first glance.

 

Without waiting for a response or for her to sit first, Darcy made himself comfortable on the couch. Crossing his legs he looked at her imploringly. He took from her hard look that whatever upset her he had something to do with it, and considering that she wanted to be his mother-in-law but treated him more like an actual mother, he took pleasure, from time to time, in purposefully agitating her more if the occasion arouse. Like a good son, he reasoned.

 

“My health is excellent, as it always is, as you well know. I did not summon you here to speak about my health.” She said sharply resuming her pacing.

 

“I did not doubt it. I am here at your request. I left Pemberly not a half hour after receiving your note. You…” but she cut him off as though he were not speaking.

 

“You were summoned here because now I feel that I have cause to warn you.” She stood behind the couch across from his. Her expression was serious.

 

Warn me? He wondered intrigued. “Lady Catherine, do sit down and tell me all about it.” He said rising from the couch and gesturing towards her tall chair with his hand. An attempt at the utmost gentleman, he realized and shook the thought, and shame that came with the thought, from his mind and waited to see what his aunt would do.

 

She hesitated a moment before she slowly made her way to her chair. She said, “I would not have bothered you with it but after considering my conversation with her at great length I feel you should be warned.”

 

He had no idea what she was talking about but he felt a strange nervous excitement start to tingle in the pit of his stomach. He waited patiently for her to continue and hoped she made the situation clear to him.

 

When she settled herself, grabbed hold of both arms of her chair, and sat as straight as the back of her chair, and when he sat again as well, she continued, “She is a sly creature, I will give her that. You would not think, upon meeting her and being in her company, that she was really a unfeeling, selfish girl.” After a moments consideration, she added, “I have never been spoken to in such a manner. To dare say I am pitiable.”

 

Darcy coughed to keep from laughing and sat back. He had a sneaking suspicion of whom she spoke of and the suspense was nerve racking, but still he waited.

 

“Four days ago it reached my ears that your friend Mr. Bingley is to be married to a girl with no family, fortune, or connections. There is no need to enlighten you with regards to my feelings on that subject. To be honest I can hardly recall my initial thoughts for no sooner then those words were spoken it was also told to me that you, my own nephew, were also soon to marry a girl of similar low connections. That they are sisters, no less.”

 

Darcy's surprise was beyond words and even expression. Who could have possible told Lady Catherine I was engaged to Elizabeth? Why would they say such a thing? More importantly, Lady Catherine spoke to Elizabeth regarding our supposed engagement? A rush of sheer anticipation coursed through his body.

 

“Dare I ask if it is Elizabeth Bennett that you speak of?” He asked with more calm than he felt.

 

“Indeed, it is. At the thought of such falsehood being repeated I made up my mind to speak with Miss Bennett myself. I spoke with her yesterday and I left very displeased.” She had a sour expression.

 

Why would she be displeased? Elizabeth made it very clear to me that there was nothing that could sway her to accept a marriage proposal from me. Did she not tell the same to Lady Catherine? He cleared his throat and asked softly. “What warning is it that you have to give?”

 

“That the young lady, whom I thought, after spending many weeks in her company, was a woman who knew her place in this world. A woman who knew her responsibility to those above her station, who knew, due to her low connections, that she did not have much to recommend her for a good match beyond her pretty face, has the gale to think she could aspire such attentions.”

 

Darcy slowly released the breath he hadn't been aware he was holding and fought to keep his temper from rising at the way she spoke about Elizabeth. Despite her harsh words Darcy felt a small spark of hope light deep in his heart. I want the whole story, he thought frantically. He swallowed nervously before saying, “Start from the beginning, Lady Catherine. You spoke with Miss Bennett at Longbourn?”

 

She sat back and considered his question. “It was not until a full day afterwards that I decided to speak with Miss Bennett. After my initial shock had worn off I decided that it simply could not be true and thought no more on the matter. It was until the next morning that I considered the slander you may endure if word of such an engagement became known. I set off to Longbourn to make my sentiments known.”

 

“Lady Catherine, I am surprised that you would travel fifty miles because of a rumor you believed to be untrue. If this rumor, indeed, does spread, would not your going to Longbourn be seen more of a confirmation of it?”

 

Lady Catherine rose quickly to her feet. “You are sounding very much like that obstinate girl, Darcy, it worries me to hear it.”

 

“I am sorry that you think I am being obstinate, I am only trying to understand the situation.” He struggled to suppress a smile at her distressed state. It appeared to him that Elizabeth raked her over the coals and if her attitude then was anything like it was now than she deserved it.

 

“She too said that my coming to Longbourn would be seen as a confirmation if such a rumor existed. I reminded her of my frankness and I accused her of being the one to start the rumor and dared her to deny it.”

 

Such manners will never get you what you want from Elizabeth. What would she have to gain by starting rumors? “Did she?” He asked with curiosity.

 

She huffed and turned her head away from him. “She declared that she did not share the same frankness that I did with her and that there were questions that I could ask, that she would choose not to answer.”

 

Darcy rubbed his hand over his mouth to keep his aunt from seeing him smile.

 

“When I told her that I would be satisfied and asked her if you had made an offer of marriage, she tossed back at me my declaration of it being an impossibility. `It ought to be so' I told her `but your arts and allurements may have made him forget what he owes to himself and to all his family. You may have drawn him in.'

 

`If I have, I shall be the last person to confess it.' She replied becoming very lofty. I then told her that I have not been accustomed such language and that I was almost the nearest relation you have in this world, and I am entitled to know all your dearest concerns.

 

`But you are not entitled to know mine; nor will such behavior as this, ever induce me to be explicit.' After her declaration of stubbornness I was completely agitated by the whole situation and made a declaration of my own, which was that you are engaged to my daughter and asked her what she had to say about it.

 

`Only this; if he is so, than you can have no reason to suppose he will make an offer to me'”

 

“Lady Catherine.” Darcy interrupted before she went on, he hated to do it because it was becoming very interesting, but he did not like the idea of her spreading rumors herself. “Let me be rightly understood. Ann and I shall never have an engagement to announce. We have spoken of this before and I will thank you not to say such things to others.”

 

“I told her that it was the wish of your mother as well as hers. That it had always been our plan.”

 

I'm sure you told her much more than that but it is of little matter. I have no interest in hearing what I already know too well. “And what did she say that that?”

 

“She said `If there is no other objection to my marrying your nephew, I shall certainly not be kept from it, by knowing that his mother and aunt wished him to marry Miss De Bourgh. You both did as much as you could, in planning the marriage. Its completion depended on others. If Mr. Darcy is neither by honor nor inclination confined to his cousin, why is he not able to make another choice? And if I am that choice, why may I not accept him?' I then informed her that honor, decorum, prudence, and interest forbid it. I told her that your friends and family would take no notice of her. That she would be censured, slighted, and despised, by everyone connected to you. That an alliance between you would be a disgrace, that her name would never be mentioned by any of them.”

 

Darcy was having trouble concentrating. Did Elizabeth actually tell Lady Catherine that her objections where not enough to keep her from marrying me? Is it possible that she has had a change of heart? Surely if she had no intentions of marrying me she would have told Lady Catherine so. With sorrow in his heart he considered the possibility that Lady Catherine may not have gotten to that part in her story yet. He looked up to see her pacing again. When she walked past him he asked, “What did she say to that?”

 

“These are heavy misfortunes indeed.” Lady Catherine said attempting to capture the moment when Elizabeth herself said it. “But the wife of Mr. Darcy must have such extraordinary sources of happiness necessarily attached to her situation, that she could, upon the whole, had no cause to repine.”

 

“When I told her that I was not in the habit of brooking disappointment, she told me that would make my situation at present more pitiable, but it would have no effect on her. I asked her if the ideal marriage of my daughter and nephew were to be divided by the upstart pretensions of a young woman with no family, connections, or fortunes. I told her if she were sensible of her own good, she would not wish to quit the sphere, in which she had been brought up. She declared herself your equal as you are a gentleman and she is a gentleman's daughter. I told her that I was not ignorant of the conditions of the rest of her family.

 

`Whatever my connections may be,' she told me `if your nephew does not object to them, they can be nothing to you.'

 

“It was at this point that I demanded to know once and for all if she was engaged to you.” She turned and looked at her Darcy, who was so surprised by what was hearing had hardly an expression on his face. “I could tell by looking at her that she was wanting to refuse to answer my question but I think she realized that there was no way around it. And finally, after a moments pause, she told me no. I will not deny that I was very pleased to hear it. My pleasure did not last long when I asked for a promise never to enter in to such an engagement, and she told me that she would make no promise of the kind.”

 

“She refused to refuse a proposal of marriage from me?” Darcy asked unable to help himself and unaware of the light in his eyes.

 

“I told her that I would not go away until she gave me the assurances I wanted. `And I certainly never shall gave it.' She told me `I am not to be intimidated into anything so wholly unreasonable. Your ladyship wants Mr. Darcy to marry your daughter; but would my giving you the wished-for promise, make their marriage at all more probable? Supposing him to be attached to me, would my refusing to accept his hand, make him wish to bestow it on his cousin? Allow me to say, Lady Catherine, that the arguments with which you have supported this extraordinary application, have been as frivolous as the application is ill judged. You have widely mistaken my character, if you think I can be worked on by such persuasions as these. How your nephew might approve of your interference in his affairs, I cannot tell; but you have certainly no right to concern yourself in mine. I must beg to be importuned no farther on the subject.'

 

“I told her that I had another reason to object such a union and it was the patched-up marriage of her youngest sister, at the expense of her aunt and uncle. Was she to pollute the shades of Pemberly? She had no regard for your honor and credit. As I said she is an unfeeling, selfish girl. She cared not that a connection between the two of you would make you a disgrace in the eyes of everybody.”

 

“I think that you are blowing everything out of proportion. If the wife I decide to take has low connections she will not be scorned for it by any that I am connected with.

I know Miss Bennett well enough to know that all are drawn to her easy manner. No one would think her anything but charming.” Darcy said but realized his aunt was not listening.

 

“When I told her she refused to obey the claims of duty, honor, and gratitude, and that she was determined to ruin you in the opinion of all your friends, and make you the contempt of the world, she said;

 

`Neither duty, nor honor, nor gratitude have any possible claim on me, in the present instance. No principle either, would be violated in my marriage with Mr. Darcy. And with regard to the resentment of his family, or the indignation of the world, if the former were excited by his marrying me, it would not give me one moments concern—and the world in general would have too much sense to join in the scorn.'

 

“It was after this that I understood her sentiments on the matter and I made my departure to return to Rosings. When I returned home I sent a dispatch to you at once requesting your presence.” When she finished speaking she returned to sit in her tall chair and stare at Darcy.

 

Darcy felt light as air. Could it be that she hasn't absolutely decided against me? That there is a chance that the past could be forgotten and she sees me know in a kinder light? She could have told lady Catherine that I had proposed and she refused but she didn't, why? Could it be as simple as not wanting to give his aunt the satisfaction she was looking for and was demanding in what sounded like a very nasty way? That sounds like Elizabeth, but to refuse to promise never to enter into an engagement with me? What did it mean? I must find out. If there is this last chance that I may have won her over than I must take it.

 

“It is a shame that you did not come to me with regards to the rumor that you heard, I could have saved you embarrassment.” Darcy felt only the slightest bit of guilt at his words. He was never more grateful for her uncalled upon interference and just this once it may have actually done some good, not in the manner she wants but good none the less.

 

“Did you propose an offer of marriage to her?” She asked sitting forward on her chair looking at him directly.

 

He considered the question for a moment. He felt, what Elizabeth must have felt, that he did not want to give his aunt the satisfaction of knowing something that was really none of her business. But at the same time he was ready to let his sentiments be known.

 

“I made an offer of marriage while Miss Bennett was here visiting last spring.” He said coolly and wanted to laugh at the near faint expression that suddenly overcame her.

 

“I would never have thought you would consider marrying such a girl. So she lied when she said that she was not engaged to you?” She demanded her face going from pale to red.

 

“No, she did not lie. She refused.” He said not looking at her in the eye.

 

“Did she?” She said happily then demanded angrily, “If she had no intentions of marrying you then why did she not simply say so?”

 

“It sounds to me that you were very nasty to her regarding this, so I do not think she would give you the satisfaction you so desperately wanted. And I personally would like to think that her comments on the matter show a change in heart concerning me.” He was smiling softly when he looked up at his aunt.

 

“You could not possible be thinking of actually marrying that girl?”

 

“I should think we would be nearly married had she accepted me then.”

 

“So she has drawn you in!” She rose to her feet.

 

“She has done nothing in attempts to draw me in, I assure you.”

 

“You can not be serious. I know that you have no wish to marry my daughter but I always thought you would choose a wife more acceptable.”

 

“A wife with money?” Darcy asked an eyebrow arched.

 

“A wife with family, fortune, and connections, of course. A woman who has a standing in society, who is fit to be mistress of Pemberly.”

 

“I would never choose a wife whom I felt would not be fit to be mistress at Pemberly. I happen to think that Elizabeth Bennett would make Pemberly her home and would be admired by all who meet her. The only opinion on this matter that truly counts is my sister's, and I happen to know that she thinks very highly of her and would accept her warmly into the family.”

 

“You have spoken of this with your sister?” She asked appalled.

 

“No.” He answered with calm, trying not to let his aunt upset him more than necessary.

 

“You are in love with Miss Bennett then? Is that what I am to understand? You must be, what other reason would there be for you to ask a girl in her situation to marry you.” She shook her head at the thought.

 

“I do love her.” He declared rising to his feet. “But I have let my pride and conceit get in my way and I lost her. I will have you know that it was due the thought of my friends and family looking down on me for making such a choice that kept me from ever setting any serious designs on her. I have not always treated her with the respect and kindness she deserved and she held it against me. She never sought to gain my attentions or my affections but I offered them to her willingly but my past treatment of her, due to my attempts of keeping with my station, she refused me. And now, sitting here, listening to you say the same things that I have told myself over and over again they suddenly sound so foolish.”

 

“What is it you are saying?” She asked extremely upset. “Everything that I have said is true and should be listened to.”

 

“Give up my happiness because of the people who would not agree with it? People that I only see three times a year? To let my friends scorn me for making a match they disapprove of? It is foolish. I shall simply have to find better friends.”

 

“You are talking nothing but nonsense. You cannot possibly think to propose marriage to Miss Bennett again? After she refused you once already?” She asked desperately.

 

“She was decided against me when I proposed and if she felt the same I do believe that she would have acknowledge it openly to you. Despite your bad manners.”

 

“My bad manners? What of hers?”

 

“She only treated you how she was being treated. She usually is kinder about it than she might ought to be but she will not stand to be talked to in the manner in which you did. It matters not who you are. And if she will marry me there will be nothing keeping me from making it happen.”

 

Lady Catherine put a hand to her forehead and closed her eyes. “It should be impossible for such a disgraceful union to take place.”

 

“There is no disgrace in my marrying Elizabeth, if she accepts me, and I shall hear no more on the matter. I believe that this conversation is over and so I shall take my leave of you.”

 

“We are not finished.” She declared.

 

“We are finished. I shall be in touch.” He bowed and left the room. As soon as he was out of her sight he felt himself begin to tremble. Does Elizabeth usually feel this rush of energy and excitement after standing up for herself to Lady Catherine? He wondered as he struggled to keep himself from skipping out the house and to his awaiting carriage.

 

“Have a good evening, sir.” The butler said handing him his coat and holding the door open.

 

“I shall.” He replied happily. There was a bounce in his step that wasn't there when he arrived as he went down the front steps. “Take me to Netherfield.” He said and climbed in.

 

He sat back in the carriage making himself comfortable for his journey. The idea of sitting still for fifty miles made his feet twitch and his hand itch to be doing something. Instead, he sat and looked out the small window without really seeing anything. He replayed his conversation with his aunt over in his head. Deciding that he finally knew her character well enough, he felt that there might be the smallest bit of hope that he had a chance. After all, she would have said as much, at the very least, to lady Catherine, despite her rude behavior. He reasoned.

 

“There is only one way that I shall find out.” He said out loud. “I shall go and see her and I shall decide then if I am to make another attempt or be silenced on the subject forever.” He rubbed his hands over his face and again looked out the window, and eventually, the sounds of the horse and carriage carrying him to see what his future will be, put him to sleep.