Georgiana loved all the hustle and bustle of London. She had been sitting on the window seat in her bedroom watching nannies pushing prams and servants walking their masters’ dogs in the park when she saw Lady Catherine’s carriage stop in front of the townhouse. Georgiana, who enjoyed gothic mysteries because they got her heart racing, found that there was nothing in her novels quite as frightening as Lady Catherine de Bourgh.
“Fitzwilliam Darcy! I demand you come here immediately,” Aunt Catherine shouted from the foyer below.
Georgiana was unsure if her brother was even in the house. She had only just returned from a final fitting for her dress for the Warrens’ ball where she would make her debut in one week’s time. Will might possibly be at his solicitor’s office in connection with the papers to be signed by Lydia Bennet and Wickham or in a business meeting with George Bingley. Unfortunately, she must assume he was not in the house, and with great reluctance, she went downstairs to meet her aunt.
“Where is your brother, Georgiana? I shall speak with him this very moment.”
“Aunt Catherine, I don’t know where…”
“Georgiana, it’s all right,” Will said, appearing miraculously from behind her. “You may return to your room. It seems as if our aunt has business with me.” Georgiana hurried up the stairs, but as soon as Will and her aunt had gone into the sitting room, she put her ear to the door.
“I have just come from Hertfordshire and a most unpleasant interview with Miss Elizabeth Bennet with regard to a malicious rumor being circulated by either herself or her allies that you intend to make her an offer of marriage. When I insisted the report of your engagement be universally contradicted, she refused to do so,” she said, shaking her cane at the window and the faraway Elizabeth Bennet, who was out there somewhere defying her. “When I asked for a promise that she would never enter into such an engagement, she said, ‘I will make no promise of the kind.’ She is an unfeeling and selfish girl, unworthy of my attention, and no one in my family will have any further association with her.”
Darcy maintained the stoic exterior he adopted whenever he was around his aunt, but inside he was smiling. He could easily imagine Elizabeth standing opposite the august personage of Lady Catherine de Bourgh and stubbornly refusing to give ground.
“Aunt Catherine, Miss Elizabeth could not refute the rumors that I intend to make her an offer of marriage because they are true. As soon as Georgiana makes her debut, I shall be on the road to Longbourn Manor for just such a purpose.”
“I forbid it! Your alliance will be a disgrace. If you persist, I shall not receive you. Your name will never be mentioned by me again.”
“That would be unfortunate, Aunt Catherine, but it will not deter me. I am in love with Elizabeth Bennet, and if she will have me, I intend to make her my wife.”
“If she will have you! If that woman truly has any regard for you, she will refuse any such offer as you will be censured, slighted, and despised by all your acquaintances.”
“I appreciate your concern, but you need not worry about matters that fall exclusively to me.”
“Will you deny your mother her most cherished wish that you marry your cousin and my daughter?”
“My mother and father were deeply in love, and Mama wished the same for me. I love Anne as dearly as I do Georgiana, but as a sister, and her love for me is as a brother. Despite your hopes, it has never been otherwise. There is nothing you can say that will change my mind as to my choice of wife. I do not wish to be estranged from you, as you are dear to me and my mother was devoted to you. However, that is your choice. If you do not wish to see me again, I shall accept your decision. Likewise, you must accept mine.”
Georgiana continued to listen to what had become a one-sided argument with her aunt’s shrill voice reaching new heights. Confident that her brother could not be dissuaded from making an offer to Elizabeth Bennet, she returned to her room, but she knew when her aunt was leaving because she could hear the impact of her cane hitting each step. As soon as she saw her carriage pull away, she ran downstairs to her brother.
“Will, Aunt Catherine is very angry.”
“That is an understatement,” he said, laughing. “She objects to my having fallen in love with a woman who has no rank or position in society. Frankly, I am beginning to see that as an asset.”
“Anne must have told her. How else would she know?”
“Oh, beyond a doubt, Anne is behind this. She knew exactly what her mother would do upon receiving such information.”
“Will, since Miss Elizabeth has endured a good deal of abuse on your account, it seems only fair that you should go to Hertfordshire to apologize for the behavior of our aunt.”
“You are right, Georgiana. It is my responsibility to go to Longbourn to make sure Elizabeth has suffered no permanent damage from Aunt Catherine’s attack.”
Georgiana ran to her brother and hugged and kissed him. “But, Will, you must go as soon as possible. I do not want you to wait for my debut. It is still six days off, and that is sufficient time for you to go to Longbourn to make Elizabeth an offer and to return in time to escort me to the Warrens’ ball. Will you do this for me?”
Smiling and nodding, Darcy shouted for his valet. “Mercer! Mercer! Where are you?”
“Sir, I am here,” Mercer answered from his perch.
“Tomorrow I am to go to Hertfordshire on important business, possibly the most important of my life. Please prepare for our departure.”
“Trousers or breeches, sir?”
“Trousers.”