Page 70 of A Quiet Affection

Mr. Gardiner laughed. “Merely an example. I do wish that you’d delay until she was eighteen.”

In his relief at this suggestion seeming far more reasonable than the age of twenty-five, and because he agreed with the principle underlying Mr. Gardiner’s suggestion, Darcy agreed to this plan.

Darcy would never know that Mr. Gardiner, a man most familiar with the way to gain the best price in commercial negotiations, had thought to bring forward the example of his own marriage in such a way, precisely for the sake of making Mr. Darcy feel more amenable to the date which Mr. Gardiner preferred.

Mr. Gardiner poured glasses of port for himself and his guest, and they clinked and drank in celebration.

As soon however as Darcy saw Elizabeth sitting and smiling in the drawing room, with her three-year-old cousin on her lap, pretending to read to Elizabeth from a book, the duration of almost three years seemed unendurably long.

When the plan of waiting until after her eighteenth birthday was suggested to Elizabeth, she was not at all pleased with the idea of such a long delay.

Miss Bennet stated that in her view a marriage after a year’s engagement, when she would be the age that her mother had been whenshemarried would be more than sufficient.

The fortune and situation of the couple made any delay at all wholly unnecessary.

Unfortunately for Elizabeth’s preferences, Darcy’s sense of duty and rightness required that he defer in this matter to Mr. Gardiner, rather than his own preferences—which Elizabeth could have easily bent and sighed and smiled into whichever shape she so wished.

Her uncle proved to also be alittlebendable, and eventually the date of their marriage was moved to be substantially earlier than he had imagined, though it was still in Elizabeth’s view a far longer engagement than necessary.

Chapter Twenty-One

Now that Darcy was in London, sleeping only a few too many miles from Elizabeth (instead of many too many miles), and provided with formal permission from her new guardian to marry Elizabeth, he at last informed his mother’s high relations of the intended union.

Had Darcy purely consulted his own inclinations, he would have further delayed informing his aunt, Lady Catherine, for a great deal longer. However, it was a matter of family duty to not leave them in ignorance of such a significant matter. Besides, the engagement was well known amongst his servants and news of it would certainly spread in short time.

As much as Darcy disliked the notion of hearing Lady Catherine rant about how he ought to marry Anne instead, and thus unite two of the greatest fortunes in England, it would be unkind to leave her to learn of the engagement from hearsay.

As both his uncle and aunt would be in town for the season, Darcy did not inform them by letter, and instead called them to Darcy House, writing in the letter that he intended to make a significant announcement.

Having some anxiety about how this interview would progress, Darcy sent Georgiana for the morning to stay with Elizabeth, while he remained at his house to receive his nearest relations.

Lady Catherine arrived with her daughter, fully decked out and on display, as though she thought that the announcement was that Darcy meant to offer for Anne now that his father was dead.

Darcy briefly declared that he meant to marry Miss Elizabeth Bennet.

This young gentleman had the grim satisfaction of having correctly predicted an unpleasant event.

Lady Catherine screeched. “You cannot! You must marry my daughter. She expects it!”

Anne frowned and sat down heavily, wrapping her hands together.

“If my cousin Anne expected me to make an offer for her, I am very sorry for that. I am aware of nothing in my actions that could ever have been construed as giving her expectations, but if she developed them nonetheless, it is most unfortunate that I cannot fulfill them.”

“Your mother promised!”

“I hardly know what my mother had promised you—I know that she told me that she would have liked it very much if we made a match, but she has been dead these many years. A discussion between two sisters does not tie my honor.”

“And what wiles has this girl used to draw you into her snares?” Lady Catherine asked. “What has she done to make you forget everything that you owe your family, your friends, and yourself? Are the shades of Pemberley to be polluted by having a mistress who at present—I know her situation—lives in the house of a man in trade? A man who can see his warehouses from his own house?”

“Ah, no.” Darcy’s annoyance with his aunt led him to speak in a manner that was perhaps unwise. “You have been misinformed. You must go to the nearest street corner before you can see Mr. Gardiner’s warehouses.”

Matlock snorted.

“I told your father he should send those girls to school. Though I’d expected the danger to come from the one who was toopretty. But I should have known. I could tell that the blind one was a clever, scheming, sly creature. And I must assume that the first child shall arrive in short order, with barely time for the banns to be read, and—”

“I will permit no aspersions on my character, or upon that of the woman who is to be my wife,” Darcy replied stiffly. “If you do not apologize and acknowledge the wrongness of suggesting that, I shall have you thrown from the house.”

“Well then, how did the penniless schemer entrap you?”