Page 47 of Collins Takes Charge

As soon as she began to move, Darcy knew what the shrew was about. He simply sidestepped her and watched as she fell forward onto the rug-covered floor. Her body hit before her head connected; luckily for her the rug was thick.

“Charles, Mr Darcy has compromised me; he must marry me!” Miss Bingley screeched once she had sat up. The fact she was sitting on the rug was beside the point.

“Firstly, Miss Bingley, I never caught you. You are not compromised, and even had I decided to save you from your own folly before you fell, as I have told your brother repeatedly, I will never offer for you. If you think I will give in to an attempt to entrap me, then you are more delusional than I thought,” Darcy barked. “We came in here to tell you that your plans to compromise me would only result in your ruin. You will never be Mrs Darcy of Pemberley and Darcy House.”

“Then, I will ruin your name in London when I make it known you are no gentleman and refuse to do your duty after you compromised a lady,” Miss Bingley shrieked as her sister assisted her to stand.

“She is amusing, you know,” Fitzwilliam stated with a smirk. He turned to the shrew. “Does this daughter of a tradesman think she has any power in London if she attempts to go against the Darcy and Fitzwilliam families? Miss Bingley, if you run about Town screeching about a compromise, you will only ruin yourself more than my mother and her friends will. You really do not think things through, do you?”

“My cousin’s mother, the Countess of Matlock, already has a very low opinion of you as a social climbing fortune hunter, and your habit of imposing your company on my tender-hearted sister has only lowered you further in her eyes. She will take pleasure in making it known you are persona non grata,” Darcy revealed.

Doing her best to ignore that which she did not want to hear, Miss Bingley grasped onto the mention of Miss Darcy. “But dear Georgiana and I are the closest of friends…” Miss Bingley attempted to claim.

“Neither I nor Colonel Fitzwilliam, as her guardians, nor my sister herself, have ever granted you leave to address her informally. That you, a woman almost ten years her senior, would arrive uninvited and unwanted at Darcy House to call on my sister, who is not yet out, only emphasises your lack of understanding of the mores of the upper ten thousand,” Darcy stated unequivocally. “You constantly break two basic rules of society. Firstly, one does not call at the house of one above you in society unless you have been invited. Secondly, unless there is an invitation issued, you do not call on one who is not yet out.”

“You must marry me; I told all my friends I would be engaged to you before I return to London…” Miss Bingley demanded.

“Then, Caroline, in a roundabout way, you have told them the truth.” Bingley held up his hand when he noted his sister was about to rejoice. “What I mean to say is that you will soon be on your way to Uncle John and Aunt Hildebrand. What you told your ‘so-called’ friends is immaterial, as you will not be returning to London. From this moment on, I will no longer cover any of your overages. You will live within your means or face debt collectors. My man of business is in the process of closing all the accounts you have, and he is telling the proprietors that if they sell to you without you paying with coin, I will not pay any further invoices sent to me. I suppose it is immaterial now, as you will not be returning to London.”

“You may not banish me to Scarborough!” Miss Bingley screamed.

“If you refuse to go, your dowry will be released to you, and you may go where you chuse,” Bingley said. “That will be a bad choice given that you will be irrevocably ruined in Town. In the case that you were wondering, had you done as you were planning with Louisa and compromised Darcy this night, he would have refused to give into it, and I would have completely supported Darcy’s refusal.”

“Louisa, you would not allow Charles to be so treacherous as to betray his own sister, would you?” Miss Bingley pleaded.

“Charles is right in this. Caroline, did I not attempt to warn you that this path you were on would lead to your own ruin? I agree with Colonel Fitzwilliam; it is laughable for you to think that anyone in Town would give credence to your word over that of the Fitzwilliams’ and Mr Darcy’s,” Mrs Hurst responded. “I am always so worried about you unleashing that foul temper of yours that I did not tell you that had you done what you were planning to do, it would not have gone well for you.”

“How could you go and tittle-tattle on me?” Miss Bingley screeched at her sister.

“Caroline, I did not think you so much of a simpleton as that,” Hurst stated derisively. “Louisa has been in this room with you since you began speaking of your vile plans. So pray tell, how could she be in two places at once? I have news for you; I am never foxed and only feign sleep to have some peace from you. I heard what you said, and I was the one to inform your brother and his friends.”

Now that she had someone to blame, Miss Bingley raised her hands, her nails extended and charged at her brother-in-law. Hurst stepped back, and, in her rage, she did not stop before she slammed into the wall. Nails broke against the hard barrier, and before she stopped, her face connected with it as well. Luckily for the crazed woman, by the time her face connected with the wall, she had slowed down considerably. She wailed from the pain of her nails snapping, and the shock of her face hitting as well.

Bingley rang for the housekeeper. “Mrs Nichols, my younger sister is not well. Please have two footmen confine her to her suite. Miss Bingley is not to exit her chambers until or unless I say so,” he commanded as soon as the housekeeper arrived.

The housekeeper bobbed a curtsy, left the room, and summoned two of her husband’s footmen. Soon enough the stupefied woman was led from the room.

“I think that Caroline needs to be under the care of a physician,” Mrs Hurst opined. “If I did not know better, I would say that she has had a break with reality. I blame myself for always indulging her fantasies.”

“As do I,” Bingley owned. “However, I cannot imagine Caroline in Bedlam. Surely, we need not consign her to that horrendous place.”

“Bingley, there are private, humane asylums in the realm. I recently heard of one that a well-to-do family had made some enquiries about and discovered some other options where their family member would be housed in comfort and compassion.” Fitzwilliam looked at Bingley. “I can make some enquiries to acquire the information for you.”

“Thank you, Fitzwilliam. That would be greatly appreciated,” Bingley responded. “As soon as you have the information for me, I will decide what to do. Whatever it is, my sister’s days in society are over.”

“If I may use your study, I will write an epistle and ask for that information,” Fitzwilliam responded.

“Please, go ahead,” Bingley allowed.

“Richard, why are you being so circumspect about who was to go to an asylum and who you are to ask?” Darcy queried once the study door was closed.

“It is Father I need to ask. It was a place he would have sent Aunt Cat had she been judged insane and not just criminally avaricious,” Fitzwilliam replied as he wrote. “I am sure you can see why I was careful in what I said.”

Darcy nodded and raised his hands in surrender. He agreed wholeheartedly that there was no reason to chance a scandal for their family.

When Fitzwilliam completed the missive and had sealed it and written the direction, he requested that William send it with his courier to place in the earl’s hand. That way they would not chance it falling into the wrong hands.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~