‘He told me so.’
‘When did he do that?’
‘At Rosings, when we were all there together last Easter. I suspect it was to put me on my guard, and warn me that I must not expect an offer from him.’
‘What arrogant men we are! Both of us thinking you wanted an offer from us!’
‘Perhaps I did want one from the Colonel,’ she teased me.
‘My love, I warn you that I am a jealous husband. I will ban my cousin from Pemberley unless you tell me this minute that you did not want an offer from him,’ I returned.
‘Very well, I did not. But Anne, I think, does.’
‘It might not be a bad thing,’ I said. ‘In fact, the more I think of it, the more I am pleased with it.’
‘Lady Catherine, too, will be pleased.’
‘So you are encouraging it to please Lady Catherine?’
I asked her innocently.
‘Mr Darcy, you are becoming as impertinent as your wife!’ she teased me.
‘But I am not so sure Lady Catherine will approve,’ I said thoughtfully.
‘She cannot complain about his birth.’
‘Perhaps not, but he is a younger son, and impoverished,’ I reminded her.
‘But Anne’s fortune is big enough for two.’
‘My cousin has no house.’
‘He will live at Rosings,’ she said.
‘Sending Lady Catherine to the dower house.’
‘Whereas, if you had married Anne, she would have been the mistress of Pemberley, and Lady Catherine would have continued to be the mistress of Rosings.’
We both of us imagined how Lady Catherine would react when she learnt that she would have to move to the dower house.
‘Do you think Anne will find the courage to stand up to her mother?’ I asked.
‘It will be interesting to see.’
Little did I think, when I celebrated Christmas with Georgiana in London last year, that the next time I celebrated it I would be married. Pemberley is looking very festive. Greenery is twined round the banisters, whilst holly, thick with red berries, adorns the pictures and mistletoe hangs from the chandeliers.
We awoke to a smell of baking, and after breakfast we attended church. The weather was so fine that Elizabeth, Jane, Bingley and I decided to walk to the church whilst the rest of our guests were conveyed there by carriage.
‘This reminds me of the walks we took when Jane and I were newly engaged,’ said Bingley, as we crunched the frost beneath our feet, ‘although then it was not so cold.’
‘You and Jane were in the happy position of being acknowledged lovers. You could spend your time talking to each other and ignoring everyone else, whilst Elizabeth and I could not even sit together.’
‘But you managed to become lost in the country lanes whenever we were out of doors,’ said Bingley with a smile.
‘The lanes were very useful,’ said Elizabeth.
‘And our mother helped you a great deal, by insisting you occupied that man,’ said Jane.
‘I have never been so mortified in my life,’ said Elizabeth, but she was laughing as she said it.
We came to the church and went in. Our guests were already assembled, and no sooner did we enter than the service began. It was lively and interesting, full of the good cheer of the occasion. Lady Catherine complained about the hymns, the sermon, the candles and the prayer books, but I am persuaded that everyone else was uplifted by the service.
We had a splendid dinner, and afterwards we played at charades. Caroline chose Colonel Fitzwilliam as her partner, but Elizabeth thwarted her efforts to claim his attention later in the evening by inviting him to open the dancing with Anne. They made a lively couple, and disproved Lady Catherine’s dire warnings that Anne would suffer a coughing fit.
Kitty danced with Mr Hurst, and even Mary was persuaded to take to the floor, though she protested that dancing was not a rational activity and declared that she would much rather read a book.
When all our guests had retired, we went upstairs.
‘Tired?’ I asked.
For answer, she lifted her hand above her head, and I saw she was holding a sprig of mistletoe.
Our party broke up this morning. Lady Catherine and Anne were the first to leave, accompanied by Colonel Fitzwilliam. Elizabeth had hoped to hear of an engagement, but although Fitzwilliam and Anne have spent a great deal of time in each other’s company, nothing has been said.
The Bennets went next. Last to leave were Jane and Bingley.
‘You must come and visit us at Netherfield,’ said Jane.
‘And bring Georgiana,’ said Bingley.
We have promised to go and see them before too long.
At last we had the house to ourselves.
‘It is very pleasant to have guests,’ I said, as the last carriage departed. ‘But it is even better to see them go.’
We returned to the drawing-room. Georgiana and Elizabeth were soon reliving the visit, discussing the people we had seen. Georgiana ventured a humorous remark about Lady Catherine and then looked at me to see if I had been offended. On seeing my face, her own relaxed.
She has lost much of her shyness, and is on the way to becoming an open and confident young woman. For this, as for so many things, I have to thank Elizabeth.
March
Mr and Mrs Collins arrived this morning, and are to stay for a week. They thought it best to leave Kent as Lady Catherine is in a rage. She has just learnt that Anne is to marry Colonel Fitzwilliam.
‘Her ladyship was not unhappy with the idea at first, although she graciously confided in me that she would rather have had a man of fortune as a son-in-law. But the estimable Colonel has an old and revered name, and she magnanimously thought it fitting that he should ally himself with her own, most esteemed, branch of the family. She was condescending enough to give her consent, and to say that Anne would make the most elegant bride of the year. I was able to please her ladyship by saying that Miss de Bourgh would grace any church in which she should choose to wed.’
‘But her ladyship changed her mind when Anne made it clear she intended to live at Rosings, and that she intended her mother to move to the dower house,’ put in Charlotte.
‘Lady Catherine most amiably declared it to be impossible. She honoured me with the most obliging confidence, saying that she would not move out of her home to suit the convenience of a thoughtless chit, and she went on to graciously inform me that Anne was a headstrong girl who had no proper gratitude.’
‘Anne pointed out that, if she were a man, her mother would have had to leave the house on her marriage, to which her ladyship replied that Anne was not a man, and that therefore she would remain. I expected Anne to give way,’ said Charlotte, ‘but she did nothing of the kind.
Love has made her strong.’
‘The atmosphere has unfortunately not been of the most harmonious. Of all things, I dislike an air of dissension. It offends a man of my calling in a way I can scarcely describe. I tried to offer an olive branch, saying that the dower house was a very fine building, with elegant apartments and sumptuous gardens, but Lady Catherine turned on me such a look of disapprobation that my courage faltered, and I was compelled to add:
“But not as fine as Rosings. ” I think that pleased her ladyship.’
‘But not her daughter,’ I said.
Mr Collins’s face fell.
‘No. I fear it is impossible to remain on good terms with both of them, and so we felt it better to come away.’
‘And there was another reason for our visit. I wanted you to see Elinor,’ said Charlotte.
The nurse brought Elinor forward. I have never seen any attraction in babies, but Elizabeth was delighted with the little girl, and took her from the nurse. As she cradled the infant in her arms, she looked at me in a way that made my heart stand still, and suddenly babies became the most interesting thing in the world to me.