Miss Lucas Read online

  Elizabeth stopped and hauled Charlotte around to look her in the eye as she all but hissed. “You cannot? Think of the way Lady Catherine spoke to you, Charlotte!”

  “I know—”

  “Think of how Mr. Collins just sat there and let her! You cannot stay with these people! You came here in good faith that Mr. Collins would keep the promises he made to you and he has failed utterly. You cannot honestly be thinking of trying to convince Mr. Collins to marry you after seeing what sort of pathetic creature he really is!”

  “I know!” Charlotte shouted. Lizzy jumped at the sound and Charlotte closed her eyes and swallowed back her asperity. When she spoke again it was with all the calm she used for explaining things to her siblings that they did not want to hear. “I know. I know that, for reasons that pass all understanding, Lady Catherine has decided she does not like me. I know that Mr. Collins will pretend all of his implications never happened without Lady Catherine’s approval. I know that.

  “Even more,” Charlotte continued before Elizabeth could demand to know why they weren’t leaving that very moment, “I know that when I leave here I will never have another implication, or another patroness to dislike me. I have no choice but to remain here and discover what made Lady Catherine disapprove of me and try to change it so that Mr. Collins can make me the offer he brought me here to make. I cannot leave because when this is done, I am done. I have no choice but to stay and try until such time as I know it is impossible.”

  With a quick brush of her thumb, Charlotte wiped away the tear that had escaped Elizabeth’s eye. She tucked Elizabeth back against her side and started towards the house at a quick clip so they might catch up to Mary and the housekeeper before they were left roaming around Rosings Park in the dark. Elizabeth clung tight to Charlotte and said not another word.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  When the next morning arrived, Charlotte almost began to doubt her own mental acuity. While Lady Catherine’s disdain ought to have been expected considering that was likely the Lady’s approach to everyone, Mr. Collins’ apathy was a surprise. Charlotte had not read the various letters of invitation herself, she would have thought that Mr. Collins had not actually invited them and this was some grand scheme of Mrs. Bennet’s to impose their presence on the man.

  Each morning Mr. Collins arrived bright and early, paying the ladies only the most perfunctory of hellos before moving on to Lady Catherine in another part of the house. Charlotte quickly learned that for all Mr. Collins did not seem like a great walker, somehow he was aware of the minutest concerns of every inhabitant of his congregation. All of these he then carried back to Lady Catherine with greater regularity than the post. Nearly every day Lady Catherine took it upon herself to descend from Rosings and go out among the cottagers, settling their differences, silencing their complaints, and scolding them to harmony and plenty. In a pattern neither Charlotte nor Elizabeth could discern, Mr. Collins either went with Lady Catherine on her rounds or returned to his parsonage after delivering his news. However, never in this routine did he remain more than a few minutes with the young ladies that he had cajoled into visiting.

  Were it not for the looming pressure of an unasked proposal, Charlotte would have considered their time at Rosings a wonderful respite. She and Elizabeth spent their time together sharing all the conversation they had missed in their months of disconnect. Mary was always occupied with the instrument in Mrs. Jenkinson’s rooms, and if Lady Catherine was not willing to declare it an inconvenience, neither girl was willing to rouse Mary from the pleasure of such uninterrupted practice with the extensive sheets of music that Lady Catherine had purchased for not purpose other than to sit on her pianoforte for appearance’s sake. As this marked the first time in memory that neither Charlotte nor Elizabeth were occupied by family concerns, their time together had never been so blissfully uninterrupted.

  They discussed the nonsense Lady Catherine would blather, and together they wondered how it was that Lady Catherine had reached the point where she considered it enjoyable to spend the entirety of her days lecturing. Not once did Elizabeth comment on Mr. Collins’ indifference towards Charlotte’s presence, and never again did she suggest it might be time to claim that Mr. Bennet had need of them so they could leave without insult. Instead, they walked together, arm in arm through the sprawling grounds and discussed all they had missed.

  They visited the Parsonage only once during their first fortnight in Kent, and the invitation came only after Lady Catherine expressed a desire that they might go and see all the improvements she herself had insisted upon Mr. Collins making so that, “some young lady of the neighborhood might find it a hospitable home.” The silence after was so awkward that even Mr. Collins, for all his loyalty, suggested they should leave presently to examine the changes.

  Elizabeth, as she had done so often over the last weeks, took Charlotte by the arm and led her out the door. She remained at Charlotte’s side throughout the tour of the pleasant little house that it seemed Charlotte would never be mistress of. Hunsford Parsonage was charmingly sized and situated so near the park of Rosings that Charlotte would never feel hemmed in. She was quick to note the ways in which the kitchen might be made more efficient—Lady Catherine’s advice for a family on a limited income could nneverot be as useful as Charlotte’s practical experience in the matter—but stopped herself before she could grow too fond of the little place.

  It was obvious within moments of the Parsonage coming into view that Mr. Collins’ purpose in inviting them was to make it quite clear to Elizabeth what she had denied herself when she refused him.

  Under other circumstances, Charlotte might have felt compassion on the poor man. For all that Mr. Collins was skilled at lauding something’s praises, he had no gift for persuasion. Every word from his mouth was meant to incite Lizzy to jealousy, but only made her more certain of her refusal. And so, under these circumstances, Charlotte had no sympathy for his plight. It was one thing to endure Lady Catherine’s unexpected disapproval. It was quite something else to suffer Mr. Collins so pathetically focused on regaining Elizabeth’s attention.

  Charlotte had assumed she would be welcomed into Rosings Park with open arms for being willing to have the parson. Instead, the man flitted about like a butterfly, abandoning Charlotte to speak with Elizabeth as though he only had to find the right bit of information that might spark some disappointment in her. It spoke of Elizabeth’s devotion to the promise she had made Charlotte that she endured his fussing with such grace.

  In this stinging way, they passed their first fortnight. Although the hours Charlotte and Elizabeth spent together were unsurprisingly pleasant, after two weeks even Charlotte was almost prepared to return home forever. However, Easter was approaching and with it came news that the week before was to bring an addition to the family at Rosings. Mr. Darcy was expected to arrive with his cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam, and the girls were brought back into Lady Catherine’s so they might subjected to a thorough recitation of the Fitzwilliam family tree—the old Earl of ---- having been both Lady Catherine and Lady Anne Darcy’s elder brother.

  Lady Catherine spoke of their arrival with the puffed-up pride of a relative who had had nothing to with the quality of her relations but liked the assumption that she had. It was obvious from her admiration that Mr. Darcy was her favorite and she seemed almost angry to find that all of the young ladies had met him already. Based on her description, Lady Catherine considered the elder Fitzwilliam brother to be superior to the younger, but the Colonel was a perfectly serviceable nephew and help to his cousin, sufficient to handle extraneous matters so the others could conduct their affairs in a way Lady Catherine considered proper.

  Having been ‘perfectly serviceable’ to many people in her life, Charlotte was inclined to think well of Colonel Fitzwilliam. (After all, she could imagine the burden it would be to be the serviceable support to Mr. Darcy’s rough edges, and what the man’s own elder brother might be like if Lady Catherine and Mr. Darcy were any
indications.)

  Charlotte considered it a mark of Elizabeth’s fondness for her that she did not immediately request that they depart before the men were scheduled to arrive. Instead, Elizabeth kept her expression entrenched in a polite blandness every time Mr. Darcy’s name or impending presence were mentioned. It seemed that every jot of praise from Lady Catherine furthered Elizabeth’s poor opinion of the man, as though his aunt’s fondness was proof positive in support of her dislike. Charlotte thought it was a bit much to fault Mr. Darcy for being kind to his own relatives, but considering Elizabeth’s considerate silence on their situation, Charlotte held her own tongue in solidarity.

  Charlotte had hopes that the imminent arrival of superior company might draw Mr. Collins’ attentions back to her, but the man seemed more thrilled by the thought of Mr. Darcy than he was by the presence of his own relatives. That night, Charlotte politely informed both Mr. Collins and Lady Catherine that they intended to leave before Lady Catherine’s nephews made their appearance. “We have all agreed that after the kindness Lady Catherine has shown by allowing us to be guests in her home, it would be impolite for us to impinge upon the time she has to spend with her own family. We would like to remain another week to say a proper goodbye, but we will not do Lady Catherine the great disservice of infringing any more than we already have.”

  Lady Catherine accepted these terms with a queenly nod, despite Mr. Collins’ pinch-lipped hesitation. It was the first time since that first night that Charlotte had seen any inclination from the man that he might regret her going or have hope that Charlotte’s steady temper in the face of insults would win Lady Catherine’s approval. Charlotte began to spin to ensure that this last week would be enough time to secure his proposal, but all Charlotte’s hopes and Elizabeth’s wishes came to naught, for Mr. Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam decided to visit their aunt earlier than arranged.

  CHAPTER NINE

  The ladies received word of the men’s unanticipated arrival not from Lady Catherine or any of the household’s servants, but from Mr. Collins, who had watched the gentlemen ride past Hunsford Lane. The Netherfield ball was enough that even at a distance Mr. Collins could identify Mr. Darcy and immediately made his way to Rosings, both to pay his respects to the gentlemen and to assume his responsibility for the young ladies so that they would not distract Lady Catherine from her relations. (Mr. Collins had manufactured his second reason after he arrived at the house and was immediately shuffled away from Lady Catherine’s presence.)

  Together, Charlotte and Elizabeth let Mr. Collins relate to them in explicit detail the horses and the men’s fine coats, all the while debating how rude it would be to leave in the morning now that the nephews had come unannounced. Elizabeth had no compunction about departing as soon as possible so as to avoid Mr. Darcy, while Charlotte’s goal would only be helped along if Mr. Collins continued to be shuffled off into her presence.

  Before they could reach a compromise, Mr. Collins decided it was rude of him to spend so long in Lady Catherine’s house without offering her his felicitations. The ladies’ discussion of when to leave was put off by trying to convince Mr. Collins that surely he hadn’t been summoned through some servant that did not deliver the message. Their protests were in vain, and far sooner than could be justified by anything other than his own impatience, Mr. Collins was away to the family’s part of the house.

  Charlotte conceded to Elizabeth that leaving sooner than planned might was because, “There is every possibility that in the morning Mr. Collins will no longer have a position at Rosings Park.”

  “Considering that he would most likely wish to abide with my family for the short while he looked for a new position, I sincerely hope not.”

  The ladies went back to their discussion of departure times, now taking into account the very real possibility that with this new company Mr. Collins might find himself too distracted to be of any use to Charlotte’s plans. However, to the great surprise of both women, when Mr. Collins returned it was not in humility after being rejected in favor of the nephews, but instead with the gentlemen in question.

  Mr. Collins was all smug superiority as he conducted introductions between several people who already knew one another and triumphed as though their presence was a great compliment to him. Despite his attempts to the contrary, neither woman paid Mr. Collins much attention. Charlotte cast a speaking look to Elizabeth, who was preoccupied with staring at Mr. Darcy in wide-eyed horror. Anyone with sense would know that Mr. Darcy had not come so soon to wait upon Charlotte, though the man’s expression was impenetrable. Charlotte shifted her focus to Mr. Collins so she might pretend that she had been paying him any mind at all, but found it was not Mr. Collins who led the way in conversation.

  By the time Charlotte turned to the only unknown member of the party, the man had already smoothed out his expression from puzzled surprise at putting together Charlotte’s face with whatever stories of Miss Lucas he may or may not have heard from his aunt. Charlotte had a moment’s curiosity about whether the Colonel had forgotten her since their only meeting had been brief and during what, for him, must have been an unaccountably busy day. Charlotte would not have faulted him for forgetting her, because until this moment it had not crossed her mind that the two Colonel Fitzwilliams might be one and the same. However, the man graced her with the same relieved smile he had worn at the music shop. He interrupted whatever lengthy explanation Mr. Collins was giving for their presence and said, “Hello again.”

  The familiarity was enough to pull everyone’s attention towards him, even Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth who had both silently greeted one another with all formality but still hadn’t managed to turn their eyes towards anything else. Colonel Fitzwilliam answered his cousin’s moue of confusion. “I had the good fortune to meet Miss Lucas in London a few weeks ago when I was picking up Georgiana’s music. Tell me, is the young friend you were with here someplace as well?”

  “Miss Mary Bennet, Miss Elizabeth’s younger sister, is currently making use of Lady Catherine’s kind offer of the pianoforte she has in another corner of the house.”

  “I trust she has found all of our Aunt’s reserves of sheet music?” While the other three just stood there and stared, Colonel Fitzwilliam ushered Charlotte back onto the sofa she and Elizabeth had been occupying and took the chair beside her.

  “Given the amount of paper she has requested over the last few days, I believe so.”

  “I am glad she is enjoying herself. Though I suppose that the real question is not whether she found the music, but whether or not any of it has been to her particular liking.” Charlotte smiled quite against her will at the image of Mary scolding Lady Catherine for her poor taste. Mr. Collins seized upon their moment of shared silence to extol the virtues of Lady Catherine’s taste in music. He unnecessarily assured them all that he would be sure to have a talk with his cousin so that she might be made aware of the great honor she was being paid by being the recipient of Lady Catherine’s experience.

  Both gentlemen let Mr. Collins have his speech, though Mr. Darcy did so with ever-narrowing eyes as if he was trying to discern if Mr. Collins was joking. Colonel Fitzwilliam, with the easy confidence of a man who had been subjected to far more awkward conversations than this, nodded along with Mr. Collins as though he valued the man’s opinion on the matter. The moment Mr. Collins paused to draw breath, the Colonel applauded him for such a valiant defense of the Colonel’s own aunt and praised Collins’ tender concern for his cousin. However, in his experience, all young ladies were very particular about their music tastes and remained so for far more practical reasons than those who didn’t play an instrument might ever hope to understand. “Darcy, tell Mr. Collins about the occasion I tried to encourage Georgiana to play a piece I had heard from another, only to receive a lecture on the differences between Bach and Haydn instead.”

  It was perhaps the most graceful conversational transition Charlotte had ever seen. Mr. Collins ceased his talking to watch Mr. Darcy like a
diligent student before a tutor, willing to keep his words in his mouth if it meant being the object of Mr. Darcy’s attention. Better still, the Colonel had given the notoriously tight-lipped Mr. Darcy a comfortable subject to speak about, a subject about which Elizabeth had ample knowledge of her own so that if nothing else, the two of them could discuss their younger sisters. Mr. Collins would drag the entire accord off course the moment he felt like the conversation had slipped beyond his grasp, but it was a valiant effort nonetheless.

  As Mr. Darcy began explaining Fitzwilliam’s mistake with Georgiana—with a softness to his expression that Charlotte had honestly believed was beyond him—Colonel Fitzwilliam leaned back in his chair and met Charlotte’s raised eyebrow with a smirk. Charlotte gave him the satisfaction of nodding her approval.

  The Colonel leaned into the arm of his chair and, quiet enough that it might be private but not so quiet as to arouse suspicion, he said, “Now, according to my Aunt Catherine, the Miss Bennets are Mr. Collins’ cousins, and you are a friend of their family.”

  Charlotte imagined that the story Lady Catherine told of their presence in her house was far more riddled with complaints than that, but she agreed to the summation. Colonel Fitzwilliam glanced at Mr. Collins, who had taken control over the conversation between the other three, speaking loudly enough that they could tell he was seeking the entire room’s attention for his story. Colonel Fitzwilliam had no compunction about leaning a bit closer and seizing upon the opportunity presented by the noise. “I’m rather ashamed to admit this Miss Lucas, but I confess that at the music store I thought that you were Miss Mary’s governess.”

  Common sense prevailed and Charlotte didn’t waste a moment being insulted. Even to the least observant man in the world she and Mary wouldn’t be mistaken for sisters, and the most logical reason that a woman her age would be looking after a girl of Mary’s was that she was employed to do so. Charlotte couldn’t fault him for making such a practical assumption and told him so with a small smile of her own.