Miss Darcy's Companion: A Pride and Prejudice Variation by Joana Starnes Read Free Book Online Page A

my mother might never be able to forgive me for it.”
    “I fail to catch your meaning, Miss Bennet.”
    “I beg your pardon, Mr Darcy. My penchant for making sport has often led me wrong – in this case, to unfortunate disclosures. But since I have already spoken out of turn I might as well finish, or else goodness knows what you might think of the entire business. The truth is that of all my sisters I was chosen as the future mistress of Longbourn but, for better or worse, I felt obliged to decline that honour. The offer was not repeated when Mr Collins inherited my father’s estate, and for that I suppose I should be forever grateful. With my family in mind, it would have been difficult to refuse him twice.”
    Darcy’s eyes widened. Given the man’s self-centredness, so readily apparent at Rosings as well as Netherfield, he felt he could safely say that Collins had not made the offer out of Christian generosity of spirit, but merely sought to buy himself a grateful and obedient wife.
    That he had not attempted to force her hand after her father’s passing might have spoken in his favour, and yet in equal measure not. Once Longbourn was rightfully his, he had no further need to ingratiate himself with that branch of the family, and their fate was his concern no longer, as his subsequent conduct showed. The slimy toad! By all accounts, Miss Bennet’s escape had been a narrow one.
    From her own seat across the small parlour, Georgiana lent voice to similar thoughts.
    “I am most grateful you were not faced with this conundrum, Lizzy, and not just for my own sake. It must be dreadful to marry out of obligation. Besides, I doubt that such a union would have been agreeable. Perhaps I should not pass judgement without a proper acquaintance, but it seems to me that the gentleman was most unkind – why, I could nearly say spiteful – to cast you out of your home as soon as he was within his rights to do so.”
    Pleased as he might have been with his sister’s sound judgement, Darcy could not help feeling that the conversation had become rather too forthright. Miss Bennet seemed to share his views, for she sought to change the subject.
    “Well, what was done was done. To my good fortune, I was rewarded with your acquaintance, Georgiana,” she smiled and stood, but before she could excuse herself her friend clapped in sudden excitement.
    “I just had the very best of notions, Lizzy. For a man of the cloth Mr Collins might be sadly lacking in proper feeling, but I know of another clergyman who does justice to that office. Why, you could marry Mr Bradden. He is kind and thoughtful and I would be assured of your company forever. I dearly hope neither of us would settle too far from dear Pemberley.”
    “Are you not rather too young for matchmaking, Georgiana, and indeed for thoughts of matrimony for yourself or anybody else?” Darcy observed sternly and at the sudden change of tone and manner both ladies looked abashed.
    “The fault is mine, Sir,” Miss Bennet swiftly intervened, and Georgiana cast her a brief grateful glance. “I should not have shared my history with Mr Collins. Perhaps now might be the best time for me to retire,” she added softly and, bidding them goodnight, did so. Not long afterwards, Georgiana quietly followed suit.
    For his part, Darcy felt rather like an ogre for ending the pleasant evening on a reprimand but, dash it, he would not take full responsibility for it. Georgiana truly had no business to think of matrimony, much less for herself, and likewise Miss Bennet would have been better advised to keep a discreet silence with regard to her history with Mr Collins. His impressionable sister was a great deal too young for frank discussions on marriages of convenience.
    Of course, one day he would have to address the thorny issue of finding a suitable life companion for himself and, more daunting still, for his sister. But, thank goodness, not for a few years yet.
     
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    Little as