Page 34 of Why I Kissed You (Pride and Prejudice Variation)
“Anne? Our cousin?”
Impossible , Darcy thought. She never leaves Rosings .
“Yes!” Georgiana hissed. “She came barging in about half an hour go, demanding to know where you were—she’s been in high dudgeon since she arrived!”
Georgiana’s cheeks were flushed; her hands were shaking, and her breathing was shallow—Anne must have behaved unconscionably for his sister to be so unsettled.
For the briefest moment, he knew not what to do, and then suddenly Elizabeth stepped forward.
“Come, Miss Darcy. Let us go to the library—or your private parlor, if you prefer. I will ring for a servant to bring you a calming tea. How does that sound?”
Georgiana’s relief was instant; tears formed in her eyes as she regarded Elizabeth with deep appreciation. “Oh, thank you, Miss Elizabeth! I beg your forgiveness, brother, but I just didn’t know what to do! Mrs. Annesley is with Anne—”
Darcy lifted a hand to her shoulder again and gave it a gentle, reassuring squeeze. “Please, dearest, do not distress yourself any further. I will see what this is all about. Let Elizabeth take you to your rooms that you may calm yourself.”
Elizabeth moved to Georgiana’s side and slipped an arm around his sister’s. “Lead the way, sister, and show Jane and I your pretty rooms.”
“Oh! Y-you don’t have to call me sister,” Georgiana began as the two girls walked away. “That is, i-if you do not wish to.”
“But of course, I do!” Elizabeth replied as they started up the stairs. “My dear Miss Darcy, just because I have four sisters already does not mean I should not welcome another.”
Jane flashed a smile at Darcy, then at both the younger ladies’ backs as she followed behind them in silence.
Darcy watched them all until they turned on the first-floor landing and started toward the family wing.
Thank God for Elizabeth , he thought as he turned for the drawing room.
Mrs. Annesley was seated and Anne pacing agitatedly before the fireplace when he entered; Georgiana’s companion stood and curtsied as Anne whirled to face him and cried “There you are! Where have you been?!”
It was all he could do not to cringe—her manner was disturbingly reminiscent of her mother. Looking to Mrs. Annesley, he said, “Madam, Miss Bennet and Miss Elizabeth have taken Georgiana to her rooms. Will you kindly join them there, and then send my betrothed down to me?”
“Of course, Mr. Darcy,” replied Mrs. Annesley, before she curtsied again and quit the room.
Darcy placed his hands together behind his back. “Anne what are you doing here—for that matter, how did you get here?”
Anne walked up to him. “Darcy, I was—I am—desperate!” she said. “Mother has been absolutely insufferable since Saturday, when that wedding announcement appeared. Did you ever send in the retraction?”
Darcy frowned. “Of course not,” he replied. “Why would I do such a thing?”
Anne blinked and stepped back. “So, you really are marrying her? That Miss Bennet girl, I mean.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “I would not have placed an announcement in the papers, nor referred to her as my betrothed as I did just now, if I were not, cousin.”
Turning away from her, Darcy took a few steps, formulating his next words, before he turned back again.
“If your mother sent you here as part of a scheme, it won’t work.
I’ll not be coerced into a marriage I do not want.
Forgive me if it pains you to hear it, cousin, but I have never desired you for my wife. ”
“But Darcy, our mothers planned for us to be together!”
“Anne, even if that is true—and I have reason to doubt my mother had any serious designs of a match between us—their wishes do not dictate our choices,” said Darcy firmly. “You may be willing to marry where your mother tells you, but I am not beholden to her whims. ”
Anne blinked. “So, you are resolved, then?”
Darcy nodded. “You know that I am.”
His cousin sighed. “Well, then, I suppose there is naught for me to do but wish you all manner of happiness.”
“Miss de Bourgh, it is a pleasure to see you again. How do you do?” came Elizabeth’s voice from behind Darcy.
He turned to her; he hadn’t even heard her enter the room. Darcy offered a smile, and she returned it, before pausing next to him to curtsey to Anne.
Anne’s curtsey and her voice when she replied to Elizabeth’s greeting were stiff. “I am well, Miss Bennet. I believe congratulations are in order.”
Elizabeth nodded. “I thank you, Miss de Bourgh. Darcy certainly surprised me with his proposal on Thursday—so stunned was I that I actually told him I needed time to think about it! But then, after many hours of sober reflection on Mr. Darcy’s character, fortune, and connexions—not to mention what a blessing our marriage would be to my family—I found I could not say no. ”
Her hand slipped around his arm as she added, “He might have bumbled his words in all his nervousness, but his sentiment was eventually clear me. Darcy loves me—he has for some months now. How could I do anything but accept him?”
Darcy looked down to find Elizabeth smiling up at him, and he returned her smile. He looked to Anne and asked again, “What do you do here? Did your mother send you?”
“I told you I was desperate,” Anne said. “Mother has been intolerable since she saw your wedding announcement in the papers. I couldn’t stand being at Rosings anymore! Darcy, may I stay here?”
“I think it would be better for you to seek solace with Lord and Lady Disley,” said Darcy. “Elizabeth and I are to be married on Saturday, and with all the preparations for our marriage and travel to Pemberley to see to, I will not have time to entertain you.”
“Just tonight then? Please! It was a tiresome journey, and you know my constitution is weak after travel of any kind!”
He had thought her constitution too weak to travel at all—at least, that is what Lady Catherine had always said of her. Anne had never refuted her mother’s claims. For that matter, Anne had never in her life gone against her mother.
“Does Lady Catherine know you have left Rosings?” Darcy asked.
Anne crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes; again, the expression reminded him of her mother. “I do not need Mamma’s permission to come and go, Darcy. Given the hour, I am certain she knows by now that I have left the country.”
Darcy suppressed a snort. “No doubt,” he said drily. “Very well, you can stay the one night—I am sure Georgiana or Mrs. Annesley have already seen to a room being prepared for you. As you are so very tired, I suggest you go to it and rest.”
For a moment, it looked as though Anne were about to protest, but then she seemed to think better of it and nodded her head. Darcy moved to the bellpull to summon a servant.
“I do hope your journey from Kent was pleasant, Miss de Bourgh,” said Elizabeth then. “Four hours in a carriage can be tiresome even if you do stop to rest or change your horses.”
“It was tolerable, Miss Bennet, but not enjoyable enough to entice me hither on a regular basis,” said Anne, and Darcy saw that Elizabeth was having no small measure of difficulty in stopping herself laughing—even he was hard-pressed, for a moment, to keep his mirth in check.
He’d said something very close to that of her at the Meryton assembly.
“I much prefer the comforts of home,” Anne continued haughtily. “But I had to get away from my mother! Do you know, cousin, that we lost one of our maids because of her nonsense? Though Mrs. Poole at the parsonage said she saw her with you there on Friday.”
“She did,” said Darcy succinctly. “Miss Bennet had been unfairly and unconscionably turned out of her cousin’s home.
Despite having become engaged just prior to learning of this cruelty, I knew it would not be entirely proper for us to share the carriage all the way from Hunsford, so I engaged a maid to attend her while Theodore and I rode horses rented from the coaching inn.
Miss Lacey is now Elizabeth’s regular lady’s maid. ”
“Do you know, Miss de Bourgh, if Mrs. Collins has been able to secure transportation home for her sister? I felt terrible leaving Miss Lucas in the manner I was forced to,” said Elizabeth.
“I do not know,” said Anne with an indifferent lift of her shoulder. “I would imagine they’ve taken care of it by now.”
Elizabeth smiled benignly. “I did write a letter to Mrs. Collins after arriving in town Friday and asked her to let me know if there was anything Darcy and I could do, but I have yet to hear back from her. ”
At that moment, Mrs. Tolliver entered the drawing room. After she had curtsied to Darcy, he asked her first if a guest room had been prepared for his cousin.
“I saw to it, sir, as soon as I knew she was in the house,” said the lady. “Her maid, Mrs. Mason, is already waiting there for her.”
“Very good. Please show Miss de Bourgh to her room,” said Darcy.
Mrs. Tolliver turned to Anne and curtsied. “If you would follow me, Miss de Bourgh.”
Anne followed the housekeeper out, though she pouted as she walked past where he stood with Elizabeth. Jane entered the room moments later, looking over her shoulder as she did so.
“Was that your cousin, Miss de Bourgh?” she asked.
Darcy inclined his head. “It was.”
Jane bit her lip, and her cheeks colored as she said, “Dear me… You were quite right in that first letter you wrote to me from Kent, Lizzy. She does look sickly and cross.”
Elizabeth smiled wryly as Jane colored. “I wasn’t being kind.”
“Perhaps it is an unkind thought, but pray, do not either of you distress yourself over it, for you’ve described Anne as she’s been the whole of her life,” said Darcy, then he frowned. “What the devil is she really doing here?”
“Indeed,” Elizabeth observed. “She did not seem as weak to me as she did all the time I was in Kent—are you sure this is the same creature who was too ill all her life to learn an instrument?”
Darcy scoffed. “Unfortunately, yes. Some of her behavior is much too like Lady Catherine for there to be any doubt.”