Page 38 of Why I Kissed You (Pride and Prejudice Variation)
Darcy turned around sharply. “Anne, what are you doing?” he asked through clenched teeth.
Anne was standing, holding her hands clasped together before her. “Darcy, I’m telling the truth. I can’t let you marry Miss Bennet after what happened last night.”
The earl stood, and his commanding posture was no doubt noticed by all. “And what, pray tell, happened last night, Anne?”
Anne kept her gaze on Darcy as she said, “He came to my room and made love to me.”
All eyes in the room turned sharply to Darcy, and gasps issued from more than one of the ladies present—save for Mrs. Bennet, who emitted a muted screech as she raised a hand to her lips. “We are all ruined!” she cried softly.
Elizabeth remained silent, her eyes on Anne; her cheeks were aflame with embarrassment on an otherwise pale face. “You lie,” she said.
“I can prove it to you,” said Anne. “I was a maiden until last night—my maid can bring the bedsheet.”
“Aunt,” said Darcy, barely able to contain his fury. “Would you be so kind as to escort Mrs. Bennet and her daughters to the library?”
“Certainly, Darcy,” agreed the countess, who then moved toward Mrs. Bennet. “Come, madam, let us leave the clearing up of this mess to the men.”
“But I want to know what happens!” declared Miss Lydia.
Lady Disley raised an eyebrow at her. “You will no doubt learn the outcome soon enough—you need not know the particulars. Now, all of you, come with me.”
Lydia’s expression grew rebellious, but a stern glare from her father forced her compliance. Mrs. Gardiner and Jane supported a weeping Mrs. Bennet as the ladies left the room; Georgiana followed them and closed the drawing room doors behind her.
Elizabeth remained, as she had every right to.
Darcy took a step forward. “How dare you?!” he demanded.
“I ought to have sent you to our uncle’s yesterday when you arrived, as I suspected you were here as part of some wretched scheme of your mother’s, but no!
I gave way to politeness and the bonds of family—and what gratitude do I receive in return for my kindness? Lies and betrayal!”
Anne’s eyes watered. “Darcy, it’s not a lie! I gave up my maidenhead for you!”
Bishop Keller stepped up on Darcy’s left. “Do you vow, child, before God Almighty, that what you say is true? That Mr. Darcy came to your chambers last night and lay with you as a man does his wife?”
Anne nodded. “I swear it.”
“It’s a lie!” Darcy yelled. “Why on Earth would I go to you when I was to marry another? Your mother has corrupted your mind, Anne. I do not know what really happened to you last night—for I lay asleep behind a locked door —and frankly I do not care. All I know is that I am innocent of the crime of which you accuse me.”
He looked down at Elizabeth, who continued to stare at Anne.
“Elizabeth, please look at me,” he begged softly.
She looked up, though her expression was unreadable.
“I promise you; I did not do this. I have told you as I told her and her mother—as I told my uncle—that I have never desired Anne for my wife. I love only you.”
“Then why was I despoiled last night?!” Anne cried as she charged toward him. “For what purpose did I give myself if not to be married to you as our mothers wished for us?!”
Elizabeth, whose attention had returned to Anne when she spoke, drew a breath. “You said ‘he’ came to your room. Not ‘Darcy came to my room.’”
“She’s right,” observed Lord Rowarth. “Considered in that context, Anne, ‘he’ could mean anyone—you could have whored yourself to a footman or a stable hand in order to ruin Darcy’s wedding and try to force him to marry you.”
“My lord, please do not use such vulgar language,” murmured Bishop Keller .
“Forgive me, Bishop Keller,” the viscount replied with a quick nod of his head. “But I can think of no other word with which to describe what my cousin has done. Shameful, Anne. I am utterly disgusted.”
As if to prove his statement, he turned his back to her.
Out of the corner of his eye, Darcy noted Bingley’s eyes going wide. “Wickham,” he said breathily.
Darcy scowled as he looked at him. “What the deuce has he to do with any of this?”
Bingley turned his gaze from Anne. “I went to Pall Mall yesterday after calling on my sisters—I wanted a gift for… Well, anyway, I ran into Mr. Wickham there. He asked all manner of odd questions about Miss Elizabeth.”
“Whatever has any of that to do with me?” Anne demanded haughtily as she crossed her arms. “I haven’t seen that worthless son of a steward since we were children.”
“What did Mr. Wickham have to say about my daughter, sir?” asked Mr. Bennet.
“He said he had received a letter by express on Saturday from ‘Darcy’s cousin’,” said Bingley.
“Which I found odd in and of itself as I have been told by Darcy that his family has nothing to do with the man. So, I asked him what the letter said, and he told me that it confirmed the notice he was ‘most disheartened’ to read in the paper on Saturday, that his good friend Miss Elizabeth Bennet was to marry Mr. Darcy. He said the letter also claimed that the only reason Darcy was marrying her was because she’d inherited a small fortune from a distant relative, as both she and her family were far beneath his notice otherwise. ”
Darcy was both furious and mortified on hearing this. “How interesting that he vaguely claimed the letter to be written by a cousin of mine, but did not specify which one,” said he.
“How could I have written to that wastrel when I don’t even know where to send the letter?” Anne challenged. “I just told you I haven’t seen him in years!”
“That’s not entirely accurate, Annie,” spoke up Fitzwilliam. “Darcy and I spoke of Wickham at Rosings, and I know for certain that Darcy mentioned he was with the militia quartered in Meryton.”
“What does that signify? Can you prove that I was listening?” Anne retorted.
“Can you prove that I was the man in your room last night?” Darcy fired back. “Even if you bled when your maidenhead was broken, that does not prove I’m the one that caused it.”
He snorted in disgust. “I can hardly believe you and your mother would devise such a scheme as this—it is beyond my understanding how the two of you could be so desperate.”
“May I ask if you and Colonel Fitzwilliam reviewed Rosings’ financial records while you were there, Mr. Darcy?” Mr. Gardiner asked.
“Yes… Good question, sir,” said the earl. “If my sister is desperate for funds, she might well dream up such stuff and nonsense as this—she always did have a fanciful imagination.”
Darcy drew breath to inform his uncle that Lady Catherine had shown them an account book when suddenly Tolliver came into the room. “Begging your pardon for interrupting, Mr. Darcy, but there is a person at the staff entrance demanding to see you.”
“Send them away—I have not the time nor patience to deal with some shop keeper’s grievance right now,” Darcy snapped.
“Did this person give a name, Mr. Tolliver?” asked Lord Disley.
The butler turned toward the earl, “He did not, my lord—however, he did say something rather vulgar I do not wish to repeat before the ladies.”
“It cannot be any worse than we’ve heard already, Mr. Tolliver,” said Elizabeth.
“What did the visitor say?” Darcy asked.
Tolliver’s eyes flicked to Anne, then back to his master. “He instructed me to say that Miss de Bourgh would know him… intimately.”
Anne scoffed. “A lie, of course. We have more pressing matters to deal with, would not you say, Darcy?”
“Bring him in, Tolliver,” Darcy instructed the servant. Tolliver bowed and went out again.
“This is preposterous!” cried Anne, throwing her hands up in the air as she spoke.
“No more preposterous than you claiming Darcy bedded you the night before his wedding to another woman,” snapped Colonel Fitzwilliam. “You never did tell us why he would do such a thing.”
“Because he knows she is nobody! She brings nothing to this marriage—she has no money, no important connexions… For goodness’ sake, she’s not even very pretty!” cried Anne.
“Tell us all how you really feel, Miss de Bourgh,” said Elizabeth in a droll tone. “You’ve now insulted me by every possible method—what further can you have to say? ”
“Darcy cannot break the engagement without risking a breach of promise suit, but you can,” said Anne. “We knew that if he could get you to break it off, we’d be free to be together. We made love because we knew that infidelity, more than anything, would make you hate him!”
Darcy snorted and shook his head. “You are more delusional than I ever gave you credit for,” said he.
Tolliver returned at that moment, and not one in the room, Darcy was sure, was surprised to see George Wickham walk in behind him wearing a smug, satisfied smile on his face.
It took all of Darcy’s willpower to remain rooted to the spot in which he stood. “So, Bingley was right—you are involved,” he said with a sneer.
“The question is how deeply,” remarked Mr. Bennet. “Did you receive a letter alleging that my daughter had received an inheritance, sir?”
Wickham nodded. “I did.”
“What are you doing here, Wickham? Did you come to gloat at Darcy’s expense?” asked Lord Rowarth.
“No,” said Wickham. “As a matter of fact, I came to do the right thing.”
“You don’t even know the meaning of the phrase,” snapped Darcy.
Wickham looked to him. “On the contrary, my dear Darcy,” said he.
“I had a suspicion that dear Anne was lying about Miss Elizabeth’s unexpected inheritance, so it was marvelous good fortune that I encountered Bingley here at that jewelry shop yesterday.
He was there to purchase a gift for a very special lady—no doubt the fair Miss Jane Bennet—while I had gone to pawn a very pretty broach that my darling Anne gave me to me to pay for my services.
Of course, in discovering that she lied to me about Miss Elizabeth—not to mention I do have a very special regard for you, Eliza—I thought what better punishment than to ruin her plans? ”