Darcy and Elizabeth What If? Collection 3 by Jennifer Lang

to tease. And Mr Darcy, with his superior nature, was so easy to tease. He was a perfect foil for her wit and she had exercised that wit in full measure.
    So, pleased with the preference of Mr Wickham and offended by Mr Darcy’s neglect, she had encouraged her feelings for the rogue and discouraged her feelings for the man of worth.
    And look where it had led her. It had led her to reject a man she was only just beginning to realise was a man she could have esteemed and respected and – yes, perhaps – loved, if only her vanity had not overcome her reason and set her against him.
    The sewing fell from her hands and lay unheeded in her lap. The needle remained clasped in her nerveless fingers.
    She thought in anguish, What have I done?

Chapter Eight
     
    Mr Darcy returned to Rosings, well pleased with the way the morning had gone. It was true that Elizabeth had rejected him, but he had been prepared for that. And yet she had not despised him, as she had done when he had made his first proposal to her.
    How he cringed when he now thought of it. She had been right to accuse him of ungentlemanly behaviour. He had been rude indeed.
    But, of course, Elizabeth did not know that, because, for her, that day had never been.
    He went up the steps of Rosings and in to the house.
    ‘Your friend, Mr Bingley, called when you were out,’ said Lady Catherine.
    She was sitting in the drawing-room with her wide, panniered skirt arranged impressively across the sofa. Her bejewelled fingers lay in her lap.
    Miss Anne de Bourgh sat quietly on a chair nearby and, standing in front of the fireplace, was Mr Collins.
    ‘I am sorry to have missed him,’ said Mr Darcy.
    He thought of all that had happened on the previous days, connected with Mr Bingley, and was glad that today’s visit had passed without complication.
    ‘I invited him to stay for luncheon and suggested he sing for us, but he was promised to his friend and could not stay. He only called in to deliver this painting from Georgiana,’ Lady Catherine continued, gesturing towards the painting, which had been unwrapped. ‘It is quite charming.’
    ‘Marvellous!’ murmured Mr Collins, clasping his hands together rapturously.
    Lady Catherine nodded her approval.
    Mr Darcy walked over to the by-now familiar painting and examined it closely. It was very well done indeed and he took a delight in his sister’s skill.
    ‘It will hang in the dining-room,’ said Lady Catherine.
    ‘A most excellent choice,’ said Mr Collins with a smile and a bow.
    ‘Mr Collins, you will stay for luncheon,’ said Lady Catherine.
    ‘Oh!
    Mr Collins sounded startled and, for a moment, Mr Darcy wondered if the comical clergyman would decline the invitation. But it was the purpose of Mr Collins’s life to please Lady Catherine, and after only the slightest hesitation he bowed and smiled and murmured words of gratitude. ‘So kind . . . had not looked for such condescension . . . esteemed patroness . . . unworthy of such nobility . . . honoured . . . grateful . . . ’
    Lady Catherine was pleased and took his arm as she rose from the sofa.
    Mr Collins looked as if life could offer him no greater privilege than to escort Lady Catherine de Bourgh and he was a ridiculous mixture of pride and humility as he almost pranced through the hall and into the dining-room, with Lady Catherine on his arm.
    ‘Anne is looking pale,’ said Lady Catherine, as they took their seats at table. ‘You must take her out in the phaeton this afternoon, Darcy.’
    Mr Darcy did not take kindly to being ordered about and he was about to raise some objection when Lady Catherine continued, ‘Your wife and guest will go with them, Mr Collins, to entertain Miss de Bourgh. I would go myself but there are some parishioners in the village who need guidance. You and I will go to the village, Mr Collins, and I will tell them what they must do. I cannot have them deciding their own affairs, for they will inevitably make the wrong