A Wife for Mr. Darcy

the door close behind the humming parson, Lizzy pulled up the sleeve of her dress and stepped away from Mr. Darcy. As he moved toward her, she placed her hands upon his chest and said, “Please, sir. We are not married, and I fear if we continue, we will be acting as if we were.”
    “You are right,” he said, half laughing and half in agony. “Why is Mr. Collins at Netherfield?” he asked and shifted his weight to deal with his discomfort. After Lizzy explained about the postponed wedding, he inquired, “Do you think he will come back to the library?”
    “It is possible. When he stayed at Longbourn, to my father’s great distress, he was in and out of his library all day long.”
    “Then we must go elsewhere.” After thinking about the rooms that were available, he finally decided on the billiards room. “No one will go in there at this time of day.”
    “But it is across the foyer. We might be seen.”
    “Well, then we will have to risk it. I have much to say to you, and I will not be kept from it. Once Mr. Collins finds out I am here, he will seek me out and talk and talk and talk. At Rosings Park, I was sequestered with that gentleman on a rainy afternoon and had the privilege of listening to him expound on the pollination of cantaloupe.”
    Now Lizzy started to laugh. “Are you suggesting that we tippy-toe across the foyer to the billiards room?”
    “No, I am suggesting that we run,” he said with a smile, and taking Lizzy by the hand, that was what they did.

The reason Mr. Collins had been able to make a selection from the many volumes stacked on the shelves of the library in such a dimly lit room was because he only read two books: Fordyce’s Sermons and Thomas Secker’s Four Discourses on Self-examination, Lying, Patience, and Contentment . With its title concealed in the fold of his arm, he walked around the house with one or the other of those books merely as an affectation. He had successfully fooled all of Charlotte’s family, as well as Mrs. Crenshaw, into thinking of him as a voracious reader. However, the reason for his success in doing so would have disturbed him. No one cared what he read.
    When Mr. Collins went into the drawing room, he was happy to see Miss Bennet and Mr. Bingley. As gracious a hostess as Mrs. Crenshaw had been, he was getting tired of her constant interruptions. Unlike Charlotte, who sat quietly doing her needlework while he talked, Mr. Bingley’s sister was not a good listener.
    Mr. Collins was pleased to report that his darling Charlotte had fully recovered. “To think Charlotte’s loving presence as the companion of my life might have been denied me,” Mr. Collins continued. “Fortunately, there was an intervention, and I believe it very likely divine, that saved me from a life lived in loneliness and alone.”
    While her cousin rambled on, Jane wondered how Darcy and Lizzy were doing in the library, and she decided that if it was taking them this long, then they must be getting on quite well. Mrs. Crenshaw was so happy to have company other than Mr. Collins that she had not yet noticed Lizzy was missing.
    “May I speak, Mama?” Athena asked, with an angelic expression. Because Athena was the oldest child remaining at home, she was allowed to sit with her mother and the other adults so that she might fetch whatever her dear Mama required.
    “Yes, my sweet.”
    “I have heard Mr. Collins say that Miss Darcy and Mr. Darcy are relations of Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Does Mr. Collins know that they are here?”
    “Mr. Darcy! Miss Darcy! Here at Netherfield?” Mr. Collins said in a voice indicating his astonishment. “I am deeply moved that the niece and nephew of my esteemed patroness should have come so far to be witnesses to my wedding.”
    “Yes, they are here, but Miss Darcy is resting, and Mr. Darcy is writing business letters. However, they will join us shortly,” Jane said in an attempt to silence Athena.
    “But I saw Mr. Darcy go into the billiards room with Miss Elizabeth,” Athena responded, now with a sharper edge in her voice.
    After Mrs. Crenshaw stopped laughing at the absurdity of a lady being in the billiards room, she told her daughter, “That was very funny, Athena, but please let the adults speak.”
    “But I wasn’t being funny, Mama. I saw Mr. Darcy holding Miss Elizabeth’s hand as they ran across the foyer to the billiards room.”
    No one was laughing now, not even Miss Bennet, whom Athena did not like at all. She was