Falling Like Snow

WILLIAM'S DEFENCE

"The impudence!" Lady Catherine stared after Lizzie, then turned to Mr. Collins. "Go after her at once. She must not get away with speaking to one such as myself like that." He hurried to oblige, and William watched him leave with a seething anger. There was too much he needed to say to his aunt for him to follow the man, to follow Lizzie.

"Really, Fitzwilliam, I should think you would be glad that I have unveiled her unpleasantness before it was too late. Just think of Georgiana! My Anne would never have fallen for her act, of course, and whilst we cannot blame dear Georgiana, I would have expected you to carry out the protective duty that is required of you as her brother more diligently."

"How dare you," he told her. "How dare you?" She laughed dismissively, and William came to a sudden decision. Lady Catherine had been tolerated for long enough; despite her relation to him and Georgiana, she would not be welcome at Pemberly ever again. 

"How dare I? Fitzwilliam, you cannot be serious. That girl clearly has designs on you-" 

"No, no she clearly does not! She is Georgiana's friend, and a much better person than you." Lady Catherine's shock gave him the perfect opening to continue, and he did so without remorse. He was too enraged to behave with the proper decorum or to see the potential consequences of his resistance with clarity, and too wrathful to speak anything but the truth. "You are merely cruel; your comparisons and portraits of your acquaintances' characters are derisive, yet you behave in a manner worse than all of them! Lizzie, whilst she may also enjoy making portraits of her acquaintances' characters, is only ever just, and is insincere in causing injury. She is kind, and infectiously happy - but they are two qualities that you will never understand. I am only sorry I have not told you this sooner - but you are no longer welcome at Pemberly, Aunt."

Janna was pale; both she and Anne looked as though they would rather be anywhere else but at that table. "Fitzwilliam, you cannot mean that-"

"I do." There was no doubting the finality of his statement.

"There can be nothing between you!" Lady Catherine burst out. "Need I remind you that you are engaged to Anne-"

"I am no such thing. Your outdated traditions have no hold here; we are not the elite of you London circles, no matter that we could be. They behave as though they are from 1813, not the early third millennium. I will not abide by their - and your - backward ideals, and you cannot force me to do so." He would have continued, but Lady Catherine, now as white as Janna but with rage rather than shock, horror, and discomfort, cut in.

"Tell me once and for all that there is nothing between you both. Promise me that there never will be. I will not stand to see the ancient, respectable name of Darcy muddied by their association with such an obstinate, headstrong girl-"

"Sit, then, for it makes little difference to me," William said coldly. "But I shall make no such promise. You are not used to submitting to any person's whims, nor are you in the habit of brooking disappointment, yet you shall find yourself denied thus all the same."

Smugly, and with the calm demeanor of one playing a card that they are sure will deliver them into the arms of victory, Lady Catherine insisted, "Fitzwilliam, I am shocked and astonished. I expected to find you a more reasonable young man. But do not deceive yourself into a belief that I will ever recede. I shall not go away, not till you have given me the assurance I require."

"Then you shall find yourself removed by force, if not of your own grudging volition, Aunt." William strode towards the door, desperate to follow Lizzie. He was loathe to abandon Janna to his Aunt's appalling behaviour, but she would not target his sister so, and each second he was not with Lizzie right then was another dagger to his heart. 

Her slicing words made him pause, perfectly still in his wrath although inside he was itching to be away from his late mother's sister. "Not so hasty, if you please. I have by no means done. Heaven and earth! - of what are you thinking? Are the shades of Pemberly to be thus polluted?" 

"Certainly not by yourself," William retaliated. "You can now have nothing further to say; you have insulted me, in the very worst possible method. I must beg you never to return to this house."

"Have you no regard, then, for the honour and credit of yourself and Georgiana?" His Aunt moved towards him, and he stepped back. She paused angrily. "Unfeeling, selfish boy! Do you not consider that a connection with her must disgrace you in the eyes of everybody? Yet, you are resolved to have her?"

"I have said no such thing. I am only resolved to act in that manner, which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness, without reference to you, or to any person thus so wholly unconnected to myself." Taking pity on her, although not weakening his resolve, William continued, "Lady Catherine, I have nothing further to say. You know my sentiments. If by refusing you I fail to oblige your views on my duty, honour, and gratitude, than I must inform you that it will not ruin me not Georgiana, nor make us the contempt of all the world. Your world, and your circles, then perhaps certainly, but as you already are aware, we care naught for them. In terms of my own regard, none of these principals would be violated in such a theoretical attachment, and indeed, Pemberly would weep with pleasure to have Elizabeth as its mistress.

"I send you no compliments, Aunt; you deserve no such attention. But I take my leave of you." With a mocking bow, he turned and left in search of Lizzie.

Well, who knew that 2001-3000 AD was considered the third millennium, not the second? I guess it makes sense, it's just not really something I've ever particularly thought about...