I don't own Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth Bennet allowed herself a brief moment to watch her dear sister, Jane, interact with Mr. Bingley. It was clear to her just how besotted her sister was with the gentleman, who appeared to be just as besotted with her. She couldn't be happier for her, in her opinion, Jane was the most deserving of all good things in life. If only Jane's distraction with Mr. Bingley didn't mean the responsibility to keep Kitty and Lydia in check fell solely on her shoulders.
"Lizzy!" Speaking of Lydia, her youngest sister was quickly crossing the dance floor, calling her name. Already she had had to correct her sister a few times that night, making her wonder at Lydia seeking her out. She would have thought the younger girl would be avoiding her. "Mr. Collins stepped on Kitty's dress and tore it, she is inconsolable, and asking to return home. You must come and help mend it, and convince her to stay."
Lizzy had seen the incident happen during the last dance, and knew that an overly emotional Kitty could ruin the night for the rest of the Bennet girls, and more specifically, for Jane. For this reason she followed her sister to one of the rooms on the ground floor of Netherfield.
She entered a darkened room with only a single candle on the table, and turned to ask Lydia what was going on when the door slammed shut in her face and she heard something being dragged in front of it. "Lydia, open the door this instant," She called through the closed door as she tried to open it, only to find it wouldn't budge.
"There, now she won't spoil our fun." She heard her sister laugh from the other side, and heard a male's laughter join her's.
"Lydia, this is not funny, open the door." She tried to turn the handle, but it wouldn't budge. Her frustration grew as she heard her sister's laughter drift away.
"Allow me." Came a male voice behind her, and she was surprised when Mr. Darcy of all people gently guided her out of the way and began trying to open the door. She watched as he threw his weight against the door, and for a second she thought it would give, but it was no use.
"It would appear we are stuck here for the moment." She tried to hide the annoyance in her voice, telling herself it wasn't fair to take her frustration out on him, no matter how much she disliked him.
"So it would seem." Was his only reply, and she found her ire growing.
"Come now Mr. Darcy, we must have some conversation, if for no other reason than to pass the time until we are rescued." He looked at her with an unreadable expression, but said nothing. "We could discuss the couples we've seen dance, or perhaps the music of the ball."
"Do you and your sisters often walk to Meryton?" It was not the conversation she expected, but she saw a chance to call him on his bad behavior with Wickham, and decided to take it since they had ample privacy at the moment.
"We do, in fact when you happened upon us the other day we were making a new acquaintance. I understand the two of you are known to each other." She thought she'd see any myriad of emotions settle on his face, but rage was not one she expected, and could not help but take a step back.
"Forgive me Miss. Bennet, but George Wickham is not a man to be trusted." He schooled his features into a mask of indifference, and she felt her anger with him rise.
"Of course one such as you would say that, after what you've done to him."
This time he could not keep his anger in check, "What I've done to him?"
"Yes, what you've done to him, to reduce him to his present state of poverty, and all because your father favored him." She had never been one to back down from a challenge, and wasn't about to start now.
"So he is still selling that old line then." The man practically seethed, and she started to lose some of her resolve. "Let me tell you about the real George Wickham..." The story he told had similarities with the one Wickham had told her, but differed in all the essentials. She wouldn't have known who to believe had Mr. Darcy not gone on to speak about the failed elopement with his younger sister.
She was shocked and dismayed to find she could have judged these two men so wrongly. She would later reflect on her behavior and find it was all due to her own wounded pride, but that would would have to wait as that that moment they heard something being dragged across the floor.
The door flew open, and when their eyes adjusted to the bright light flooding into the small room from the hallway, they saw Lady Lucas, Mrs. Long, and two footmen staring at them in shock.
It didn't take long for chaos to erupt, the two women wailing about her being compromised. The noise quickly drew a crowd, and before long she was being rushed from the room and the family carriage called for.
Her family made quite the spectacle of themselves as they left, her mother wailing about how they were all ruined, as there was no way a man of Mr. Darcy's station would do the honorable thing and marry her. Complaining how Mrs Long and Lady Lucas had made the scene to ensure no one would ever look twice at her daughters again.
Kitty and Lydia complained, loudly, that they did not want to go home. Lydia going so far as to stomp her foot like a child, and complain about her full dance card, and how she should be allowed to stay as she was such a favorite of the officers.
Mary started sermonizing, loudly, wanting to be heard over the rest of the Bennets, condemning Lizzy for her "loose" behavior.
She would have thought her father or Jane would have stood up for her, but neither said a word. Though the tears rolling down Jane's cheeks spoke loudly what her sister could not say. They spoke of shattered hopes and dreams.
Fitzwilliam Darcy had always been considered to be a man who never lost control. He preferred it that way, too many people relied on him for him to be careless enough to lose that control. Yet somehow that control, control over his own life, had slipped right through his fingertips.
He would like to blame Elizabeth Bennet for the loss of his control, but it had been very obvious to him that she had not known he was in that room when she'd been locked in there, apparently by her younger sister.
How was she to know that he had slipped away from the ball for a moment of solitude, to collect himself after the crush of people, people he mostly hadn't known, threatened to overwhelm him.
It was because of this loss of control that he found himself standing outside Mr. Bennet's office. Waiting for the people inside to finish their conversation so he could be admitted.
He listened to the man and his wife clearly telling their daughter that she had no choice but to marry her cousin, that she was lucky he was still willing to take her after her foolishness the night before.
He could hear the tears in Elizabeth's voice as she pleaded with her parents to believe her that is was actually the youngest hoyden to blame, and both parents refusal to believe her. One because they thought the girl too silly to concoct such a plan, and the other because they thought the girl too good.
What the parson started speaking about taking his cousin in hand, and reforming her behavior Darcy had enough. He had seen the looks the man had given Elizabeth, and would have called out any man who had dared look at Georgiana that way.
"I'm sorry Lizzy, but I have no choice in the matter, you must marry your cousin to save your reputation and that of your sisters." Elizabeth had been about to argue, "Enough, you were foolish enough to spend time in a dimly lit room, with a single man you knew would never marry you. Now you must live with the consequences. I never thought I'd say this, but I am ashamed of you."
"Perhaps you should ask the gentleman involved if he was willing to marry her." The room went silent at the sound of his voice. He had thought it possible that he was falling for Elizabeth Bennet, but seeing the tear tracks running down her cheeks, and feeling the rage swell in his chest at the ones that caused them, he knew he had already fallen.