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BY REASON, BY REFLECTION, BY EVERYTHING
CHAPTER 1
HIS OBLIGATION
Pemberley, Derbyshire
“Pray, tell me again why you are going through with this scheme of meeting this young woman from Hertfordshire?” Colonel Fitzwilliam beseeched his younger cousin, Fitzwilliam Darcy.
Reared with certain guiding principles, the younger man considered his obligation of uppermost importance to his family was to be heir to Pemberley and to beget the next heir after him. Knowing his duty and behaving in a manner to bring it about were different matters altogether. Few people who knew him well were more aware of Darcy’s dilemma than the colonel.
Darcy’s thoughts of his father’s failing health had been a near constant companion of late. Concerned that the elderly man was nearing his final days, Darcy wanted to do something he thought would bring his father a bit of comfort and peace of mind.
He was no stranger to the fact that his father had long entertained the idea of his first-born son marrying the first-born daughter of Mr. Thomas Bennet, one of his closest friends from university. It was all rather informal - this arranged marriage - given one rather material point: neither of the gentlemen had even chosen their own future brides.
In the ensuing years, the elder Darcy went on to marry Lady Anne Fitzwilliam, the daughter of the fifth Earl of Matlock. Not long after that, he begot his only son and heir, Fitzwilliam. As it happened, his wife made a pledge of her own to her sister, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. From their children’s cradles, the two aristocratic sisters had decided that young Fitzwilliam and Lady Anne’s niece as well as her namesake, Anne, were to be married.
For the sake of familial harmony, the Darcys had agreed that when it was all said and done, their son should choose his own bride. So long as he at least entertained the idea of marrying one of the prospective brides that had been ordained for him, then neither parent would have cause to repine.
The fact that his parents’ plans for his future were at complete odds suited Darcy’s purposes perfectly well. For his part, Darcy simply was not ready to take a bride. His father’s dire fate did not change that, but the prospect of reuniting his father with his old friend before it was too late was not without its own appeal. With this scheme, his father would have the comfort of knowing he had kept his word to his friend.
Darcy was not at liberty to share such intimate details of his father’s health with anyone, not even the colonel with whom he had a habit of confiding almost everything.
“As I have said, I am doing so chiefly on behalf of my father. It is the least I can do to repay him for all he has done to ward off Lady Catherine’s insistence that I am to marry our cousin.”
“You would have your father believe you will marry a young woman whom you have never laid eyes on when you have successfully spent the past years since reaching the age of majority fending off beautiful girls and their scheming mamas. Are you certain you know what you are about? Why not just marry Anne and settle the business once and for all?”
“Should I harbor a desire to marry at all, I would have to say marrying Anne is completely out of the question. We may be relations, but, I assure you, we have nothing else in common. However, as I have no desire to marry anyone — regardless of how beautiful she may or may not be, I see no harm in meeting the young woman. Once I have met her and spent the requisite time in her company, I shall simply inform Father that she and I are not well-suited.”
“I say it is a precarious scheme at its best. You might fall in love with the young woman.”
Darcy shrugged. “I might, but as I am not looking to fall in love with anyone in the near future, I believe it is very unlikely.”
“Well, we might as well have a bit of fun with this little venture—a friendly wager if you will.”
He eyed his cousin with some circumspection. “You expect me to make sport of all of this. Why am I not surprised?”
“I have come all this way to witness you take part in this scheme. I feel I ought to have some stake in its outcome.”
“You might leave Pemberley and return to town,” Darcy suggested. “No doubt there is more than one young lady in want of your amiable companionship.”
“And miss out on the excitement of seeing you juggle the affections of both Anne and this other young woman. Pray remind me; what is her name again?”
“Miss Bennet,” Darcy replied. “Her name is Miss Jane Bennet.”
“Indeed. And unless I am mistaken, your friend Charles Bingley and his family are to be guests as well, which means there will be a third young woman vying for your attentions. I wager you one hundred pounds you do not escape this summer a single man whose heart remains unclaimed.”
“Do not be absurd. Besides, if my memory serves me correctly, you owe me in excess of one hundred pounds.”
“One hundred, two hundred, who’s counting?” Extending his hand, Colonel Fitzwilliam asked, “Shall we shake hands on it?”
Ignoring the gesture, Darcy replied, “On the contrary, for how difficult is it for a man who does not pay his debts to embark upon such a gamble?”
His cousin shrugged. “Then, you name the terms.”
“I think I shall abstain. It is one thing to give rise to expectations of marriage in the young lady’s mind. It is quite another to make sport of it. Indeed, I shall not compound the scheme with a paltry bet. Besides, what would my father think were he to learn of it?”
After carrying on in that way a while longer, the cousins were parted, and Darcy was at leisure to reflect on their conversation. He was not about to take his cousin up on the wager that he would lose his heart by the end of the summer. Not that he doubted his resolve in that regard, but it did not seem like the gentlemanly thing to do. Certainly his father would not approve. Causing his ailing father even the tiniest bit of grief was simply not in Darcy’s nature.
