Natural Laws

WARNING: This story makes it impossible for Elizabeth and Darcy to marry.

Mr. Darcy returned to the drawing room very soon after he had left to speak to Elizabeth’s father. He said softly to Elizabeth, “Your father wishes to see us together.”

They entered her father’s study to find him extremely pale and nearly trembling. “Lizzy,” he said desperately, “I thought you hated him!”

“I was wrong,” Elizabeth began, but her father cut her off.

“I forbid the marriage. By the laws of nature and men, it cannot go forward.”

Elizabeth and Darcy both looked at him in amazement.

“What do you mean?” Darcy demanded, “What law of nature?”

Mr. Bennet repeated, “You cannot marry.”

“Papa, please explain yourself.”

Mr. Bennet took a key and opened a locked drawer. He withdrew a miniature portrait of a lady and set it before the other two.

“Why do you have a portrait of my mother?” Darcy said, dread beginning to enter his mind.

Elizabeth gasped but remained silent.

“Your mother had many disappointments after your birth. As your parents were hoping for another child, she was sent, about twenty years ago, to a renowned doctor who had retired and used to reside near Meryton. That was how I came to know her.”

“Dear God no,” Darcy breathed.

Elizabeth looked ill. “Say nothing more,” she begged.

“This is proof enough,” Mr. Bennet said, returning the portrait to the drawer, “I have always kept this to prove Elizabeth’s true parentage. I never imagined I would have to reveal it.”

Something occurred to Elizabeth and she asked solemnly, “Did my mother know?”

“Yes,” Mr. Bennet said, “and her conduct has been blameless. She has treated you as her own in everything. You replaced a stillborn son. It was very convenient in the end.”

For some minutes there was a dead silence. Suddenly Darcy left and Elizabeth, after looking again at her father in disgust, desolation, and despair, turned away and left the room. She saw Mr. Darcy taking leave; she followed him out the door.

They stood just outside the door for a moment, before both resolving to walk towards the little copse where Elizabeth had faced Lady Catherine only days before.

“Do you believe what my father said?” Elizabeth asked, hoping beyond hope that there was some mistake.

“I do. I recall it,” Darcy said, “I remember my mother was gone for a year; I was told it was for her health. I was about seven years old. After that I never thought my mother was quite the same, especially when my father-” He stopped speaking.

Elizabeth sat down on the ground, because she needed a seat and there was nothing within her reach. The ten steps that might have taken her to a rustic bench were a mile to her now.

“I have heard,” Darcy said at length, “that brothers and sisters of the same parents, who meet late in life; they feel a connection which can easily be mistaken for love.”

“We never ought to see each other again,” Elizabeth said softly, and more to herself than him.

“No!” cried Darcy.

“No? We are brother and sister, but no one can ever know.”

“Something ought to be done,” he said, almost in a fever of determination.

“Nothing can be done!” Elizabeth said miserably.

“You should have been provided for, as my mother’s child.”

“Your father did not think it necessary.”

“My father was undoubtedly angry.”

“He had every right to be.”

There was a silence again and Elizabeth felt that it should be a perpetual silence; that this subject ought never to be brought up between them, or any living soul again. She was beginning to dwell on the injury to the woman she had always called “mamma” and it was making her heart absolutely wretched.

“My cousin was very fond of you,” Darcy said, rapidly, as if he was grasping at anything to keep himself sane. “If you had enough to marry upon…”

Elizabeth said, “Marry your cousin? Am I even a gentleman’s daughter?”

Darcy said, “No, you are the granddaughter of an earl. Something must be done!”

“Why? Why not just leave me alone?”

“Because I love you and I want you near me. Now that we know, will that love not take a proper direction? If you are my sister, I want you as my sister. It cannot be acknowledged, never publicly, but it could be- I cannot think that you might marry somewhere I would never see you again. I cannot lose you forever, there must be something I can do! This cannot be the end of everything!”

Elizabeth made no reply. She rose, shakily, and Darcy had stepped forward to catch her, but she gained her feet and he moved away. She wanted nothing more than to be gone and without another word, without even taking leave, she set off. She was walking quickly, with her only goal and direction to be away.

Several months later…

“When I was out today with Mrs. Fitzwilliam, someone said we looked exactly like sisters! I love her so well, I was pleased. But you should have seen her face, it was as white as her muslin gown,” said Georgiana, sitting with her brother for dinner. “When is she coming next to visit? I am very fond of her. A cousin is almost like a sister. Why, you are nearly as pale as she was! If I did not know better, I might say it was a family trait. But then ever since I met Elizabeth at Pemberley, I felt some kind of connection. She said I may call her Elizabeth; we are very good friends now. Near as sisters, one might say.”

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