MJ Stratton - 'No Less Than Any Other' - Cover Reveal

 

Hello again, readers! This is the last stop on my blog tour for ‘A Quick Succession of Busy Nothings’ and I am going out with a bang!

On Thursday I posted an excerpt featuring cousins Lizzy Bennet and Mary Crawford eavesdropping on an incendiary conversation between Darcy and Bingley during an excursion to some ruins near Oakham Mount. I’m following that up today with what takes place a couple hours later. To set the scene, the maneuverings of Mrs. Bennet have resulted in Darcy giving Elizabeth a ride back to Longbourn, alone in Bingley’s curricle….

 

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It was not until they passed Oakham Mount that Mr. Darcy at last addressed Elizabeth. “Thank you for agreeing to dance with me at the ball. I hope you did not accept merely from a sense of obligation – or because you believe it shall be some sort of punishment for me.” He offered her a lopsided smile and added, “In truth, I do not frequently enjoy the activity, but on this occasion I find I am looking forward to it. I have missed our conversations, and I suspect you speak as a rule while dancing.”

For a moment Elizabeth forgot to be cross with him and actually returned his smile. “I do – and I thank you for your sentiments. I am pleased that you find the prospect better than merely tolerable.”

He chuckled at her teasing. “Am I never to live down the shame of my ghastly remarks? Must I send flowers every day, carve my apology in stone perhaps?”

“I cannot know, for you have never attempted either.” Elizabeth arched an eyebrow and grinned, inwardly chiding herself for flirting with him. 

Mr. Darcy smiled but made no more reply for the moment. There was another long silence, and then he took her hand in his. He quickly released it, and then seized it again, pressing it tightly in his own this time. “In vain I have struggled – it will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. Your demeanor toward me has returned to what it once was, and it gives me hope that cannot be easily extinguished. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”

Elizabeth gaped at him in amazement, which he took for sufficient encouragement to go on. 

“I have been master of my estate for five years, having inherited at an earlier age than I wished or expected, and since that time I have guarded myself, and even my heart, against the fortune hunters of the ton. I have never met any lady that inspired such deep and tender sentiments as I have felt for you since the earliest moments of our acquaintance. I began badly. But even then you offered me forgiveness before I had the grace to ask for it – you spoke to Bingley of my regrettable and inexcusable insult with compassion that I did not deserve, and demonstrated to me your uncommon understanding of my nature, which I had never thought to hope for in a wife. All my life I have believed I would marry for duty, in a manner befitting my situation in life – the best I could hope for in such an arrangement may be an amiable partnership. Only since I have met you and have come to adore your kindness, your wit and your unique spirit have I dared to hope for the kind of love my parents shared, which I had admired growing up, and from which I received the myriad benefits of a loving and happy household, during their lifetimes.”

Elizabeth sat in stunned silence throughout his speech, which was the longest she had ever heard him make outside of their theatrical. When she realized that he awaited a response, Elizabeth roused herself to make some reply that would express her appreciation of his feelings without suggesting that she returned them, for she was still too angry at what she had overheard to allow herself any acknowledgement of her own regard. “You honor me, sir,” she stammered. 

This paltry rejoinder seemed to satisfy him, for he flicked the reins and continued his declaration. “I am relieved that you understand the distinction of my proposal, for the disparity in our station, along with the condition of your family, has caused me considerable consternation and doubt, which only my own careful ponderance and the approval of my two dearest friends has allowed me to surmount. It is very likely that you will face certain obstacles in assuming the role of my wife and mistress of Pemberley, both in managing a significantly larger household and in moving amongst a sphere not only so decidedly different from your present circle, but harsher and more exacting. I have no doubt of your abilities to rise to every challenge – indeed I look forward to beholding your triumph in these matters – but it must be said that I have little faith that your family could be counted upon to be of any service to you whatsoever in this difficult transition.”

Elizabeth understood his meaning at once, and summoned the courage to interrupt him. “Sir,” she said sharply. “I beg you would refrain from such comments about my family – I have long been aware of your attitude toward them.”

Mr. Darcy nodded, but he had not exhausted his censure of the Bennets. “I am not surprised that you should understand my reservations about offering for you, given the vulgar manners so often displayed by your mother and younger sisters, and the incomprehensible flippancy of your father toward the folly of those under his protection. A man less afflicted with such overpowering affection might balk at the prospect of such relations, which would constitute a degradation beyond anything most of my own relations could countenance, though I believe they will accept my choice when these connections are tempered by the distance which will naturally arise from your removal to Pemberley, and in time more may be attempted to correct those evils which might otherwise expose our union to the world’s derision.”

Despite his determination to separate Mr. Bingley from Mary, and even his villainy toward Mr. Wickham, Elizabeth might have felt some compulsion to refuse him gently, but for the ire his insensitive and egotistical expostulation aroused in her. Rage consumed her as she realized that after stating every imaginable objection to his own choice of bride and congratulating himself on overcoming them, he had no doubt of receiving a favorable answer to the question he had not actually asked. 

Seeing that he felt no need to even conclude his insidious speech on a favorable note and actually pose the question he had been leading up to, Elizabeth proceeded to put an end to the whole horrid exchange. 

“In such cases as these, I believe the established mode is to express a sense of obligation for the sentiments avowed, but I cannot. I have told you that I cared little for your good opinion, and you have certainly bestowed it most unwillingly. I am sorry to cause you pain, and I hope it will be of short duration – the feelings which caused you such doubt and deliberation must provide some consolation, and aid you in overcoming the regard you claim to feel for me.”

His expression betrayed more emotion than he had ever allowed himself to display; tremendous astonishment gave way to resentment and anger. His complexion grew pale and his composure utterly dissolved. He opened his mouth to speak, closed it again, and then did the same twice more. He focused for several minutes on driving the curricle, and when he looked back at her it was with a forced sort of calmness that rather alarmed Elizabeth.

“And this is all the reply I am to expect, after all that has passed between us? I might, perhaps, wish to be informed why, with so little endeavor at civility, I am thus rejected.”

“And I might as well inquire why, with so evident a design of offending and insulting me, you chose to tell me that you love me while castigating everyone I hold dear and suggesting that I would do better to sever my connection to all my family for the sake of appeasing yours. Is this not some excuse for incivility? But then, I have other reasons that more than account for my present discourtesy.”

Mr. Darcy was obliged to turn his attention back to guiding the horses that pulled their present conveyance, and then he looked back at her, red faced with fury. “What reasons might those be?”

He called himself a gentleman, and yet he would not acknowledge even the wrong he had done her that very afternoon. Elizabeth fairly snarled at him. “Do you think any possible consideration would tempt me to accept a man who is determined to ruin the happiness of my most beloved cousin?”

Mr. Darcy blanched. “You refer to Miss Crawford,” he said, as if unwilling to admit to his designs against Mary until Elizabeth confirmed what she knew of them already. 

“I refer to all of your subtle machinations to keep her away from Mr. Bingley, while standing in judgment of her attempts to become better acquainted with him and express her regard. And I refer to the unpardonable comments you made in condemnation of her character and her intentions this very afternoon, in your efforts to influence your friend. Surely your own exertions are far more devious than anything my cousin could be accused of.”

Mr. Darcy exhibited a fleeting appearance of mortification before his expression turned cold and proud. “Devious? Is not whatever method by which you heard these words, which were meant for none but Bingley, equally devious?”

Elizabeth scoffed. “You are not sorry! You have no remorse for your hateful insinuations, no interest at all in discovering the truth of her character, or in allowing your friend to be his own man and form his own opinions, which must surely be more rooted in reality the warped and twisted interpretations you are determined to hold over her!”

“I desire nothing more than for Bingley to be his own man,” Mr. Darcy spat. “In escaping any connection to your cousin, he stands a far greater chance of actually managing it!”

“How very helpful you are, in your infinite wisdom!”

“Toward him I have been kinder than to myself, it would seem,” Mr. Darcy growled. 

“Certainly nobody could accuse you of kindness toward Mr. Wickham,” Elizabeth retorted. 

The carriage jerked roughly and Mr. Darcy pulled the reins; they came to an abrupt halt, each of them panting from fear and frustration. “Forgive me for endangering you thus, Miss Elizabeth.”

“That, of all things, is what you regret? A bump in the road is worthy of apology, but ruining lives is quite excusable! It is well you stopped the curricle, for I have no wish to remain aboard a moment longer. Neither of us can have anything to say to the other that will constitute any semblance of accord, and I can bear no more vindictive venom from you, sir.” 

Mr. Darcy stared agog at her as she clambered down from the equipage, her cheeks hot with embarrassment at her own lack of grace as she made her descent. When both her feet were firmly on the ground, she looked up at him and said, “I shall walk the rest of the way to Longbourn.”

“It is at least a mile hence,” he cried.

“You know me capable of traversing greater distances – I rather wish the walk were a longer one, after such distress.”

“Elizabeth, I beg you….”

Elizabeth held up a hand to silence him. “I will hear no more from you, Mr. Darcy. I must beg you to leave me be. I have walked here all my life, and no harm could befall me that is worse than this last quarter hour I have spent listening to your unrepentant arrogance and conceit. Do not importune me any further, for you cannot possibly say anything that would assuage the damage this conversation has done to my regard for you.”

At this, Elizabeth turned and walked away from him, and only when his protestations and pleas had ceased did she look back at him. He sat atop the curricle, his elbows resting on his knees and his head cradled in his hands, his shoulders shuddering violently. 

Elizabeth felt her eyes sting as if she would weep, but she refused to allow herself to do any such thing. She stood still for a moment, and it occurred to her that she may perhaps never see him again after such an irrevocable rupture in the warm friendship that had grown between them. Her mind was all disorder. The past, the present, the future – everything was terrible. A single tear slid down her cheek; she turned and fled.

 

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Can Mr. Darcy come back from such a brutal rejection and win Lizzy over? You can read the whole story on Kindle or paperback, and don’t forget to enter the giveaway for a chance to win a free ebook!