It’s my pleasure to share an excerpt of Jayne Bamber’s new release, Strong Objections to the Lady, coming out just before Christmas. Don’t forget to enter the giveaway.
Hello, Janeites! I am so excited to share another excerpt of my new release, Strong Objections to the Lady. Hold onto your bonnets, because this one a doozy!
So there’s a Major Spoiler Alert here, but as the events take place in Chapter 1, I hope you can all forgive me. To set the scene, the story opens at Hunsford Parsonage, the day after Mr. Darcy’s proposal….
Lady Catherine was momentarily roused from her stupor – her speech slurred, she began to clamor with confusion, clasping still at her chest. “Fitzwilliam, is that you?”
Mr. Darcy had not left her side, and he crouched down beside her now, that she might better regard him. “I am here, Aunt. You are unwell – you must rest.”
Her face contorted with pain, Lady Catherine was nonetheless undaunted by her present calamity, and after scanning the room for a moment, she singled out Elizabeth. Pointing a shaky finger in her direction, Lady Catherine gave a sneer that was nearer a wince, and cried, “This adventuress would try to kill me! Harlot, I shall not be laid low so easily – I shall see you brought low for your upstart pretensions!” There was more, but her words grew too muddled to make out, and in the end she seized up once more as the weakness in her heart overtook her.
The room seemed to spin as chaos erupted around Elizabeth. Mr. Darcy and his cousin at once exchanged a glance that betrayed the conclusions they had likely drawn about Elizabeth’s confrontation with the dowager and Elizabeth felt an unbearable burning in her tear-stained cheeks. Charlotte attempted to calm Lady Catherine, who had slumped backward in a distorted pose of agony, but cast a querulous look in Elizabeth’s direction. Mr. Collins, who had lingered in the doorway, still conferring on his intention of seeking out the doctor rather than actually setting about it, now hesitated, and after the requisite time had passed for him to process his patroness’s accusations, he rounded on Elizabeth with fatuous fury.
Looking as though he might faint, he cried, “Cousin Elizabeth! Explain yourself at once!”
There was another muffled remonstrance from Lady Catherine, this one directed at Mr. Darcy, who was trying to calm his aunt. Elizabeth rushed toward her, weeping in earnest now. “Lady Catherine, I have meant you no ill, I swear it! What you have asked for, I shall promise it. It is easily done, you shall have my word.”
Elizabeth caught a glimpse of Mr. Darcy, who, still in his shirtsleeves, was looking pale and exceedingly distraught. He moved toward her, but Elizabeth gave the slightest shake of her head to deter him, and knelt beside Lady Catherine. “Please,” Elizabeth whispered, moving her head until the dowager would meet her eye. “There is no cause for this.”
Charlotte drew nearer, placing her hand on Elizabeth’s shoulder. “Lizzy, what is this all about?”
Elizabeth leaned into the comfort of her friend’s touch, but could not take her eyes off of Lady Catherine, who appeared now to be in what could only be described as her death throes. Elizabeth felt herself entirely to blame, and in her wretchedness she could think only of mitigating the damage she had caused. “Please,” she whispered again.
The dowager finally turned to look at her, blinking rapidly. For a brief moment, Lady Catherine seemed not to recognize her at all – she gasped again, her eyes coming back into focus, and then she gave a feeble smile. “My darling, is it you?” She began to extend one hand toward Elizabeth’s face, when suddenly her own countenance softened, and then slackened entirely, and her hand fell back against her chest. Lady Catherine de Bourgh had, in a frenzy of rage, expired right before Elizabeth’s eyes.
Elizabeth drew back, and sank down onto the floor beside Lady Catherine’s inert body, which was sprawled across the chaise. There was a heavy silence in the room as she tore her eyes away from the dowager and looked up at the four other startled faces in the room. Colonel Fitzwilliam was gaping with unmasked alarm, while Mr. Darcy’s countenance had paled in terror. Charlotte looked away, eyeing her husband nervously; Mr. Collins latched onto his wife’s arm before blabbering at Elizabeth. “Cousin, what have you done? Troublesome girl, you have killed my noble patroness!”
Charlotte glanced between her husband and Elizabeth with a grimace. “Sir, you must go and fetch the doctor!”
Mr. Darcy began to look very ill, though his eyes were fixed not on his aunt but on Elizabeth as he slowly backed away from the others. Colonel Fitzwilliam looked down at his aunt. “Perhaps she may yet live,” he breathed.
“Oh, yes,” Mr. Collins cried, rushing toward her. The colonel lifted one of Lady Catherine’s limp wrists to check for a pulse, and gave a sad shake of his head. “She is gone.”
As Charlotte gasped, Elizabeth recoiled from the sofa, aghast to think that she had done this. Colonel Fitzwilliam moved nearer to Elizabeth, offering her a hand to help her up, when Mr. Collins, his breathing frantic, gave a sudden groan and promptly fainted in the center of the room.
Charlotte rushed to her husband’s side, and Colonel Fitzwilliam drew Elizabeth closer, out of her friend’s path. She looked up at him to see him regarding her with such understanding and compassion as to make her quite certain that he knew all that had transpired with Mr. Darcy, and had surely guessed the rest. She let out a shaky breath and looked away in embarrassment, just as Mr. Darcy hastened past her.
He stepped out into the hall and called for a maid. “You, there. Your master has fallen ill. Fetch the doctor at once.” He moved back into the room and stooped down to lift Mr. Collins, who did not rouse. “If you will permit me, Mrs. Collins, I will bring your husband upstairs until the doctor can see him. I fear there is little we can do now for my aunt. Richard, I believe we must return our aunt to her home – run to Rosings and bring back the carriage to convey her.”
Charlotte looked up in astonishment at what was, after all, a rather long speech for Mr. Darcy; she nodded quietly, her eyes wide with fright.
The colonel also nodded, his posture resolute, as if taking orders from a superior officer, and he gave Elizabeth a brief, commiserating glance before he hastened from the parsonage. Mr. Darcy had now lifted Mr. Collins’s considerable weight and, red faced, he strode from the room. Elizabeth expected her friend to follow them, but instead Charlotte rushed to her side, catching Elizabeth by the elbow and drawing her to the far side of the room.
“Eliza, you know I love you dearly, but I think you had better explain yourself before Mr. Collins wakes up.”
Elizabeth chewed her lip, waiting for Mr. Darcy’s heavy footfalls on the stairs to grow fainter, before finally she spoke. “Oh, Charlotte, I hardly know what to say.” Indeed, her mind was a blur from the shocking scene that had just unfolded, and there was a disconcerting ringing in her ears that made it nearly impossible for her to think.
“Elizabeth! Please, I need to make sense of it all – Lady Catherine said some very outrageous things. I am sure she was confused, but….”
“Mr. Darcy proposed to me last night,” Elizabeth blurted out.
“I knew it!”
Elizabeth might have laughed at such a typically Charlotte reaction, but for the cloud of dismay about her that seemed to dull every feeling. “He came to see me when you were all at Rosings,” she said numbly. “He told me that he loves me, most ardently.”
Charlotte gave a breathy smile. “I knew it!”
“I did not – I really knew not what to say, but then he went on to abuse my family, to list a multitude of reasons he had fought his feelings; he seemed to think that his overcoming these objections was a great compliment. I disagreed.” Elizabeth let out a shaky sigh, thinking it strange that what had caused her such fury last night could now be described so mechanically.
Charlotte closed her eyes and groaned. “Oh, Lizzy – you refused him?”
“I did. At length. In fact, I took the liberty of informing him in full of the degree of esteem in which I hold him. He was so surprised, which only made me angrier. How confident he was of his success, after abusing everyone I love. It was insupportable.”
“And this morning?”
Elizabeth gulped down a groan as she glanced over at Lady Catherine, before she willed her gaze back to Charlotte. “She met me in the grove as I took my morning walk. I believe she sought me out by design, for she began to scold me at once for having the audacity to set my cap at her nephew. I might have corrected her misapprehension at once, and spared everyone so much misery….”
Charlotte eyed her ruefully. “But she wounded your pride.”
Strong Objections to the Lady will be available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited on December 21st, with a paperback soon to follow. Til then, I hope you enjoyed this excerpt – there were a few hidden secrets within it that will come back around later….
I will be sharing more excerpts throughout my blog tour.
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Obsessed with Mr Darcy 