Page 32 of Miss Bennet's Dragon
“Lady Catherine de Bourgh is blessed with such formidable strength of will and institutional grandeur that she has retained her bound draca, even after her husband’s premature death.”
Now I thought of it, I had heard her name in this context years ago. Perhaps Mr. Collins’s effusive praise was merited. There were less than a half-dozen draca held by widowed wyves in all of England.
“Have youseenher wyvern?” I asked.
He was taken aback. “Do you… doubt my explanation?”
“Of course not. I am just curious. How large is it?”
He seemed unsettled by the direction of our conversation, but, gamely, he put down his toast and held his hands several feet apart. “The body would be… like this? Understand, I do not approach, for it is a most formid—”
“Would you describe it asintelligent? More than our firedrake, or less?”
“Intelligent? It is a beast.”
“Quite,” I said absently. Would it be possible to visit? Mr. Collins was watching me expectantly, so I waved him on. “You were saying?”
He took a breath. “Third… no, first… but we must be further…” His lips pursed in puzzlement.
I could see he had lost his place. Then I remembered the seriousness of this conversation, for him at least, if not for me, and I felt a stab of guilt.
“Mr. Collins—”
But he had found his stride again. “I shall now assure you in themostanimated language of the violence of my affection—”
“Mr. Collins, sir!” I interrupted. “You forget that I have made no answer. Let me do so now. Accept my thanks for this honor, but it is impossible for me to do otherwise than to decline.”
His lips opened and closed several times before his indefatigable self-assuredness, or maybe it was willful self-deception, returned. He waved my words aside.
“I understand it is usual for young ladies to reject the man whom they secretly mean to accept, when he first applies for their favor.”
“Mr. Collins, I assure you—”
“And that sometimes the refusal is repeated a second or even a third time. I am therefore by no means discouraged, as I shall lead you to the altar before long!”
“Threetimes! I promise you that if such young ladies exist, I am not one of them. I am perfectly serious in refusing you. You could not make me happy, and I am the last woman in the world who could make you so.”
“But Lady Catherine de Bourgh herself has blessed a union with your family. She wishes that I marry gentry and bind draca to maintain the prestige of her estate. She considers your familial history of binding most encouraging.”
“How would she knowthat?”
“Her ladyship has condescended to advise my search for a wyfe. From her unique perspective, she values most highly the wyfe’s lineage for a superior outcome.”
That was intriguing, but I refused to lose sight of my objective. “I am certain she would not approve of me. Throughout your visit, I have many times demonstrated”—what would the stuffy Lady Catherine abhor?—“impertinence. No, wait… reformist sympathies!” That was much better.
I had succeeded in triggering a concerned expression, but at that moment, my mother burst through the door.
“Lizzy! I demand you attend me immediately. Outside!”
And thus, to battle. I listened to my mother in the hallway, but I was stony-faced, and cross that she had not even warned me.
But my heart sank when she said, “We shall see what your father thinks!”
The library door was open. That was unusual. Papa always required that we knock. He looked solemn, sitting at his desk and not even reading. I became nervous.
“Papa…” I began.
“Oh, Mr. Bennet!” Mamma broke in. “You must make Lizzy marry Mr.Collins, for she vows she will not have him, and she is our next prettiest and eldest after Jane, who of course is all but engaged already, and if you do not make haste, Mr. Collins will change his mind and not have her!”
