[ UNDERGOING EDITING 08-18-24 ]
- Ever since she could walk, Elodie Bennet had expectations set upon her, as many other women did. As the second eldest, she was meant to care for her younger sisters and fulfill her duties without complaint.
Bei...
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HOLLOW.
"Let me be understood," Lady Catherine bit back, her eyes flashing with venomous anger. "Mr. Darcy is engaged to my daughter."
Biting the inside of her cheek, Elodie forced her expression to remain neutral. She focused on the sensation of her teeth pressing into the soft flesh, using the slight pain to anchor herself and prevent any involuntary reaction.
Her silence stretched just long enough to ensure she wouldn't blurt out anything regrettable.
She took a deep breath, her voice steady but quiet when she finally spoke. "Then you should have no reason to suppose he would make an offer to me."
It was a measured response, one that gave nothing away, even as her mind continued to reel from the unexpected blow.
"You obstinate, headstrong girl!" Lady Catherine's voice rose above her own, filling itself with even more disdain if such a thing were possible.
"This union has been planned since their infancy. Do you think it can be prevented by a woman of inferior birth whose own sister's elopement resulted in a scandalously patched-up marriage only achieved at the expense of your uncle?" She scoffed and looked away from Elodie, her lip curling in contempt. "Heaven and Earth, are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?"
The words hung in the air like a dark cloud, the malice in Lady Catherine's voice seeping into every corner and crack of the room.
"Now tell me once and for all, are you engaged to him?"
Elodie felt hot tears form in the corners of her eyes, and her mouth ran dry. Lady Catherine's cruelty was unlike anything she had ever encountered, and her accusations and insults struck at the very core of her being.
Not only her own honor but also her family's was under assault, making the scorn feel a hundred times more excruciating. The ridicule had cut deep, and the unfairness of it all left her feeling helpless and exposed.
"I am not..." She managed to whisper, her voice barely more than a ghostly murmur.
Lady Catherine, however, seemed momentarily satisfied by this faint, almost defeated response. She inclined her head slightly. "And will you promise never to enter into such an engagement?"
Elodie recalled her conversation with Mr. Darcy and of all the lingering glances, the soft expressions, and the ways he had looked at her with a tenderness that had seemed both foreign and profoundly intimate.
"I will not, and I certainly never shall." Elodie declared firmly, her face transforming into a mask of stony coldness, a look so uncompromising it took Lady Catherine aback. "You've insulted me in every possible way, so I doubt there is much more left to say."
