Work Text:
Lady Catherine de Bourgh opined to anyone who would listen, and indeed, her Ladyship found no difficulty in securing an audience of willing listeners, little observing that this was often composed solely of her daughter, the Collinses, and Colonel Fitzwilliam, that it was a blessing that Mr. and Mrs. Collins had no daughters. Lady Catherine considered daughters to be entirely too much trouble, and sisters in particular to be so very fractious as to produce nothing but head-aches. Charlotte had long ceased to take offence at any of Lady Catherine’s speeches, but on this she struggled not at all, for she was in perfect agreement, though she had her own particular reasoning. Privately, she considered that her nonexistent daughters would undoubtedly have inherited all the worst of their parents: her prominent chin and high forehead, Mr. Collins’s lank hair and bulbous nose. None knew more intimately than Charlotte the style of choices afforded girls of little beauty (and, most likely, little sense, given their paternity), so she satisfied herself by looking at her two hardy, lively boys, destined for the clergy and the law, and enjoying those parts of Elizabeth’s letters that recounted the adventures of her three daughters. There were two Darcy sons as well, for thankfully Elizabeth had not failed to produce an heir for Pemberley, but Charlotte was quite contented with her own two boys, even if there were no dolls to kiss and no confidences to keep. If she thought of what might have been, it was only to feel thankful that it had not occurred.