Chapter 32

One afternoon, with most of the family gathered in the sitting room, Anne de Bourgh informed them that her mother had sent her a note. "Uncle, my mother is demanding I travel to an inn about ten miles away from Pemberley, where she is currently staying. She did not return home after her visit to Pemberley. She claims she wants to take me to Rosings, but I doubt that is the case, as my mother is not one to allow her plans to be challenged. Not only that, but I do not wish to go and be under her control once again. In the short time I have been at Pemberley, I have begun to feel much better. Must I do as she demands?" Anne asked.

"You are of age, Anne, and you may do as you wish. I recall Lewis once mentioning that he intended to leave Rosings to you, but even if he did not, you should be able to live off the interest of your dowry. You are always welcome to remain at Matlock with your aunt and me, and I dare say your cousin here would allow you to stay at Pemberley if you wished," Lord Matlock replied, nodding toward Darcy.

Darcy nodded his agreement. "Of course. Elizabeth and I would be pleased to have you stay as long as you like. I seem to recall my father mentioning an obligation in his will to care for Rosings until it was time for you to take it up, but he did not say anything about when that was. Perhaps we should seek out Sir Lewis's solicitors in town to find out what his will did say. If Rosings were left to you, surely it would have passed to you on your twenty-fifth birthday at the latest."

"Mother always said that Rosings was hers for her lifetime, although I thought Papa told me before he died that he intended for Rosings to pass to me. Uncle George asked me about it once, when he visited right after Papa died. I became very sick not long after he arrived, and I was not able to see him again during that visit."

Lord Matlock frowned while Darcy merely looked thoughtful. "I wonder if he would have a copy of Sir Lewis's will somewhere in the study. When he passed, I had the steward put away any papers we did not immediately need into the estate office. I know there are also papers in the strong room he stored there. Old Mr. Wickham would have been the steward at the time, but Fraser was his under-steward for a time. However, I am not certain he was here when Sir Lewis died. We can ask him."

That said, Darcy pulled the bell cord and instructed a footman to request Fraser's presence if he was available.

Fraser answered his master's summons within half an hour. After a brief discussion, the steward recalled a few papers dealing with Rosings and Sir Lewis de Bourgh, though not the details. Since it was already late afternoon, they decided to postpone the search until the morning.

The following morning, Darcy and Elizabeth, Lord Matlock, Fitzwilliam, and Anne met in the study after breaking their fasts. Fraser would begin the search in the estate office, while the family would search the study and adjacent strong room.

The group searched until early afternoon when finally Elizabeth discovered something in a neglected secretary in the corner of the room. Lord Matlock skimmed the documents quickly. "Rosings belongs to Anne, and it has since Sir Lewis's death." Anne gasped at this revelation, and Darcy helped her into a chair. "George knew of this since he was named Anne's guardian, but he died just before Anne came of age. I suppose he never had a chance to tell her of it, especially not if Catherine kept her ill whenever he would visit. I cannot understand why George never mentioned this to me or anyone else."

"Lady Catherine would have known what her husband's will contained, would she not?" Fitzwilliam asked.

"She always claimed that Papa left Rosings to her for her lifetime," Anne reminded them. "I do not know if she has another will somewhere that stated this, or if she thought if she said it often enough, everyone would believe it."

Scanning the will he had taken from his uncle's hands, Darcy spoke after a moment of silence. "I also cannot understand why Father never told me about Rosings. We discussed it often enough, especially since Aunt Catherine had already begun making noise about the ‘cradle betrothal' she tried to insist on. Perhaps Father thought to speak to me of it when you came of age or when I returned home from university that year, but he was already sick when I returned. We were able to speak about a few things, mostly related to Pemberley, but the only thing he said about Rosings was to ask me to review the books each year. It is possible Lady Catherine had him convinced Anne was too ill to take control."

"Does he have any journals or letters that might tell us his thoughts? Did he often write to Lady Catherine about estate matters? Would she have kept those, or would he have kept records of his suggestions?" Elizabeth asked.

Darcy frowned in thought. "Perhaps. It is more likely he conferred with the steward. Not long after my father died, the steward at Rosings retired. I believe he still lives, and Fraser should have his direction somewhere. We must call Fraser to let him know it has been found."

Upon the steward's arrival, those assembled were informed of old Mr. Pattison's direction. Fraser also acknowledged that the senior Misters Darcy and Wickham may have spoken of the ownership of Rosings several times. However, since it was not Pemberley's business, he was never included in the discussions.

After thanking and dismissing Fraser, Darcy strode across the room to the shelf where his father's journals were and chose one randomly. After checking the dates, he replaced it and picked up another. Elizabeth approached once he had done this twice more. "What are you searching for?" she asked.

"I have my father's journals from the years after my uncle's death. I have at times perused them, looking for something or another, but I have never really bothered to organise them." The rest of the group began to look through the journals for any clues about Rosings.

They found three journals from the years between Sir Lewis's death, when Darcy was around eighteen, to the last one he kept. Darcy and Elizabeth sat close together on a settee as they perused the one written just before George Darcy died; Lord Matlock took another, and Richard the last. Anne's eyesight was poor, so she sat and listened to the others, who occasionally read out a selection.

"Uncle George mentions the will and guardianship briefly in this one," Fitzwilliam said after several minutes. "He had just received a copy of the will and, of course, a scathing letter from Lady Catherine complaining that he was named guardian over her. He says a copy of the letter was placed in the strong room in a folio with other letters from Lady Catherine. I gather he had received quite a few following Aunt's death about all manner of things, including the so-called betrothal between Darcy and Anne. Uncle is particularly acidic toward our mutual aunt and states that the letter is ‘beyond the pale, even for Catherine.'"

Darcy frowned. "When was this?"

"A few weeks after Sir Lewis died. He died late in April and was buried before anyone from the family could make it there. Your father expressed some concern about this since no one knew he was ill."

Lord Matlock looked thoughtful. "Anne, do you recall what happened to your father? His death was rather sudden."

Shaking her head, Anne replied sadly, "Mother always said he died in his sleep, though no one understood what exactly happened to him. He had appeared healthy enough the day before but never woke up the next morning. I remember Mother being upset, though perhaps not exactly sad. I was just sixteen and was not allowed to be present for the reading of the will. The next day, Mother told me that she had inherited the estate and that it would pass to me upon her death. My dowry, however, was mine, and I would have access to the interest upon my twenty-first birthday. I am twenty-five now and have received a thousand pounds annually since reaching my majority. As you know, cousin, I have managed to save most of that, though Mother is unaware of the account you set up for me when you began visiting Rosings. I have not had the opportunity to spend much."

Darcy scanned the will again. "According to this, your dowry is thirty thousand pounds. You should have received at least twelve hundred pounds a year in interest, though it is more likely you would have received fifteen hundred. I will have to see how the funds for the dowry were invested."

Lord Matlock sighed heavily. "I should have checked things more thoroughly after Sir Lewis died and again after George passed. You were overwhelmed by Pemberley at first, and while you have done well with Rosings, you allowed Catherine to remain in charge because you were not told anything else. We all would have handled matters differently had we realised that Rosings belonged to Anne all this time."

"Lady Catherine has been lying to us all," Fitzwilliam said baldly. "I would be willing to bet she has a forged copy of the will and will attempt to make this one appear invalid."

The group grew quiet again as they continued to skim their journals. Darcy went into the strong room again and returned with a leather folio with a few papers sticking out. This, he sat on the desk as he began to scan the contents.

"I found the letter where she lambastes her ‘fool of a husband' for appointing Father as Anne's guardian and complains about Rosings being left to Anne. In it, she mentions Anne's being ‘too unwell' to be the mistress of the estate, yet in the next paragraph, she proclaims that she will do well when she takes control of Pemberley as its mistress. There is another letter with it—I would presume that Father pointed out that inconsistency to her, and she did not appreciate his doing so. She is rather … colourful … in her language to him."

Elizabeth looked up from the journal she was reading. "Your father found it odd that Anne was sick each time he visited. He questioned her about this several times, he says, on his last visit to Rosings but had to cut his visit short when he became very ill with some sort of stomach ailment. This was not long before you returned from Cambridge, William."

"The doctors believed he had some sort of ulcer or cancer of the stomach. They were uncertain what aggravated it; I never knew the illness started at Rosings," Darcy replied.

Everyone was quiet for several moments. It was Anne who broke the silence, blurting out, "I think Mother uses a tonic to keep me sick, so I cannot insist upon her allowing me to do more. I would feel better, but the moment I defied her on anything, she insisted I needed my tonic to calm me down. I had no intention of travelling to Pemberley, but she ensured I drank it frequently on the journey here. However, with Mrs. Jenkinson spending most of her time in her room and without Mother ordering me to drink it, I have felt much stronger and healthier."

Lord Matlock looked at his niece in concern. "Do you know what is in this tonic? Do you have it with you?"

"Mrs. Jenkinson likely has it with her. And no, Mother did not think I needed to know what it contained. "

Darcy frowned at this. His poor cousin had been sorely used by her mother. "Anne, with this will and the letters Father kept, it is certain that Rosings is yours. By withholding your inheritance, she has, in essence, stolen from you. I must investigate further because surely my father would have done something to protect your inheritance. Uncle, when you return to London, can you aid Anne in doing what is necessary to claim the estate?"

"I will, Darcy, and I will deal with my sister while we are at it. She is guilty of theft and likely of deliberately making her daughter ill. I am concerned, however, that she somehow brought about her husband's death and that she might have hastened your father's. He was not well before he went to Rosings that year, but I wonder if she attempted to give him something to stop him from asking questions, and it exacerbated his condition. To openly accuse her of such would be to invite scandal, and I am unwilling to do that."

Darcy paled, as did Anne. "You cannot …" Anne said after a moment. "Do you believe Mother somehow killed Papa?" Darcy felt sick.

"I cannot prove anything conclusively; it is merely a supposition based on what I have heard here today. A person who would give her daughter ‘medicine' to keep her ill cannot be above doing the same to her husband. Perhaps, though, she gave him too much. It is only a guess, and I doubt Catherine would admit to it." Lord Matlock sighed heavily before continuing. "Anne, your father left your mother her jointure in the will and nothing else. That would give her approximately one thousand pounds per annum. Setting her up in a cottage with several servants would be enough. Given the nature of what we have learned today, I suggest she be sent to the Outer Hebrides or somewhere equally distant."

"I do not have to allow her to live in the dower house?" Anne asked.

"You do not. She has her jointure, and that will see her provided for. Perhaps not how she prefers, but it will be enough."

Those gathered in the study had spent a further half hour discussing Lady Catherine's fate before Lady Matlock sought them out. After learning of her sister-in-law's actions, her anger surpassed any level her son or nephew had witnessed. That lady nearly demanded her husband go to the inn immediately to inform his sister they knew what she had done. Despite her distaste for scandal, she was ready to prosecute Lady Catherine to the fullest extent of the law. While the prospect of seeing Lady Catherine in Newgate might offer satisfaction, the family agreed that condemning her to a life in exile would likely be the greater punishment.