Chapter 2

"A nd this is the estate you found for us, in the wilds of Hertfordshire where all of the savages are so far below us?" Miss Caroline Bingley whinged before the Bingley coach came to a halt. "It is nothing to my Pemberley. It is bad enough Mr Darcy is not with us today."

"Caroline, Charles has explained, more than once, that Mr Darcy has business to take care of and will not depart London before the morrow," Mrs Hurst stated.

The house was constructed of large beige stones and was five floors high. The structure was a large rectangle with more than enough space for the Bingleys and Hursts in the family apartments, never mind the guest suites found on the other half of the first floor not used for the family, as well as the whole of the second floor. The drawing rooms, parlours, music room, and dining parlour were all on the ground floor. The house was built a few feet above the ground to allow for windows in the basement, with wide stairs leading up to a nice sized veranda from the drive, constructed from the same stones used for the house, before one reached the oak double front doors. The park was well kept, dotted with several trees, all beginning to shed their leaves, and a small lake, more of a pond, about fifty yards from the drive.

The formal gardens spread out to the left and right of the stone steps, with a large rose garden the centre piece in front of the house. All the blooms, and most of the leaves, were gone, but there was the promise they would make a beautiful and fragrant display starting in the spring. The stables, adequate, according to Darcy, were behind the house. Bingley had sent horses for himself, Hurst, and his eldest sister ahead. Caroline had never learnt to ride and would not admit it, but she was deathly afraid of riding atop a horse. The closest she got to one, was from inside of a carriage when it was being pulled.

If Bingley remembered, the kitchens, scullery, and pantry, along with offices for the housekeeper and butler, were in the basement below the ground floor. The space in the basement had been used well. The steward's office, wine cellar, and rooms for storage utilised the rest of the space.

"I took this estate on advice from Darcy and I am only leasing for one year so I can see if estate management is for me," Bingley averred. "Need I remind you that Pemberley is three days from London where this one is less than five hours travel. Were you not the one who insisted we could not be too far from Town?"

Before the youngest Bingley could let loose a vitriolic response, the eldest sibling spoke. "Caroline, need I remind you, Pemberley is not yours and as Charles has mentioned, unless you desire Mr Darcy to depart before he can assist our brother, you need to regulate your behaviour in his presence. Also, do not forget, most of our neighbours are landed gentry which makes them higher than you, the daughter of a tradesman, regardless of your pretentions."

"My behaviour is always stellar, and Mr Darcy welcomes my attentions," Miss Bingley insisted ignoring the parts of her sister's speech she did not want to address, even though she hated being reminded of her roots.

"That is brown," Hurst guffawed. "Darcy detests you, and you are the only one who refuses to see it."

"When I am the mistress of Pemberley and Darcy House, I will never allow you to darken my doorstep," Miss Bingley screeched. "I will be Mrs Darcy, just you wait! What do you know you drunken lout? "

"Caroline, regardless of your opinions, unless you learn to act like a lady and not pounce on Darcy by grabbing his arm possessively when he enters any room you are in, and applying a death grip to his arm, not only will I close all of your accounts, I will cut your allowance in half," Bingley threatened.

"You would not! You cannot! I must be able to acquire the latest fashions so that my Mr Darcy will see what a fashionable wife he will have," Miss Bingley asserted.

"Yet I can and I will," Bingley riposted, "whether I do or not is in your hands."

In the past she was always able to manipulate her brother with fake crying, so that is what Miss Bingley did.

"Your crocodile tears will not move me," Bingley informed his younger sister, "either learn to behave as the lady you claim your seminary taught you to be, or you will not like the results if you test my will in this."

Caroline Bingley did not like the look of resolution she saw on her brother's countenance. It had always been so easy to wrap him around her finger in the past. She could not like this change in him so she decided she would comply, to a degree, because she could not live without unrestricted funds to purchase her new wardrobes every few months. Miss Caroline Maleficent Bingley did not wear the same gown twice! Neither would she allow a servant to wear them hence the number of trunks she needed kept on increasing each time she spent extravagantly on clothing.

She huffed loudly. "Of course I will do nothing to make my intended upset," Miss Bingley stated.

"Caroline, he is not your anything, and the sooner you realise that the better. How many times does he need to tell me, you are the last woman in the world to whom he would ever agree to propose? And before you think he will give way to a compromise, he will not and I will support him fully. You will ruin yourself if you attempt something so very low," Bingley repeated the same thing he had told her more times than he cared to remember.

Darcy had been correct, he had to take his sister in hand before she became the author of her own ruin, and forced him to partake in it. His younger sister did not know it yet, but he had his man of business instruct all stores his sister frequented, and other's she had not yet, that unless they had his express permission, if they allowed his sister to make purchases, he would refuse to pay. He was aware on her discovery of this fact, when she went to waste his money on clothing she did not need, there would be a tantrum of epic proportions. Unfortunately for Miss Bingley, Bingley had firmed his spine and decided he would no longer give in to his sister's machinations. His friendship with Darcy was far too important to him, and he would not lose it because of a delusional sister.

As the coach was being drawn to a halt, Miss Bingley launched into a repeated complaint she had made since she had been informed that Louisa would keep house for her brother. "How is Mr Darcy to see my skills as the mistress of an estate if you do not allow me to be your hostess?" she demanded. "No one could be better in the role than I!"

As a footman had already opened the door of the conveyance, Bingley did not dignify his sister's whine with a response. He saw the butler and housekeeper, Mr and Mrs Nichols, standing on the veranda, just in front of the doors waiting for them. Bingley waited for Hurst to hand his wife out before he did the same for Caroline. She gave a disdainful sniff as she appraised the house from the drive.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

"You should not emulate Papa and make sport of Mama," Jane admonished. "Just because you believe that she does not realise you are doing so, does not make it less disrespectful. You are aware Mama has a very real fear of the future as she and Papa were not blessed with a son, and you know better than I that Papa has not saved anything for our dowries."

Elizabeth felt a flush of embarrassment that Jane, serene peacemaker Jane, felt the need to reproach her for her making fun of Mama and her incessant harping on how Jane was to marry Mr Bingley, as if he was such a shallow man, he would see nothing but Jane's outward beauty. She was aware how hard it must have been for her older sister to admonish her as normally Jane would never say anything negative. The feeling passed soon enough, she was only doing what Papa had taught her to do, was she not?

She decided to placate her older sister. "I will try to curb my tongue," Elizabeth promised. "You know I love you too much to upset you."

As one who sought to find the positive at all times, Jane accepted Lizzy's amends, although the little voice in the back of her mind whispered the change would be superficial and not long lasting.

"Do you think what Aunt Hattie told us about the size of the Netherfield Park party is true?" Jane enquired. Their aunt had come to report that Mr Bingley, his two sisters, and the husband of one of them had arrived and she had heard, from an extremely reliable source that the party would consist of six ladies and fifteen single men before the assembly upcoming.

"No Janey, I do not believe that is even close to the reality," Elizabeth opined, "how would our dear aunt know that information on the very day the new tenant took up residence, before, mind you, a single call has been paid to welcome him and his party into the neighbourhood."

"That reminds me, Mama is very vexed, Papa refuses to call on the new master of Netherfield Park," Jane sighed. "She thinks if he does not call on Mr Bingley then we will never be introduced to him."

"Dearest Jane, you know that is not true. Sir William will be more than happy to make the introductions at the assembly, so Mama is working herself into a nervous frenzy for no good reason. As you are ten times more beautiful than any other lady in the area, I predict that unless he is an old blind man, Mr Bingley will make sure you are introduced to him."

"Lizzy!" Jane blushed at her looks being pointed out, as she did practically every time someone did so. Even though Lizzy was not blonde, blue-eyed, and willowy, in her opinion her younger sister was no less pretty than herself. It was not something she would articulate in Mama's hearing as it would cause a diatribe, and Jane did not want to upset either her mother or next younger sister. The one time she had vocalised that particular belief, Mama had vociferously denigrated Lizzy's looks for the next fortnight, all the while bitterly complaining of all of her ailments. The fact it was not Lizzy who said so did not stop their mother berating her. She had ignored the fact it was Jane who had uttered those blasphemous words in opposition to their mother's opinion,

"We can only pray if Mr Bingley, or one of his many friends, do take an interest in you, Mama and our two youngest sisters will not cause him to run all the way to London with his tail between his legs."

"Lizzy, you promised," Jane shook her head.

"We are speaking in private. I did not say, nor will I say, a word of this for Mama to hear. What harm am I doing?" Elizabeth asked innocently.

"Even if Mama is not here to hear you, it is disrespectful to her," Jane asserted.

Elizabeth raised her hands in surrender.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

"William, go. It will do both you and Gigi good if you keep to your plans and do not remain here hovering over her all the time," Lady Elaine Fitzwilliam told her nephew. "Becca will be with her, and you well know Richard comes home most nights and spends two to three days at Matlock House each week."

Lady Rebecca was the youngest Fitzwilliam, born thirteen years after her next older brother, Richard. Lady Matlock had given up on ever bearing another child so she and the Earl, Lord Reginald Fitzwilliam, had been overjoyed when she had felt the quickening. Becca, as she was called by family and friends, had recently turned sixteen and she and Gigi had always been close. During the summer they would be at Pemberley or Snowhaven—the primary estate of the Matlock earldom—and over the years the two had become almost as close as sisters.

As much as Gigi had hated disappointing her guardians, when she had made the extremely ill-advised decision to agree to an elopement with the son of Pemberley's late steward, seeing the mortification Becca had expressed when Gigi had owned what she had almost done, had been almost overwhelming. At the same time her cousin was helping her recover, which was why Lady Elaine was insistent her nephew should make his way into Hertfordshire.

"I still feel like I failed Georgiana and betrayed the trust Father placed in me when he made me one of her guardians," Darcy said sadly. "I should never have employed Mrs Younge as her companion."

"Did you forget you are not our Gigi's only guardian? Richard suspected aught was not right with that despicable woman, but he said nothing to you. Besides, had you not been suspicious of the lack of correspondence from her, and surprised your sister by arriving three days earlier than you had planned, it would have been too late. You saved her from a fate too terrible to contemplate," Lady Matlock pointed out. "The one most to blame is my late brother, Robert, who indulged that blackguard George Wickham, and gave him expectations which could never be met."

Darcy wanted to spring to his honoured, departed father's defence, but he recognised the truth in his aunt's words. He had thought as much himself many times over the years as he collected vowels paying the profligate wastrel's debts. That did not even include the money he had shelled out to support the seduced and abandoned young women, some of them with child.

Rather than tell his father the true nature of George Wickham, Darcy had remained mute on the subject. He did not want to take away the pleasure his father derived from the entertainment Wickham had provided him. When his late father was with Darcy's erstwhile friend, it was one of the few times his sire would smile after the loss of his wife. One thing he was sure of, had his father been alive to see his godson try to elope with Gigi, it would have killed him.

"In that case, I will accede to your judgement that it will be good for my sister if I am not here breathing down her neck," Darcy decided. "If Miss Bingley does not behave, it may be a very short visit."

"Say the word and I will make sure she is persona-non-grata in society. That woman is a shrew of the first order, even more of a termagant than your Aunt Catherine," Lady Matlock stated.

Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and her sickly daughter Anne, lived at the estate of Rosings Park in Kent, not far from Westerham and close to the market town of Hunsford. In order to make sure she was not displaced as the mistress of the estate, as soon as Robert Darcy had passed, she began to claim a ‘ cradle betrothal ' between her daughter and her nephew, Darcy. She decided if Anne married him, she would be at Pemberley leaving Lady Catherine alone to continue running Rosings Park.

Thankfully for her family, the mistress of Rosings Park almost never ventured away from the estate in Kent. Her brother was the executor of her late husband's will—Sir Lewis de Bourgh, a knight. He was more than prepared to enforce the terms of his late brother-in-law's instructions when Anne turned five and twenty in May of 1813.

The lady was one of decided opinions, especially about maintaining the distinctions of rank and class, and was wont to offer her opinions on any and every subject. The fact they were almost always wrong and her officious interference was not requested, had never inhibited Lady Catherine from making her nonsensical pronouncements. Yes, termagant was accurate, along with harridan and harpy, not to mention ignorant and without any accomplishments.

"It may come to that one day, Aunt, but for now, I will not set you on Miss Bingley as I do not want things to redound on my friend," Darcy explained.

His aunt agreed not to unleash her, and her friends, disapprobation on the social climber…yet. After kissing her cheek, and farewelling Becca and Gigi, Darcy returned to Darcy House across the green in the centre of Grosvenor Square, and ordered his valet to pack for a departure early in the morning on the morrow.