Chapter 18

D arcy was pacing back and forth in his study. He detested not knowing what was happening in Hertfordshire, and Richard had been remiss in posting a letter to him. He wanted to know about Wickham, of course, but more importantly was his desire to be informed what, if anything, the Bennets, and in particular one of the daughters of the house, said after his letter was read. Surely Mr Bennet would not have refused to read it?

He chastised himself for the last thought. Mr Bennet was not petty and, as the master of Longbourn had written a letter to himself, Darcy was sure that Mr Bennet would not consign the missive he sent with Richard to the fire.

He ceased his pacing when there was a knock on his study door. “Come,” Darcy called out.

Killion opened the door and bowed to his master all the while keeping the salver in his left hand level. “The post was delivered, Mr Darcy, the one on top is from Colonel Fitzwilliam.”

Only his good breeding and years of being schooled in how to act like a gentleman stopped Darcy from grabbing the pile of letters from the salver. Instead he nodded to his desk, and the butler placed them where he always did. Killion bowed again and then exited the study, pulling the door closed after him.

As soon as he heard the click, Darcy grabbed the letter from the desk and flopped down in the wingback chair, opposite one of the two floor to ceiling windows facing Grosvenor Square and the green in its centre.

He held the letter for a few moments trying to imagine what his cousin had written, worrying about all sorts of possibilities, until he realised he was being a milksop. The damned thing would not bite him, and the words would not change if he sat staring at it without breaking his cousin’s seal. With that resolved, Darcy broke the seal and smoothed out the paper and began to read.

5 November 1811

Netherfield Park

William,

Either the Bennets have made significant changes, or you were in your cups and blind when you were here. Other than the two eldest Bennet daughters, none of the others are as you described them in your letters to me.

Mr Bennet is an involved father who takes charge of his family. Mrs Bennet is a lady in all respects and has never once made any vulgar effusions in my presence and has certainly not tried to match me with any of her daughters. Miss Mary does not spend her time with her head in Fordyce’s Sermons, has not moralised once, and is most certainly not plain. Perhaps you need spectacles, cousin of mine.

The first time I arrived at Longbourn I was in uniform, and Miss Catherine (Kitty) never gave me a second look. She is no longer out by the way. The brash flirtatious one you described has not been seen by me. Miss Lydia is also back in, and remains in the nursery.

Allow me to change subjects to a certain miscreant we both know. Thanks to the information the Bennets gleaned, Forster (you remember I told you we served in the Dragoons together) had administered 20 lashes, stripped him of his lieutenancy, cashiered him out of the regiment, and was ready to send him to debtor’s prison as soon as he was healthy enough to be moved.

I would have added the markers you hold to make sure the bloody bugger can never leave prison, but then we learnt he had seduced a girl of not yet 15. Due to that, Private W will in the next few days be joining a regiment leaving for the Peninsula. If the French do not do the job, then the men in his section will shoot him as he runs when he attempts to desert. Believe me, coward that he is, he will attempt to run. Life as a lowly soldier is very hard; he will know toil, deprivation, and trouble before he meets his end. I will make sure his Colonel is well aware of the type of man W is. He, in turn, will make sure all the officers under him, especially the lieutenant in command of the platoon, in which section the useless one will be, will also be aware of his proclivities and propensity to run.

On the subject of the seaside town, Mr Bennet has told his wife and daughters what occurred there, and none of them will ever repeat it, and all of them feel for the girl involved. They lay no blame at her feet and place all the blame on the manipulative and false pair who worked on her. If Mrs Bennet had been as you described her, her husband would never have confided in her. You should know he did so to give context to the actions of some rude man who slighted one of his daughters.

Now to the subject I am sure you have been waiting to hear about most. Yes, Bingley is engaged to his beloved; Miss Bennet is in fact an angel. On that subject, if you did not see the love between them, you were wilfully blind. It is good you never tried to convince Bingley to abandon her. He would not have, and you would have lost a friend.

Was there aught else I needed to tell you? Oh yes, I delivered your letter and…sorry William, I must go now…enough I will not toy with your emotions any further. Bennet accepted your letter. He and Miss Elizabeth read it together before re-joining all of us in the drawing room. Bennet related the gist of what you wrote. Both he and Miss Elizabeth stated they forgave you. Mrs Bennet and the other three daughters (as I mentioned no Miss Lydia) added their pardons as well.

Miss Bennet and Bingley both added that they would not condemn you for what you almost did. Rather they would look at what you did do, which was not to carry through dispensing your foolhardy advice.

If you were to ask me, I would tell you to give Miss Elizabeth some more space before putting yourself before her. Notwithstanding her forgiveness, I think she needs time to come to grips with how she feels about you, herself, and all of her misjudgements.

Take Giana to Pemberley as you planned. I may or may not join you there. Once I leave here (which I am reluctant to do as I think I have found the woman I want to make my wife— NOT Miss Elizabeth Bennet), I must spend time with my parents in Town. I am not sure if you are aware of Andrew’s plight, but we need to be together as much as possible given my brother’s addiction.

With regards,

Richard

Darcy was glad his cousin had added the qualifier about who the lady who had caught his attention was not. He was sure Miss Elizabeth would have attracted his cousin as she had pulled him to her like a moth to a flame. But he could not even hazard a guess as to who the lady was.

To his shame he had been so busy holding himself aloof from the locals when he had been in Hertfordshire, other than the Bennet sisters and Miss Lucas, he knew little or nothing about any of the other young ladies in the area.

He decided Richard’s advice was sound. Besides, he needed some time to think about how he had behaved and to begin to amend his character, and Pemberley was the perfect place for that. Even if it would be just Giana and himself for Christmastide, being home would be a balm to both of their souls.

He prayed that being in Derbyshire would also assist in Giana’s recovery. So far it had been a very slow process with not very much progress made, although Mrs Annesley had been a Godsend. As he had that thought, the face of a pretty woman with the most magnificent emerald-green eyes flashed before his mind’s eye. He felt she would be able to draw his sister out of her melancholy.

Thinking of the companion reminded him that Mrs Annesley had requested a day off as her sister Elsa would soon have a new position which it appeared would not be in London or Derbyshire, hence her request. Of course, her request had been granted with alacrity, and she was spending the day with her sister.

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

The Bennets, Freemans, Biggs, and Johns had been on the ship for a few days. The sailing on the St Lawrence river had been much calmer than when the vessel had reached the Atlantic Ocean. Thankfully for them, the last few members of the group who had struggled with the motion of the ship once they reached the open sea, had begun to find, what the sailors termed, their sea legs.

Henry and Abraham were standing on the quarterdeck watching how the crew climbed up and down the rigging, shrouds, and rat lines as easily as the Bennet sons could ride a horse. “So Henk, would you dare to climb the rigging all the way up to the crow’s nest?” Abraham asked his older brother as they stood and watched as a sailor who was heading up to relieve the man who had been manning the nest did just that. “I would love to try it.”

“If I were a man who desired to work on ships, then Abe, I believe I would be able to climb like they do. As it is now though, I feel that I would fall and break my neck the first time I looked down from such a great height. I am sure Pa would not be happy if I or you attempted such.” Henry grinned as he looked up at the top of the mainmast which he had been told was over a hundred feet above the deck.

“Pa told me in England he would be called Papa, and they would not call you Henk,” Abraham mused.

“Most will call me Henry unless I ask to be known as Henk. It is not like they would forbid the use of the Dutch version of my name,” Henry told his brother. “I wonder what Pa is talking to the captain concerning.” He inclined his head to where their father was standing with Captain David Hillard.

“You say we have about a month to six weeks more?” James verified.

“Aye Bennet, thereabouts,” Captain Hillard confirmed. “It could be less, but that will depend on whether the winds are favourable, and storms. I think we are safe from hurricanes, and although it does add weeks onto the journey, to make sure we miss those horrendous and destructive storms, we are sailing much farther north than had we sailed from New York. As far as I know those storms do not reach here as anything significant. That is not to say we are immune from squalls blowing up, but we will endeavour to make sure you and your party arrive in Liverpool alive, hale, and healthy.

“His Grace,” Hillard saw the questioning look on Bennet’s face, “the shipping line is owned by the Duke of Bedford.” He received a nod of understanding. “As I was saying the Duke demands the highest standards of passenger care, and not only for those like yourselves in first class.”

“That is impressive,” James remarked, “granted I have not been in England for over five and twenty years, but my memories of peers and their families was that they held themselves far above us mere mortals and cared only for their own.”

“There are those like that. However, there is a slowly growing number who think like the Duke of Bedford. Some have learnt from the lessons of the Reign of Terror in France, but there is still a long way to go before it is most of the nobles who see that. Unfortunately the majority in the House of Lords are still blind to the needs of the masses,” Hillard waxed. “I meant to ask you about those two huge men. They are so strong; do you think they would be interested in a life on the sea?”

“You may ask that of Biggs and Johns. They are free to do as they wish,” James responded.

“Biggs, now that is an apt name for that man,” Hillard grinned.

A little later Captain Hillard did ask the two if they would like to work for him. They politely refused saying they preferred to remain with Mr Bennet and his family, as well as on land.

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

Charlotte Lucas had been troubled by the distance she perceived had grown between her and Eliza since the day she had walked to Longbourn to announce her engagement to the heir of Longbourn.

Even though she had expected Eliza to react strongly, she had not been happy with the level of vitriol her announcement had engendered in her friend. To be fair, Eliza had apologised and wished her happy. But what she had learnt that day had lessened her victory considerably.

The conversation she had with her mother, and Eliza’s slip regarding the number of heirs ahead of Mr Collins, not to mention the fact that the Bennets owned Netherfield Park, was her payment for thinking she should crow about her conquest. Since that day, she had been going back and forth in her mind about whether or not to keep her engagement to Mr Collins or to cry off.

Each time she arrived at the same conclusion. He had a home, she did not think him vicious (at least she hoped he was not) and she would no longer be a burden on her parents, and later when he inherited, on Franklin.

She told herself that like the falconers of the medieval times said, or at least a variation thereof, a bird in the hand is worth many in the bush . She walked towards Longbourn, the first time she had called on them since the day after the ball at Netherfield Park when she had made her announcement. Charlotte was hoping that she would be welcomed with pleasure on gaining the manor house.

When she crossed the park and approached the corner of the house near the drive, Charlotte heard the sounds of voices, quite a few of them. She stopped as she noted two carriages in the drive and the Gardiners, their children, and another lady being welcomed by all of the Bennets—except Lydia. Come to think of it, Maria had called a few times and had been able to see Kitty, but Lydia was never present.

Seeing they were welcoming family, and before she was observed, Charlotte took a few steps back until she was hidden by the corner of the house. She turned and began her walk home.

She was not afraid to see her friends, or so she told herself, she just wanted to give them time to welcome their family members to their home.

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

Elizabeth had, in fact, noted Charlotte, but allowed her to retreat without embarrassing her friend. If Charlotte did not come on the morrow, she would call at Lucas Lodge. She liked Charlotte too well to allow the distance which had formed to become an impassable gulf.

For now she was happy to welcome the Gardiners and to meet Mrs Doubtfire, who she could see was even taller than Lydia. That was a positive as Lydia always used the fact she was tallest as a reason to receive special treatment, like coming out at fourteen. She approached her Aunt Maddie as soon as they were indoors out of the cold.

“Lizzy, you were not angry that the news about the former lieutenant was not what you believed, were you?” Madeline asked softly.

“I was, Aunt, but not at you. My anger was directed inward. I was the dupe who had believed him and purchased the whole cloth he was selling. So much for my intelligence and discernment,” Elizabeth shook her head.

“Lizzy, you are a very intelligent person, but you relied much too much on your own judgement and would not consider what others had to say. You had a propensity to ignore facts which contradicted what you believed,” Madeline pointed out gently. “This happening has been a good thing.”

“How can you say that? Especially with Lydia giving away…you know what she did,” Elizabeth whispered.

“That was not good. Lizzy, I refer to you. You learnt your discernment is not infallible and, from what I have seen in my sister’s letters, you have owned your errors and apologised for them. That is what is good. You have grown and you will be a better person for it.” Madeline hugged her niece. “You see the saying based on what John Milton wrote in Comus is true, every cloud does have a silver lining.”

“I see no positive in Lydia’s situation,” Elizabeth asserted.

“But you will. Your mother told me there are no consequences, and also since she and your father spoke to Lydia, she has been much calmer and almost compliant,” Madeline disagreed.

“In that case, I will reserve judgement and see what Mrs Doubtfire tells my parents after she meets Lydia,” Elizabeth replied. She decided to change the subject as they entered the drawing room for tea. “My cousins all look well.”

“Yes, praise be to Him, all four of them have been healthy of late,” Madeline agreed. “You know how scared we were when Peter was so ill the previous year. Our prayers to allow him to survive were answered then, and so far since then, all of my prayers to keep them healthy, have been answered.”

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

It was not a long conversation with Mrs Doubtfire before the Bennet parents saw she would be perfect to guide their two youngest daughters. They were very candid in telling her about Lydia and all she had done, including surrendering her virtue.

“Even if I determine Miss Lydia needs to go to school, I will accept the position and work with Miss Catherine. I saw she is keen to learn, and Miss Mary mentioned she would love lessons on the pianoforte,” Mrs Doubtfire stated. “I know you wanted to accompany me to speak to Miss Lydia, but I request you allow me to go alone. I think she will be more open with me alone than she would be with her parents present.”

Fanny looked at Bennet, both nodded. “It shall be as you request,” Fanny announced. “Welcome to Longbourn, Mrs Doubtfire.”

“Thank you for your confidence in me, Mr and Mrs Bennet. I will provide you with a detailed report of my conversation with Miss Lydia.”

Bennet rang for the housekeeper who would show the tall lady to the nursery, and unlock the door for her when they reached it. As soon as Mrs Hill arrived and had been issued her instructions, Mrs Doubtfire bobbed a curtsy and made her way out of the study following the housekeeper.