Chapter 12

12

D arcy spent his wedding night caring for Charlie. They both slept in her bed but not at the same time, each relieving the other for several hours so they could take turns sleeping. Time after time, he wished he could hold Elizabeth in his arms, but circumstances dictated otherwise. There was no improvement, which the doctor said was likely. Privately, the physician held out little hope for the boy, saying that he was born too soon and was too small, lacking the strength he needed to struggle for life. When pressed, the doctor said that he did not have a glimmer of confidence in Charlie’s ability to recover.

Elizabeth would be crushed.

Before noon the next day, Darcy apprised his attorneys of the situation. When Darcy related the rapidity of Bingley going from deliriously happy at the anticipated birth of his first child to the death of his wife and himself, each of them admitted that there was no guarantee for any of them what the morrow would bring. The pressure to hurry the processes of legally establishing Elizabeth as the recipient of his assets with the authority to decide Pemberley’s future should something happen to him before they had an heir was imperative.

Paragraph by paragraph, they reviewed all three documents, starting with Elizabeth’s marriage settlement. The men raised questions about the directions for managing his estate. When Richard joined them, Darcy was able to explain his request for assigning his cousin to help Elizabeth should there be a need. The two of them were more than capable of caring for any property, even one the size of Pemberley.

Finally, they reviewed the petition for guardianship.

Mr. Sutton hesitated before he began.

“Mr. Darcy, Colonel Fitzwilliam, I regret to inform you that information has arisen that exposed Mr. Burt’s duplicity. At my insistence, one of the clerks remained in the office last night, searching through his files for any overt activity that tied his allegiance to Lord Armstrong. Mr. Burt was careless. A small ledger was confiscated containing private money transfers from Lord Armstrong to my former employee for purposes that covered potentially incriminating activity.”

“What sort of activity?” Richard asked before Darcy could, his fingers tapping nervously on the arm of his chair. “If it can be established that he was egregiously immoral, as I understand, then any petition he files for guardianship would be denied.”

The attorney nodded. “ If it could be established, then this is accurate. However, these transactions were over a lengthy period. Each was for the dismissal of a mistress where he made financial provisions for the time between his last “socializing” with her and her next “client.” Since most of Lord Armstrong’s peers practice the same, I cannot think a judge would find him deficient.”

Richard seethed. “This is not the sort of man who should be a father to anyone’s twins. Admittedly, I am not in a hurry to bear the responsibility of parenthood, but I would swear on my life that Darcy would never look outside of his marriage for sexual satisfaction or a thrill. His character is honorable. He was born responsible. The children will be better for remaining in his care.”

“Thank you for your support, Cousin. Should we need a reference for me in court, I do hope you plan to make yourself available.” Darcy appreciated Richard’s confidence in him. However, it was not the three attorneys in front of them that they needed to convince.

Mr. Sutton said, “Gentlemen, before we proceed, we have a few questions that need to be addressed. First, in case Lord Armstrong is not nearly as flush as he would like others to believe since the monies offered to his mistresses were pitiful, and the rents paid for their establishments are in a poorer part of Town, would you be willing to forego your claim against Mr. Bingley’s assets if Lord Armstrong would release any claim to the boy?”

“No!” Richard answered while Darcy said, “Absolutely!”

His cousin glared at him. “Those funds are not yours to buy, sell, or give away, Darcy. They belong to those two children in your nursery. All of Bingley’s assets should be set aside into a trust for them.”

Nodding, Darcy said, “I completely agree with you except for one point. If Lord Armstrong’s motive is to gain control of Bingley’s wealth, then the cost of freedom needs to be considered. For me? I would gladly pay any price.”

Mr. Sutton said, “This brings us to the second question: What are Mr. Bingley’s assets?”

Since Darcy spent the morning going through the boxes that they retrieved from Netherfield Park, he could confidently report the details.

“Besides his accounts with the Bank of England containing almost one hundred thousand, Bingley invested with his wife’s uncle, Edward Gardiner, who has an import/export business close to Cheapside. The earnings from this investment replaced the funds he used to lease Netherfield Park, leaving his initial inheritance intact. His main source of income other than interest was a monthly deposit from his family’s cloth manufacturing companies in the north. This monthly deposit covers his expenses, so, again, his original inheritance has remained untouched. The lease on Netherfield Park was originally for one year. After that day, the lease ran month by month, so it will end as soon as the owner is notified and this month is over. Once the Armstrongs and Hursts vacate the house, I will hire men to retrieve all possessions belonging to the Bingleys to be stored at Pemberley until the children are old enough to sort through them.”

Mr. Sutton glanced at his associates. “This is more than we suspected. Unfortunately, to a man like Lord Armstrong, this makes one hundred thousand reasons for him to pursue guardianship. This is not to say that we are not without options. What I propose would be that you decide between the following: first, you prolong the court case for the length of time it would take until the children are old enough to make their recommendation to the court as to whom they want as guardians. That would be the age of fourteen. The downside would be that this would place a drain on the Bingley assets that would be funneled into the court. As far as the judges are concerned, this would be the best choice since they would personally benefit from your appeals. Second, you offer Lord Armstrong the position of sole trustee to Mr. Bingley’s bank accounts and investments as long as he agrees to have Mr. Darcy appointed as guardian of the children and Colonel Fitzwilliam appointed as trustee to the only property owned by Mr. Bingley, meaning the factories that continue to supply income. Our reasoning behind this agreement would be that the monthly manufacturing income could be invested for the children giving them a good start to their adult life.”

“And, finally?”

“Ah, yes,” Mr. Sutton sighed. “Finally, after calculating the odds based on the fact that neither you, Mrs. Darcy, nor any of your family members are directly related to Mr. Bingley, that you…that you give up all claim to Mr. Bingley’s son, keeping his daughter as your ward.”

“Never!” Darcy jumped up, no longer able to appear relaxed. “Last night, when little Clara realized that her brother was not next to her, she cried until she was again placed alongside him. According to my wife, she has done the same since birth. How that baby girl would cope should her brother not survive is beyond me to know.” Pounding his fist on the corner of the desk, he stated, “What I do know is this. I will fight to my last breath to keep those two together. Should Charlie not survive, I will fight to control enough of Bingley’s assets so that his daughter knows how much her father loved her—petition for Richard and me to control it all. Should Lord Armstrong insist on some portion of the estate, I will gladly hand over Bingley’s money if he needs a concession. But never will I voluntarily give up those children. Never!”

The three attorneys stood. “Very well. We will return with the final marriage settlement and the will for you to sign later tonight. We also will bring a petition for guardianship with the provision that the two of you are appointed as trustees of Bingley’s financial assets. Good day to you both. Until this evening.”

Richard was silent until the attorneys left. Darcy watched him as his cousin paced the room. When he came to a standstill, his first comment caught Darcy by surprise.

“This is no longer about duty, is it?”

Darcy considered how best to answer, looking inside himself to determine his reality.

“It is not,” he admitted. “At the same time, it still is.”

“I do not understand.” Richard dropped into a chair in front of the fireplace, stretched out his legs, and rubbed his palms over his face.

“Cousin, Bingley was a good friend to me, a far better friend than I was to him. Am I doing my duty by him to protect his children, wealth, and property? I am. In doing so, I will act in a manner that he would expect from me.”

“And?” Richard leaned forward to poke at the coals with his boot.

“And I cannot forget that Mrs. Bingley was Elizabeth’s favorite sister, that in their times of need, they bolstered each other. The twins are not just Bingley’s. They are Elizabeth’s niece and nephew. She was there when the babies took their first breath and when her sister took her last. So, when I act for Bingley from duty, what weighs heaviest on my mind and heart is how this will affect my wife.”

“Do you love her?” Richard swiveled to stare directly at him.

“Whether I do or not is for her to know first. What I will tell you is that everything I do going forward is to win her respect. Once I have succeeded, I will do anything and everything to win her heart. ”

“Then I do not need to hear you say it, Darce. But do not withhold it from her for long, for if this situation with Bingley has taught us anything, it is that we do not know what will happen tomorrow. Tell her soon.”

“I will.”