Chapter 24

24

A n hour later, Lady Caroline Armstrong was the last person Elizabeth expected or wanted to see in her drawing room. When the lady refused to be seated, instead looking everywhere about the room except at her, Elizabeth could not keep the bite from her tongue. “You have heretofore shown no interest in your niece or nephew, Lady Armstrong. What do you mean by coming today for you must be aware that Lord Armstrong will be arriving tomorrow to take Charlie from us.” She gestured to the window. “The weather could not be worse. I cannot imagine why you are here.”

The lady’s fingers toyed with the clip that fastened her reticule, still refusing eye contact. “Will Mr. Darcy be joining us?”

The stiffness of Lady Armstrong’s shoulders and the press of her lips together hinted that any softness she had shown to Charlie upon her last visit was an anomaly. Elizabeth had no reason to be generous.

“I think not,” Elizabeth replied without hesitation. She would not expose her husband to Lady Armstrong’s vitriol. Determined to get to the point, she asked, “How might I be of assistance?”

When Lady Armstrong dropped her gaze to the floor before replying, it occurred to Elizabeth that nerves threatened to overtake the lady—odd since Caroline Armstrong was one of the most confident females of her acquaintance.

Reconsidering her response, Elizabeth asked, “Do you need Mr. Darcy to be here?”

“I do.”

“Very well. I shall notify him that you are waiting, leaving it up to him to choose whether he will come.” Elizabeth asked a footman to find her husband, and within moments, Darcy strolled through the door, his brow arched at their guest.

“Lady Armstrong.” Darcy barely acknowledged her with a tip of his head. “Do be seated.”

Caroline kept her eyes on the floor.

How unusual. Since the time Elizabeth met Caroline in Hertfordshire, there was not a moment when Caroline was not fully attuned to Darcy’s presence. Now, she refused to look at him. Nor did she take advantage of the chair offered to her.

Darcy glanced at Elizabeth. She shrugged, completely ignorant about what was happening.

Lady Armstrong stammered. “I beg your pardon, the both of you. For I…I am not certain how to find my way.”

When neither Darcy nor Elizabeth offered help, Lady Armstrong opened her reticule, retrieving a small light blue leather journal. Bursting from inside the cover were scraps of tightly folded paper.

Elizabeth gasped. She knew that book intimately since she purchased it for her sister after Mr. Bingley abandoned Netherfield Park the day after the ball. Writing her thoughts and fears each evening before she retired soothed Jane. Its contents were exceedingly personal. Private. Jane had never even shown the contents to her. The accompanying pages must have been the love letters from Bingley that Jane saved. Elizabeth had forgotten all about them.

Intensely angry, Elizabeth asked, “Why do you have Jane’s journal, and how did you come to have it in your possession?”

Turning it over as if she was surprised to see it in her hand, Lady Armstrong squared her shoulders, opened it to a marked page, and said, “I need to know if what is written is true.”

While Elizabeth seethed, Darcy said, “Read what you need to read, Lady Armstrong. Then I suggest that you leave the journal behind before you depart.”

His dismissal was perfect, easing Elizabeth’s distress somewhat.

Clearing her throat, Lady Armstrong began,

27 November 1811

I received a message from Caroline Bingley that the family left for London with no expectation of returning to Netherfield Park. At the end of her note, she states that Mr. Bingley’s affections lie with Mr. Darcy’s sister. How can this be? Can a heart be more broken than mine?

Lady Armstrong stopped reading. “I shall skip the description of Jane’s suffering since it would only yield pain that you do not need to remember, as well as reveal my pettiness for which I have paid penance. I only wanted you to know the setting of the paragraph I need you both to hear. Clearing her throat, she began again.

Lizzy argues that Caroline is merely hopeful of an attachment to the Darcy family since she desires nothing more than to be of that sphere and that there is no arrangement between Miss Darcy and her brother. I cannot be as confident. In stating her opinions, I fear that Lizzy does not like Miss Bingley. While I admit that she is not an easy woman to come to know, there are many things I admire about her. For example, she is truly lovely in appearance. Her facial features are symmetrical and beautiful. Her hair is glorious. Her sense of style is impeccable. If she only wore her garments with assurance instead of challenge, she would attract every eye. She is as witty as Lizzy, too. Their fundamental difference is that behind my sister’s speech is kindness. Caroline’s is acerbic. Lizzy claims that Miss Bingley struggles for acceptance and that she goes about drawing attention to herself in a way that fosters a negative opinion from those she yearns to impress. I am not blind. I do see a measure of truth in my sister’s statement. Although I am not a student of human nature like Lizzy, I believe that Caroline would be happy if she could only learn contentment with her circumstances instead of wishing for more. Her striving for society’s approval has rendered her bitter, which is unfortunate. I wish she knew the joy of being pleased with whomever she is around and with herself. She would be a wonderful friend to have should she make this slight adjustment.

Closing the journal, Lady Armstrong held it out for Elizabeth to take. “I only need to know if you believe what your sister wrote to be the truth.”

“Unquestionably, I do.” Hugging the book to her chest, Elizabeth was stunned when Lady Armstrong’s knees seemed to give way as she dropped into a chair.

Lady Armstrong murmured, “You do? You truly feel that I could be worth knowing?” She sighed, then looked directly at Elizabeth. “Of course you do, since I have never known you to speak anything less than the truth. I have been a fool for too long, imputing bad when there was goodness surrounding me.”

Looking at Darcy, Elizabeth shrugged, wondering what was happening. He shook his head, not knowing as well.

After a short while, Lady Armstrong looked up. “I want to thank you for allowing me into your home without invitation. You also need to know how greatly I suffered when I learned that Charles was gone. He was a great source of happiness. As you are aware, my brother had a way of seeing things in a positive light. When he died, my world went dark.” She stood. “And although I was uncomfortable with holding an infant, the fact that he is my beloved brother’s son overwhelmed me until I was barely able to control my tears. That you offered me the privilege of being close to him deserves a reward. What I am about to tell you is for your ears alone. If my husband knew I was sharing private information, he would discard me without hesitation.”

Glancing at Darcy, Elizabeth moved alongside Lady Armstrong. Instead of distancing herself, their guest unexpectedly relaxed.

Lady Armstrong said, “Rumor has it that my husband’s wife died giving birth to a girl child who also perished. The truth is that although the baby did not survive, the mother did. However, as far as my husband was concerned, the marriage was over. He purchased a small cottage in Cornwall where the former Lady Armstrong lived until two weeks before he offered me his hand.” She paced the room, stopping at the window to peer outside. “I could not believe my good fortune when he proposed. After all, what is Mr. Darcy to a Lord?” She scoffed. “Our wedding night was…painful. The next night, he did not come to me, nor has he since. Unless it is necessary, he does not speak to me, nor am I welcome to accompany him to all the places and events where I have long desired to be. He is not hesitant to remind me that the only reason he selected me to be his br ide was because I am from a lower sphere, so I would not hesitate to obey his strict orders, nor would I make demands upon him. However, this is not the complete truth.”

What a miserable life! Elizabeth was grateful she was married to the better man.

“Do you know the history of King Henry VIII?” Lady Armstrong unexpectedly asked.

Darcy replied, “Since we are concerned with your nephew’s future, I perceive that you refer to his taking many wives to provide him a son. Am I correct?”

“You are.” Lady Armstrong inhaled deeply. Exhaling slowly, she said, “Lord Armstrong showed no interest in me until he overheard gossip that my brother and his wife were expecting a baby. He sought me out, asking me odd questions about Jane’s health, her beauty, and about my brother’s health and looks. I did not understand his purpose until after we wed. It was not me he wanted. It was my brother’s son. Since Charles was almost completely unknown by my husband’s friends, Lord Armstrong considered him easy prey.”

“But…” Elizabeth was not able to put all the puzzle pieces together. “Surely, after only one girl child born, Lord Armstrong would try again with you?”

“I thought the same, Mrs. Darcy. I fully expected my husband to pursue that course instead of ignoring me. Since you are aware that my curiosity moved me to take your sister’s journal so I could learn private information, it will come as no surprise that I determined to locate the key to a locked box my husband keeps in his chambers under his bed seeking information that revealed my husband’s motives.”

Elizabeth moved to stand next to Darcy .

“Despise me if you dare! Before you do, know that satisfying my curiosity will allow you to keep little Charlie.”

“Go on,” Darcy ordered.

“I am not Lord Armstrong’s second wife. Nor am I his third or his fourth.” As soon as the statement was uttered, Lady Armstrong rapidly shared the rest of her information. “Each woman either had a girl child or they had no child at all. Not one son amongst any of them.”

Elizabeth’s hand covered her mouth. She simply could not look away from Caroline.

“I am telling you this for a reason. Being wed to a man like Lord Armstrong has revealed to me a life I knew nothing of, a life so depraved as to be unmentionable. Yet, I must mention it to you now since it will have a direct effect on the court’s ruling. I cannot have my brother’s innocent children exposed to my husband’s hypocrisy.” She inhaled deeply. “My husband’s attorney and personal lackey, Mr. Burt, transacted certain business for His Lordship.”

“We know of his mistress, Lady Armstrong,” Darcy said. “Mr. Burt’s senior partner, my attorney, Mr. Sutton, showed me a ledger listing the transactions, the names, the directions, and the amounts paid.”

“Since you would never consider breaking the law, Mr. Darcy, there would be no reason for you to question those directions, but if you examined them closely, you would see that only one is in England. Those names are not mistresses but wives, none of whom he divorced. Instead, he arranged a pittance for each of them, transporting the lot to Canada.”

Elizabeth snapped her mouth closed as the reality of Lady Armstrong’s revelation stunned her to her core. She had never heard of such conduct.

Even Darcy looked like someone hit him in the gut. Aloud, he said, “Bigamy would be considered egregious immorality. The penalty is imprisonment, branding, or transportation. The gossip alone would ruin Lord Armstrong.”

“Yes.” Lady Armstrong smirked. “If the Lord Chancellor is made aware of this, then the petition for my husband to gain custody of my brother’s son will immediately be denied. Lord Robert Hendricks cannot know of my husband’s marital history, or he would have cut him long ago.”

As emotions swirled inside her, intense relief brought Elizabeth almost to her knees. “I cannot thank you enough for what you have done. Your niece and nephew are precious to us. We love them dearly. The thought of them being ripped away from us weighed on our hearts. You have given us hope and given them a future together.” Even though she wanted to jump and throw her hands into the air in celebration, she stopped to continue the lady in front of her. “Lady Armstrong, I think it will not go well for you when your husband discovers that we know his private affairs. He will wonder how we learned something he desperately needs to be kept hidden.”

“Lord Hendricks’ close association with my husband will keep him quiet since to ruin Malcolm would ruin him. As far as I am concerned, do not worry about me. I am used to looking out for myself. I will do nothing to indicate that I am anything more than a supportive wife. Away from him, I will do whatever is necessary to become the woman Jane Bingley thought I could be.” Drawing a slip of paper from her reticule, Lady Armstrong handed it to Darcy. “Here is a list of my husband’s wives before me. This should be all you need to have him settle the matter of guardianship in your favor since he will want to avoid going to court knowing you are aware of his…history. He will end the fight today. ”

Darcy bowed formally. “I, too, offer my sincerest appreciation. Mrs. Darcy and I cherish the twins as if they were our own. If there is anything we might do to help you?”

A smile lit her face. “Do not trouble yourself, Mr. Darcy. I only ask that you not slight me in public should we see one another when I am not with Lord Armstrong.”

Shaking her head, Elizabeth stated clearly, “The fault is your husband’s, not yours. Of course, we will not deny your acquaintance. You are an aunt to Charlie and Clara. As long as you are not in company with Lord Armstrong, whom we cannot trust, not because of his private conduct but because he would willingly separate the twins, you will be welcome here.”

“Very well.” Lady Armstrong glanced around the room. “All this elegance, wealth, and status was not what I expected it to be. I am determined to be happy, and you know I always get what I want.”

It was not until Lady Armstrong left the room that Elizabeth slid her hand into her husband's grasp. “She did not get you, did she?”

He tugged her into his embrace. Kissing her once, then twice, he said with a twinkle in his eye, “Never!”