Chapter 24
“Fitzwilliam?”
“Mmmmm?” Darcy returned softly, wrapping an arm around his wife. After a thoroughly exhausting day dealing with Sir Claude Daw and irritable relatives, he was relieved to be back at Darcy House sharing a bed with the woman he loved.
“I am worried about Sir Claude.”
“He is a fool, my dear,” Darcy murmured, “but not fool enough to attempt to harm you in any way. The last thing he wants is for me to buy up his debts and cast him into King’s Bench prison.”
“I daresay he will not attempt to harm me, but what of other vulnerable women? He is a reprobate and desperate. My understanding is that his only hope of righting his financial ship is to marry and bear an heir so that his uncle leaves him a fortune. How do we know he will not target another gentlewoman who is unprotected?”
Darcy groaned inwardly and drew her small form closer to him. He was tired, mentally and physically, and he did not want to deal with Sir Claude but ...
But, had he not ignored George Wickham for far too long? Daw was, if anything, even more dangerous than Wickham since his father’s godson had never taken a woman by force.
Wickham was dead now, hanged for stealing his militia Colonel’s horse and wife. Daw had not actually committed any obvious crimes but he was clearly prepared to do so ...
Elizabeth was silent but Darcy could tell, based on her tense demeanor, that she was still awake.
“I could surreptitiously introduce a servant or two into his household,” Darcy mused thoughtfully.
“He is not the sort of man who can keep servants, and if we had someone there reporting on his behavior, we could protect anyone whom he targets. I do not wish to openly attack him since he might well retaliate by dishonoring your name. I will not permit that, my love.”
Elizabeth mulled this over for a long moment before relaxing, “That sounds like a good plan, my darling.”
/
Elizabeth blew out a deep breath and stepped into the drawing room at the Bingleys’ house, prepared to face the oncoming horde of female relations.
The women within were chattering to one another enthusiastically, but they froze when she entered and then, as one, surged to their feet. Jane, Elizabeth noted with some surprise, was not present.
“My dear Lizzy,” Mrs. Bennet fluttered, rushing forward to embrace her second born.
“My darling girl! Mrs. Darcy, how well it sounds! Ten thousand pounds a year! A large estate in Derbyshire! A mansion in Town! Carriages and horses! Such pin money! You are so clever to win Mr. Darcy. Sir Claude is nothing to him!”
Elizabeth returned the embrace, rejoicing that she had chosen to meet her mother without her beloved husband at her side. Darcy would not enjoy Mrs. Bennet’s enthusiastic and vulgar discussion of his money and possessions.
Mr. Darcy was busy this morning with his man of business, finalizing the marriage settlements.
In the ordinary course of things, the settlements would have been signed before their marriage, but they had not had that luxury.
In any case, Elizabeth knew that her beloved Fitzwilliam could be entirely trusted to arrange for her care if he were to prematurely decease her.
Unlike her own father, Darcy was a long-headed man with an eye to future possibilities and needs.
She now turned to her younger sisters, all of whom were gazing at her with a mixture of joy and awe.
“Mary, Kitty, Lydia,” she exclaimed, her eyes suddenly wet with emotion. “It is so very good to see you!”
Her sisters rushed forward, and a moment later she was enveloped in a tangle of clutching, loving arms.
“You look well,” she managed to say, choking back her tears. “I am so glad to be in your company again!”
“Oh Lizzy,” Kitty managed before bursting into tears. “Oh Lizzy, I was so worried about you! I did not know where you were and months went by without word.”
Elizabeth pulled her second youngest sister closer to her, “I was entirely well, my dear sister. I journeyed to St. Croix in the Caribbean Sea, and Mr. Darcy pursued me there. We walked the beaches together and worked side-by-side at the parsonage. Only seven weeks ago, we were married. All is well, dear sister.”
“It is more than well!” Mrs. Bennet declared. “Your sister has managed to capture a man who is both handsome and extremely wealthy. So you need not be angry with me anymore, Kitty. Lizzy is quite safe.”
Kitty Bennet turned on her mother with an expression of outrage, “Mother, the only reason that Lizzy is safe and married to Mr. Darcy is that she ran away! You drove her away! She had to board a ship and sail across the sea to escape a horrifying fate! If she had obeyed your directives, she would now be married to that vile Sir Claude!”
Elizabeth sucked in a surprised breath at this; Kitty had always been the most timid of the Bennet sisters and her open anger was astonishing.
Mrs. Bennet began crying, “You have no compassion on my nerves, none of you! Your father did not plan for our care in the event of his early death, no matter how much I reminded him of our tentative position given that horrible entail. I could not support you all on my jointure.”
“So you threw Lizzy at a disgusting, abusive old man!”
“Kitty!” Elizabeth exclaimed, rousing from her frozen astonishment.
“My dear sister, I do appreciate your concern for me, but I urge you not to distress yourself. These last months have been difficult for us all. I certainly do not agree with Mother’s attempts to marry me to Sir Claude, but I also realize that poverty is terrifying.
If there is one thing I learned in St. Croix, it is that we were very blessed at Longbourn with plenty to eat, pretty clothes and a solid roof over our heads.
There are many in this world who literally do not know if they will have food on the morrow.
Mama had every reason to fear for our futures. ”
Kitty bit her lip at this and looked at the floor.
“I was so frightened for you, Lizzy,” she admitted softly.
“I understand,” Elizabeth replied. “Sometimes it is harder to worry about someone’s trials than to experience those trials yourself. My trip to the Caribbean Sea was not always easy, but I never gave way to despair.”
Kitty looked into her eyes, “I am enormously grateful that you are safe.”
/
“I am sorry I was not in the parlor to help smooth things over,” Jane apologized. “There was a domestic issue with one of the maids, and our housekeeper needed my assistance.”
After the emotional reunion of the new Mrs. Darcy with her family, Mrs. Bennet and her three youngest daughters had eaten an early nuncheon and boarded the Bingley carriage to collect their new dresses from the modiste, thus permitting Jane and Elizabeth to spend several hours in one another’s company.
“That is quite all right, Jane,” Elizabeth declared. “I expect you would have been distressed since you do not like your family to be at odds. To be honest, I was astonished at Kitty’s anguish and anger. She is usually so quiet!”
“I think we have all changed since Father died, except perhaps Lydia. Our youngest sister, sadly, remains a selfish, self-absorbed young woman, but Mary and Kitty have both grown up a great deal. Even Mother has altered to some degree, at least in terms of her actions if not her character. I have found that judicious warnings about being cut off from the Bingley fortune work wonders.”
“Dearest Jane, you are a sly thing! I never expected such cunning behavior from you!”
“I have changed, Elizabeth. I was not treated terribly while I was a companion before Mr. Bingley and I married, but it was not a pleasant life. The world can be a harsh place, and I will no longer close my eyes to that reality.”
Elizabeth reached out to clasp her older sister’s arm. On the one hand, she was glad that Jane had opened her eyes to life’s darker aspects; on the other, it was rather sad that their father’s death had dealt such hard blows to her angelic sister.
“How are you feeling physically?” she inquired softly. “My friend Mrs. Kendall had a dreadful start to her pregnancy and was terribly ill for weeks and weeks. Are you also sick?”
Jane shook her head, “No, I am thankful to say that I only experience minor nausea in the mornings. I am, however, extremely tired and need to sleep every single day in the afternoon. It is embarrassing at times.”
“Do not be embarrassed. Carrying a child is hard work!”
“I suppose it is. Lizzy, I did want to discuss the future. Charles and I have spoken at length and have decided that we will give up Netherfield Hall.”
Elizabeth quirked an inquiring eyebrow, “May I ask why?”
Jane shrugged, “Longbourn is no longer my family home, and I see no reason to subject myself and our family to interactions with Mr. Collins. Indeed, I believe that living only a few miles from our childhood estate would be painful for all concerned. While I trust Charlotte Collins to administer Longbourn sensibly, I have no such confidence in her husband. Sadly the man is quite pigheaded.”
Elizabeth grimaced, “That is sensible. Have you told Mother of your plans?”
“I have not. Charles and I would like to purchase an estate in Derbyshire if that would suit you and Mr. Darcy.”
“I would love that beyond all things, Jane! Oh, to live near one another!”
“We will begin searching for an estate soon, and Charles intends to ask Mr. Darcy for his help. We will need to decide what to do with Mother and our sisters. For all that I find Mother and Lydia quite exasperating, I would not wish them to suffer unduly.”
“Of course not,” Elizabeth answered swiftly.
“Are you angry with Mother, Elizabeth?” Jane asked tentatively.
Her sister considered this for a moment before answering decidedly, “No, I am not.”
“Truly? It was quite horrible of her to pressure you into marrying that dreadful Sir Claude.”
“I am not angry at Mother because I expected nothing more from her,” Elizabeth replied in a clipped tone. “Do you remember when the Gardiners’ son, Peter, was three years old and managed to give me a black eye during a tantrum? We were visiting the Gardiners in London at the time.”
This provoked a gurgle of laughter from Mrs. Bingley, “Indeed, I do. We went home to Longbourn a day later and Mama was horrified to see you so disfigured.”
“Yes, but I was not angry at Peter. He was unable to control his emotions, and I merely got in the way of his furious thrashing.”
Jane mulled this over for a moment, “So you are saying Mother is like a toddler?”
“In her emotional capacity and self-control, yes. Mother is not a sensible woman, Jane. She never was and she never will be. If she had borne sons, she would have been far less anxious, which would have been better for us all, but she will never be wise. I am not angry with her, well, not terribly angry, anyway, because I expected nothing else when Sir Claude approached us. I knew she would pressure me to marry him even as she pressured me to marry Mr. Collins. I could have withstood her abuse if it were not that Daw himself was such a danger to me and by extension, our respectability as a family.”
Jane nodded with a shudder. She knew of Sir Claude’s disgusting proclivities. It made her skin crawl.
“I confess I am angry at Father, Jane. He was the sensible and intelligent partner in our parents’ marriage, and he chose to sit in his library and allow our mother’s vapors to rule Longbourn.”
“I do believe he loved us in his own way, Lizzy.”
“Oh, I have no doubt he did love us in, as you say, his own way. But his love was never enough to overcome his indolence. Believe me when I say I do value Father for his good traits. I do, and I miss him terribly. One only has to compare him to Sir Claude to know how much worse a husband and father he could have been. As I told Fitzwilliam, however, grief is not always logical. I am angry at Father for leaving us in the first place through death, and then for leaving us in such a dangerous state without sufficient funds saved to support us.”
Jane smiled a little tremulously, “But look at far we have come, Elizabeth!”
Her sister impulsively reached forward to embrace her, “I know, Jane. I know. Indeed, it was ... it was Father’s death which spurred Fitzwilliam to rush to London to inform Mr. Bingley of his interference in your courtship, and then to pursue me across the vast ocean to find and wed me. God has been good to us.”
“He has,” Jane agreed solemnly. “He has indeed.”
“Regarding our sisters,” Elizabeth continued thoughtfully, “their failings are also largely due to their upbringing. Lydia is a high-spirited girl and given Father’s indifference and Mother’s foolishness, it is not surprising that she wandered from the path of modesty and sober demeanor.”
“I would say that Lydia ran from the path as opposed to wandering from it,” her sister returned waspishly, “but I do take your point. And given that, I believe all three of our unmarried sisters would benefit from spending more time with us and less with Mother.”
“I agree. I think there is hope for all three of them, but especially for Mary and Kitty.”
“Mary has been a surprisingly pleasant companion, Lizzy, and I hope she will make her home with us for the foreseeable future. I expect we will stay in London through the winter and if Mary stays with us, she can continue working with a music master. You will be pleased by her improved playing on the pianoforte.”
“That seems an excellent plan,” Elizabeth agreed.
“I will speak to Fitzwilliam about purchasing a cottage for Mother and the two younger girls, preferably near Pemberley. We can take turns hosting the girls. Mother will be pleased to have a home of her own but also will wish the girls to be in company with possible suitors.”
Jane Bingley laughed at this, “Indeed, at the merest hint of an eligible gentleman at Pemberley, I daresay she will load her unmarried daughters into a carriage and dump them at your door!”