Chapter Nine #2
Mamma tittered. Tittered as if she were Lydia’s age instead of Lydia’s mamma.
“Oh sir, you flatter me. This is my Jane, my eldest.” She did not wait for Jane to complete her curtsey or Mr Reid to finish his greeting before going on.
“Jane is accounted a great beauty, you know. Indeed, I had my share of beauty once, but I do not pretend to be anything extraordinary now. When a woman has five daughters, nearly all grown up, she ought to give over thinking of herself in such a way.”
“I canna agree. I see a most decided likeness. Yours is a family of beautiful ladies, ma’am.
” Mr Reid bowed over Mamma’s hand, to blushes and more tittering.
“Now then, ma’am, I see you must be off, but afore you go, I maun tell you I am drawing up a plan of improvement for the demesne.
The head gardener told me we include the gardens of Frith House within our purview, so I beg you will allow me to call upon you in the next week to discuss what must be done with the Frith House gardens at the same time we work on Pemberley’s. ”
He received blushing consent, and handed his conquest up into the gig seat beside a stoic Mary, who acknowledged his gallantry with a nod.
The groom who had been holding Nellie made a stirrup of his cupped hands for Jane to step into and tossed her up into the saddle.
She gathered up the reins with perfect composure and led the way out of the stable yard gate.
Mamma looked back over her shoulder more than once.
Elizabeth thanked the grooms with as wide a smile as she could muster, and turned back to the house.
Mr Reid elected to walk by her side. What was he about?
He was perhaps fifty, and still a handsome, vigorous man, with a shock of greying hair and bright dark eyes. The spark in those eyes amused her.
“So, sir, will I need to protect my mamma’s delicate sensibilities?”
The corner of his mouth twitched, as if he were repressing a smile. “We were discussing gardens, Miss Elizabeth.”
“Oh, there is never temptation in a garden, I suppose, unless the gardener has laid in a supply of serpents and apple trees.”
The twitch was very noticeable now. “I wouldna say that. She is a handsome lady. Like her daughters.”
“Mamma was quite right. You are a flatterer, sir.”
He chuckled, and offered his arm with perfect good humour. He was indeed an interesting man and one worth getting to know better.
“So, Miss Elizabeth, you have great sympathy for large and ruthless predators.” Mr Darcy, having joined the ladies in the drawing room after dinner, took a seat close to Elizabeth’s own.
She stared at him for an instant, more accustomed to his walking the room or standing before the windows staring out over Pemberley, than actively seeking conversation.
Were the others as disconcerted by this softening of his reserve?
Georgiana played the pianoforte in the window alcove, while Aunt Darcy was stitching as usual.
Hugh remained hidden behind the newspaper, ensconced in his own particular chair.
None seemed to pay heed to Mr Darcy’s approach.
Elizabeth cast her mind back to the conversation that morning with the Standleys. “The tiger, do you mean, Mr Darcy? Or am I to understand you to refer to the gentlemen who gather at Mr Standley’s club? Not all predators wear striped skins, after all.”
“The tiger, Miss Elizabeth. The predators at the club are a different species entirely.”
“Will you attend?”
Mr Darcy’s nose wrinkled in a muted grimace. “Now and again, perhaps, to meet the gentlemen of the district, but I do not desire to lose Pemberley at cards. I suspect his ‘fashionable stakes’ are higher than I would find comfortable.”
“Very wise, sir.” Elizabeth sighed. “The tiger, then. Sympathy is a strong word, but yes. I have more of it for a beast that merely answers to the nature God gave him, rather than those predators who walk upon two legs and corrupt the higher sense and goodness a man should have. I do not mean a propensity for gambling.”
He regarded her, expression solemn, and nodded. “Wickham explained the reasons you and your family left… Longbourn, was it?”
“Yes. Longbourn.”
“He told me of the man who inherited, and his base nature. I am sorry you were exposed to such a creature.”
“Arthur Collins. A distant cousin of my father’s.
Believe me, sir, the tiger would be kinder.
It would merely rend and tear, not wish to corrupt— Forgive me.
I am indelicate in admitting I had any understanding of the man’s ambitions, but the day my father died was a terrible one.
Collins was foul-mouthed and—” She stopped, her face heating.
“I cannot speak of it fully. His plans were equally foul and he burst into the house, my father not yet cold, thinking he had us in his power and threatening abominable things. Thank heavens Mr Wickham had arrived with footmen from your London house and was able to support my uncle Gardiner and the Hills in repelling the invasion. If they had not been there…”
“I can imagine. It must have been terrifying.”
“I miss Longbourn, and to think we lost it to a man unfit to black my father’s boots!
Well. I miss Papa more, of course, and I had dear friends amongst our neighbours whose companionship is reduced now to occasional letters.
The saddest, wickedest thing is that situations such as ours happen every week.
Estates are entailed under strict settlement to only male heirs, and the women are dispossessed and must shift for themselves, and be grateful if they escape with their virtue intact. ”
He winced and frowned. “His punishment will come, in the next life if not in this.” He glanced at Georgiana, as if imagining her at the mercy of such a brute.
“Pemberley is entailed, too, under a similar strict settlement, and therefore, like Longbourn, not subject to common recovery in law as are less strict entails. I had hoped to end it when I came of age, but my father was not of the same mind. I was already set on entering the king’s service, you see, and, given its occasional dangers, he wanted to ensure Hugh’s right to inherit was absolutely unimpeded. ”
“Lucky man, with sons to succeed him. But what if anything had happened to Hugh as well? Would Pemberley go to a distant cousin, the way Longbourn did?”
“We would go back a generation or two. My grandfather and James Wickham’s father were brothers.
Henry Darcy changed his name to ensure his wife’s inheritance of the Waulkmill estate in Cheshire, but he was a Darcy by blood with legal standing under the entail, which his male issue inherits.
His descendants could easily change their names back again.
If aught happens to me and to Hugh, James Wickham inherits. ”
“But he is unfit, surely?”
“The entail says nothing of the fitness or otherwise of the inheritor, Miss Elizabeth.”
“A man so impaired, and yet considered still superior to a woman.”
“Yes.” He smiled when she responded with a huffed out Hmmpff! “I cannot change the current strict settlement alone, but I hope I will be able to end it with my own son when I have one.”
“Papa thought likewise.” Elizabeth could not keep the dryness from her tone.
He inclined his head in acknowledgement. “A hit! A palpable hit. I take notice of it. We are lucky that Georgiana is well provided for. Hugh, also. I will seek to ensure any daughters of mine are similarly protected.”
“Longbourn is a much smaller estate, and with five daughters, my poor Papa could not provide for us in such a large way.” Elizabeth could only hope her gritted teeth were not in evidence as she went on, “Sir, I must tell you we are grateful for all Pemberley has done for us. Without your father’s kindness and his eagerness to please my Aunt Darcy, we would have been in ill straits.
We have Frith House on easy terms, and I cannot be surprised if you wish the lease had never been signed! ”
“Your mother and… her brother, is it?”
“Yes. My uncle Gardiner, who has his business in London. He is our guardian now.”
“I have heard of him. A friend mentioned he had been recommended as a sound businessman with whom to invest.”
She glowed at the praise. “He is an honest, gentlemanly man. I am pleased his reputation bears this out. His wife is from Lambton. Her father was Mr Ross, a former rector of All Saints church.”
“Indeed? I do not think I knew him.”
“The family has always attended the Kympton church. I did not expect you to remember Mr Ross.”
“It is interesting that you have more than one link to Derbyshire, Miss Elizabeth. You are, then, an honorary citizen of the county.”
“Very honorary!”
“Well. To return to the matter of the lease, your mother and uncle agreed a ten-year tenancy with my father, and your family has more than six years left on the lease in which they might feel secure. You and your sisters will all, I hope, be well settled before it ends. Besides, I would not dispossess a widow of little means, and can renew the lease at any time. I have no need of the house.”
“You are kind, sir.”
“It is merely that I am not, I hope, a predator.”
Elizabeth smiled. “Well, on our acquaintance thus far, you do not display stripes. You are no tiger, sir.”
“I will take that as a compliment.” He nodded towards the coffee pot on the small table set before her. “Would you oblige me with another cup of coffee? I shall need it if I am not to doze over all the legal papers I must review this evening.”
She smiled her brightest smile and prepared him a cup as he preferred it: strong, cream-less, and, to her mind, completely unpalatable. He himself, though, was perhaps not quite as unpalatable as he had first seemed.
She returned to her seat with his coffee, accepting his thanks. His smile lit his whole face. A handsome man, for certain, and more sociable than she had first thought. He sipped the coffee and nodded his appreciation.
“Perfectly made. Now then, Miss Elizabeth, in the few moments before I must return to my work, shall we have more conversation? What think you of books? Shakespeare, perhaps?”
No. Not as unpalatable.