Chapter One #3
“The lady in white, on Mr. Darcy’s other side, is Miss Woodhouse, lately out of mourning for her father.
Beside her, the young lady who rather resembles you, Miss Morland, is Miss Woodhouse’s devoted companion Miss Smith, and across from Miss Smith, the woman in the scarlet silk is Lady Susan Vernon, Miss Woodhouse’s aunt.
The preening dandy in the mustard seed waistcoat is Sir Walter Elliot, and beside him, his nephew Mr. Willoughby.
The fellow in the green coat is Mr. Henry Crawford, and beside him is the new Mrs. Rushworth.
Her husband sits across from her, that fellow in the plum waistcoat, looking uncommonly bewildered, and beside him is his wife’s brother Tom Bertram.
At the end of the table, the lady with the peacock feather in her hair is Miss Esther Denham, an heiress who just inherited a grand fortune, and across from her, Mr. Sidney Parker, who appears well aware of her charms, all thirty thousand of them. ”
Elizabeth smiled politely. “I am sure I shall remember all that once we have been properly introduced.”
“I apologize for my poor manners. I meant to perform my duty, but just before dinner was called, I received some rather vexing news,” Mr. Tilney said.
Miss Morland was effusive in her concern, but Mr. Tilney gave her an enigmatic smile. “I believe I must make the best of it. Indeed, I daresay it is high time I share that news with the present company, for we shall all be affected.” He stood, and called them all to attention.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I am sure you all must feel some trepidation in accepting my invitation, despite the inducements promised. Some of you may have heard that I expected three additional guests to arrive tomorrow – my father the general, and Princess Elizabeth and Prince Edward. I have just received word from the royals that they shall be delayed a day or two, though my father is still expected tomorrow afternoon. As you may imagine, this presents some difficulty for me in delivering what was promised to you.”
The older man Elizabeth believed was called Sir Walter ceased flirting with the young lady at his side and set his fork down heavily. “You mean that General Tilney is coming here, and the royals are not?”
“As I said, they shall be delayed. It is not ideal, but….”
“But the general will surely suspect aught amiss with your choice of guests,” the young Mrs. Rushworth cried.
“Are we to hide in our rooms until the royals serve out justice,” the alluring woman in red scoffed. “Or have you tricked us?”
Miss Morland looked imploringly at Mr. Tilney. “Whatever can they mean?”
Elizabeth had finally had enough of all the mystery. “You might as well speak plainly, Mr. Tilney, for those of us who have no idea to what you refer.”
Mr. Tilney nodded. “There is no trick. You have all been summoned here because my father, who has worked for many years as a spy master for the Crown, has occupied himself most deviously in collecting not only state secrets, but malicious and damning information of a more personal nature, and has exploited it for his own gain. As I wrote to you all in the letters I sent last month, I mean to expose him for his many crimes against the Crown. Now that I am no longer dependent on my father, I am at liberty to put an end to his extortion. I have always meant to do so, since learning of his abuses, which go far beyond what you may realize. Of course, it will not do for him to arrive and discover a dozen of his victims all assembled before we can expose him to the prince and princess, and be sure of his silence when he is brought to justice. I believe a great many of you have not deserved to pay the steep price of his discretion, and I am sure that my royal guests will agree, when they finally arrive.”
“And what are we to do until then,” demanded Sir Edward, and Elizabeth’s heart sank. Her uncle was being blackmailed, and she was sure that it had something to do with her presence here.
“Lady Susan may have had a fine notion, in suggesting you keep to your rooms tomorrow,” Mr. Tilney said with a sigh. “I shall speak to him when he arrives, and get rid of him somehow. I shall send him to Northanger to retrieve my sister, perhaps; that will buy us a few days.”
“And in the meantime? I did not leave Bath to socialize with strangers of dubious quality in some remote backwater,” Sir Walter whined.
“You seem to be enjoying yourself as much as ever,” Lady Susan chided him. “Cannot your pursuit of a bride to give you a son wait a few days?”
The young lady who sat beside Sir Walter looked alarmed, and scooted her chair a little nearer to Miss Woodhouse, who sneered at the gentleman.
“You just be a great coxcomb, sir, to invite us all together like this,” Mr. Rushworth cried. “General Tilney is not a man to be trifled with, and I do not like it!”
Mr. Tilney inclined his head? Looking rather crestfallen. “I am sorry to hear it. I had imagined a different outcome, as I said. I had thought the evening would prove one of celebration, in ending my father’s vicious hold over you all.”
Mrs. Rushworth wrinkled her nose with disdain. “And instead we are to dine amongst strangers who all know us to be hiding some great secret, and who all have scandalous secrets of their own. I am not in the habit of dining in such company.”
“Are you not?” Lady Susan gave a wolfish grin and waggled her brows. “I reside chiefly in London, and move amongst the first circles. All the best people are hiding something, I assure you.”
Beside her, Sir Walter leered. “And some of us are not hiding their secrets especially well; they prefer their notoriety.”
The lady grinned at him. “If only my notoriety were enough to deter the attentions of the desperate.”
“Well, I think it is mad,” Mr. Rushworth insisted. “I was raised to be mindful of the company I keep. Mother would not approve.”
“You are welcome to depart, if it makes you uneasy,” Mr. Tilney said. “Take rooms at an inn, if you like, and I can send for you when the general is gone, and the royals have arrived.”
Mrs. Rushworth gave a sideward glance at the man beside her, and shook her head. “We will remain, so long as you are good as your word, sir. You have already deceived us with your false name.”
“I must hope to make amends by granting you what I am sure you have long desired… independence from my father’s machinations,” Mr. Tilney said smoothly.
“When the royals are finished with him, you need not live in fear of his blackmail any longer. In the meanwhile, you may take solace in the company of others who understand what you have endured.”
Elizabeth looked over at Mr. Darcy. He gazed about the table with an expression equal measures guilty and suspicious, and somehow this was the most ominous moment of the evening.
***
Dinner remained tense and chaotic, though they muddled through it, and rather quickly.
Nobody had much of an appetite after Mr. Tilney’s revelation, nor any inclination to withdraw to the parlor after the hurried meal.
They had been all suspicion and distrust, and when it was observed that Mr. Tilney had referred to a dozen of them having secrets, nearly everybody had been eager to insinuate that they were one of the four innocents at the table.
Only Sir Edward and Mr. Darcy had refrained from this paltry tactic, which troubled Elizabeth as she paced her bedchamber that evening.
Her uncle had evaded her, despite his promise; he remained firm that he must speak to the general before providing her any elucidation.
Mr. Darcy had scarcely been able to meet her eye, though he had sought to attach himself to her for want of any better companions.
This, at least, ought to have been a relief, but the first moment of solace she found came when Catherine Morland knocked on her door.
“Is it not charming to share a cozy little parlor, Miss Bennet?”
“It is very snug, with the fire blazing,” Elizabeth admitted.
Miss Morland held up a bottle of wine and two glasses. “Mr. Tilney sent this, with a note that said I am to share it with you, that we might grow better acquainted.”
“I suppose he must have a little pity for us, knowing us to be amongst the four who harbor no dark, mysterious secret.”
Miss Morland gestured to the sofa, and Elizabeth sank heavily into it as her new friend poured them each a glass of wine. She arched an eyebrow. “How old are you, Miss Morland?”
“I will be nineteen next year,” the girl said boldly, before shaking her head with a wry laugh. “I will be eighteen in December.”
“And I think you are not insensible to the charms of Mr. Tilney. Do you think it wise, given the circumstances?”
“Probably not,” Miss Morland sighed. “But he is the handsomest man I ever saw! And so affable! And do you not think it is terribly clever and noble of him to go against his father, and free everyone from whatever blackmail they have endured?”
Elizabeth considered, for it was very likely that her uncle was amongst that number, and she shuddered to think what that might have to do with her.
“I suppose it depends. If anybody has actually done some great wrong, for which they deserve punishment rather than extortion…. Perhaps he ought to have handled it all through the appropriate legal procedures.”
“But we are to receive two children of the King! Are they not the highest law?” Miss Morland sipped at her wine, and then frowned. “Do you suppose there is any chance that Lady Allen and Sir Edward are the other two innocents?”
Elizabeth let out a heavy sigh and refilled her glass before doing the same for her friend.
“I am sorry to say that I do not think it likely, else why would they have brought us here? No, when I think of it, I must consider the others that have some connections present. Miss Woodville, I think her name was, the haughty blonde in the white dress….”
“Miss Woodhouse, I thought she was quite nice.”
“Well, I suppose I can excuse her behavior at such a time. But Mr. Tilney said that she came with her aunt and a companion, so perhaps one amongst them has no horrible secret of their own. And then there was the married couple, the Rushworths, and that lady’s brother.
One amongst them, perhaps? It cannot be anybody who came alone. ”
Miss Morland nodded thoughtfully. “Your uncle seemed to know Lady Allen – either that, or they were instantly smitten. Perhaps there is some great secret from their past!”
Elizabeth laughed. “My mother and her sister have teased my uncle for being quite an enthusiastic beau in his younger days, but I cannot think how that would be a damaging revelation. Forgive me, I hardly wish to think what my uncle might have done that could warrant the disquiet that fell over him as we traveled here.”
“Oh dear, it was the same for Lady Allen, and she is generally so cheerful. But she has always been such a kind and attentive neighbor, and has taken such an interest in me, especially now that I am quite grown up. I ought to feel ungrateful for speculating like this, but I am vastly curious.”
“I am, and yet I am not,” Elizabeth admitted. “I wish I did not know that there was something I do not know.”
“Yes, exactly,” Miss Morland agreed. “But I suppose if we follow Mr. Tilney’s plan, and allow him to stall his father until the royals arrive, we may never know. It will all go away, but I suppose it is happy news for them.”
“Was it not odd that Mrs. Rushworth complained so loudly, but then declined to leave until the royals arrive?”
“I suppose it would be an inconvenience.”
Cathy waggled her brows. “I suppose it had something to do with the plain, short man that was so attentive to her, though he is not her husband.”
Elizabeth smiled sadly before finishing her glass of wine.
She nearly poured another, but stayed herself.
She could not summon the same levity as her new friend, and feared she would not be entirely herself until she spoke with her uncle.
Perhaps he hoped that whatever secret the general held over him might be hushed up, for Mr. Tilney had promised that once the prince and princess were apprised of the general’s other misdeeds, he would be beyond extorting those he held such power over.
If this was the case, he could have nothing to say to her, nothing to distress her with.
“Perhaps it is for the best,” Elizabeth sighed.
“But then what a merry time we shall have! I hope we might stay awhile, for I am sure this castle is deliciously haunted, and of course I should like to know Mr. Tilney better.” Miss Morland fidgeted with the fringe on her dressing gown for a moment, then gave Elizabeth a bright, devious smile. “Mr. Darcy is very handsome.”
“I suppose he is, but I know very well he would not say the same of me.” Finally indulging in a third glass of wine, Elizabeth moved a little closer to her friend as she imparted the tale of her first encounter with Mr. Darcy, and given the current circumstances, she took the liberty of comedic embellishments that were surely appreciated.
“And have you never seen him since his friend married your sister?”
Elizabeth scoffed. “In truth, my new brother is a little put out about it, for they have lately welcomed a baby girl, and wished him to act as godfather. But I suppose he was too busy committing whatever secret misdeeds the general holds over him, and could not be bothered to revisit the town that displeased him the first time.”
Miss Morland arched an eyebrow at Elizabeth. “If you are going to tease me about Mr. Tilney, I must pay you back in kind and observe that you would not be half so cross about his insult if he were not quite so handsome.”
Elizabeth felt her face grow hot, and she swatted at her friend. “No, indeed! Even if he had warts and a leer, I should object to him disparaging me where any of my neighbors and relations might have heard! And I have other reasons to dislike him, trust me. I am sure I think him very ill-featured!”
“Do you think his secret is a very bad one?”
Elizabeth had heard enough of Mr. Darcy’s character from poor Lieutenant Wickham, before he was reassigned to a post as aide to some colonel or general.
She was quite certain that Mr. Darcy was capable of anything.
Perhaps she only wished some distraction from whatever it was that her uncle was hiding, for Elizabeth found herself troubled indeed by the notion of Mr. Darcy.
He was not only the handsomest man she had ever met, but also the most brooding and mysterious, and she had drunk just enough wine to find it an intriguing thread to pull.