Chapter 12
As the two eldest sisters made their way to their father and uncle, they looked at the grand staircase that soared skywards and could not marvel enough at its majestic heights.
Elizabeth said, “Mamma will not like walking up and down these stairs many times a day. You know she loves seeing to the menu personally, but I would wager the kitchen is yet another flight of stairs down.”
Jane answered, “I am not certain, but it sounds unseemly for a duchess to visit the kitchen. Perhaps she will have to stop.”
“You are right, Jane. This house is verily a palace. Imagine the queen going to the kitchen! I shall never get used to living here.”
A footman led them to the study, which, unlike the rest of the house, was casually elegant and airy.
Large windows let in abundant late afternoon light, and a crackling, cheerful fire made the large room appear intimate and welcoming.
The Duke and his wife’s brother looked exceedingly comfortable sitting in two large armchairs.
“Jane, Lizzy, come in! Sit by the fire.”
“How charming! This is unexpected!” exclaimed Elizabeth with pleasure.
“The rooms on this side of the house have been entirely redone recently. The young nephews of the fourth Duke accidentally set the storeroom directly beneath on fire. Sadly, both boys perished.”
The Duke paused again to ponder the capricious nature of inheritance. That tragedy destroyed a family but enabled him to be master of this house.
He returned to the issues at hand. “Let us discuss what will happen next.”
“Papa, Uncle Gardiner, before we begin, we should tell you about mamma and Lydia.”
After Lizzy’s retelling of her mother’s distressed reaction to being mistress of such a grand house, and Lydia’s insulting greetings to her aunt, the Duke was thoughtful.
“This business of being Duke is indeed far more tormenting than I reckoned. At the funeral, I was besieged by what seemed to be half of humanity. For the first time in my life, I was on the brink of losing my composure. I had high hopes of seeing a few old friends from university, but I did not even have enough of my wits about me to look for them. The throng was so thick. If not for Mr. Darcy and his uncle, Lord Fitzwilliam, coming to my aid and fending off the masses, I might have swooned like your mother.”
The Duke wore a slightly sardonic smile, as if he were still bitter about the obsequiousness of that horde.
“Mr. Darcy?” asked Elizabeth incredulously. The man somehow kept intruding into her new life.
“Ah Lizzy, Mr. Darcy was not the haughty young man you described. He was perfectly gentlemanly and helpful. His uncle, Lord Fitzwilliam, was amiability itself.”
“But papa, you are now Duke! You are far higher than he is in society. After all, he is nothing but an untitled gentleman. Perhaps he only looks down on country people like us in a backwater, and especially if they have connections in trade.” Elizabeth glanced uncomfortably at her uncle.
She would never look down on her aunt and uncle as Lydia.
“Being connected to trade is, unfortunately, ingrained in elevated society as a degradation. Your father and I were just discussing the viability of both your uncle Philips and me giving up our businesses to help manage the estate, which is extensive enough to require both of us,” said Mr. Gardiner.
“The wealth in this dukedom can provide our entire extended family with a life of luxury for generations. If your uncles give up their trades, it is not because they would shame us, but because they will be fully occupied by estate business. They have my fullest confidence and trust,” explained the Duke to his daughters.
Jane and Elizabeth were dazed by all the unforeseen changes caused by their father’s new wealth.
Mr. Gardiner interjected. “I shall not give up the business I have spent the last twenty years building. It has enabled me to become a landed gentleman in my own right if I so wished. Instead, I shall be a silent partner and give over the day-to-day operation to my able associates. Even though trade is looked down upon by both the gentry and peerage, many have invested in trade unknowingly, or while pretending to be ignorant of it. All they care about is the high returns their agents bring them every year. My business has a few of them. My being connected to the Dukedom of Northampton will attract more selective and larger investments, thus allowing me to be more ambitious in the types of projects I could launch. After all, the fourth Duke almost single-handedly built the canal network that has been the primary force in creating enormous amounts of commerce between the industrial north and the genteel south. He did not personally collect the canal tolls, but depending on your definition of trade, he was very much steeped in the operation of his enterprise.”
“Uncle Gardiner, that is a brilliant strategy! Adhere to high society’s current view of trade and benefit from it!” exclaimed Elizabeth excitedly. Jane was glad she was not required to give up the connection with her dear aunts, uncles, and cousins.
“Gardiner, with you and Philips by my side, I shall be at ease.”
“Bennet, Philips and I do not have experience in affairs at your level of society. All we can do is to be mediators, interpreters of sorts, between the Dukedom’s competent managers and you.”
“That is all I ask. I have the assurance of Mr. Darcy and Lord Fitzwilliam that they will guide us in manners and matters. We shall be all right,” said the Duke with renewed composure.
“Papa, you seem to have been completely won over by Mr. Darcy. What did he do to make you think so highly of him after how he behaved in Hertfordshire?”
The Duke scrutinized Elizabeth with interest. His daughter seemed determined to dislike the young man, which could be traced back to the gentleman’s slight of her at the Assembly the previous Michaelmas.
She talked insistently, but acted amused, about the gentleman.
She likely felt something for the young man to be so affected.
Well, Darcy has apologized to me and will apologize to her. She conveniently forgets that Darcy did ask her to dance afterwards. He claimed to abhor dancing, but not with her…
After being at the receiving end of shameless fawning from a crowd of strangers, he had an epiphany that Mr. Darcy was not necessarily haughty but acted so to fend off the annoying throng.
In this new and rarefied sphere, he needed to find some allies; the Earl and his nephew seemed a safe bet, the Earl courting him for the Whigs notwithstanding.
“Well, Lizzy, you will find out for yourself soon enough how people can hound you mercilessly, hoping for nothing more than an intangible connection of which they can boast. I can sympathize readily with Mr. Darcy’s behavior in Hertfordshire.
Do you not remember your cousin Collins’s behavior at the Netherfield ball toward the gentleman?
“At the funeral, seeing Mr. Darcy’s familiar face was like a lifeline thrown to a drowning man.
I so hastily latched onto the young man to escape from the horde that I did not take leave of the gentlemen surrounding me.
Perhaps I too have gained a reputation for being proud among those who might have felt slighted.
There truly is no reason to bear a grudge because of a slight that happened so long ago. ”
Elizabeth was taken aback by her papa’s reproof—mild though it was.
She had never questioned why she felt so profoundly humiliated by Mr. Darcy’s insult.
His general demeanor of hauteur she had expected and accepted as inevitable from someone so far above the general populace in wealth and lineage.
The Bingley sisters, who were neither so high nor so mighty, exhibited abundant disdain toward their genteel neighbors in Meryton, but she did not hate them.
Instead, she pitied them for their misplaced sense of pride.
Hate? That is a strong word.
Everyone was waiting for a response from Elizabeth. Jane, who had not thought of the slight as serious since Lizzy herself had made a jest of it. Now, though, she suspected her papa might have hit on the truth about Lizzy’s antagonistic attitude toward Mr. Darcy.
Elizabeth woke up from her trance and said, “Oh, I was not important enough for Mr. Darcy to notice, let alone take the trouble to slight me. I am simply perplexed that you would think so highly of a new acquaintance.”
The Duke smiled knowingly at his daughter. He said, “Mr. Darcy is no stranger. I have known him since he came to Netherfield Park with the Bingley party…” The Duke turned to look at Jane to see how she would react to the mention of that gentleman, but Jane was her usual serene self.
He continued. “At the funeral, he behaved with impeccable manners, unlike the obsequious mob around me. You also seem to have ignored his uncle, Lord Fitzwilliam, of whom I think highly, and who spoke well of his nephew. And that is a good enough recommendation of the young man to me.”
Elizabeth did not look convinced of Mr. Darcy’s good nature.
“What about what Mr. Wickham said?” asked Elizabeth skeptically.
“What about that fortune-hunter? You, Lizzy, appear to have been completely won over by an acquaintance of short duration.”
Elizabeth opened her mouth to rebut. However, she thought better of it. Her father had a point, and she had yet to win an argument against her father, a master of rhetoric. The better strategy was for her to desist from expressing her dislike of the Derbyshire gentleman—for the time being.
He is married, after all!
Not to admit defeat completely, she retorted, “I am surprised that these gentlemen know anything about transforming lowly country girls into refined ladies. I had the impression Mr. Darcy despised Lydia’s behavior at the Netherfield ball.
He likely will not think her worth his time,” said Elizabeth.
The Duke was silent for a moment.