Chapter 4 #2
“Is that the way to greet your nearest relation, Robert?” Lady Catherine smiled sweetly.
“First, you are not even close to being my nearest relation, and I am your Grace to you, Lady Catherine!” the Duke stated icily. “I ask again, what are you doing here?”
“It is time for Fitzwilliam to do his duty…” The indignant lady got no further.
“Did you not get the message? Did you not know I have been consigning your lying drivel to the fire all these years? I must thank you for helping to warm my house. Do you remember what I threatened if you spewed your lies about William being betrothed to my niece in public?” the Duke demanded.
Lady Catherine was taken back by his visceral reaction and emphatic response. Mayhap it was time to change tactics. “Why Ro—your Grace, I thought you were jesting.”
“You know very well, I was not. Mention this phantom engagement one more time, and I will make good on that threat!” The Duke stepped toward Lady Catherine, and, towering over her, used his size to intimidate her, hopefully for the last time.
“Now climb in your coach and return to Rosings, or if not, to the lower hell you truly belong in!”
“How can you be so cruel, your Grace? My Anne is in no shape to travel once again so soon; you can see for yourself,” Lady Catherine indicated her daughter wrapped with many thick blankets against the freezing temperatures.
The Duke knew his sister-in-law would not hesitate to use Anne as a pawn in her schemes, but he could not punish his beloved late wife’s namesake for the sins of her mother.
“You have a maximum of two days for my niece to recover. At that point, I care not if you go to the inn in Lambton, and Lady Catherine,” the red-faced lady turned to look at him with hate-filled eyes.
“If you dare arrive at my estate or one of my homes without an invitation written by me, you will be turned away regardless of who is in the carriage with you.”
“The lady spluttered but did not dare gainsay her high-ranking brother-in-law. “If that is your decree, your Grace!”
“It is,” he turned to his son. “William, I think you should take Gigi and go visit your aunt and Uncle at Snowhaven until our guests have departed. I will send a note when you may return,” the Duke instructed. Lady Catherine started to protest, but one quelling look from the Duke silenced her.
“What about the Holders, Father?” Lord William asked.
“I will send a note forthwith,” the Duke assured his son.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Within an hour, one of the Derbyshire carriages departed for Snowhaven, a mere fifteen miles distant. Lady Catherine and her none-too-happy daughter were shown to their suite on a guest floor.
“Mother,” Anne screeched as they gained the shared sitting room.
“You promised I would soon be a Marchioness and a duchess! Why did my uncle deny I am betrothed to my cousin when you continually tell me I am?” Anne had long suspected it was a fantasy of her mother’s, but she had long held onto the hope that she would leave her mother’s company.
“It is a misunderstanding, Anne, and one I will clear up tonight!” Lady Catherine promised her daughter.
After midnight, Lady Catherine slipped out of her chambers and made for the family floor, more importantly to the master suite. She had failed to compromise Robert Darcy before, but she would not fail again!
As she opened the door to her brother-in-law’s chambers, she failed to notice the Duke was standing in an alcove in the dark, with his valet at his side.
With the aid of the moonlight she stole into the master’s chambers, and after blowing out the candle she had used to get there, she climbed into the bed with the male form she could just make out.
“Robert, we were meant for one another, do not fight it,” Lady Catherine snaked her hands around the man’s chest. “It is time to make me your duchess.”
“Sorry, missus, but if ya marry me, ya will no’ be any duchess, but a footman’s wife,” a smiling man still in his livery looked back at the dismayed woman.
“Why are you in my brother’s bed!” Lady Catherine blustered.
Suddenly, the chamber was bathed in light as candles were lit.
“That is my question for you, Catherine! Had your misguided scheme succeeded in compromising me all those years ago, the result would have been the same as it would have been this night. I would not marry you, even if you were the only woman on this earth! Thompson, Hampstead,” the Duke looked to two burley footmen, “escort this lady to her chambers. Post a guard there, more than one, in fact. She is to be in her coach and departing Pemberley by ten this morning. The gatehouse is to be informed that she is not allowed back onto my lands, no matter what she tells them!” The two men nodded, and before she could protest, each took an arm, lifted her off her feet, and marched her to her chambers.
As the Duke had instructed, the de Bourgh carriage departed Pemberley on time.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
“It is good to see Longbourn again, Lizzy,” Bennet told his daughter as they rolled down the drive.
It was Saturday, the eighth day of January 1802.
Bennet and his second daughter had departed Holder Heights the day after Twelfth Night with his cousins, who turned off towards Town some hours earlier.
“It is, Papa. I understand why Jane and Tommy are not here, but I do miss them so,” Elizabeth stated wistfully.
“I miss them all the time as well, Lizzy, but we will see them in three short months at Easter. As happy as I am you are with me, I wonder if I did the right thing by not ordering you to stay with Jane and Tommy,” Bennet questioned himself.
“Well, I for one think you made the correct decision!” Elizabeth insisted.
“I hope so, my Lizzy,” Bennet kissed her forehead as the carriage halted under the portico. Neither missed the sour looks on Mrs. Bennet’s and her daughters’ faces.