Chapter 16 #2
“My nephew is soft, and he will do as I demand. He would not want his sister’s ruination known abroad.
This is my due, and I will have his compliance.
If not, I will allow Dryden to convince him.
I will have him take my insipid niece, and if my recalcitrant nephew still refuses me, I will have him end her life as he did that of my useless husband.
If only I had him change his will first!
I digress; it will not come to that, as my nephew will do anything in his power to protect his little sister, which is why I gave you the task I did and allowed you to experience her highborn flesh.
” Lady Catherine had no understanding she had just admitted to solicitation of murder, and more, before multiple witnesses.
“It seems you have considered all possibilities, Lady Catherine. We have ten minutes before we should depart for the estate; it is but two miles distant,” Bingley informed the preening woman. She assumed he admired her well-thought-out plan to gain that which she had long coveted.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Just before half past eleven, Lady Catherine swept into the drawing room at Netherfield Park.
What she did not know was that, as soon as she had entered the house, Dryden had been arrested for the murder of Sir Lewis de Bourgh and other crimes.
While she was gloating over her perceived victory, Dryden was singing like a canary in a vain attempt to save his neck.
“Lady Catherine, what brings you to my estate when you have been told more than once not to set foot on Darcy land?” the Duke asked calmly.
“Why, you impudent pup! You will show me the respect I deserve unless you want one and all to know of your sister’s cavorting, unwed, with my parson,” she pointed at Bingley.
“I see. So you are here to extort me. What leverage do you think you have, and what exactly are you asking for?” the Duke asked evenly.
“I know it all! Your sister is naught but a common trollop, lying with the son of a tradesman!” Lady Catherine insisted.
“Mother, how can you say such a vile thing about your own niece?” Anne de Bourgh spoke up.
“Be quiet, Anne! What I do, I do for you. One of us will finally be Duchess of Derbyshire!” Lady Catherine glowered at her daughter.
“Where is your proof, Lady Catherine?” the Duke asked. “As you correctly pointed out, this man is the son of a tradesman. Who would believe him, or you, with alleged second-hand knowledge of a phantom compromise, over my word?”
“You would deny the truth and let some man raise her bastard if she is with child?” Lady Catherine was positive she would carry the day. “I have a special license here! It has your name and Anne’s. If you marry today, no one will ever hear of my niece’s shame!”
“Hurst,” the Duke nodded towards the termagant and the licence she was waving about like a lace cloth.
Before she could stop him, the Duke’s private secretary relieved her of the special license and tossed it into the fire.
Lady Catherine sat, her mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water.
“Everyone will hear of your sister’s ruin; you will be slighted by all; no one will receive you again! ” Lady Catherine yelled.
“I disagree with you, Lady Catherine!” Lady Georgiana, who had slipped in behind the woman, stated clearly. “Why are you lying about me?”
“You hussy, how can you say that when your lover is in this very room!” Lady Catherine spat.
“And who is my supposed lover?” Lady Georgiana asked.
“Do not act all innocent with me; I know it all!” She pointed at Bingley. “He is there, now deny it if you dare!”
“This is your niece? I have never met her before.” Bingley stated, with a straight face.
“You wrote to me and told me…” Lady Catherine started to say.
“That I had had success. I did not say what the success was, did I?” Bingley challenged the lady.
“But…how…why?” Lady Catherine could not grasp how things had not gone as she had determined they would.
“All of this, Cathy, so you could cheat your daughter out of her inheritance,” Lord Matlock stated from behind her. Lady Catherine stood and turned slowly, and her face fell when she saw her brother, sister-in-law, their two sons, and the Viscountess looking at her with disgust.
“Reggie, why are you here?” Lady Catherine asked lamely.
“To have you arrested for your crimes, Catherine. We were behind you today when you admitted to having Lewis murdered, and your man Dryden is in the process of enumerating every illegal action you ordered him to take. You did not even have the sense to tell him verbally, as you did with Bingley; you wrote your instructions down. Our parents, if they were alive, would disown you, just as we are about to do,” the Earl stated, sadly.
“By the by, Mother, I have a true copy of my father’s will, and even were you not about to be arrested, by next week you would have no longer been mistress of Rosings!
Your Grace, allow me to apologise. I went along with my mother’s plans to marry you in the past, as I was selfish and wanted to escape her and her dictatorial ways,” Anne looked down in shame.
“You cannot do this to me! Do you know who I am?” Lady Catherine attempted to bluster.
“You are a woman with an overblown sense of her own worth and position in life. You are not a peer; you have a courtesy title which has no significance. It is time for you to learn just how insignificant you are,” the Duke stated firmly.
“Not that is any of your business, but I am already betrothed. My lady was wise to decline meeting one so cruel and insipid.”
The magistrate nodded, and two constables took charge of Lady Catherine. “Reggie do not let them do this! Think of the family,” Lady Catherine pleaded.
The Earl raised his hand, and the two men stopped and turned their prisoner around to face those in the drawing room.
“Now you mention family. What cared you for family when you treated you own daughter as a captive? When you ordered the murder of your husband and others? When you tried to compromise our late brother Robert, twice mind you, and now you send a clergyman to compromise your niece! You care naught for anyone but yourself, and whatever happens to you now was decided by your own hand. May God have mercy on your soul, Catherine.”
With that, the magistrate and his men left with their prisoner, who seemed to be in a stupor, attempting to understand how everything had gone so very wrong. “It is sad, but there was no choice, Reggie,” Lady Elaine soothed her troubled husband.
“I know, Elaine, but she is, or, at least, she was, my sister,” Lord Matlock sighed.
“Anne, I hope you know you are welcome to stay for as long as you would like. And please, no more of that ‘your grace’ nonsense. It is William now, just as it was when we were younger,” William offered.
“Thank you, William. Are you truly betrothed, or was that for my mother’s benefit?” Anne asked. She smiled at her cousin in response to his, neither of them guarded after so many years of suffering the denial of cousinly affection.
“I promise, she is very real, Cousin,” Andrew said with a grin. “He only asked her yesterday, and she accepted him—even with all of his warts and wrinkles.”
“In that case, I wish you and the lady who will take you on happy, William. Will I meet this paragon soon?” Anne enquired.
“You will, Anne,” was the only answer the Duke offered.
“Mr. Bingley, you have done me and my family a great service. We have canvassed your past, and you have owned up to your errors and pledged to keep walking an honourable path. You are sure I cannot reward you?” the Duke asked.
“It was my pleasure to be of service, Your Grace. No, what I did, I did because it was the right thing to do, not for any pecuniary advantage. While I thank you for the thought, I must decline. I will return to my parish and become the parson that my parishioners need and deserve.” Bingley looked to Anne.
“I look forward to working with you as my patroness, Miss de Bourgh.”
Anne inclined her head; Bingley bowed to all and took his leave. Per the master’s instruction, once the confrontation in the drawing room was over and Lady Catherine and Bingley had departed, Nichols informed Miss Elizabeth and Miss Louisa it was safe to join the family in the drawing room.
“This,” William said as he extended his hand to Elizabeth, “is my betrothed, Miss Elizabeth Bennet of Longbourn, who happens to be cousin to Marie, so she is your cousin too, Anne. Elizabeth, our cousin, Miss Anne de Bourgh of Rosings Park. The other young lady is Elizabeth’s sister Miss Louisa Bennet, formally Bingley.
She also happens to be the sister of your clergyman. ”
“It sounds as if there is a good story there, William,” Anne surmised. For the next hour Anne was regaled with the history of both Bennet families, the good and the bad, and the fact that those feared lost were expected to arrive in England within the next fortnight.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Ten days later, a Dennington Lines ship, which left Nassau more than two months previously, docked on the Thames. When the Bennets set foot on English soil, their odyssey, which began almost four years previously, came to an end.
A man from Holder House had been watching the berth ever since the Earl’s letter was received.
Other than all the children being much grown, the coachman recognised the family instantly.
Before the Bennets knew it, they were being shepherded into two Holder coaches.
There were only two trunks between all of them and Parrot was a remarkable point of interest for all who saw him.
By the time the two coaches pulled up at Holder House, word of how the Holder Bennets had returned was spreading through London society, with the speed of a warm knife cutting through butter.
Later that afternoon, a Holder carriage pulled up at number 23 Gracechurch Street.
When the Gardiner’s housekeeper opened the door, she almost fainted when she saw the missing Miss Jane Bennet standing in front of her, with a handsome man on her arm.
Next to them was a young man who seemed oddly familiar.
The shocked housekeeper led Jane, Jamey, and Tommy into the drawing room where they found their Aunt and Uncle Gardiner. “Jane! Tommy!” Uncle Gardiner exclaimed, “and, I assume this is my new nephew,” Gardiner looked toward Jamey.
“Dearest Jane, we wish you well on your marriage. My goodness, Tommy, you look like…a younger version of your father! When do you all depart for Hertfordshire?” Madeline Gardiner asked.
“On the morrow, Aunt; we cannot wait to see Papa and Lizzy,” Tommy replied, his voice now that of a man.
“Sit; there is much we must relate…” Aunt and Uncle Gardiner proceeded to tell them all that had occurred.
They shed many tears for the father neither would ever see again.
At least they were assured that Lizzy was healed, and they were ready to confront the criminals still in residence at Longbourn.
They took some pleasure in the assurance that they would be present when the Bingleys were called to account.
Before they left, the Gardiners sent an express to Netherfield, as the one the Holder Bennets had sent announcing their arrival in England had been directed to Jacob Philips’s offices.