Chapter 46
Chapter Forty-Six
SATURDAY, 18 JANUARY 1812
T he morning of the funeral for Andrew Fitzwilliam, Viscount Ashburn, was bleak, with rain drizzling steadily and a thick fog clinging low to the ground. The carriages carrying the four gentlemen from Matlock to the churchyard moved slowly, their drivers cautious with the limited visibility. Only a handful of brave souls ventured out to pay their respects, for the dismal weather had discouraged many mourners from attending.
By the time the service concluded, the fog had begun to lift, albeit slightly, revealing a grey and sombre landscape. As the day wore on, the rain eased, and a steady stream of neighbours from the surrounding estates began arriving at Matlock. Ostensibly, they came to pay their respects to the family, though it was clear many were equally eager to gather whatever scraps of gossip the occasion might offer.
Knowing this, Lady Julia and Elizabeth kept the conversations polite but shallow, deftly steering interactions towards pleasantries and swiftly guiding each guest through their visit without appearing rude. At last, the appointed hour for calls came to an end, and the butler was instructed to refuse entry to any further visitors.
Throughout the afternoon, the gentlemen had deliberately stayed clear of the parlour where the ladies received their callers, leaving them to manage the parade of curious neighbours. When the final guest was shown out, a maid was sent to invite the gentlemen to join the ladies for refreshments. While Lord Matlock tried to delay joining the ladies, the other gentlemen insisted upon it.
As soon as the door was closed and everyone was seated, Lord Hawthorne wasted no time addressing the matter at hand. “Silas, what in the devil is going on here? My daughter returned to my house a month ago with little understanding of the situation. Half the servants in this house are borrowed from your nephew’s estate, and I am hearing rumours in town that you cannot pay your bills. Now your eldest son is dead, and from what I understand, you knew he had been taken prior to receiving word that he was dead.”
At this last statement, every head in the room turned sharply towards Lord Hawthorne. The air grew tense at his revelation; no one else had heard this piece of information before now.
“Servants who go unpaid for months are rarely loyal,” Lord Hawthorne continued, his voice measured but laced with meaning. “Even if they remain in your service, it is not for love of their employer, but because they know they will have a roof over their heads and food on their plates.” He leant back slightly, his sharp eyes fixed on Matlock, as if daring him to respond with anything but the truth.
“What?… How?” Lord Matlock stammered in surprise.
“What do you mean Father knew Andrew had been taken?” Fitzwilliam barked out.
“Late last night my messenger arrived. He learned you received a note Tuesday afternoon that you immediately crumpled and threw onto the floor of your study. As soon as I received Richard’s note asking us to come for Andrew’s funeral, I sent a man to London to see what he could learn. Your servant handed my man the note that was still on your floor, since there was no maid at Matlock House to clean up after you,” Lord Hawthorne retorted.
Lord Matlock rubbed his hand across his face in surprise and exhaustion. “Yes, I received a note from the men Andrew owed money to on the same day that Richard discovered him. They were demanding that the money be paid immediately, and I was trying to put the funds together when I received Richard’s note. It is my guess that something happened that resulted in his death, for I do not think they meant to kill him.”
“Silas, you fool, do not attempt to play these damnable games with me!” his father-in-law thundered, surprising everyone in the room. “You know damn well that is not what the note said, and neither did it come from Andrew’s creditors. They are asking for the money you owe, money that was lost when your ships carrying slaves to the Caribbean or to the Americas were either sunk or captured by privateers. We know everything already—that for the last several decades Matlock’s wealth has come directly from the slave trade. That despite your arguments in support of abolition, you were secretly funding ships that were carrying slaves from Africa to the Americas. That since the Slave Act was passed, with your support , you have continued to fund these ships and perpetuate the ill that is slavery.”
“I… I,” Matlock stammered, seemingly unable to complete a thought.
“We also know that Aunt Catherine was a part of this, and that the investment you tried to sell me and Hargrove was a slave ship, or perhaps you merely intended for us to cover your own losses, and we would have found our own investments had disappeared,” Darcy replied, his anger seeming to grow with each word. “We also know that you were behind Lady Catherine’s death. I imagine you did not care for the way she defied you, for I believe you told me she was on her way to Matlock when she was, in fact, far from there. She had grown increasingly erratic after discovering that she could no longer control Anne or Rosings, and you were worried what she might say or do that would uncover your shady dealings.”
“If your aunt had had her way, you would have married Anne long ago. She was still plotting to have your wife killed and would likely have aimed for Hargrove next, for she was determined to have you and Anne wed. I was never able to understand her fixation on it, but regardless, her death meant your wife was protected,” Matlock threw back at his nephew.
“My wife was well protected and my aunt incapable of hiring competent men. It is fortunate that she believed herself far superior to every one else and so could not understand why every plan she made failed,” Darcy replied harshly.
Elizabeth reached out and placed her hand on his arm, immediately calming him. He drew a long breath and sat back in his seat.
Fitzwilliam watched this, shaking his head in surprise at the connection between the two. For a brief moment, he thought of Miss Bennet and wondered if one day, her touch would have the same effect on him.
“Father, we need to know who the men are that you owe, and if the debt is real or imagined. Do they believe you owe them because of losses, or do you truly owe them money? If it is the latter, we will find a way to pay them, but regardless, it is necessary that you go into hiding,” Fitzwilliam said.
Lord Matlock looked at his son, aghast. “Matlock cannot afford to pay such an enormous debt. The estate’s income has been slowly declining for the last decade, and the only thing sustaining it has been the income from those ships. However, the last few have been lost, for various reasons, and I had to borrow heavily on the last one. When word came that that ship went down, the men came demanding their funds back and did not appreciate that it was gone.” He paused to consider the matter for several moments. “They threatened Andrew first, since his proclivities were well known in society and believed he would not be missed. I sent him to Matlock to hide, but he was supposed to go from there to Scotland where he could live in obscurity for a time, at least until I could find a way to obtain the funds to pay the men back.”
“Well, now it is you who will have to live a life in obscurity,” Lady Julia retorted. “It will not be for a short time, but for the rest of your life. You have risked everything, and it has cost you everything. With Andrew dead, Richard is now the viscount; he will go to London to sell his commission. While that should help pay some of the debt, the rest will need to be borrowed from Father and from Darcy, although Matlock will have to pay it back over the next decade. Both men have agreed to pay half of the remaining debt, but only if you disappear and Richard is the de facto earl. He cannot take your seat in the House of Lords, but at least he can keep the estate afloat. Again, my father and Darcy have pledged themselves to assist in whatever way they can but with the caveat that you remain out of sight. If you return to London or to Matlock, then the debt immediately comes due.”
“You cannot do this!” Lord Matlock cried.
“Why ever not? You were the greedy fool who valued wealth above all else. You have attempted to manipulate this family into doing what you wanted without thought for what we wanted. We could have retrenched, we could have found any number of honourable ways to keep Matlock self-sufficient, but instead, you chose to trade in human lives. Should your actions become known, it would create a scandal that would ruin everyone connected with the name Fitzwilliam. Father pointed out that your actions could be considered treasonous, resulting in not only your death, but potentially the seizure of everything we own,” Lady Julia insisted. “You would have done that to your family without thinking of how it affected any of us. It has cost us one son; would you have it cost us another?”
There was truly little Lord Matlock could say. Before he could think of a response, he collapsed into his chair and clutched at his chest. At first, everyone in the room sat and watched him, unsure what was happening, but nearly as quickly they realised he was genuinely in distress and began to move into action.
Elizabeth was the first to recognise what was happening. She stood from her seat, crossing to stand in front of Lord Matlock and put her fingers to his throat. “Call for an apothecary! Or a physician if there is one near enough—I believe he is suffering from an attack of apoplexy. Fitzwilliam, help me get him laid down. Richard, bring a glass of water; perhaps another of brandy or whatever you have in that decanter.”
That spurred the others into action. There was little they could do to make Lord Matlock to provide assistance, but they continued to watch him to ensure he was breathing. It took nearly an hour for the physician to arrive, and by that time, they had Lord Matlock in his bed, as comfortable as they could make him.
After the physician examined him, he confirmed that the earl had suffered an apoplexy. While they could only make him comfortable, a full recovery seemed unlikely. The physician provided a tonic, but its effectiveness was uncertain. With little known about such attacks, all the family could do was hope and pray for the best.
However, deciding what the "best" outcome might be was complicated. If Lord Matlock fully recovered, their plans to remove him from society would still be necessary. Given that a second apoplexy was likely, he would need extensive care for the remainder of his life.
On the other hand, should Lord Matlock die, it might be the best situation for everyone. Fitzwilliam would then inherit the earldom, and between his grandfather and cousin, they would be able to loan him enough funds to get Matlock back on its feet.
After Lord Matlock was comfortably settled in his bed, his relatives gathered in a sitting room attached to the room shared by the Darcys to discuss matters. They were far enough away from the sickroom to be assured of their privacy from servants coming and going from that room.
“What do we do now?” Fitzwilliam asked. As a soldier, he was a man of action, and being forced to wait to act was weighing on him.
“As of now, you are the acting earl. With Silas’s fate being uncertain, I think it is best that we act as though you are the one in charge,” the marquess stated authoritatively.
“I agree; we intended for this very thing to happen, though perhaps without the additional complication of the earl’s uncertain health. You must travel to London to sell your commission, and we will use this time to make it known that you are the one now in charge of Matlock. I expect the men to whom your father owed money will approach you, since as far as they know, you know nothing about the situation. We can use that to buy time while we discover if there are additional funds at Rosings,” Darcy inserted.
“Fitzwilliam and I will travel with you to London and proceed from there to Kent,” Elizabeth agreed.
Darcy fixed his wife with a hard glare. “I thought we decided we would not make the journey this spring,” he said.
“Oh, pish,” was her reply. “I suffered no ill effects from traveling to Matlock. We can take the journey slowly, but you do not intend to leave me at Pemberley while you travel for nearly a month, do you?”
Darcy frowned, having not considered that. “I might travel more quickly without you,” he argued, though there was little force behind it.
“We would be apart above a fortnight. I have no wish to be separated for that long,” Elizabeth murmured, leaning into her husband.
Lady Julia watched the exchange with interest. “Do you have news to share, Elizabeth?” she asked.
“Not at present,” Elizabeth replied, winking at her new aunt as she did so. Lady Julia watched the couple for several more moments, before opting to simply nod.
“Let me know when there is news to share, Elizabeth. I suppose you are correct to wait, and Darcy, all will be well.”
Though Darcy had told his cousin his suspicions, it took several minutes for that gentleman to understand the subtext of the conversation taking place. Lord Hawthorne simply listened with interest, but since Darcy and his bride were of no true relation to him, opted to keep silent on the matter, though his lips quirked slightly upward.
That settled, the five continued to make plans until it was soon decided that on Monday, three of the five would begin their journey south into London, making a brief stop at Pemberley along the way. This would extend their journey by at least half a day, but Elizabeth felt she needed to speak directly to her family about their plans, as well as the servants to ensure that everyone understood that Mrs. Bennet could make no changes whatsoever to the house while the Darcys were away.
In fact, their guests and Georgiana would be moved into the dower house until the Darcys were able to return, making the excuse that several changes would need to be made and it would be more comfortable for the ladies if they were in another location, away from the noise and mess. This was done for a two-fold purpose—first, to remove Mrs. Bennet from the main house to avoid any conflicts between her and the servants, and secondly, because the dower house was smaller and therefore easier to protect. There was a small chance that the Darcy family could be targeted by those who had kidnapped and killed the former viscount.