Chapter 13. Colonel Fitzwilliam’s Argument #3
The two men spoke only in short phrases during the walk back to Rosings Park. The house was quiet in the late afternoon, and they avoided their relatives. Once they entered the library, Colonel Fitzwilliam handed the packet of letters to his cousin.
“You do not have to read them, but verify they are Bingley’s handwriting.”
Darcy looked over the blotted and jagged lettering on the front and back of the papers carefully, handed them back to Richard and said, “They were all written by Charles Bingley.”
Taking the letters from Darcy, the colonel sat in a chair near a window and began to read them.
Walking to the door, Darcy summoned a footman and ordered tea.
Now he watched as Richard skimmed through the many papers and set three aside.
After looking at the last letter, Richard picked up and read the three separated letters for a second time.
Then he rose from his chair and handed the three to Darcy.
“Read these,” he said before approaching the table where the tea service had been placed, Richard filled a cup with tea and plate with biscuits.
After reading the three letters, Darcy knew Charles proposed marriage more than once to Miss Jane Bennet, first he wrote of a Christmas wedding and then suggested a wedding in the middle of winter; but there was no doubt Bingley proposed marriage and Jane Bennet had reason to believe the man was intent on marrying her.
“Damn him,” Darcy whispered.
“What I do not understand is why would he have written this…no doubt said these things to the young woman…with no intention of actually marrying her?” Richard asked.
“Charles falls in love with every pretty face,” Darcy replied.
“Has he left a string of ruined girls behind him?” queried Richard.
“No, none of them were every compromised.”
“That you are aware of,” Richard added. After a moment, the colonel asked, “What was different in Hertfordshire?”
Darcy swallowed hard and said, “I believe her parents were lax in providing proper supervision. Mrs Bennet encouraged the match; you would have thought she was a desperate mama with five daughters in London.”
“Was it their intention to create a compromise?” asked Richard.
Darcy thought about everything he remembered about the Bennet family and then shook his head, “No. Mrs Bennet hoped for the marriage, but she feared scandal worse.”
“Bingley is a cad for certain, but it remains difficult to directly attribute the death of Miss Bennet to his actions or failure to act,” Richard said. “I shall not consider him as the husband for Anne, but I can cast dispersions on his character.”
They were silent for a time and a different footman knocked and opened the door for a moment to determine if the two men were present.
He pulled the door shut quickly but Darcy caught a glimpse of his aunt standing in the background.
Richard began to speak but Darcy motioned for his cousin to remain silent as he approached one panel in the wall and said, “Richard, I believe Lady Catherine is forcing herself on the footmen again. Did you notice how haggard they both looked last night?”
There was an angry sputter from behind the panel and Darcy led Richard to the French doors that opened on the gardens.
“Walk with me to the rose garden.”
“The rose garden?”
“For only a moment…” Darcy insisted, and the two men walked out without hat or overcoat into the late afternoon air; the summer weather meant it was warm enough they would not miss those items that marked their rank.
Darcy led Richard into the garden and spoke to him in the open, where there could be no hiding place for Lady Catherine or a servant.
“I must tell you a most guarded secret…something that no one has told me, but I have pieced together from listening and watching.”
“God’s teeth Darcy, are you playing at being a spy now?”
“No. This is most secret Richard, and you must be careful how you use this information,” Darcy said. “Elizabeth does not know that I have surmised this secret and Bingley…he could make trouble for Miss Elizabeth’s relatives if he knew this secret.”
“Go on…”
“I believe Jane Bennet died in childbirth.”
Saddened to hear this tale grow more tragic, Richard asked, “How do you know this? What is your evidence?”
“On the same day that Jane Bennet died, Elizabeth’s aunt supposedly gave birth to her fifth child, a boy.”
“The same day?”
“There was some fiction put forth that Miss Bennet died during the evening, and the boy was born the next morning before dawn.”
“Did you ask for specific answers?”
“No, but Mr Gardiner, Miss Elizabeth’s uncle, told me that the boy’s mother named him after his father, Edward Charles. Mr Gardiner’s Christian name is ‘Edward’ and ‘Charles’ is…”
“You have described unfortunate circumstance… pure circumstance,” Richard argued. “Have the Gardiners fostered the boy?”
Darcy shook his head and explained, “They are listed as his birth parents in the registers at the church where Miss Bennet is buried. In late spring, Mrs Gardiner paraded herself with bundles stuffed under her dress to give wings to the story.”
“Darcy, Mrs Gardiner may very well have been with child.”
Again, shaking his head, Darcy explained, “Her dress… the day she and Miss Elizabeth called at Mayfair to visit, Georgie noticed that Mrs Gardiner’s dress was fitted poorly.
The front hem was three inches off the floor.
No woman who was truly with child… no woman of means would have paid a call dressed in such a gown unless she was among friends. ”
The next morning, George Clark left Rosings Park, and the household anticipated the afternoon arrival of Arthur Lincoln for his visit.
Colonel Fitzwilliam had no objection to George Clark except that the man was left-handed.
Again, a childhood prejudice that war and battle tried to beat out of him, unsuccessfully this time.
Mr Lincoln from northern England came from a family in law and his mother had brought a sizeable dowry to her marriage and this formed the foundation of his fortune.
++++
The second day, Darcy returned to walk with Elizabeth and after a short distance, he noticed her step growing slower.
“Perhaps we should sit for a time,” Darcy said, motioning toward a fallen tree.
“If you wish,” was her simple reply as Henry began climbing in the canopy of the fallen tree, shouting occasionally about spiders.
“I am very sorry about the inquiry,” Darcy said after they were seated on the log.
“Colonel Fitzwilliam is only trying to protect Miss de Bourgh,” Elizabeth replied. “I only wish someone had protected Jane. If I had been at Longbourn, they would been properly…”
“We can every one of us imagine different events,” Darcy said.
“I have nightmares imagining what might have happened if Mrs Banks had not sought verification from Mrs Young’s previous employers herself.
Young might have taken Georgiana to Ramsgate where Wickham could have preyed upon her innocent nature. ”
“I am glad that I do not…you will not bring that man out to ride, will you? I shall hide in my room the whole of the time he is here,” she said.
“No. I shall not bring him out to ride.”
Seeing Darcy’s concerned look, Elizabeth assured him, “I am not afraid of Bingley but if I see him, I shall tell him what I think of him, and if suitable crockery is within reach, I shall endeavour to leave him with a broken head.”
“Use a pitchfork Miss Elizabeth,” suggested Henry Jones from his seat on a limb above them. “Fork’ll put two holes in him and hold him off’n ya.”
“How do you know this, Henry?” asked Mr Darcy as Elizabeth nodded in agreement with the boy; she knew what a pitchfork was.
“Our old goat charged me sister in the barn one day. Da had pitchfork in his hands and ran it into th’ goat and pinned him to th’ wall.”
“Was your sister well?”
“Yes, but that goat was too tough to eat. Th’ old buck was not worth skinning. Me and Da fed most of the carcass to the pigs.”
++++
Speaking at length with Mr Lincoln, Richard could find few things about the man to be objectionable.
They discussed his journey to Rosings Park and Lincoln added, “My coachman reported that every coach stopped in Maidstone to water and rest the horses before traveling further into Kent. There is no place between Maidstone and Ashford to stop.”
With Mr Bingley planned to be the next gentleman caller for Miss de Bourgh, Colonel Fitzwilliam decided to ambush the man before allowing him close to Anne de Bourgh, or Elizabeth Bennet.
When Darcy shared Elizabeth’s ‘plans’ for Bingley and Henry’s suggested approach to handling an old goat, Richard laughed for the first time in two days.
Then he turned to his cousin and explained, “After much thought and I have decided we should meet Bingley in Maidstone and turn his carriage back to London and turn his carriage back to London.”
“You intend to keep him away from Rosings Park?” asked Darcy.
“And Hunsford,” Richard replied, nodding his head once. “Mr Lincoln reminded me that Maidstone is the best place to stop and water horses between Gravesend and Ashford.
That evening, with Darcy distracting Aunt Catherine with another argument about monies, Richard asked Anne about her impressions of Mr Lincoln.
His cousin glanced about to make certain her mother was absent from the room but then explained, “I liked Mr Lincoln every much. He plays the pianoforte and enjoys playing cards with me.”
++++