Chapter 2
Anne de Bourgh
Still determined to keep to her bed until her mother actually left for London, Anne thought through her strategy so far.
Her first goal had been to stall whatever her mother would attempt to do.
Anne was fairly certain her mother would fail, in any case.
Rosings had an excellent library, and Anne knew that there were almost certainly no legal grounds for an annulment of her cousin’s wedding; therefore, there would be no possibility of her mother achieving her goal of forcing Darcy to wed her instead.
Still, her cousin did not deserve whatever trouble her mother wished to stir up in a vain attempt to exert control over his life. Anne’s pretended faint had at least managed to stall her mother’s efforts for a few days.
Distracted for the moment from her contemplation of her own current role, Anne once again happily considered the fact that her cousin had managed to marry his sweetheart.
Darcy wrote to her regularly, but he always sent those letters using discreet messengers who put them directly into her hands, knowing that her mother would read letters sent through the post. In his recent letters, Darcy had told her all about Miss Elizabeth Bennet—now Mrs Darcy!
—and Darcy had let her know when they were officially engaged and the date of the planned wedding and wedding breakfast.
Of course, she had burnt those letters immediately after reading them, but Anne had an excellent memory and was able to recall Darcy’s over-the-top praise for the woman he loved.
She had been astonished at his ability to be so entirely besotted—his reserve alone had made her think him incapable of such an abandonment to emotion, and his circumstances of being forced at an early age into a role of great responsibility might have meant, or so she worried, that he would spare no thought for his own happiness.
However, thankfully, life had somehow offered him the one lady who could match his intelligence and meet his needs as a true partner…
and who had somehow, if her reading between the lines was accurate, ignited a passion she had not realised could reside in Darcy’s seemingly sedate person.
Life had offered such a lady, her cousin had immediately recognised her, and she him, and it was all better than the novels that Anne secretly read.
She was so delighted, she wished she could smile and talk about it.
She wished she could tell Darcy’s tale to her companion, Mrs Jenkinson, who was a kindly spinster despite her honorary title.
It was Mrs Jenkinson who secretly brought the novels into the house, with their altered bindings claiming them to be the usual tomes of improvement.
Mrs Jenkinson loved a good romance, and Anne was certain she would especially enjoy a real-life story such as Darcy’s.
But living at Rosings was a bit like living in an enemy camp.
Not only were the servants who were not particularly loyal to her mother still likely to buckle under high-pressured questioning, Anne was almost certain that some of the servants spent a considerable amount of time listening at doors and windows.
She trusted Mrs Jenkinson, but nobody else who lived at Rosings, and therefore she did not smile despite the fact that she revelled in Darcy’s certain happiness.
Nor did she relate to Mrs Jenkinson even a syllable of his romantic story.
Instead, she maintained her usual guise as frail, sickly, and cranky.
Anne’s second goal had been to warn Darcy.
She had sent out letters telling that her mother had read the wedding announcements and seemed resolute in her goal to interfere, somehow.
As she always did, Anne used Mrs Jenkinson to sneak the letters out of the house and to send expresses to Darcy, Richard, and her uncle Henry—the Earl of Matlock.
Despite those first letters, Anne could not consider that second goal complete until she was able to learn the specifics of her mother’s plans.
She had promised to let her relations know if she learnt where’s or what’s or when’s.
So far, she had no knowledge or even suppositions that would call for follow-up letters, and even her first round of letters had been delayed by her mother’s cruel edict that Mrs Jenkinson attend to Anne day and night.
Despite the difficulties, Anne was unwavering in her decision to do everything in her power to impede her mother’s meddling.