Chapter 14
Darcy
Oakhaven was a gorgeous estate, perched high above the sea.
Although Darcy had been certain Elizabeth would love Cornwall’s dramatic scenery, and thus would love this particular estate, he also knew that Richard would always allow them to visit.
For that reason, it had given him no pain to gift the estate away from the Darcy line.
Although much of Cornwall was covered with grass and moorlands, parts of the county featured mixed-wood forests, and Cornish oaks were the primary tree in those forests.
During his childhood visits to the estate, Darcy had not considered the oak trees to be a haven from the hazel and ash trees; rather, they were a haven from the miles of treeless landscapes.
The Darcy carriages arrived at the estate shortly after the sun had dipped below the horizon, but there was still plenty of light.
Elizabeth shifted from side to side in an attempt to look out of both windows as they approached the manor house.
“It is quite beautiful, William.” She gave him a radiant smile, saying, “How very good you are to give up so much natural beauty.”
“We do not so much give it up, as we ensure that we have wonderful hosts when we visit.”
She responded in his favourite way: “Such wisdom deserves a kiss!”
That is how Richard found them, when he startled them by throwing open the carriage door.
Darcy’s footman always gave a polite rap and waited for the tapping that indicated that they were ready for the door to be opened, but the outrider who had alerted the household to their approaching carriage had brought the eager host all the way to the drive.
When he flung open the door and discovered Elizabeth and Darcy kissing, Richard said, “The Darcys have arrived, looking every bit like the newlyweds they are!”
The couple immediately broke apart, and Darcy laughed as well as blushed. He climbed out without assistance and reached back for Elizabeth.
“Richard, you should not tease them so,” a laugh-infused voice urged.
Darcy turned and spotted Miss Garrett. “It is so wonderful to see you again, Miss Garrett,” he said as he gave a quick bow. Turning to his cousin, he said, “Richard, beware, you may yet reap what you sow,” but he clapped him on the back in an affectionate greeting.
Elizabeth was her usual warm and good-humoured self, and soon enough the four found themselves in one of the drawing rooms, sipping tea and eating rich saffron cakes.
“Where are the Fosters?” Darcy asked, referring to the couple who had leased Oakhaven the past few years.
“They thought you might wish to meet with family first, Darce,” Richard replied.
“They will be with us for dinner in an hour’s time.
Lovely people, and you will be happy to know that they have retrenched, thanks to your generous terms, and have found a smaller estate that they can afford to purchase. ”
“I am so glad to hear that. Is it nearby?”
“The other side of Ashton, they said, but I have no idea of where that is. We came here from Helston and have not yet explored the wider area.” He shook his head and said, “I am attempting to learn in a month all that you studied for twenty years.”
“The steward is very capable. You need not worry that Oakhaven will crumble because you are new to the landowner life.”
Richard bobbed his head but said, “I agree that Maberly is wonderful. Still, I am continuing on the course I identified to you this summer: emulating the best man I know. You are an involved landowner, and I mean to be as well, so I must work hard and learn all I can.”
Elizabeth had been chatting with Miss Garrett—who had asked them both to call her Cordelia—but now asked Richard, “Are you still planning to raise horses?”
“Yes!” he said eagerly. “I have brought some wonderful mares from Matlock and the finest stud I ever raised. Of course, we will still raise cattle and sheep, and sell hardwood, thus constantly plant new trees. The four-year rotation system will continue, so we will sell wheat and barley, use turnips for the livestock in winter, and feed horses and other livestock barley, clover, and ryegrass. I am not as capable with numbers as Darcy here, but I know enough to check Maberly’s sums. I believe that quite a bit of work in the next year or two will increase the earnings of the estate at least a bit, in the short term, but will set Oakhaven up to be much more profitable in the long term. ”
“That sounds wonderful,” Darcy enthused. “I commend you on an excellent plan!”
“And it goes without saying that you are always welcome here.” Richard’s eyes looked suspiciously bright, and Darcy spotted Cordelia nodding while clutching at Elizabeth’s hands.
“Both of you are welcome at Darcy House and Pemberley,” he replied. “Also, if you give me a few month’s notice so that I can contact the leaseholders or servants, you are welcome to visit our other estates as well.”
“I suppose we should refresh ourselves for dinner,” Elizabeth suggested, and Cordelia immediately rose to show them to their rooms.
“Mrs Foster told me of your usual room, Mr Darcy—oh, I mean Darcy.” Cordelia flashed him a smile but then continued, “But we agreed you will need adjoining rooms since you are now married. She arranged to have your furnishings moved to the new set of rooms, but if you wish to change tomorrow morning, we can move you wherever you wish.”
“Thank you. I am certain you chose well.”
Cordelia opened a door, and Darcy realised that he had been installed in the largest guest apartment. He wondered where Richard was staying. Likely my old bachelor rooms, he decided with a smile.
“This is splendid,” Elizabeth said. She checked with Cordelia the time they should appear for dinner, and when their hostess left, she asked, “Is this the nicest apartment in the guest wing?”
Darcy nodded.
“We should insist on moving your particular furnishings to the smallest apartment, once we leave, so that Richard and Cordelia can better entertain their parents and other friends. It is not as if we will be frequently flitting down from Pemberley.”
“It would be quite a flit,” Darcy agreed with a grin.
The evening continued pleasantly. Elizabeth was impressed with the Fosters, ecstatic to speak of philosophy and literature and history with Cordelia, and eager to plan a tour of the estate for the next day.
Dinner was simple but flavourful, and Darcy was relaxing with Foster and Richard and a glass of port, after dinner, when Hopkins appeared with an apologetic bow.
Darcy immediately joined his valet in one corner of the dining room.
Hopkins spoke in a low voice: “Robertson asked me if you wished to present your gift to Mr Fitzwilliam and Miss Garrett tonight or tomorrow, and of course, since you had not informed me of the gift, I did not know how to advise him.”
Hopkins stood there, his brows raised in question.
Unpacking and hanging clothing items, once Darcy’s trunk was in his dressing room, was Hopkins’s purview, and Robertson and the other footmen were responsible for the trunks and other belongings being safely stored in or attached to the carriages and, every night, carrying them to the proper rooms. However, like many other gentlemen, Darcy leant on his valet for a variety of other uses.
He certainly would have informed him of a gift to be bestowed during the bridal tour.
The material point was that there was no gift. He answered Hopkins’s raised eyebrows with his own equally inquisitive expression.
“We have no gift for the betrothed couple,” he said, adding silently, other than the estate!—by far the most generous gift he had ever given anyone. He said, “I cannot imagine to what Robertson is referring.”
“And Mrs Darcy…?”
“My wife might attempt to surprise me with a gift, someday, but I cannot conceive of her giving something to my cousin without consulting me. We…we just….”
He was not certain how he wished to finish the sentence, but Hopkins said, “I know that you both tend to tell one another everything.”
“Exactly.”
“Well,” Hopkins said, “if the trunk in question does not contain a gift, I will have Robertson bring it to your rooms. It has apparently been with us the entire trip, but it was not brought into your rooms before because it was believed to be a gift to be unloaded only at Oakhaven.”
Darcy felt puzzled but imagined that there was some sort of explanation—likely a tedious one. He nodded to give approval of his valet’s suggestion.
When the gentlemen reunited with the ladies in the drawing room, Cordelia and Elizabeth were animatedly discussing the Old Price Riots, and Darcy was immediately drawn into the discussion with both ladies’ praises for his estimable letter to the editor supporting the O.P.
stance that there be more low-cost seating in the rebuilt Theatre Royal at Covent Garden.
Richard disagreed with all three of them, asking, “Why should not the theatre owner be able to set the prices however he wishes?”
Elizabeth summarised the discussion she and Cordelia had made before the men joined them, finishing with the words, “Basically theatre, painting, sculpture, literature, and music are more in the category of public good than of private luxury. Private individuals make all these sorts of art, and private individuals will always have the right to purchase art or pay for private performances. But as a society, we should also ensure that everyone can see, hear, and experience art. We should have museums and exhibits and concert halls and theatres that offer both private and public viewing, luxury seating as well as low-priced galleries.”
“We should have democracy in cultural opportunities, in other words,” said Cordelia.
“But building the theatre costs so much,” Richard argued. “An owner must recoup his costs and still make profit.”
“It is possible,” Darcy responded, “to create a theatre with less costly decor and furnishings, or to sell box prices higher in order to recover building costs but still offer low-cost seating. Last but not least, it is possible to simply plan on waiting longer to recoup building costs.”
Richard begged off, seeming to agree with each argument the others put forth, but still clinging to the absolute right of owners to decide on prices.
“I suppose you are correct, Colonel,” Cordelia said.
Her use of Richard’s former military rank caused him to sit up straighter, but his intended went on to indicate that she would not change her mind any more than he would change his.
She said, “Of course, the public will still have the right to protest.”
The result of the lively discussion was that Darcy did not ask Elizabeth about an extra trunk or a possible gift.
They finally retired for the night a few minutes after Cordelia left for the dower house in the company of her maid and a footman—and, alone with Elizabeth, the topic of an unknown trunk and an unlikely gift did not occur to Darcy. His thoughts were very much consumed elsewhere.
Since Darcy met Elizabeth, he had imagined that their marriage bed would be very satisfactory.
Once they were betrothed, he had been assured that his passionate intended, who had revelled in all that they attempted before they wed, would also enjoy the further activities they could explore once they were legally joined.
Still, Elizabeth’s appetites and acceptance of novel ideas continued to astonish him.
The only thing she put a halt to was the most innocent act of all: she hated being tickled.
Naturally, he had immediately desisted and vowed to always respect that boundary.
Darcy had a very inventive and imaginative mind, and the night they arrived at Oakhaven, Darcy suggested taking advantage of the secret stairway and tunnel. “It comes out at Oakhaven’s private cove. I should love to…explore it with you.”
“At nighttime?”
“The kind of exploration I have in mind necessitates that it be nighttime,” he explained.
She bit her lip but agreed. They put on the simplest clothing and warmest outer layers, and then he led her into the wine cellar; walking carefully by candlelight, they moved down a twisting stairway and through a narrow tunnel.
Darcy had to crouch a bit to fit in the latter, and he chuckled, saying, “I have not tried this since I achieved my adult height. It is a bit more challenging now than when I was thirteen.”
The tunnel was almost completely straight and had no branches, but at the very end there was a turn, and Elizabeth gasped when she made that turn and saw the sand and sea.
Having seemed blindingly white in the sunshine, the sand looked silvery in the light from the nearly full moon.
The water looked almost black, but the waves caught and reflected bits and pieces of moonlight, and the foam looked like frothed silver.
“It is so very beautiful,” Elizabeth said, stepping out of the tunnel.
Darcy startled her by bending down and scooping a handful of sand, which he moved and patted into place a few inches away from its origin.
“What are you doing?” she whispered.
“I am making a sort of reversed sculpture.”
She watched for a few minutes and finally asked, “Is it a reversed sculpture of a person?”
“Yes,” is all Darcy answered. But soon he spread out the quilt over the sand and carefully positioned Elizabeth so that she fit into all the hollowed places.
“Oh, my!” is all she said. But when Darcy laid on top of her, she wriggled to better match her curves with the contours of the sand. “This is very, very comfortable,” she said with delight.
The activities that ensued did not change her opinion.
Several hours later, the couple shook out the quilt before folding it up. Elizabeth asked, “Will you show your cousin the secret tunnel and stairway?”
“Actually, he knows it from our childhood.”
“So we were risking his discovery tonight?”
Darcy scooped up the candle in its holder. He had put it down on a rocky sort of shelf, around the corner from the tunnel’s opening and the sea breeze. “I left the candle here, which indicates that the beach is occupied. Knowing Richard, he might still have chosen to interrupt us, but….”
“But you hoped he would do the correct thing, although in truth it might be incredibly unlikely that he should choose tonight to come here.”
“I had dreamt of showing my love for you at the Cove. That’s all the name that this place has, by the way: Richard and I always called it the Cove.”
“I will always remember it,” Elizabeth said softly. “Chills and silver, thrills and moonlight. What began as a dream for you became something like a dream for me.”
Darcy squeezed her hand. “I am still dreaming, Elizabeth. Hopefully we can attempt more of my schemes and dreams in the days and nights to come.”