Epilogue Chapter 1 #2
It was no kind of life for a steward’s son with the education and manners of a gentleman.
Each day was as hard as the last, filled with back-breaking, monotonous labor quite as difficult as that done by any of the farmers at Pemberley.
Many was the night that Wickham had lain in his hammock, cursing the ill-fate that had brought him to the Amelia, especially during those first few impossibly difficult months.
Yet over time, he had become resigned to his new life; it was not all bad.
He was forever beyond Darcy’s reach, as well as Colonel Fitzwilliam’s.
The work was hard, but the pay was steady.
The Amelia had to make port to sell her precious cargo, and oftentimes the crew was given shore leave.
They had wintered in Nantucket, the icy North Sea even more hostile than during the milder summer months, enough to give the hardiest mariner pause.
Captain Williams viewed the winter as an excellent time to dock the ship and give it a good overhaul.
The hull had to be scraped free of barnacles, rotting planks replaced, cracked spars and rails repaired or exchanged with new wood.
Sails needed to be mended, and new lines braided.
The crew was as busy as a hive of bees during the short, frigid winter days, but evenings had found them gathered, to a man, around the warm fires in the quayside pubs, sharing drinks and ribald tales and stories of the biggest whale they had ever seen that had given them all the slip.
Wickham himself had changed to fit his new life.
Gone was the polished gentleman with drawing-room manners and a face so handsome every lady swooned when he smiled upon them.
He was weathered by sea and sun and salt, his skin leathery like that of the other sailors.
His hair grew in a wild bush, with no time or accoutrements for neat trims. Even his perfect teeth were a thing of the past; a whale’s fluke had cost him one, and in return, he had kept a fragment of bone from that very whale, hanging on a cord about his neck.
It was not at all the life Wickham would have chosen for himself.
Had he had the slightest inkling what it would mean when he had gone up the Amelia’s ramp to speak to Captain Williams, he would have turned tail and run right back into the heart of London.
Every so often, he still wished he had done just that.
Then he would bethink himself of Colonel Fitzwilliam.
No, this was a hard life, and a repulsive one, but even a hard life was precious and better than languishing in Marshalsea.
Something caught his eye, and he shifted slightly eastward and stared intently into the binoculars. Was that … yes, it was!
He lowered his binoculars, stood up, and leaned slightly over the edge of the crow’s nest to bellow to those down below, a hint of excitement in his confident voice. “Whale! Due east!”
***
On the Road to Pemberley
Three Days Later
Noon
The carriage rolled along at a good pace, the three passengers within swaying slightly with its motion.
Mrs. Jenkinson sat with a small book in her hands, while Anne de Bourgh looked out the window, admiring with delight every ordinary, mundane scene spreading before her.
She was seeing the world anew, her eyes fresh with freedom and her heart expanding with joy.
The flowers, bobbing in the light breeze, seemed to be friendly matrons curtseying to her in greeting, and it was all she could do not to nod back.
Even the hills in the distance seemed to her to be welcoming, as glad to see her as she was to see them.
Anne’s heart sang with joy, and it was in large part thanks to the third passenger in the carriage.
Her cousin, Richard Fitzwilliam, had been instrumental in spiriting her away from Rosings a few days previously.
She and her companion had driven her phaeton to the little village of Hunsford, where Richard had been waiting with a hired carriage.
Before that, for many months, surreptitious missives had slipped from hand to hand, from Rosings to Pemberley and back again, plotting an escape with all the gravitas and care of prisoners seeking to arrange a rescue from prison.
Lady Catherine was still as livid as the very day on which she had learned of Darcy’s illicit marriage and had forbidden Anne from having anything to do with Darcy and his upstart wife, much less sojourn in their home.
Thus, Pemberley was the one place Anne could be reasonably certain that her mother would not follow her.
She was well aware that she, in turn, was incurring Lady Catherine’s redoubtable wrath in seeking shelter with the Darcys, but she had made her peace with that fact.
It was worth it to escape and to live a life free of the endless constraints placed on her by her mother.
“Are you excited?” Richard asked her, and she turned a cheerful face on her cousin.
“I am incredibly excited and cannot thank you enough for helping me escape Rosings.”
“Given the dragon who dwells there, I can only agree that I was astonishingly brave,” Richard said with a comical lift of one eyebrow.
Mrs. Jenkinson chuckled, and Anne grinned at her companion. “I know you are very happy as well, Mrs. Jenkinson. I promise you will never have to offer me another shawl while at Pemberley!”
“I am relieved by that,” the woman said with a returning smile. “Moreover, I am hopeful your health will be better at Pemberley, Miss de Bourgh. I truly do not believe a steady diet of laudanum and a lack of exercise is good for you, though of course Lady Catherine does not agree.”
Richard frowned. “You have been taking laudanum regularly, Cousin?”
“Not a great deal of late,” Anne said quickly. “My mother wants me to take it every day, but I only do so when I cannot get out of it. Mrs. Jenkinson and I are quite gifted at using sleight of hand to pour laudanum-laced drinks into hapless plants and the like.”
The colonel wrinkled his nose and said, “Your mother ought not to force medicine on you, but then again, your mother ought not to do many things. In any case, you will be safe here, and I am confident that the Darcys would be pleased to host you for the rest of your life, if you like.”
Anne sighed and said, “I cannot do that, of course, but I am looking forward to a very long holiday away from Lady Catherine.”
“You really could stay at Pemberley forever,” Richard argued. “The mansion is even larger than Rosings, and there is plenty of space.”
“Which is a good thing,” Mrs. Jenkinson said, “given that I understand that the house will be quite full.”
“Yes, Darcy’s last letter to me indicated that all of Mrs. Darcy’s sisters will be there visiting, along with her older sister’s husband and infant child. Their aunt and uncle from Cheapside will also be there, accompanied by their four children.”
Anne stared at her cousin in alarm. “Cheapside? Are they…?”
“In trade, yes, but Darcy respects and loves them, so I am certain you will find them a pleasant couple. In any case, your host and hostess will be entirely at ease with your staying in your bedchamber and dressing room as often as you need some time away from everyone. I have only spent a few days in Mrs. Darcy’s company, but she is a cheerful and kindly lady who wants what is best for her guests. ”
“Unlike my mother,” Anne grumbled. She had not spent a great deal of time with people outside her own household of Rosings, but she was confident that her time at Pemberley would be far more pleasant than being ruled by her autocratic, irritating mother.
“Will anyone else be there whom I ought to know about?”
“Mrs. Gregson will also be there, Darcy’s great-aunt,” Richard said. “I have only met her a few times, but I think you will like her.”
“I know I will,” Anne said enthusiastically. “She took Mrs. Darcy in, which enabled my cousin to marry his love. My mother hates her, so of course I will love her!”
The gentleman and ladies laughed, and Anne turned back to look out the window as Derbyshire grew ever closer.
***
Drawing Room
Pemberley
Later
The drawing room of Pemberley was a very large room with a gigantic fireplace, currently cold and dark given the time of year, plus open windows on two sides of the room, which allowed a cheerful and comfortable breeze to circulate.
Elizabeth was thankful for the zephyr because the room was very full of family.
For the first time since she had been married, all of her sisters were at Pemberley, along with Jane’s husband and the Gardiners.
Upstairs, the nurseries of Pemberley were filled with the excited antics of the Gardiner children, while Baby Arabella Bingley was sharing a room with small Nicholas Darcy.
The only close missing relations were Mr. and Mrs. Bennet.
The master of Longbourn still blamed his second daughter for flouting his will and making a fool of him, and Mrs. Bennet, for all that she enjoyed bragging about the glories of Pemberley to her neighbors, was not a good traveler.
Elizabeth would have preferred they be present, but she was at peace that they were not.
Elizabeth’s sisters and other relations would be here for at least another two weeks, and Anne de Bourgh and Georgiana Darcy would be here for several months. Elizabeth had met Miss de Bourgh only a few hours previously and found her far quieter and kinder than her mother.
Not that it was saying very much, given how loud and vituperous Lady Catherine was.
“A penny for your thoughts,” a soft and very familiar male voice said from behind her, and she turned and smiled up into the face of her husband.
“I was thinking that your cousin Anne is a far gentler creature than Lady Catherine.”
“She is,” Darcy agreed, turning to look at his cousin, who was seated in a corner of the room chatting with old Mrs. Gregson and Mrs. Gardiner. “I hope she will be happy here.”
“I hope so as well,” Elizabeth agreed, her own eyes drifting to Kitty and Lydia, who were standing near one of the open windows conversing enthusiastically and rather loudly.
“Richard told Anne that if she is ever overwhelmed by all the guests, she is welcome to stay in her rooms to recover, and I intend to encourage her to do the same.”
“Good,” Elizabeth remarked. “I want her to be as contented as we are.”
Darcy chuckled softly. “I am confident that is impossible, but I hope she will, at least, be at peace, which is entirely out of the question at Rosings, at least when my aunt is in residence.”
“Peace is a blessing,” Elizabeth agreed, just as the door opened and the butler entered to announce dinner.
Her beloved held out his arm, and she took it, and the master and mistress of Pemberley led the others to the stately dining room for a welcoming feast.