Chapter 19 Bartlet’s Folly #2
Longman said, “The latter, I think. That might explain how she knew Molly. Any good thief-taker would want to preserve her reputation. He would have engaged a maid to return with her, but he would not likely have taken the maid all the way to her father’s house.
Minimal exposure, and all that. Mrs Darcy sought out Molly on her first day in the house and took her along when she left.
I suspect Miss Hatcher could tell you a great deal, which is probably why she left with Mrs Darcy.
Of course, that begs the question of how she paid for all that, since she obviously had very little money. ”
“How do you know Mrs Darcy had very little money?” Darcy asked in surprise.
Longman just stared at him. “The date of her departure. If she had any money, she would have been gone after the Matlocks.”
Darcy did not like the sound of that but could not argue with the reasoning.
They both looked at Bartlet, who took several more puffs on his pipe, then carefully got up, walked to a shelf on the back wall, and returned with a bottle of whisky and three glasses. Without a word he poured two fingers in each and handed them out. “I believe I can shed some light on that.”
With that he held up the glass suggestively and raised a loud toast. “To strong women!” Then they clinked glasses and drank the liquid in one gulp.
Bartlet gasped from the burn. “Mrs Darcy did not speak of her situation much, but I pulled a few things from between the lines, as they say. You put some onerous restrictions on her, did you not?”
“Much to my shame, I did.”
“Did the restrictions include your library?”
Surprised, Darcy thought about it a minute. “I prohibited her from reading anything on the black shelves. You know the material from your last visit.”
“Yes, the black shelves. Do you have any idea how many law books are not on the black shelves?”
“Not really,” Darcy answered in confusion.
“Seventeen.”
“And?”
“And Mrs Darcy read relevant sections of all of them, several times.”
Darcy sat back, trying to work out what that meant.
He was simultaneously annoyed that Bartlet was unwilling to speak plainly, which left him feeling like a not particularly bright schoolboy, but also impressed the man was making him think instead of handing him the answer on a platter.
His mind had never been quite as sharp after typhus, but he thought that some time being instructed by these two men might be the tonic to get him back on track.
He finally said, “She would have read all about the marriage laws, and a woman like that—”
“—would be horrified,” Bartlet finished for him.
Darcy nodded grimly. “Yes. According to the law, I have complete control over her life, and she had no reason to believe I would use that power wisely or kindly.”
“Exactly!” exclaimed Bartlet, though the exclamation seemed more to Darcy like what a very kind tutor would give to a not very good student who needed some encouragement, which was not exactly earned, but useful for motivation.
“I suspect that is not everything. Let me think—”
Darcy spent a few minutes ‘thinking,’ which to a casual observer might look an awful lot like drinking another whisky with two men, and he finally slapped the table, and exclaimed, “Loopholes!”
Bartlet smiled. “Precisely! Now, pretend you are Mrs Darcy, a self-described obedient wife.”
Darcy snorted. “She would have said that ironically, if at all.”
“Oh, she said it,” Longman added, and when the other two looked at him, he said, “Not to me, of course. She said it to the earl, and before you ask, I was not eavesdropping. She told it to Omega, and she did not seem to mind that I heard.”
“I suspect that was a message to me.”
“Or not. Perhaps it was just what it sounded like. She wanted to speak to someone who would not judge, and nothing fills the bill like a horse or a dog.”
All three nodded, so Darcy thought a moment. “She would find a way to do something I expressly forbid, but in a way that could not be called disobedience.”
Bartlet slammed the table in turn, shouting, “Exactly!” with force proportional to the combination of the size of Darcy’s epiphany and the whisky they had consumed.
He looked at Darcy and decided to take pity on the young man, whose heart seemed to be in the right place, though at the wrong time.
“She met several gentlemen from neighbouring estates, along with their wives and daughters, as well as tradesmen, whom she treated the same. Some of those men were in town looking for rare editions. You forbade her from reading the books on the black shelves, correct?”
Darcy had to think for a moment about that horrid missive he had written all that time ago, and finally said, “Yes, I did. They are very old, and extremely valuable.”
“I beg you to keep your temper in check when I tell you that your collection is well known around here. Your father liked to boast about it, and many remember the boasts. There are quite a few gentlemen who wanted to read those books. They wanted to do so quite badly, and quite a few have ample funds.”
Darcy stared, so the bookseller continued.
“You told her she could not read them, and she followed that instruction to the letter. She leased them for a day. She made quite a game of it. Sometimes it was groups pitching their funds together, or sometimes she would auction. Either way, only one man got to handle the book, and the rules were exceedingly stringent. I think that was a big part of the amusement for the men. Mrs Darcy brought the books to the shop, double and triple wrapped extremely carefully in oilcloth. The men had to read them in the store, sitting at this very table, wearing brand new white cotton gloves. They were not allowed to smoke, eat, or drink anything at all, nor touch anything with ungloved hands. She even made them wear a cap inside in case something lurked in their hair, though I suspect she did that just for her own amusement. When they were done, they had to spend at least an hour discussing the book with Mrs Darcy. That was the bargain, take it or leave it. If a man baulked, she simply doubled the price and then offered the same terms or walked away.”
Both Darcy and Longman were staring with their mouths open for some moments of stunned silence, and then Darcy started laughing.
The others joined in, and within minutes, they were howling like banshees.
The laughter went on for some time, with first one man almost coming to his senses, then another, only to be triggered by one of the others.
Eventually, Darcy wiped tears from his eyes. “That may be the cleverest thing I ever heard. Who would have thought? She could go far with a hundred pounds or two, even taking two servants along. She could go for years. What a clever strategy.”
“Yes, she was brilliant, but where did you get that figure?”
“It is the largest amount I can imagine for such a scheme.”
Bartlet laughed for quite some time by himself while the other two looked on in confusion.
He finally put them out of their misery. “I might get a hundred pounds. You might get fifty—on a good week, if you were very lucky—but Mrs Darcy? Well, that is another matter entirely.”
Darcy regarded Bartlet with suspicion. “How much are we talking about?”
“Oh, I would not know, but for the oldest tomes, I believe she was fetching well over a hundred pounds. Have you ever spent a hundred pounds, or even two, for an afternoon or evening’s entertainment? Is that uncommon?”
Darcy grunted. “I must admit I have. I spend more than that every quarter on clothing, so any man of consequence could afford it. I have seen thousands cross the gaming tables in a few hours, so hundreds to read a rare tome, and tweak my pride in the bargain, would not be out of the question. In fact, some of my neighbours might do it even though they are barely literate just to have it on with me,” then he chuckled, “not to say that is a bad thing. I would probably do the same, given reversed positions.”
Bartlet nodded. “I made no attempt to keep track, but it seems likely that, all told, she managed several thousand. She offered me a cut, but you know how I answered. All those gentlemen bought ordinary books while they were here for the entertainment, so I made out all right.”
Once again, all three were staring with their mouths hanging open, and finally, Darcy chuckled, and within minutes they were all howling again.
Not much later, Darcy and Longman took their leave and wandered back to Pemberley.
Darcy was still chuckling when he finally retired that evening, wondering what in the world she was doing with that kind of money.