Chapter Fourteen #3
“I am not asking what you think of him – I am asking what else you know of him,” Lady Catherine snapped.
She held a haughty posture as she slowly paced the room.
“I am aware of the suspicions you and your mother have held about him, the interest his falsely given name inspired. Your aunt, my poor sister, heard of it – I recall you inciting that particularly harmful brand of curiosity, nearly the moment we arrived in London.”
Rebecca scoffed impatiently. “Can you blame me? My whole life I have heard of my tragic lost cousin, and then Richard befriended a man called Will Darcy.”
“I do blame you! You have caused my poor sister considerable distress over it – did you not see how she crumpled when Richard revealed that lout’s true identity? She might have been spared that disappointment, and whatever speculation gave her false hope.”
“It could not have been prevented – not by me, at any rate. It was Richard who invited him to stay with us just when he knew you were coming to London.”
“And he shall answer for it, mark my words! But you have been in my daughter’s confidence – if there is anything she told you about that awful man, anything that indicates what he may be after – some grasping connection to Pemberley….”
Rebecca shook her head. “It was not like that. I think he was rather embarrassed that his chosen alias was a name of such unexpected significance in our family. Surely the scrutiny must have made him fearful of exposure. Besides, I only saw him in company with Aunt Anne once or twice. If he meant to pretend to some connection, he might have sought her out more, or at least said he was the right age to be Fitzwilliam.”
Lady Catherine’s eyes flashed with something ominous.
“He did. I had thought him too old to be Fitzwilliam, given that he had just finished university at the time he met Richard. When I interviewed him as a prospective match for Elizabeth, he informed me that he was sent to school more than a year early.”
“So, it could be him?” Rebecca shook her head, confusion and frustration battling with her impulse to be ever at odds with her aunt.
“Or it could be another lie, meant to correct his initial miscalculation. I can think of no other reason for him to approach a member of this family under such a guise – and they met not three miles from Pemberley.”
“Well, wicked as I now believe him, I can at least tell you that I never heard anything from him or from Elizabeth about claims upon us as kin – nothing beyond a wish to marry into the family.” Rebecca narrowed her eyes at Lady Catherine, wondering what her aunt meant by exhausting such a tedious subject.
“You have doubts – you fear it might really be him.”
Lady Catherine curled her lips with distaste. “It cannot be!”
“Well, of course not. He looks nothing like George Darcy. Georgiana is the very image of her father, even the steward’s son George Wickham favored my uncle.
And little cousin Henry looks more like Sir Geoffrey with that unfortunate copper hair of his.
” Rebecca furrowed her brows, a sudden memory intruding upon her.
“That miniature my aunt keeps of her lost son – she did have a dark-haired child. Aunt, is that what all this bluster is about? You do think it could be him!”
“Mr. Worthing is a charlatan and a seducer! Since our first meeting, I distrusted the man – I knew he was hiding something! Your parents met with many pretenders, in the search for Anne’s lost son – women willing to part with their own babes for the sake of seeing them live a better life.
We shielded my sister from the worst of it, then, and I fear I must do so again, to spare her disappointment of the acutest kind.
If I thought there was the slightest chance of this villain truly being her son, nothing would stand in my way of bringing the truth to light. ”
Lady Catherine had grown heated, her chest heaving from the force of her admonishments, and she thumped her walking stick against the ground for emphasis as she carried on.
“I would do anything for my poor sister; I have supported her through such tragedies as I hope you will never know, you thoughtless child. At present I am resolved to put an end to the harmful speculation this odious man has aroused. If there is anything you have heard of this Mr. Worthing that would give my sister false hope, you must keep it to yourself. With any luck, once I have recovered my daughter, we will never hear from him again, and my poor sister will forget all about it, in time.”
“I have nothing to say that would upset her, nor would I ever willfully do so,” Rebecca said, sitting up in a rigid and defiant posture. “I love my family every bit as much as you do, though I may have a different way of showing it – in a style that involves humor and affection.”
“Rebecca, for God’s sake, you shall exhaust me before I even begin my journey to Surrey!”
It seemed to Rebecca that this could only be a good thing for Elizabeth, who would bear quite enough of her mother’s displeasure even if Lady Catherine had several hours to calm herself in the carriage.
As Lady Catherine swept from the room, Rebecca called out one final piece of provocation. “But what will you do if it is him?”