Chapter 9 #2
Wickham stood in the doorway, a wide smirk on his face as his laughing eyes observed the voluble knight debasing himself. Lingley’s anger coalesced and found a target at that moment. “I see you find humor in this, Wickham. Perhaps your wife was acting with your approval?”
“And shall you call me out if she were?” He laughed mockingly.
“Of course not,” Lingley returned his mockery with a grim smile of his own. “One does not duel with the lower classes. I would not sully my hands by reaching so far beneath me.”
Wickham’s smile grew brittle. “Of course not.”
“I employ men for such things,” Lingley lifted his finger, and three large footmen appeared suddenly beside the scoundrel, making the man jump. “I refuse to hit a woman, no matter how deserving she is. What manner of chastisement you see fit to pay forward is up to you, as her husband and keeper.”
They scooped the former lieutenant up by his arms before dragging him, kicking and screaming, from the house.
Luckily, the stables were far enough away that his cries were inaudible to those in the mansion.
The silence after his removal was so complete that one might have heard a pin drop.
The wide-eyed neighbors gave Lingley a wide berth as he went in search of Mr. Gardiner.
His new uncle was guarding the base of the staircase, on orders from his wife, and greeted his nephew with grim correctness.
Lingley held out the heavy purse he had received from the Colonel.
Gardiner took it, hefting its weight in his hand, and raised his brows in question.
“I wish to purchase a gift for Mary. Something worthy of her.”
“Such a purse could purchase a great deal from my warehouses.”
“No, nothing so easy. I want something unique and rare. Something of such value that when she lays eyes on it, it will remind her of the value I have for her. I want something she uses daily. A vanity set: a rosewood vanity, and a hand mirror, brush, ivory comb, and such. All the usual bits and in the finest of gold, decorated with birds and flowers.”
“Do you know what that would cost?” He whistled. “The shipping alone. The finest mirrors come from Venice, if you do not wish for something from a London silversmith? It will take months.”
“That is fine. We shall be traveling for several months in any case.” He offered his hand to confirm the contract. “I will be taking Mary out of the rear entrance. None of these… persons deserve the condescension of a farewell, and I would have them know it. Shall we fetch her and Mrs. Gardiner?”
The gentlemen mounted the stairs and found the ladies waiting in the guest room where Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner had been placed.
A small work bag sat on the bed, awaiting its owner, while Mrs. Gardiner placed the last few pins in Mary’s unruly hair, taming it into a comfortable chignon at the base of her neck out of way of her bonnet.
The bonnet was a piece of art, one of Mrs. Gardener’s own.
She had refused to allow her niece to be seen in the horror of limp brown velvet and bilious orange ribbon which Mrs. Bennet had insisted would do well enough for the girl, as it was only 4 pence and the shopkeeper had given up hope that it would sell.
Once her hat had been pinned, Mary rose and blushed becomingly at the admiring look her husband turned her way.
“Thank you, Mrs. Gardiner, for your assistance. The dress you ordered is very attractive,” he said as Mary dropped her eyes and smoothed the fine taffeta of the lovely blue gown. “Do you like it, my lady?”
“I have not seen it fully,” Mary admitted shyly. “But the color and fabric are very fine. I am most grateful to my aunt for her thoughtfulness.”
“I shall find you a mirror at the first opportunity,” he promised her before bidding the Gardiners farewell.
He took Mary’s workbag from her hand and after she had kissed her aunt and uncle one last time, led her down the rear stairs and through the kitchens where they accepted a small basket of comestibles before exiting the house and boarding the fine coach which bore the viscount’s herald.
“My mother will not be pleased that we snuck away,” Mary warned him quietly as he settled into the squabs beside her.
“Then she may turn her pique where it belongs and berate your youngest sister,” he declared carelessly. “None of your neighbors would dare to blame you after that contretemps, and the likelihood that we will return here is minuscule.”
“You would abandon Netherfield completely?”
“We could offer it to your eldest sister and her new husband, though I cannot imagine that living in such close proximity to your parents would be at all comfortable,” he observed.
“Netherfield is so small that it is an afterthought most often; one of several satellite estates which have found their way into the possession of the earldom through marriage or investment. I believe it was brought as part of my grandmother’s marriage portion. ”
“The smallest…” Mary gulped. “It is the largest home in the area!”
“Likely,” he shrugged, “but it is nothing to Ashford Dale or El Pardo, my mother’s property in Spain.
We shall not see Ashford Dale until we return from our wedding trip, but we shall visit my parents at La Almudaina, which is a royal residence on Mallorca, during our travels.
It would be easy to stop at El Pardo as well as we return to England if you would like. ”
“Spain?” she squeaked in excitement. “I shall see Spain? I shall be able to use my languages at last!”
He winced spasmodically, having heard her several times mangling her words. “Which languages do you speak?”
“I still remember my Spanish, which you taught me when we were young, and have worked to increase my vocabulary,” she declared proudly in quite a passable accent, which pleased him.
“I would not vouch for my others as I am completely self-taught in French, Italian, German, and Portuguese. I also attempted Greek, but my father declared that it was too masculine a study and took away the primer and Greek to English dictionary I had purchased.”
Lingley rolled his eyes. “Self-taught? Did your father not offer to hire masters for you all? I thought that your sisters had mentioned it.”
“Lizzy had several masters for music and mathematics but the one time I asked Papa to assist me with my education he declared that he would not waste his funds on such silly things that would be of no use to a female,” she explained quietly.
“He always said that he was surrounded by silly, useless females and that only Lizzy had a bit more intelligence than the rest of us. She always laughed at that, as if he were telling a joke. But it was obvious to me that it was an honest complaint couched in questionable humor.”
“Your parents are ridiculous.”
She flushed hotly and dropped her eyes to her hands.
Her entire life had been one mortification after the other as her mother and younger sisters horrified and offended their way through the neighborhood, all the while her father laughed at them all rather than restraining them.
Their family was a laughingstock and no matter what Jane and Elizabeth may have told their own husbands, Mary was under no illusions that her family would be in any way acceptable to polite society and had no desire to embarrass her new family by insisting that they be invited into their lives in the future.
A yearly letter, in her opinion, was entirely sufficient.
“They are,” she replied before he could comment on her embarrassment. “Luckily, we shall not need to endure their company.”
“You do not demand that I respect your family as my own?” he asked, remembering Darcy’s complaints.
Mary snorted, “No.”