8 #2
Archer twirled the wine in his glass and lifted it in a mock toast. “I shall await that pleasure with interest, but in my opinion, courage is easy if you are brave but far more praiseworthy if you are not.”
Lady Goddard looked up sharply, frowned at something she apparently didn’t like in her grandson’s tone, then tapped her fork against her plate. “Miss Jane Darcy, I had the pleasure of knowing your Great Aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh.”
“How interesting, Ma’am. I am afraid we were not close.
I only met her a few times before she died.
I believe her daughter, Lady Anne, visited Pemberley before her marriage to Viscount Burgoyne but that was before I was born.
I am afraid that following their sad demise, we no longer see their daughter, Lady Merryn.
Her grandfather, Lord Bowyer, wishes her to live a quiet life at home in Devon.
I believe my parents have offered hospitality to her on several occasions but it has always been declined.
It is rumoured that she suffers from poor health. ”
“Yes, I know Lord Bowyer—a difficult man—not one who has much knowledge of young women! Catherine de Bourgh was a friend of my older sister, so there were quite a few years between us, but I admired her greatly and we became quite close as the years passed. Indeed, I still have the letter she wrote to me on your father’s odd marriage to your mother.
Which was, of course, a most remarkable and lamentable affair. ”
Jane realised her fists were clenched in her lap, her nails biting into her palms. Abominable old woman! How dare she be so rude about her darling mama. Before she could find the words to reply politely, Celeste broke into the conversation, her dark eyes gleaming with curiosity.
“Why was it lamentable? My distant cousins, the Darcys of Pemberley, are much admired by everyone, so I have heard. I am longing to meet them.”
Jane took a deep breath, then realised that a large hand had taken one of her clenched fists under cover of the tablecloth and was holding it fast.
“Yes, Grandmama, please explain. I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting Mr and Mrs Darcy, but as you know, I am proud to claim acquaintance with Miss Anne Darcy and I am sure I will meet her parents in the future.”
Lady Goddard heard the challenge in her grandson’s voice and hesitated.
She was anxious for him to marry Anne Darcy, even if her mother was a nobody, her grandmother a fool and one of her aunts had the most dubious of reputations.
Why, it was even common knowledge now that a first cousin was illegitimate!
In any other family, these things would be enough to keep them from associating with respectable people, but there was one big difference.
Mr Darcy was incredibly rich and had friends in high places.
This Jane might say they no longer met with Lord Bowyer but the family connection was still there.
His granddaughter, Lady Merryn, who would surely marry into the aristocracy, was a cousin of Pemberley.
Lady Goddard was determined that Archer would enter Parliament and make himself a name in political circles.
For all the disgrace of their marriage, the Darcys could be extremely important to him.
She had already made it plain to him that she favoured Anne Darcy as his wife.
Archer was not a fool—he quite understood that the money he would need to succeed in a new career would only be forthcoming if he agreed to her plan.
“My dear Lady Goddard—” Andrew broke into the tense silence, his voice plaintive and sad. “Are we to have that delicious pudding served to us soon? I can smell treacle tart and I know there are to be spiced plums with the cheese.”
The old lady’s stern features relaxed a little.
She was fond of Andrew Moore and often allowed him liberties of behaviour which she would not have sanctioned from Archer.
She did not know nor did she query why this was.
His honest, open countenance and brown hair that would never stay neatly styled, the untidiness of his dress, the way his cravat was always coming loose, all these things should have irritated her.
If someone had told her he bore a remarkable likeness to a certain young man she had liked far too well over fifty years before, who had died in some needless cavalry charge, she would not have believed them.
“I do declare, Andrew, that you eat more than three men put together,” she said, trying not to smile and gestured to the footmen to bring in the desserts.
“You should have let me speak, Sir,” Jane said softly as the various dishes were being laid before them. “I feel I have let down my parents by not defending them.”
Archer sighed. “You must learn to choose your battles wisely. Your parents need no defence of their marriage from you. Grandmama is from a different age, her ideas are set and nothing you can say will alter them. She is a tyrant in many ways, she seems hard and uncaring and probably is! She refused to speak to her own daughter, my dear mother, for years and years and no matter what I said, I could not change her mind.”
Jane was silent for a minute, cutting a slice of cheese into tiny squares.
She tried to imagine how she would feel if her own mother refused to speak to her.
It left her with a dreadful feeling inside, of sorrow and abandonment.
But how could Archer Maitland be so at ease with his grandmother if she acted in such a way?
“But …”
“Ah, I know what you are going to say, Miss Jane, that surely my first duty was to my parent. But believe me, my mama was just as hard-headed and stubborn as my grandmother. She adored my father, was mortified by her parents’ treatment of him and refused to make the first move of reconciliation and so it was stalemate.
Obviously she had my deepest affection but I am also fond of my grandmother.
I learnt to navigate between the two of them, like a small vessel in a storm trying to avoid two mighty rocks! ”
Jane glanced up swiftly: his tone was light-hearted, almost flippant, but she could see the pain in his eyes that the situation caused him and she fell silent, knowing that any words from her would only be platitudes because she could not truly understand how two women could act in this way.