Chapter 4 #2
“No, Colonel, she has not,” Mrs Jenkinson replied.
“Over the last few months, it has been harder for Miss Anne to eat.
All I have been able to convince her to take is broth which I give her with an invalid feeder.
The last time Miss de Bourgh left her suite was a few days ago.
It was the night that the parsonage party had been present, and Lady Catherine demanded Miss Anne attend to make an even number at the table.
Miss Anne was not well enough and left very early, before the meal.
“The next morning, I informed Lady Catherine that Miss Anne is not long for this world. She refused to come see her daughter as that would make it all too real. A little later that morning, she issued orders that no one is to see Miss Anne and posted footmen in the hall leading to this door. Until you came today, none other than myself and Miss Anne’s maid has entered this chamber. ”
“My aunt has always been one who thinks that if she ignores a problem, it will go away.” Richard turned towards the bed as he heard a weak sound. He moved to stand as close to his cousin’s head as possible.
“Richard, you came,” Anne croaked out.
“Yes, I did. William is here as well,” Fitzwilliam stated gently.
“Annie, I need a promise from you. I need you to take as much sustenance as you are able. I will send an express to Father and Mother in London. If Andrew is in Town, he will come as well. My parents will bring their physician with them, and unlike the ones your mother likes to employ, he is no quack.”
“I will try and drink as much as possible,” Anne promised. The effort to speak was great. Her eyes closed and Anne slept once again.
“Mrs Jenkinson, tell Cook to begin to mash vegetables, meat, and poultry into the soup. That will give Anne the liquids she needs as well as some nourishing food,” Fitzwilliam commanded.
On leaving Anne’s bedchamber, Fitzwilliam went to his own.
There, he wrote a note to his father explaining what he had found and how his aunt was trying to hide the truth.
Knowing how his aunt did not allow any post to leave or enter the house without her permission and perusal, Fitzwilliam made for the stables and took one of the horses and rode into Hunsford.
At the Grey Goose Inn, he found an express rider and paid the man to make all haste to Matlock House in London.
With that done, he took a leisurely ride back to Rosings Park. Now he needed to discover where William was.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Darcy was pacing back and forth in the sitting room between his and Richard’s chambers.
There was no longer a question, he wanted to make Miss Elizabeth his wife.
The conundrum he had was how to separate her from her family.
Miss Bennet was acceptable, but the problem there was that would put her back in Bingley’s company.
If that were to occur, he would have to admit to Bingley that his motives in separating him from Miss Bennet were not as pure as the driven snow, and Darcy hated to admit his mistakes.
Given that Miss Elizabeth questioned him about Bingley, Netherfield Park, and her sister’s presence in London, he knew that if he kept his distance from Bingley she would want to know why.
She was too intelligent not to notice that things between them had changed.
Why did this have to be so damned complicated?
Before Darcy could consider any further option for what he should do, the door from the hallway opened and Richard marched into the sitting room.
“Where have you been, William?” Fitzwilliam demanded. “I have had to investigate without you.”
“I took a walk.” Darcy was telling the truth, just not the whole truth.
He liked to ride in the morning but his stallion, Zeus, was back in London.
Even though she could not ride, his aunt kept a stable full of good horses which except for when he and Richard were at the estate, were exercised by grooms. She felt it enhanced her status to have good stables well stocked with expensive horseflesh. “Wait, what investigation?”
“Did you not see the way Aunt Cat would not look at me when I asked after Anne at dinner? I suspected something was not right, so this morning while the old bat was sequestered in her chambers, I went to see Anne…” Fitzwilliam told his cousin what he had seen, and then, done.
“I expect Mother and Father will arrive on Monday.”
“Aunt Catherine wants to hide the knowledge of Anne’s true situation because of the de Bourgh entail, does she not?” Darcy queried.
“That was my assumption,” Fitzwilliam agreed.
“My late father once told me he had a letter from our late Uncle Lewis in which he identified a branch of his family that no one mentioned as his aunt had not married into a family of note,” Darcy remembered.
“I believe that she was disowned at the time, but that cannot change her having de Bourgh blood, if any of her descendants still live. I hope that your father has a copy of the same letter because I do not know where my father kept it. I have checked the safes at both Pemberley and Darcy House, and it was not there.”
“I suppose we will need to wait until my parents, and hopefully Andy arrives on Monday or Tuesday.” Fitzwilliam cogitated. “You know how Andy is yet to find a lady he is attracted to because, like you, he is tired of all the insipid ladies in the Ton, do you not?”
“Yes, I am only too aware of that particular issue. Why do you mention it?”
“I believe that Miss Bennet would be the kind of lady to whom Andy will be attracted. She is beautiful, yes, but it is her intelligence and wit which will capture his affection.” Fitzwilliam did not miss the look of indignation on William’s countenance as he spoke of Andy possibly wanting to make Miss Elizabeth Bennet his viscountess.
It was confirmation that William was in love, but the lady obviously did not return his feelings.
Seeing that Fitzwilliam saw William as another brother, he decided he would need to go ahead and plan how to improve Miss Bennet’s opinion of William so that they may have a chance at a shared future.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
On Saturday morning, Jane fulfilled a promise to three of her four young cousins. The twins and Peter had elicited a vow from Jane that she would take them to Hyde Park. Eddy would join them, but as a Harrow man, he would hold himself apart from his siblings’ high-jinks.
Aside from Jane and the four cousins, they were escorted by a maid, a nursemaid, the governess, and two footmen.
While the two footmen climbed onto the back bench of the coach Jane and the children rode in, the maid, nursemaid, and governess boarded the older and smaller Gardiner carriage.
As it was less than two miles to a point close to the wide end of the Serpentine, the ride was only about fifteen minutes to Hyde Park.
As she sat with her cousins’ chattering flying back and forth between them—mainly between the twins, Lilly and May—Jane was disappointed there had been no new epistle from her younger sister.
She wondered why Lizzy had not replied to the last missive Jane had posted to her.
Her sister was usually very good at writing letters.
Perhaps it was because she did not want to address what Jane had said about Mr Bingley.
She loved Lizzy, but her sister was rather obstinate and hated to be proved wrong.
Since the conversation with Aunt Maddie, Jane’s opinions of that man and whether he truly loved, respected, and esteemed her had firmed.
As much as she had always wanted to see only the good in every situation, her treatment at the hands of Miss Bingley and Mrs Hurst coupled with Mr Bingley’s desertion had shattered her desire to only see the positive.
The ‘why’ that Lizzy kept going on about any time they discussed what had occurred was not nearly as important as the fact he had.
The heartbreak she had suffered and the Bingley sisters revealing their true natures to her had shown Jane how na?ve she had been.
If she ever saw Mr Bingley again, they would meet as indifferent acquaintances.
More than anything Jane was certain that she did not want a boy to pay court to her, but a man.
She wanted someone who knew his own mind, who would not be swayed by others, and most importantly, he would respect her.
As long as he had enough that they could live reasonably, Jane cared not how wealthy the man was.
All these realisations had ejected Mr Bingley from her heart, and Jane felt far lighter for it. Instead of pining for a man who was far too irresolute, Jane could now be open to whatever Providence would bring her.
Once they all alighted from the conveyances, with their escorts trailing, Jane led her four cousins along the broad end of the Serpentine towards Rotten Row.
It was well before the so-called fashionable hour, so most walking in the park now, did so for enjoyment of nature.
Jane found a place to put their blankets on the grass between the water and Rotten Row.
Lilly, May, and Peter, with a footman, made for the edge of the water and opened the bags of stale bread Cook had gifted them. It took no time at all before the waterfowl were surrounding them begging for their share of the bounty.
Jane and Eddy sat on the one blanket. The second footman stood off to the side while the three ladies who had accompanied them sat on a bench nearby.
“Eddy, go join them. Studying at Harrow does not mean you cannot enjoy yourself like your sisters and brother are,” Jane told the eldest Gardiner son when she saw the way he was watching his siblings longingly.
Her cousin did not need to be told twice and was soon having fun along with the rest of the young Gardiners.
Jane stood to get a better view of the children.
She had been standing for a few minutes when she heard someone call out, “Priscilla! No! Watch where you are going!” Seconds later a young lady, somewhere around Eddy’s age, crashed into Jane.
She felt herself falling, but she never reached the grass.
She had been caught in the very strong arms of a gentleman, the one she believed, had called out to the girl who had run into her.
“Priscilla, I told you to watch where you were running,” another girl admonished. “And now the kite has crashed anyway.”
“Emily, you did no better,” Priscilla shot back, emphasising her words with a tongue stuck out at the other girl. Jane had to smile; the bickering reminded her of Kitty and Lydia.
“Priscilla Carrington, never mind the kite! You need to apologise to the lady you almost bowled over,” the man who was still holding Jane said.
“I think I am able to stand now, thank you, Sir,” Jane stated with a smile.
“Please pardon me, Miss…?” the man said as he released Jane and stepped back.
“Miss Jane Bennet,” she responded.
“That is our brother…” Emily began to say when the man shook his head.
“I am James Carrington, my sisters, Emily and Priscilla.” Jamey Carrington was entranced by the beauty before him, but it was more than her beauty.
Most society beauties he knew were vain, and Miss Bennet was anything but.
Where the insipid ladies would be calling compromise, Miss Bennet had not tried anything of the sort.
“Miss Bennet, I think I need to come speak to your guardian. Some would say that I compromised you.”
“You are welcome to come see my uncle, but I was not compromised. There are many witnesses,” Jane indicated the governess, nursemaid, and maid, and then the footman, “who all saw an accident, followed by a gentleman saving me. You should not be forced into marriage for assisting a lady. If it will placate your sense of honour, my uncle’s house is at 23 Gracechurch Street.
You are welcome to call on him.” Borrowing from Lizzy’s scepticism, Jane had mentioned the address on purpose.
By Mr Carrington’s clothing and that of his sisters’, they were more than likely of high society and would therefore not appear at a house so close to Cheapside.
“That is the Gardiner residence, is it not?” Jamey verified.
“Indeed, it is, Sir. How do you know that?” Jane was shocked that this man would know Aunt Maddie’s and Uncle Edward’s address.
“My father and I have known Mr Gardiner for some years. We invest with him. Are you related through him or Mrs Gardiner?” James enquired.
“Uncle Edward is my mother’s older brother,” Jane replied.
“We must away, Miss Bennet, but I hope to see you uninjured when I call at your uncle’s home.” Jamey turned to his sisters. “Collect the kite and string, we are going home. Try not to run over any more ladies on the way, if you please.”
When the three Carringtons had walked far enough away so they would not be heard, the older of the sisters turned to her brother. “Jamey, why did you not tell that pretty lady that we have titles?” Emily, who was sixteen, asked.
“She was ever so nice,” Priscilla, recently thirteen, added.
“I did not want to see her turn into a fawning lady as soon as she discovered we are part of the nobility.” Jamey said to himself, ‘I want to see if she behaves differently when Gardiner addresses me as Hadlock, and she discovers I am a viscount.’
Jane watched as the three walked away. She hoped he would call because she had an idea from their brief interaction that Mr Carrington was nothing like Mr Bingley.