Chapter 6
The Fitzwilliams and Darcys arrived at Rosings in the last week of March, ahead of the four families that would be joining them and arrive the afternoon on the first day of April, two days ahead of Good Friday, bringing those at the various learning institutions with them.
The first thing that the Fitzwilliam brothers noted when they descended from the carriage was Lizzy running toward them at full speed from the direction of the rose garden, with Anne, Georgiana, and Alex trailing behind her.
In a blur of dark tresses and yellow day dress, she launched herself into Richard’s arms. A little under a year since the attack, their Lizzy was fully recovered.
William joined the brothers watching in amazement as the whirlwind blew between them talking at high speed.
The Darcy and Fitzwilliam parents smiled as they had purposely withheld the information that Lizzy was fully recovered so that the brothers and William would receive the surprise that they just did.
Today was the first time that the three young men were seeing Lizzy since their return to Eton and Cambridge after Twelfth Night.
It was a few days before Georgiana’s sixth birthday that Lizzy had thrown her crutch aside permanently.
At first, she had been tentative, as if she were worried that her leg would give out on her, but in a few days her confidence had built to where she allowed herself to run for the first time.
Since that day she had not stopped. Now there was only one last hurdle to overcome, to get her back on a horse.
As much as she professed her desire to ride, she was obviously reticent around the animals that she loved so dearly.
After she had disposed of her crutch permanently, Reggie and Elaine had gifted Lizzy a Great Dane puppy, who was promptly named Agatha, Aggie for short.
The puppy almost never left her side. The now more than six-month-old puppy was nearing two thirds of her impressive full size; she was larger than any of the other dogs that the Fitzwilliams owned.
The head gamekeeper at Snowhaven had begun to train Aggie in obedience, but also as a protector for the little lady.
When the carriages arrived, Aggie was being walked by a groom and, when she heard her mistress’ gleeful voice, she took off towards the sound before the groom had a chance to grab her leash.
William had just hugged Lizzy when he found himself flat on his back looking up at an exceptionally large puppy drooling on his face.
Aggie was still learning to identify when her mistress needed protection or not.
“Aggie, off!” Elizabeth instructed and the beast complied and sat down next to her mistress, looking incredibly pleased with herself.
“Sorry Will.” Lizzy was contrite as she extended a hand to help him up while the watching party were all trying to hide their amusement and not succeeding very well.
“This is Aggie; she is about six months old and is still in training.”
“She is only six months!” William exclaimed as he dusted himself off and used his handkerchief to wipe the slobber from his face. “She will be the size of a pony when she is full grown!”
“I believe you are correct,” his Uncle Reggie agreed, “her parents are both huge, even for this breed. She comes from an estate in Staffordshire, not far from Hilldale, where they breed Great Danes.”
Elizabeth petted William like he was a dog, and he was about to decry her action when he realised that she was showing the beast that he was a friend.
Aggie walked up to him, sniffed him, and then licked his hands as she accepted that he was not a danger to her mistress.
The Fitzwilliam brothers were vastly amused as the exceptionally large dog inspected William, until it was their turn.
The young men had arrived with the Bingleys and Rhys-Davies’.
After everyone had been shown to their chambers and washed and changed their traveling attire, they met back in the drawing room.
Martha Bingley requested an audience with Ladies Elaine and Anne.
Elaine led them to the mistress’s study where the three sat with the sisters on the settee and Martha on a chair facing them.
“I requested this audience to express my absolute mortification and deepest apology for my behaviour at Pemberley, and in not checking my youngest before she made the vile insults to Lady Elizabeth. It was not long after departing Pemberley that I saw the error of my past ways and vowed to improve and not repeat my follies,” Martha explained with sincere contrition.
Elaine looked at her sister-in-law who nodded imperceptibly. “Your apology is accepted without reservation. Mrs Bingley. There are none of us who have not erred in the past, but we must adopt a philosophy that I learnt many years ago: only remember the past as that remembrance gives you pleasure.”
“So that is why Lizzy always says that,” Lady Anne smiled.
“I thank you for your condescension your Ladyships,” Martha bowed he head to each. “It would be pleasing to me if you would call me Martha.”
“In that case Martha, you may call me Lady Anne,” Anne granted.
“And me Lady Elaine,” Elaine added. “Before I forget, where is your older daughter?”
“She is staying with two of her friends in Hertfordshire for Easter,” Martha informed her hostess and her sister.
When the three ladies returned to the drawing room all smiles, Oscar Bingley knew that his wife had been forgiven.
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George Wickham rued the day that he had been thrown into the power of the vindictive Mrs Fitzpatrick.
Things had been getting a little easier for him until the lady of the house had given into her inquisitiveness and had sent one of her footman spies to glean information on her ex-family.
The man had sent back a report that the mongrel foundling was well on her way to a full recovery, and then he was never heard from again.
The lady had no idea if he had run away or, worse yet, been captured meaning that he would give her up.
The truth was that the man had been spotted by the beefed-up security personnel at Snowhaven.
They had given chase and, in his eagerness to escape, the spy had not noticed that he was galloping toward a sheer cliff, but his mount had.
While he was looking back at his pursuers, holding the reins in one hand, the horse planted its legs and came to an abrupt halt.
He was not prepared for the sudden stop and flew over the horse’s head and fell to his death down the deep ravine.
When after a few weeks no one came looking for her, the older lady became less nervous about imminent discovery but took her frustration for her bad decision out on the boy who was approaching his sixteenth year.
She had him beaten a few times, blaming him for her woes.
For once in his life, George Wickham was actually innocent.
In March Mrs Fitzpatrick had sought out a new footman with questionable morals.
She found a man who had worked for a smuggler in Fowey, Cornwall, and had left as the sea did not always agree with him.
He parted on good terms with his former shipmates, so he had the advantage of being able to contact his friends for support if needed. His name was Sam Hodges.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Life was just not fair, Caroline Bingley told herself.
She was, at fifteen, left alone at the school that she hated with a passion.
Even that silly Miss Thatcher had, in Caroline’s opinion, broken.
The last time that the two had spoken, Miss Thatcher had been vastly different from her usual exuberant self.
Her erstwhile loved had been killed by the brother of one he dallied with, so it had finally sunk in that her father and everyone else had not been jealous of her; but rather they cared about her and did not want to see her throw her life away for no good reason.
Caroline had still not learnt that lesson.
The only thing that she cared about were her wishes and desires, and she cared not a whit who she hurt to achieve her aims. She had written to her mother, alternating in one letter from trying to emotionally manipulate her to cajoling and demanding in others.
She just could not grasp why her mother had not responded to any of her demands; she and had only written back to say that she hoped her daughter was well.
The family had not written to inform her of their invitation for Easter, and Mrs Gilbert was in full agreement.
If Caroline knew that they would be in the company of a Duke and three Earls, they were certain that in her blind rage she would hurt herself or attempt to harm others around her.
She had not learnt the lesson her mother had, that it is not one’s desires that gain position and friends, but actions and behaviour.
She thought that the fact that she had been placed in her own chamber, isolated from the rest of the girls, was recognition of her innate superiority, when in fact it was because none of the girls, not even her former friend, Miss Thatcher, wanted to share a chamber with her.
Like so many things that she thought that she knew, the truth was the opposite of what she believed it to be.
Caroline had no idea that her wish to never see the Dark Hollow School would be granted in a matter of months, but had she known where she was to be moved to, she would have been happy to stay at the crone’s school.
Before the end of June, she would be moved to the Greenlake School for Troubled Girls on the Isle of Man, which made Dark Hollow look like a holiday village in comparison.
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