Chapter 37 #2
Elizabeth could well imagine the severity of her mother’s agitation.
That her father had gone to London and left her at home would have vexed her mother to no end, but his remaining in town for weeks and enlisting Mr Ellis to escort her and two of their daughters to Pemberley in his stead only increased her vexation.
Lady Catherine’s visit had made everything worse, but from what Elizabeth understood from Mary and Kitty, her mother had given her ladyship a piece of her own mind as well.
“Was it truly awful?”
“Lizzy, I thought I would run mad. Then we arrived at Pemberley with its long drive and picturesque park and ponds and streams and woods. The farther we advanced into the park, the less your mother had to say. By the time we arrived at the manor house, her eyes had become as round as saucers and she had stopped speaking entirely. Mary felt inclined to remind her to breathe.”
“Oh dear,” Elizabeth said with a laugh.
Mr Ellis shook his head. “We all knew Mr Darcy was rich, but I believe none of us, aside from you and Bingley and the Gardiners, had any idea he was quite so rich. The reality is staggering. I do believe Pemberley and all its grandeur stripped your poor mother of her previously held opinions.” His lips quirked.
“And her ability to speak—at least temporarily.”
“Let us hope,” Elizabeth remarked, “that Mamma shall remember precisely how rich my soon-to-be husband is and say no more on the subject of Mrs Wickham.”
From the upstairs window, Mrs Bennet pressed her nose to the glass and attempted to lecture her daughter through it, with little effect.
“Yes,” Mr Ellis agreed, laughing as she raised her fist over her head and shook it. “Let us hope.”
“Begging your pardon, sir.”
Darcy looked up from the pile of correspondence scattered across his desk to acknowledge his butler, then resumed his perusal of the letter in his hand. “Yes, White, what is it?”
“The Earl of Carlisle’s carriage has arrived.”
Dumbfounded, Darcy raised his head. It was the last thing he expected to hear. “His lordship’s carriage is here, at Pemberley?”
“Yes, sir. Lord Carlisle should be ascending the front steps as we speak.”
As if on cue, the earl’s gruff voice was heard in the foyer. It echoed off the walls and the marble floor as he advanced through the house. “You there,” he barked. “Where is my nephew? And do not tell me he is not at home to callers! I will see him now or I will see you dismissed!”
White brought his hands behind his back. “Shall I have the earl’s usual rooms prepared, sir?”
Darcy tossed the letter he had been reading onto his desk and ran his hand over his mouth in annoyance.
That his uncle had come all the way to Pemberley to speak with him the day before his wedding did not bode well for his equanimity.
“No. No. Show him in straight away, else he takes to abusing the staff. If he intends to stay the night, I will inform you.”
“As you wish, sir.” With a deferential bow, White quit the room. Not ten seconds later he reappeared and announced, “Lord Carlisle to see you, sir.”
Pushing his way past White, his lordship entered with a scowl upon his face.
“I am not accustomed to chasing anyone across England,” he snapped, forgoing the usual pleasantries, “especially my own flesh and blood. What is the meaning of leaving town without so much as a by-your-leave? You and I have unfinished business, or have you forgotten what is owed to me as the head of this family?”
Across the room, the door was shut with a quiet click.
Rather than rising and greeting his uncle properly, Darcy remained seated behind his desk. Steeling himself for the unpleasant conversation that was sure to follow, he looked the earl in the eye and said, “Welcome to Pemberley, Uncle. To what do I owe the unexpected pleasure of your company?”
“My wife,” said Lord Carlisle impatiently as he made a vague gesture that encompassed the entire room.
“I suppose she is here somewhere, and Richard as well. I should teach him a lesson once and for all and reward his disloyalty with disinheritance, but you would likely take it upon yourself to finance his first circle habits to spite me. Were it not for me, your cousin would be in the poor house begging for his supper, not riding around town in a fancy curricle.”
Darcy reclined in his chair.
The earl uttered an expletive under his breath and paced to the window, then back to Darcy’s desk, where he glared at the inkwell and the letter-strewn blotter.
“Is there something particular you require of me?” Darcy asked. “I have a letter pertaining to an investment in Manchester that requires my attention and ought not to be put off.”
The earl shifted his glare to Darcy. “Despite what you think of my interference in your affairs, I do not want to see you get the short end of the stick in life. I certainly do not want to see you lose half your fortune over some frivolous act of descension. Your father would never forgive me.”
Darcy made no reply.
The earl narrowed his eyes with a contemptuous snort.
“And now I am to get the silent treatment, for I dare not hope you have seen the error of your ways and are attempting to pay me my due!” He pursed his lips and resumed his pacing between the desk and the window.
Suddenly, he stopped. “Speaking of my due, my wife is here. You may as well admit it. I have already checked everywhere else.”
“She is,” Darcy replied after a moment. “Unless Lady Carlisle indicates otherwise, she will continue to be my guest for the foreseeable future. Regardless of your ire, I shall not turn her out.”
He had expected his uncle to become angrier after his admission, but Lord Carlisle merely grunted non-committally, waved a dismissive hand, and claimed a tufted leather chair before Darcy’s desk.
“I am not concerned about your aunt. She may stay at Pemberley for as long as she likes. She will come home eventually, either to London or to Levens Hall. She knows Lady Harrow is like all the others—a distraction, a way for me to amuse myself for a time, nothing more. Virginia is simply cross over her friend’s betrayal, just as Lady Harrow is cross with her for failing to promote her daughter.
They shall both get over it, and sooner than later.
Women always do whenever they are offered something else that they want.
” He paused and levelled Darcy with a severe look that could not be misinterpreted.
“You must know you are about to make the biggest mistake of your life.”
“By mistake, I take it you mean marrying Miss Bennet. I have already told you I intend to make her my wife. Nothing has changed. The marriage articles have been signed. Her family is at Pemberley. We marry tomorrow. There is no undoing what has already been done. It is too late for that now.”
“Nonsense!” the earl insisted. “There is nothing that money cannot fix. A clever girl like Miss Bennet cannot be insensible of the way the world operates. You had your fun with her, but now you must be prudent! You must choose a woman of your own station, from your own sphere! A woman so far beneath you will only damage Georgiana’s prospects.
If you marry her, she will never be fully accepted by your friends.
Even your wealth and consequence cannot buy her admittance to Almack’s. ”
Darcy refrained from mentioning that he could not care less about Almack’s.
If Elizabeth felt inclined to dance, he had friends enough in Bingley’s set and a few at his club who would welcome them, regardless of his voucher being revoked by Lady Sefton.
As for Georgiana, she had expressed nothing but joy for his choice.
“Where will you go?” demanded the earl. “Who will you see? No one of consequence, that is for certain.”
“As I have mentioned on prior occasions, your ideas of who and what constitutes good company are not in accord with my own.”
“Given time,” said the earl with a disagreeable twist of his mouth, “that will change. I doubt it shall take long, perhaps a year or two before you come to resent the girl. You have known superior society all your life, but Miss Bennet and her inferior relations will force you lower. She will spend your money, flirt with your friends, and give no thought to the indignities you must suffer for the sake of having her. The chit will punish you for her own inferiority! When the children come, she will lose her figure and her allure. You will seek your pleasure elsewhere and she will grow bitter. Her pretty face will become as ugly as her temperament! I have seen it before. If you elevate this upstart, you will live to regret it.”
Darcy struggled to rein in his temper. “What I regret,” he said in a low, furious voice, “is paying you the courtesy of informing you of my intentions regarding Miss Bennet. What I regret,” he continued, rising from his chair and splaying his hands firmly upon his desk, “is paying you the deference and respect I was taught to believe you were owed as my mother’s brother. ”
Lord Carlisle’s hand came down heavily upon the desk. “I am a damned earl, boy, and you would do well to remember what I am owed! I am owed your deference! I am owed your respect! I am owed your loyalty and obedience and you damn well better start paying me my due!”
“What you are owed and what you deserve, are by no means one and the same. You are a member of the peerage—deference must be given with regard for your station. As for respect, I am no longer of the opinion that you deserve it. Respect is not something you are born with. Respect must be earned. It must be deserved. You have done nothing to deserve mine, and even less to earn it.”
“You have become an insolent, ungrateful whelp,” Lord Carlisle hissed as he rose from his chair in a rage. “If your father could see you now, he would drag you behind the stable and take a horse whip to you!”