Sweet on Mr Darcy (Pride and Prejudice Variation)
Chapter 1
Chapter One
Pemberley
Derbyshire, near Lambton
“Mrs Reynolds tells me that you are planning a journey to London, Father. What could be so urgent that you set forth tomorrow?” Fitzwilliam Darcy asked in concern as he entered his father’s study.
George Darcy dismissed his valet, Mr Addams, with a wave of his hand and turned to his son. “I am glad you came in, Fitzwilliam. I feared you would be out in the forest with the steward and the men all day.”
“Now that the oats and barley are sown and the women and older children are set to weeding and supervising the drainage, it is time for the men to see to the timber harvest.” Darcy raised a brow. This was nothing his father did not know. “But what is this about a bolt for town?”
His father passed him three letters. “Georgie is unhappy at school. So unhappy that not only has she undertaken to write to me for help, but one of her teachers and the school mistress have done so as well.”
Darcy frowned as he read the letters. Georgiana was plaintive; she had overheard a group of her friends planning to use her to gain access to him, and then when one of them succeeded in compromising him, they would force a marriage between his sister and one of their brothers.
The girls had not even been sorry when confronted, and had dismissed poor Georgie as if she were nothing.
The letter from the school mistress was stern and dismissive of Georgiana’s distress.
The lady said that it was not uncommon for young women to examine their resources and even plan their best stratagems as they discussed their futures while at school.
They would all enter the marriage mart some day soon, and everyone knew what that was like.
The school mistress refused to entertain the notion that such conversations did not take place at all schools, even at Cambridge and Oxford.
She recommended that Miss Darcy should learn to appreciate her assets and plan to engage them accordingly for the benefit of her future.
There was also the matter to consider that some of the girls involved were the daughters of noblemen, and the school mistress felt that she could hardly write to their parents with such complaints, for Georgiana ought to consider herself well-favoured to win the hand of any of the brothers of her school friends.
The letter from Georgiana’s dormitory keeper, Mrs Younge, was filled with sympathy for poor, badly used Miss Darcy, and recriminations for the false friends, of whose behaviour she was quite shocked and disappointed.
Miss Darcy had confided her request to leave school, and Mrs Younge wondered if there might be a need for a governess or companion for the young lady, for she approved of Miss Darcy thoroughly, and would be happy to be of service to her in London or at Pemberley.
Darcy raised his head and looked at his father. “Of course we must not leave her there. I refuse to accept that compromises are a necessary evil that are discussed and planned at all schools. But are you certain that you ought to go, Father? I could go, or we could even send word to Aunt Eleanor.”
“I had considered sending word to Lady Matlock, but I would miss the opportunity to tell this Mrs Woolrich personally what balderdash her letter contained, and how I will ensure that everyone knows that she teaches girls very poor judgement there.” George Darcy smiled at his son.
“Besides, who would see to the timber harvest if you went? And the yearly tenant cottage and outbuilding maintenance must be undertaken while the weather is fine and before it is time for the harvest. You really should be here in case there is a problem with any of the drainage or grazing pastures. The dairy needs special oversight. We do not call May the month of three milkings1 for nothing.”
Darcy had taken over the work at Pemberley and their other estates with his father’s help and advice when he returned from Cambridge.
A proper grand tour was not possible, considering matters on the continent.
Though his father’s godson George objected to missing it, Darcy had no particular interest in taking the abbreviated tour of London, the other cities around England, as well as Scotland and Ireland that many young men undertook.
His father made a good show of it, but George Darcy was not well.
Darcy had worried for some time that his father might leave them before he could even properly finish his education at university.
George Wickham was given a sum of money and sent off on a trip of his own that was meant to last a year or more with a friend from school.
A friend that Darcy would not have been caught in even the most innocent of conversations with, but the best sort of friend that Wickham could produce.
Darcy returned to Pemberley to help his father, and he could sense his father’s relief when they began their work together.
Wickham’s gentleman’s tour was even more brief than they expected.
The libertine ran out of money in under two months, created more debt than Darcy had ever thought possible, and there was even some small legal trouble that Darcy Senior had been obliged to use his influence to end.
In the ensuing years, Wickham abandoned any prospect of being ordained or accepted into any sort of respectable profession.
Seven years later, Darcy could most often be found at Pemberley, working hard with the steward, unless he was taking his annual trip to visit his aunt at Rosings Park and their other estates and holdings.
His father was correct. It would not be for the best for him to go.
His father ought not be burdened with any troubles that arose at home.
“But are you strong enough, Father?” he begged. “That, before any other concern, must be our very first consideration. I could not bear it if you went and became ill.”
“I do not believe a three-day journey to London will finish me, my boy, you have my word,” Darcy Senior assured his son.
“And there is no need to start back too soon. We have some weeks before London becomes too hot and unhealthful. I can rest at Darcy House until I am ready to return. Georgiana can see Lady Matlock and Priscilla as often as she likes, and I will make an appointment with my physician while I am in town. He should listen to my heart while I am there, I think.”
“Perhaps you should travel more slowly,” Darcy fretted. “I can go and speak with Addams–”
“Slowing the journey only makes it more exhausting, please believe me when I say that I am the best judge on how I am to travel most comfortably.” Darcy Senior held up a calming hand.
“Addams has already sent someone ahead to arrange rooms at the usual inns. I will check on Wickham while I am in town. I have had no reply to my last letter.”
“Father, I do hope you will not go into whatever slum he is living in now,” Darcy objected. “Despite the generous allowance you give him, the locations in which he chooses to reside are appalling and unsafe.”
“That my own son should think to caution me.” Darcy Senior’s voice rumbled in laughter.
“Wickham will come to Darcy House when he learns that I am there. Addams will find him if necessary, but I doubt it. He will not miss the opportunity to see me in town. I plan to convince him to return to his study of the law.”
“After the last two attorneys he swindled while apprenticing for them and being sent down from reading the law for his refusal to even sit his exams, Wickham will never be a solicitor. Nor should you damage our family name any further in an attempt to rectify the matter.”
“He must do something, Son.” His father’s voice was grave.
“I will not argue with you, but he cannot be trusted, nor even persuaded to make himself useful in the same manner as his father.” Darcy was resigned.
“If only he would remain at Pemberley and work alongside me here as his father once did with you, I would gladly see him respectable and well treated. To be a steward of Pemberley is no situation to sneer at, but he will not stir himself to be trustworthy with the oversight of even our smallest holding.”
“I do not wish to speak of the matter further, Son.” George Darcy’s words were final, and his son knew he was no more likely to convince his father in this matter than he was when he was fifteen years of age.
Monday 25 May 1812
Darcy House,
London
Dear Son,
We have been more than a fortnight now at Darcy House, and I am properly disturbed by your sister’s reticence.
While she was always reserved, like yourself, her experience at school has had the consequence of crippling shyness.
It took nearly a week for her to gain the courage to reply to dear Priscilla in conversation.
Lady Matlock is outraged and says this must be managed forthwith, before Georgiana’s new temperament becomes quite fixed. Returning to Pemberley has been denounced as impossible. Your sister needs society, which Lambton sadly cannot provide.
So we shall summer at our cottage in Ramsgate, and Priscilla will join us, as well as Mrs Younge, who seems to be very kind and solicitous of your sister.
There are always ladies of every age there, and Lady Matlock deems Priscilla more than capable of guiding her cousin in society, and to teach her how to trade barbs without hurt feelings with other young ladies when necessary.
Perhaps she can host a few small dinners or picnics if she makes friends there.
I cannot deny that she needs to gain confidence, and badly.
I do not feel any weaker or stronger than I did when I left Pemberley. My condition remains quite the same, though Dr St. Giles says that to spend the summer at the seaside cannot do me anything but good. We travel on the fifteenth of June, and will likely stay through the end of August.
Will you have any time to join us there?
God bless you, Son,
Your affectionate father,
G.D.
Tuesday 23 June 1812
Darcy Cottage
Ramsgate
Dear Son,
We have been in Ramsgate above a sennight, and are well settled. I am grateful that Mrs Reynolds sent Mrs Lindgren to help Georgie manage the house. The deputy housekeeper from Pemberley is just who we needed with us.
I forget, I think, until I arrive and have time for quiet reflection, how happy we were here with your mother each summer.
Do you recall how she cherished our summers in our cheerful seaside retreat?
I feel better and happier than I can remember feeling for some time.
I must make the effort to visit Ramsgate each year while I am still able.
Dr St. Giles is quite right, our move has done me much good already.
We quickly made friends with a respectable family, the least mercenary people I believe I have ever met.
Indeed, I think the gentleman hardly thought a moment in his life about money until he finally had a son, and he is now rightfully sorry, for though his five daughters have dowries from an investment made by their late mother, he has not spent his years improving his estate as he ought, believing it would go to a distant cousin.
Still, while it is obvious that though his current wife likely married with an eye to practicality rather than love, his daughters are quite oblivious to financial concerns.
The youngest is full young, and of an age with Georgiana.
The eldest is twenty-three, and the others range in age between.
Each of the young ladies have singled Georgiana out for their attention for some particular merit or interest rather than her station, and though they are all quite different in character, I believe your sister derives a great benefit from their company.
I was surprised at how quickly she took to them, and in their presence, her reserve soon falls away.
The Bennet family is in Ramsgate for the health of Mrs Bennet, who is weakened from the birth of her son some seven or so months ago.
Bennet is marvellously well-read, and well worth crossing in chess, though he can be mercurial and his wit is cutting if someone displeases him.
As I stated above, it is as if he only just realised he ought to worry about money, and now welcomes discussions about diversifying one’s income.
I also learned that his brother-in-law by his late first wife is none other than the intrepid Edward Gardiner who married one of our village girls some years back and with whom we have investments in London.
The investment which provided dowries for his daughter was none other than the same East Indian venture that I invested in (which you were so concerned about), and they did quite as well as we did from it.
With the encouragement of the new Mrs Bennet, it will not be long before Mr Bennet begins to improve his income.
The daughters are all quite pretty, though none of them seems to have thoughts of advancing their positions through marriage.
The two youngest Miss Bennets have recently discovered officers, the middle is too serious, and the two eldest are too genteel to discuss such matters openly.
Speaking of officers, Wickham followed us to Ramsgate at my desire, and I have persuaded him to take a lieutenancy in a militia that is training here for the summer.
I was inclined to allow him to stay at Darcy Cottage with us, but Lady Matlock and Priscilla created such an unnecessary fuss that I was obliged to obtain rooms for him.
His colonel did not like the idea of him staying so far from the camp in any case, so it is all for the best. I am certain that this will be the making of Wickham.
Perhaps that is what he has been needing.
Training and discipline have done wonders for Richard, but Wickham would not yet hear of taking a commission in the regulars.
I have promised him that if he does well in the militia I will purchase him a captaincy.
He promises to consider taking a commission in the regulars later if the training suits him.
If he would apply himself, in time he might make a splendid colonel.
I have a sense that this time will be different with my godson. He will make us proud.
Will you join us here? I should think that you ought to be at leisure by July. How was the timber harvest? And the new barn for John Trudel? Did it go up on schedule? I hope he is pleased by it.
God bless you, Son,
Your affectionate father,
G.D.
1 May was a critical time in the Regency for ensuring high milk production. Particular care was taken to ensure the health of livestock at this time of year.