Chapter 1
ONE
Hunsford, near Westerham, Kent
Darcy sat at his desk in the comfortable study at Hunsford cottage, determined to commence the most repellent labour he believed he had ever undertaken—a labour he had sworn, once upon a time, that he would rot in hell before even considering.
Withdrawing letter paper from the drawer, he took an absurd amount of time mending his pen, rearranging his desk, transferring his ink bottle from one side of the desk to the other…
and any other little fidget he could use to avoid the task at hand.
Finally, however, he forced himself to the chore.
‘Dear Sir,’ he began. Already, he could feel the old anger emerging. It would not do. Hurriedly, he began to write, before fury could overwhelm him.
The disagreements between yourself and my late, honoured father have hitherto provided me ample justification for my neglect of correspondence.
Your last communication to him presented sentiments so unjustifiable, it was presumed that all connexion between our families was dissolved.
However, having received ordination last Easter, and after spending the last several months in service to a parish, it seems to me I have a duty to promote an amnesty you have never requested, especially on behalf of your innocent daughters.
Have you wondered, ever, what will become of them, if our feud endures, unexamined and unforgiven, fuelling my resentment?
I hope it is not to be the case.
I have little faith that you may have raised this topic with your conscience; however, I am still on speaking terms with mine.
I find I cannot exclude your daughters from my notice, at least those of marriageable age, without a cursory assessment.
I require a wife, the parish requires a Godly woman to join with me in the administration of my duties to the Church of England, and upon your death, (long in the future, it is to be hoped), Longbourn will require a mistress.
It would be spiteful to punish its daughters for the sins of the parents, without excogitation.
I have faults enough, but I hope malice is not one of them.
Should you wish to make enquiries as to my ability to support a family, I hold the living at Hunsford in Kent, having been appointed to the office by Lady Catherine de Bourgh.
Let it be clear: I am ever conscious of the circumstance of my being next in the entail of Longbourn estate, and that your offspring stand to lose a home which must be precious to them.
Nonetheless, I comprehend a great deal in my idea of the accomplished woman who will become my wife.
I mean to grant them due and fair consideration, but I will not slacken my standards one whit.
I am available to visit Monday, November the 18th, until Saturday the se’nnight following. I am happy to take rooms at the local inn, if you object to receiving me; however, should you decide, at the outset, to reject the proffered olive branch, let us dispense with the visit altogether.
If, however, my stay is agreeable to you, I shall expect an answer forthwith. Should I receive no reply, I shall consider the matter closed.
Sincerely,
Fitzwilliam Darcy
He read it through once; the tone, he saw, was too harsh, too blunt, and certainly too mistrustful—as an ‘olive branch’ it failed miserably.
Yet, if Thomas Bennet was of the same disposition as he had been twenty years before, it mattered little.
He would simply toss Darcy’s letter into the fire, and allow his children to suffer the consequences.
I must post the letter quickly, else I will not send it at all.
It was in every way distasteful to contemplate marriage into the family of cousins which had treated his own forebears so cruelly. Yet, what was he to do with them all once he did inherit, assuming he lived to do so?
Devil take Lady Catherine for her far-reaching tentacles of gossip, for thoughtlessly tossing this problem at my feet, he thought, with a very un-vicar-like resentment.