My Cousin Caroline: The acclaimed Pride and Prejudice sequel series The Pemberley Chronicles Book 6

by Rebecca Ann Collins

  “He would be carefully selected and, once appointed, would move to Manchester and take charge of the office, reporting regularly to Caroline and the board,” said Mr Darcy.

  Having explained his proposition, he sought their responses.

  Mr Kennedy was immediately enthusiastic. “I think it is an excellent idea, sir. It is exactly what we need. The London office is now in good order because Mr Bartholomew, before he retired, appointed and trained Mr Garfield,” he said.

  Both Bingley and Colonel Fitzwilliam concurred, and Caroline, though she did point out the additional expense involved, was, with very little persuasion, convinced of its value and practicality.

  When the meeting ended, a specific advertisement was drafted which Mr Kennedy was to take to the post and dispatch for publication in the appropriate journals in London, Manchester, and Liverpool. He did warn them that good shipping managers were very rare since most trading houses did their best to keep them on.

  “If we are fortunate enough to get ourselves a good man, it will make all the difference to the business,” he declared.

  Turning to Mr Darcy, Caroline asked, “Mr Darcy, may I rely upon you to assist us with the selection of the right candidate, should we have several applicants?” to which Mr Darcy replied that it would give him much pleasure to do so.

  “I shall write tonight to Mr Bartholomew and ask him to collect the applications from the post office and arrange for a convenient date when you could see the applicants and decide, with his advice, upon a suitable candidate,” she said, and Darcy was obviously pleased to have been asked. It was the least he could do to keep his promise to Mr Gardiner.

  “At last,” said Caroline to her husband, as they drove home to Matlock, “I feel we are able to achieve something because we are all of one mind. I know for certain that Mr Darcy will not make the same error of judgment that Robert made when he appointed Caddick, and there will be no interference from anyone unconnected to the business.”

  Fitzwilliam agreed; he had felt very proud of Caroline as she conducted her first meeting of the partners and participated in their discussions.

  “You can count on that, my dear. First Caddick, now Stokes; I cannot imagine what Robert was thinking. But of one thing you can be quite certain: Darcy will pick the best possible candidate. I am confident that with his help, you will succeed very well.”

  MR KENNEDY WAS RIGHT. FINDING the best man for the position was no easy task.

  It was almost Spring when Mr Darcy travelled up to London, taking with him some of the applications received at the Manchester office. They were not particularly promising. Mr Kennedy had apologised as he handed them over, as if he were to blame for the paucity of the talent. None of the candidates had experience in managing a trading company but expressed the hope they might be given an opportunity to do so if they promised to work hard, which, Mr Darcy said, was not quite the same thing! Meanwhile, Mr Bartholomew had received what he called “a few good letters” and had arranged for Mr Darcy to interview three gentlemen, whom he considered appropriately qualified for the position.

  Caroline was particularly grateful to Mr Darcy for undertaking this rather tedious task, while she was being kept busy with a variety of domestic and family matters that demanded her presence.

  Her daughter Isabella was making preparations to accompany her husband on a journey to Wales, where he hoped to study the health problems of the poor. Information received from Mr Jenkins, the former rector of Pemberley, had suggested that the poor who had the misfortune to be incarcerated in the workhouses when they fell ill, got very short shrift indeed. Doctor Forrester had obtained a commission to write a report on the subject and was taking leave from his position at Littleford Hospital to do so. He hoped, with the evidence he would gather, to convince the state of its responsibility to care for the sick when they had not the means to do so themselves.

  Caroline was anxious because Isabella insisted on taking her little boy with them. “Mama, you must not worry, I shall take good care of him. Besides, Henry is a doctor and unlikely to place us in any danger of contagion,” Isabella argued, but Caroline could not help being concerned.

  “Will you not let us look after him, Bella my dear? Rachel will keep him amused, and my maid Harriet is very good with children. He would be no trouble at all. It is only for three months.”

  Her mother's pleading and some of her own misgivings about the uncongenial places in which they would have to stay combined to change Isabella's mind, and to Caroline's delight, it was decided that little Harry Forrester would move in with his grandparents.

  Later in Spring, Isabella and her husband were to leave on their journey and there was much to be done before then. Caroline was glad that some of her responsibilities were soon to be taken over by the new man appointed to the office at Manchester. While she enjoyed her work, she could not deny it took a great deal of her time and often left her exhausted. Looking after her little grandson would not be half so onerous a task, she supposed.

  When Mr Darcy returned from London at the end of the week, he went directly to Pemberley. Having rested and enjoyed the pleasures of his beautiful estate and the company of his wife, whom he always missed when he went to London alone, he had dispatched a note inviting Colonel Fitzwilliam and Caroline to dine at Pemberley on the day following.

  Reading the note, Caroline was most excited. “Fitzy, do you think Mr Darcy has been successful in selecting a shipping manager for the Manchester office? He doesn't say so in his note, but I cannot believe we would be asked to dine at Pemberley so soon after his return from London unless he had something of consequence to disclose. Do you not agree?”

  Fitzwilliam shrugged his shoulders; it was a general rule with him that he did not speculate on the actions of his cousin. Even though they were very close and had known one another since childhood, Darcy always had the capacity to astonish and frequently confound him.

  “I would not care to wager much money on that proposition, my love; it is quite within the realms of possibility that Darcy has returned having found no one suitable among the applicants, but wishes to put to us another scheme even better than the last. I do not mean to suggest that he will let you down—far from it—but he may have decided to do something completely unpredictable.”

  “Do you mean like he did when he proposed to my cousin Lizzie, having let you all believe he thought she was his inferior and so beneath his notice?” asked Caroline, whose childhood memories of the beginnings of the great romance between Darcy and Elizabeth were still very clear in her mind. After her own marriage to Fitzwilliam, they had often spoken with some amusement of Mr Darcy's inopportune and ill-judged proposal and all that had proceeded from it.

  This time, Colonel Fitzwilliam laughed heartily and said, “I doubt that it will be as dramatic as that unforgettable event, Caroline, but an invitation to dine at Pemberley will never be dull. Mark my words, Darcy has something up his sleeve.”

  When they arrived at Pemberley House the following evening, they found that the only other guests were Mr Bingley and Jane. It was, quipped Bingley, almost like a social meeting of the board of the company. In the event, he was not far wrong.

  With dinner out of the way, the three couples withdrew to the drawing room where wine, cheese, and fruit were served as well as tea and coffee. The long, mild evening allowed for the great doors to the terrace to stand open, and while the gentlemen conversed, the ladies moved outside to enjoy the prospect.

  With the new Spring growth hardening on the trees and the soft blush of pink flower buds pushing out among the leaves, the park around Pemberley House was looking especially lovely, and they were reluctant to return indoors.

  It was Colonel Fitzwilliam who came to invite them in.

  “Caroline, my dear, Darcy has some good news,” he said as they went inside. Caroline, looking up at her husband and across at Mr Darcy, who was standing by the fireplace, asked, “Is this true, Mr Darcy? Have you found us a suitable manager?”<
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  He smiled and bowed, but said nothing until they were all seated, Caroline somewhat nervously, on the edge of her chair.

  When he spoke, it was lightly, without any drama. “I think we have found him; he seems to me to be the right man for the position. Mr Bartholomew agrees with me, so if you approve of my choice, I shall advise him that he has been successful and he will take up duties in Manchester on the first day of May.”

  There were cries of astonishment. Everyone wanted to know more. Who was he? Where did he come from? What were these qualifications that so fitted him for the position?

  As these and other questions swirled around him, Mr Darcy carefully refilled his glass.

  “Well,” he said quietly, “first, let me say he is a mature man in his forties or thereabouts, highly educated, well presented, and single.”

  As the ladies looked at one another, puzzled by at least one item in that list of attributes, Mr Darcy went on to catalogue a few more.

  “He has worked for several years in the shipping business and knows it well. Experienced in managing commercial offices both in Europe and London, he comes highly recommended by his former employers and has excellent character references; one from a man we all esteem and respect, Lord Shaftesbury, and another from our own Jonathan Bingley.”

  At this, there were more exclamations of approval, while Jane and Charles Bingley looked at one another, delighted. A man recommended by their son must be close to perfect, they thought.

  “Perhaps,” Darcy continued, “best of all, he is prepared and able, being unencumbered in any way, to move to Manchester and live there. If I advise him that he has the position, he will do so almost immediately, as he has expressed a wish to become acquainted at the earliest opportunity with the office and its present staff.”

  Caroline and Elizabeth could hardly believe their ears.

  “Who is this paragon?” asked Elizabeth and Caroline exclaimed, “Wherever did Mr Bartholomew discover such a man?”

  Mr Darcy smiled. “Have patience, ladies, and all will soon be revealed.” He went to sit beside his wife on the sofa and continued, “The gentleman is known to us; well, not intimately to me, but he has been, in years past, a close acquaintance of your family, Caroline.”

  “A friend of ours!” she cried, looking very puzzled indeed, until Mr Darcy, feeling he had tantalised them long enough, announced in a very quiet voice, “It is Mr Philip Bentley.”

  This time the reactions were even more incredulous, as each one recalled Mr Bentley and his attractive stepsisters, his gentle mother, and somewhat less likeable stepfather, Mr Henderson.

  The family had leased Newland Hall for a short period some years ago. Mr Bentley had been perhaps the most well-liked member of the family.

  Now, everyone remembered him.

  “Philip Bentley?” Caroline was astounded. “Surely, it cannot be the same?”

  “Indeed it is, for he recalls very well the many happy days he spent in Derbyshire. However, that was a long time ago and I am sure you will find him very changed now.”

  “I recall he was a very handsome, elegant young man about town,” said Elizabeth, “a bon vivant, one would almost say.”

  Her husband agreed and added, “He still is very elegant and well spoken, but there is a greater degree of sobriety and moderation in his presentation, I think. He strikes me as a resolute and intelligent man with a good deal of common sense and exactly the right experience for the job.”

  Mr Bingley could not recall him at first and had to be reminded by Jane of the Hendersons and the grand ball at Newland Hall to which everybody had been invited.

  Colonel Fitzwilliam, however, had more cause to remember Mr Bentley and recalled also the reasons for the departure of the family from Derbyshire all those years ago. He asked, “Did he mention his stepfather, Mr Henderson? There was that dreadful business of the slave trade, remember?”

  “He did indeed, without any prompting at all on my part—not that I would have, but that's beside the point,” Darcy replied. “In fact, Mr Bentley appears to have sought to put as much distance between the disreputable Henderson and himself when he discovered the truth about his past. Which is why, he explained, he had chosen quite deliberately to work in France. He spent almost ten years at the port of Marseilles, working his way up from the position of a shipping clerk to the management of an important shipping firm.”

  Caroline, who already knew some of this information, listened eagerly as he went on.

  “After Henderson's death, Philip Bentley returned to England and made a home for his widowed mother and his stepsisters just outside of London. They live there today, and Mrs Henderson has used her husband's money, or whatever was left of it, to set up a home for orphans in the east end of London. This has been attested to by Jonathan Bingley, in an excellent character reference.

  “Lord Shaftesbury, for whom Mr Bentley worked for some time, also mentions his charitable work and praises his dedication and compassion as well as his capacity for hard work. As you see, he is well qualified.”

  “Did you get any indication of his feelings towards us? Did you have the impression he was angry or bitter about what happened?” asked Caroline, and Darcy shook his head.

  “I detected no such sentiment. He asked after everyone he had known— Fitzwilliam and you, Caroline, and David,” he replied, adding casually, “He had some knowledge of family matters—presumably through his association with Jonathan—such as Isabella's marriage and, of course, Mr Gardiner's death, but I would doubt that he has any animosity towards you at all; he seems a remarkably sensible man.”

  Caroline knew she could rely upon Darcy's judgment.

  “Would it worry Isabella, do you think, if Mr Bentley were to return?” asked Elizabeth. “They were close friends, after all.”

  Caroline smiled, recalling her last meeting with Mr Bentley; she knew how deeply in love he was with Isabella and how much she had regretted that they would never marry.

  “They were good friends but I do not believe it will affect Isabella now; after all, Mr Bentley will be chiefly in Manchester, and even if he were to visit us, it is unlikely Bella will meet him. She is too busy with her work at the hospital. Besides, she is preparing to accompany Henry Forrester on his tour of workhouses in Wales; they will be gone in a few days, long before Mr Bentley takes up his duties.”

  She sounded very certain and Darcy said, “Well, that's settled then. You have no other objections, Caroline?”

  “Objections? No indeed. I agree that Mr Bentley will probably make an excellent shipping manager. I confess I have always felt some unease about our treatment of him, when it was his stepfather who was the villain of the piece.”

  At this Fitzwilliam intervened. “That was a very long time ago, my dear, you acted for the best and need feel no guilt at all.”

  But Caroline could not forget, even after they had agreed that Mr Darcy could write to Mr Bentley confirming his duties as well as his salary and conditions of service in the position. On the drive home, Fitzwilliam nodded off to sleep, but Caroline's mind kept returning to that unhappy meeting when Mr Bentley had come to say farewell. Though neither of them had said it, it had been always there between them—the sense of injustice, the unfairness of it all.

  That he dearly loved Isabella was never in doubt. Caroline believed her daughter would have loved him in return, yet Isabella had refused him, persuaded that she could not possibly marry a man, however good and amiable, whose father and stepfather had links with the pernicious slave trade, even though he was in no way connected with any of their actions.

  For many years, as Isabella remained unwed, Caroline had suffered feelings of remorse as it became clear that Isabella, having decided not to marry Mr Bentley, had little interest in any other man. They had been such good companions, shared so many interests, it could have been a very happy marriage.

  Caroline had often questioned her own part in the matter.

  Now, in a strange twist of fat
e, Mr Bentley was coming back into their lives. Caroline wondered how it would all turn out. Could there be problems for Isabella, if they should meet? She thought not.

  Isabella was married to Henry Forrester and there was little Harry and perhaps another child when all this business of visiting poor houses in Wales was over. It was very unlikely that Isabella and Mr Bentley would even meet.

  But, above all that, Caroline was happy to give Mr Bentley a chance, an opportunity to return and reclaim the regard and esteem he had been deprived of by an unfortunate past over which he'd had no control.

  If Isabella had a say in the matter, Caroline was certain she would have agreed.