Had he proposed? She could not be certain, and Kathryn was certainly giving nothing away, though again, Jessica had noticed the colour rise in her cheeks when Darcy entered the room.
As they left the house and entered the courtyard where the carriage waited for them, Kathryn turned to Darcy, who escorted her to the vehicle.
“Mr Gardiner, I must thank you once more for your kindness last night,” she began, and he, determined that she should not misconstrue his ardour, said quietly, so none of the others could hear, “Kathryn dearest, please believe me, it was not kindness; I love you dearly and will await your answer with earnest hope.”
Elena had already run ahead and entered the carriage. Handing Kathryn into the vehicle, he held her hand in his for a moment longer than was customary and indicated in a low voice, so only she would hear, that he would call on her parents at Colley Dale before the week was ended.
She smiled and nodded her agreement, before sitting back to let the manservant secure the door.
As the carriage drove away, perhaps for the first time in her life, she had experienced the deep pleasure that for a woman comes only with the recognition of feelings usually well concealed, which rise to the surface of her consciousness. That the source of those feelings was a man, much admired and loved, was undeniable. Last night, in a moment so unexpected it had left her momentarily speechless, he had declared his love for her and asked her to be his wife.
As the carriage bore them towards Colley Dale, there was no longer any doubt in her mind that she would accept him.
DARCY GARDINER HAD NOT stopped to consider when, or at what particular point in their association, his feelings for Miss O'Hare had deepened from a warm admiration for her looks, her vivacity, and many accomplishments, to the deeper, more ardent attachment he now recognised as love.
He could recall feelings of pleasure whenever they had met and exchanged views on a variety of subjects, almost always thought provoking, frequently amusing; he remembered also his outrage on learning from the landlord at the inn at Bakewell of Hartley-Brown's claim to have known the lady. There had been an anger there, which had been inexplicable at the time, but had seemed, on reflection, to indicate a proprietory interest in her.
Beyond that, he was not able to fix upon a date or an event, when he had become conscious of a change in his feelings towards her.
On being reassured by Jessica that there was no clandestine arrangement between Hartley-Brown and Kathryn O'Hare, he had experienced a feeling of immense relief, but then, when Kathryn had admitted that she had, some years previously, allowed herself to be persuaded into a secret engagement with him, Darcy had suffered great disappointment and anger. Yet, his indignation had been directed not at Kathryn, but at the man who had dared to importune and wheedle, hoping no doubt to get his way with her. But he comforted himself with the knowledge that Kathryn had, in the end, rejected Hartley-Brown and returned to Colley Dale. For Darcy, that was the material point.
Since then, all Darcy's efforts had been bent to protect her from the blackguard who continued to threaten her. His outrage at the conduct of both Hartley-Brown and Lady Denny had increased his contempt for them and others of their ilk, who battened upon the good nature or naiveté of young women. The more he had heard of their activities, the greater had been his revulsion.
Darcy had to acknowledge, if only to himself, that he had over the past months grown to love Kathryn with an ardour that he had not felt ever before, for any young woman of his acquaintance. There had been those whom he had admired for their looks or their spirit, but none approached her. He knew that when he told her he loved her dearly and wished to marry her, he had spoken with the deepest sincerity.
He had longed to declare his feelings with greater intensity and sought an opportunity to express, in the most ardent terms, the warmth and strength of his affections, in order to convince her of his love, but had deemed it would not have been seemly to do so, without obtaining her father's consent to his proposal.
To this end, he prepared himself for a meeting with Mr Daniel O'Hare on the following Saturday.
Darcy Gardiner could not explain why he found the prospect of meeting with Mr O' Hare so daunting. An educated young man with excellent family connections, well versed in the ways of the world, he had settled into a rewarding position at Pemberley, with possibly the chance to enter Parliament if he so chose. He had influential friends and was universally liked, yet he was apprehensive of asking Mr O'Hare for his daughter's hand in marriage.
He wondered whether Mr O'Hare would ask a lot of awkward questions and how he would answer them, if he did. He had spent the entire week in a state of mild panic, in which he had been grateful for the understanding and sympathy of his cousin Jessica. Having discovered that he had proposed to Kathryn and had not been rejected outright, Jessica had set about preparing him for his visit to Colley Dale.
“You will need to impress Mr O'Hare with your prospects,” she had warned, “I gather he still harbours some suspicions about young Englishmen, especially good-looking ones with little money in their pockets. The O'Hares are not wealthy, but like many self-made men, Daniel O'Hare has acquired property here and in Ireland, from which both of his daughters are likely to benefit. It means Kathryn's father knows she will always have money to live on and will not need to marry in order to survive,” she explained.
Darcy was perplexed. “Do you think he will expect me to make a settlement upon Kathryn when we are engaged?” he asked rather nervously. “I understand Colonel Fitzwilliam did that, when he was engaged to cousin Caroline.”
This was a subject about which he had no knowledge, and he wondered if perhaps he should have spoken with his brother-in-law about it. To this Jessica had no direct answer, but she did suggest that he should be prepared for such an eventuality.
It was a prospect that filled him with dismay. He knew little of such matters and hoped very much that it would not come to that. If it did, he would promise anything, he decided rather rashly.
When Darcy finally arrived at Colley Dale, he found to his surprise that no such ordeal awaited him there. Instead, when shown into the parlour, he found Kathryn and her mother waiting for him. They plied him with tea and talked for a while about the weather and the prospect of floods in Spring; then quite suddenly, Mrs O'Hare excused herself and left the room.
She had barely closed the door behind her, when Darcy turned to Kathryn, but before he could ask the inevitable question, she said with a smile, “Mr Gardiner, I have told my parents of your proposal and informed them that I have decided to accept it… they have said…” but she got no further before he leapt up from his chair and took her in his arms.
Darcy blessed Mrs O'Hare for leaving the room; he had wanted to do this for quite a while, yet this was the very first time they had been alone together for long enough.
Though at first she did nothing to deter him, Kathryn had more to say and, when she was free to speak, continued, “They are very happy for me and have said how much they admire and respect you and your family. They wish us every happiness, of course, and when we see my father, you may tell him that we are now engaged.”
Despite his delight at her words, Darcy was a little circumspect, uncertain of the correctness of his situation.
“But, Kathryn dearest, I have not obtained your father's consent, yet…”
This time, she astonished him with her answer. “Nor need you. Darcy, I am twenty-five years old; it is I who must decide who I will marry and if I can be happy with you, not Papa. Of course I wish to have his blessing and Mama's, but my father is a man of the world; he understands my views on marriage; he knows I will marry only if I am in love and he will not expect me to heed his opinion over my own feelings. This is not to say that he has any objection to you, but if he had, it would not have changed my mind, once I knew for certain we loved one another.”
Having taken a few more moments to demonstrate with feeling his appreciation of this statement, he then a
sked, “And does that mean you will return with me to Camden House and we may tell my parents the good news too?”
But he was to be disappointed in her reply.
“Darcy, there is just one thing I have to ask of you. There are some matters, arising out of my time at Lindfield Towers, which I must attend to. They concern one or two people for whose loyalty I am grateful, and I would ask that the announcement of our engagement be postponed until those matters are concluded. Do I ask too much?”
So overjoyed was Darcy at being accepted with so little fuss, he would probably have agreed to anything, but he asked, “May I not tell my parents? Or my sister Lizzie?”
“Not just yet, please, Darcy. I should very much wish that it were not known generally in the district for a while. But we could tell Jessica. I know that she has suspected something and would be delighted to be the first to be told. I had intended to tell her myself, but perhaps I shall leave it to you to give her the happy news. Our secret will be safe with her.”
Darcy was keen to know when he could tell his family.
“Within a month at the most,” she told him.
“A month!” he was appalled. “How shall I keep such a secret for so long? My manner will betray me, surely? I cannot pretend to be other than happy. Besides, Jessica and Julian are to be married and expect to leave for France and Africa in Spring. I should very much like to have it announced to the family before then,” he said and was assured that his wish could be easily fulfilled. The matters she had to arrange would not take so long, she said confidently.
“I would not ask it of you, except that it is important to me that these matters be resolved. I can then enjoy more fully the pleasures of our engagement,” she explained.
Concerned to help, Darcy asked, “Is there not something I can do?” but she assured him that they were simple matters and required none of his very special talents.
That settled, Kathryn took him upstairs to meet her father, whose amiable manner and obvious pleasure at the news was the very reverse of what Darcy had expected. Amused, he looked forward to telling Jessica how wrong they had both been about Daniel O'Hare. Here was a most amenable father-in-law to be—no sign at all of a money-grubbing skinflint!
Mrs O'Hare demonstrated her approval by inviting him to stay to dinner, and the rest of the day was spent so pleasantly that Darcy could not think why he had expected it to be so daunting in the first place. Elena too was told and sworn to secrecy. Her delight was even harder to contain.
When he said good-bye to Kathryn in the evening and left to ride back to Pemberley, Darcy went with the lightest heart and the highest hopes for happiness he had ever known. So absorbed was he in the contemplation of what the future held in store for him and Kathryn; so engrossed in his own aspirations, that he failed to notice a stranger on horseback, who crossed his path at the cross roads, as he took the road into the Pemberley estate.
At Pemberley, he found Jessica upstairs in the elegant little sitting room, which used to be Georgiana Darcy's. It was a pretty, restful room, and Jessica often retired there when she wished to be alone. She was sitting in the alcove that overlooked the rose garden, reading a letter, and had been unaware of Darcy's return. When he entered the room, she turned to him eagerly. She had known the purpose of his visit to Colley Dale and was keen to learn the outcome.
“Well?” she said, smiling, and even before he spoke, she could tell from the expression on his countenance and his air of confidence as he held out both hands to her, that it had gone well for him.
Darcy was a little tongue tied at first, but soon warmed to his subject and told her that his dearest hopes had been fulfilled. Kathryn had accepted him and both Mr and Mrs O'Hare had approved of their engagement.
“Indeed, they appear to have no concerns at all, except Mrs O'Hare asked how soon we expected to be married. It was a matter to which I had not given much thought, believing we would probably wait some months at least, but before I could speak, Kathryn, showing remarkable sensibility, intervened to point out to her parents that with the recent death of my grandmother, Mrs Gardiner, it would not be appropriate that we should be married before at least six months had passed. Of course, Mrs O'Hare was then very understanding, and no more was said on the subject.”
Jessica nodded. “That is very like Kathryn; she is possessed of clearer understanding and better judgment on such matters than almost any other young woman I know. Oh Darcy, my dear cousin, I cannot say how very pleased I am for you both,” she said. “I know you will be happy with Kathryn. She is a truly remarkable woman, warm, intelligent, handsome, witty—but you know all of this! You must want to go at once to Camden Park to tell your parents all about it, or have you been already?”
At this, his face clouded over a little and he sat down with her on the couch by the window and told her of Kathryn's request that news of their engagement be withheld from everyone except herself, for a few weeks.
“Apart from her parents and Elena, only you will know of our engagement,” he explained.
Jessica frowned, puzzled by his revelation.
“Why so? Has she given you a reason?”
Darcy's answer did not entirely satisfy her, but she assumed that her friend must have a very sound reason for such a request and did not pursue the matter further. She was proud to be taken into their confidence and promised that no one, not even her dear Julian, would learn of it from her.
Darcy expressed his own regrets. “I should have liked to tell Mama, who I am sure will be pleased, as will my father. He speaks well of Kathryn's intelligence and wide reading. Mama likes her already and has said, as you have, that it is a pleasure to meet a young woman whose interests go beyond matters of domesticity and romance. Once she knows her better, I am confident that she will love her, too, as we do.”
Jessica assured him that Sir Richard and Lady Gardiner would not be able to help themselves.
“I know that Kathryn's warm and generous nature alone would win their hearts,” she said, “even above the obvious advantages of education and understanding, which they have already recognised. Your parents will see that in Kathryn you have found a companion, who will match your affections as well as your aspirations. You are fortunate indeed, Darcy.”
As they watched the sun sink low in the west, Darcy sighed, and for the first time, she noted a slight trace of sadness. When she looked at him, as if to ask for the reason behind this, he shook his head as though trying to dispel some lingering worry that teased his mind, but said nothing more.
Taking his arm, she suggested they go downstairs to dinner.
Neither Jessica nor Darcy could have known the real reason behind Kathryn's request for a delay in the announcement of their engagement.
Shortly before Christmas, Kathryn had received a letter from Mrs Ellis, the housekeeper at Lindfield Towers.
She was able, she said, to write openly and frankly because she was soon to leave Lindfield and return to her home in Ryedale, a quiet village in the county of Yorkshire, where she had been born and raised.
Her letter explained that she could no longer continue to work at Lindfield Towers, in view of the “goings-on in this place,” which she described as “scandalous.”
The mistress and Mr Hartley-Brown are now openly having an affair, in the absence of the master, unashamed and brazen, not caring who knows it. It is widely gossiped about among the servants and in the village. Worse still, there have been one or two visitors, friends of Mr Hartley-Brown, whose shocking behaviour has become quite intolerable.
…she wrote, describing one man in particular, a loud, unpleasant fellow called Bellamy, whose harassment of the housemaids had already led to one of them leaving the household and returning home.
He is a thoroughly unpleasant fellow, ma'am, the youngest son of a titled family with more money than brains and no manners at all, she explained, concluding her letter with greetings and good wishes to Kathryn and her family.
Then, on a separate scrap of pa
per, there followed a postscript, which seemed to have been hurriedly inserted prior to the letter being posted. It informed her that Hartley-Brown had been heard to assert in the hearing of one of the footmen that he intended to find Miss Kathryn O'Hare and bring her back to Lindfield Towers, where he and Lady Denny would persuade her to honour the engagement she had entered into with him.
It was suggested that he was still clearly incensed at being “jilted by that young minx,” whom he considered to be beneath him by birth and social status and appeared determined to enforce his will upon her, by any means at all. His friend Bellamy, the footman had said, had urged him on, offering to help him find her and return her to Lindfield.
Mrs Ellis wrote to warn Kathryn to beware of any strangers who may visit the area, for, she said, they may be friends of Hartley-Brown, and if so, they are not to be trusted, being quite ruthless and not above abducting you to compromise your virtue and character for their own evil purposes.
And with this chilling piece of advice, the note ended abruptly.
Dismayed, Kathryn had put the letter away. It had made her uneasy and nervous; she had re-read it in private at least a dozen times.
She knew not what to do or whom to turn to. It was of no use to tell her parents, it would only cause them anxiety with no prospect of helping her resolve the problem. As for Darcy, she was quite determined he would not be drawn into this; she had hoped her unfortunate association with Hartley-Brown was now a closed chapter between them.
To bring it up again at the very moment when they had declared their love for one another would, she feared, sully their joy.
The arrival of her brother from Manchester to spend Christmas at Colley Dale had suggested a possible alternative, but it soon became clear he had very little time to spend at home with the family, and she had not wished to take up any of it with problems from the past, of which he was ignorant.
No, Kathryn decided, she had to resolve this matter herself.
Postscript from Pemberley Page 22
