As he finished reading the letter Darcy put his chin in his hand, shook his head slightly and sighed. It seemed Richard's joke was playing against them for the moment. He did not like to reveal the divisions within the family to outsiders, but it might be necessary in this case. He started to draft a response, and then realized he should probably consult with Anne first, to see how she wished to handle the situation. It was clear the problems presented by his aunt's need for control at Rosings was not going to be resolved without some personal attention. He hoped Elizabeth would not mind a trip into Kent sometime soon after their wedding. He did not believe Anne would be able to manage her mother completely on her own. He sighed again. It looked like he might end up making his annual Easter visit to Rosings Park this year after all.
"Is there a problem, Brother?" Georgiana asked.
Darcy looked up to see she had stopped playing and was looking at him curiously. "Not really," he replied. "Just Aunt Catherine being difficult. The problem will work itself out."
"I am glad it is not something serious. You seem rather unsettled today."
She looked so concerned Darcy decided to tell her more than he normally would have. "I have felt bereft of Elizabeth's company all week and want to spend some time with just her. Now I finally have an arrangement to see her tomorrow afternoon, but time is just dragging on. I am finding it hard to settle my mind to anything. Some of this business I am working on has occupied me, but it involves Anne and Aunt Catherine, who continues to make trouble."
"Is there anything I can do to help?" she asked.
"I am enjoying your playing, even if it does not seem like it. If it would be no imposition, would you continue?"
"Of course. I have a few pieces I have been relearning while working on them with Mary. I can play those."
"Have all of you been giving lessons to Anne?" Darcy asked.
"We have, and Aunt Catherine may have been right about one thing."
"What is that?"
"It is probable Anne will be quite proficient at it once she has learned. She has a natural feel for the music and is picking up the techniques quickly."
"I am glad to hear it. Bennet mentioned hiring a music master for Mary and Kitty. Has there been any progress?"
"Lizzy says he is still looking into it. It is a little more difficult here than when we are in London, but she found out about someone in St. Albans who might be willing to come once a week. Her father has written to the man and is now awaiting a response."
"I am glad to hear he is making some progress on the matter. I know it means a great deal to both Mary and Kitty."
Georgiana nodded and turned back to the instrument. Soon the notes filled the room again and Darcy was able to turn back to his other business papers. They were all items from Pemberley or information on his investments. By deliberately immersing himself in the work and the sound of the music he finally got through the rest of the afternoon.
~*~
It was definitely earlier than Mrs. Bennet intended when Darcy, Bingley and Richard began the ride from Netherfield to Longbourn. While the cuts on his hands had almost completely healed, a few of the larger ones on his legs were still giving Richard some pain. He winced and shifted a bit in the saddle as they took off at good pace.
"Are you well, Cousin?" Darcy asked.
"I will be better when I am off the horse. Who knew a wine glass could be such an effective weapon? We should start issuing them to our troops. There ought to be plenty to confiscate from the villages where we mount our campaigns."
"Of course, send that suggestion up the chain of command and see where it gets you," Darcy said, laughing.
"It will not get me anywhere. I expect the confirmation of my release from service any day now."
"Your commission sold?" Bingley asked.
"Yes. I am not really a colonel anymore, although it will be very strange to be called Mr. Fitzwilliam after all the years of being addressed by rank."
"You will get used to it." Darcy said. "In celebration of your new status, we will let you decide. Will you hurt less taking a fast but short trip to Longbourn or the slow but long trip?"
"Fast and short. Let us get the torture over with quickly." Suiting their actions to the words, the three men set their horses off at a ground-eating gallop. The thin patches of snow presented no problems to the sure-footed mounts. The men were soon dismounting at Longbourn's front door. Richard groaned a little as he stepped away from the horse but told them he was fine.
Mrs. Bennet protested their early arrival when they were shown into the sitting room where all the ladies were gathered. She tried to convince the men to go join Mr. Bennet in the study for a time. Before they could respond, Elizabeth and Jane led the revolt.
"No, Mama," Elizabeth said firmly as she walked over and wrapped her arm through Darcy's. "You have only been fussing all this morning over details that have already been decided. There is nothing more we need to do today, and I have missed the company of my betrothed as much as he has missed me."
"I agree, Mama," Jane spoke up, copy her sister's move with Bingley. "You have already planned this wedding down to the last detail. You do not need our assistance any more today. Charles and I are going to go sit in the drawing room. We will leave the door open, but we would like some privacy."
Miss Lucas appeared emboldened by the attitude of the other two. "This will be a beautiful wedding, Mrs. Bennet. I understand you and my mother might have a few things to discuss, but I have already expressed my desires and have nothing more to contribute. Eliza and Mr. Darcy will be walking in the side garden. Richard and I will chaperone them just as they will chaperone us." She also walked to her betrothed's side and took the arm he offered.
Mrs. Bennet looked from one couple to the other, reading determination on all six faces. "Well, I suppose we have done what we need to for now. Although I am still not satisfied with our plans for the decorations." She looked at them again, only to see nothing had changed. She huffed a bit as she conceded. "Oh, very well, then. Go have your time together. Lady Lucas and I can work out the rest. You other girls can keep on with those lace roses. They will look so pretty with just a few real flowers in each posy. That will make what flowers we can get from the hothouses spread farther."
Darcy and Elizabeth quickly led the other two couples from the room before she changed her mind. Jane and Charles went to the drawing room as she had suggested, while the other four collected their outerwear and headed off to the side garden. As they had for the last week, tiny snowflakes occasionally drifted down to melt on the ground or join the thin snowy patches on the stones and paving. The grey skies suggest more might fall later and it was cold out.
"Richard and I are going around to the back part of the garden," Miss Lucas said. "It is a little warmer on that side of the house and we can sit under the covered area which is a little warmer still."
"Yes, give a shout if you are going to commit some impropriety we would need to stop you from completing and we will do the same." Richard added with a smirk.
"Enjoy your talk," Darcy said, shaking his head at the comment as they parted company. Strolling slowly and talking as they walked, he and Elizabeth headed to the walled area by the hermitage, where they had confronted Lady Catherine before. As they passed through the arch in the wall, he noticed bits of wood from her walking stick were still scattered around. Darcy had hoped they might somehow have disappeared with time.
As if noticing the remains of the stick had conjured a problem, he heard sounds of someone running towards them. Darcy and Elizabeth turned back to see Kitty running through the side garden, protected from the cold only by her shawl.
"You must come quickly," she gasped out. "Lady Catherine has arrived." The couple immediately rushed to her, and she turned around to run back into the house with them.
"Where is she?" Darcy asked.
"Sitting room." Kitty said between gasps. "Pushed past Mrs. Hill and forced her way in. I ran for you immediately, bu
t I think she saw Anne."
Darcy and Elizabeth both picked up their pace, outstripping Kitty and reaching the door several steps ahead of her. They raced back to the sitting room, not bothering to take off the heavy outerwear. As they approached, Darcy could hear his aunt bellowing.
"Wretched, unfeeling gel! I am ashamed you. How could you run away like this and leave me searching all over London for you?"
"Where you chose to search was you own problem, Mother. You were the one paying so little attention you had no idea when I had left the carriage. I am an adult and I refuse to allow you to control my life any longer."
Darcy entered to see Anne standing protectively just in front of Georgiana, Mary and Miss Maria, who were all still holding the bits of lace they had been sewing when Lady Catherine forced her way into the room. Mrs. Bennet, Mrs. Annesley and Lady Lucas looked on in surprise as the angry, red-faced woman harangued her daughter while swinging a new walking stick threateningly.
Before saying a word, Darcy stepped quickly inside and grabbed the walking stick away from her. He took her by surprise and she released the stick before she was aware of what he was doing. He handed it off to Elizabeth, only just registering that she handed it in turn to Bingley, who arrived with Jane a few seconds behind them. The sudden loss of her chosen weapon distracted her from the argument with Anne.
"Darcy!" she shouted. "How dare you?"
"No, Aunt Catherine," he replied firmly. "How dare you? Once again you have forced your way into someone else's home, uninvited and unwanted. You then proceed to threaten people and generally make yourself look ridiculous. In your own favorite words, it is not to be borne."
"Why did you not come to London immediately when I asked? You refused me the shelter of your home and then left me waiting for a response, showing no care for me or for Anne."
"I had no need to go to London to search for Anne. I knew where she was all the time. I am also not your slave to come running at your beck and call."
"I am your mother's sister and your nearest relation. You owe me your obedience!"
Darcy actually laughed at hearing her usual foolish claim. "No, aunt. Georgiana is my nearest relation. You have long since forfeited, by your own behavior, the respect that is the only thing I owe you as my mother's sister. You have no power over me and no means by which to control my future."
His aunt spluttered incoherently in her rage until she spotted Elizabeth standing behind Darcy. "I see what this is about," she shouted. "You have been drawn in by the arts and allurements of that Jezebel and are determined to marry her. I will stop this!"
"I am determined to marry Elizabeth Bennet, an intelligent woman who knows better than to take any notice of your slurs and insults. Do not think your letter to the vicar will stop anything. I had acquainted him with your delusions regarding the supposed betrothal to Anne long before the letter reached him, and he knew your claims hold no validity, nor can you command his obedience to your edicts. Now, since you were not aware Anne was here, I presume you had another purpose behind your invasion of Longbourn. What was it?"
"I came to get you and take you back to London. Someone has been meddling in my affairs and you must fix it before you marry Anne. First the man at the bank had the effrontery to tell me he could no longer allow me access to the estate funds for Rosings Park, and then Bishop Hampton told me he could not approve my choice for the living at Hunsford because he says I no longer have the right to manage the living. Both men said they were acting on Anne's behalf under your instructions. You have no right to give such instructions unless you are married to Anne, and once you are, you will take her to Pemberley and leave Rosings Park to me."
Darcy laughed again. "Aunt Catherine, if Anne and I had chosen to marry as you wished, I would have had you on your way to the dower house before the ink was dry on the register. I may have Pemberley to manage, but Rosings is too valuable an estate to allow you to continue to run it into the ground through your poor management. Whether Anne and I marry or not, your days of being in control are over."
"Yes, Mother," Anne said, stepping forward. "I came of age to manage the estate over a year ago. I will not allow you to control what is mine by right any longer. You may have the right to live in the house until I marry, but if you cannot give up your need to usurp my rights, I will solve that problem as well. I am certain I can find a man to make a marriage of convenience with me, giving him my dowry while I retain all rights to Rosings on the condition he first send you to the dower house where you belong! There is a whole camp full of militia officers in the village – second and third sons who would be happy to make an arrangement like that. My cousins would make sure I had a proper settlement to ensure you are removed immediately while protecting my interests. Is that not right?" Anne looked to Darcy, causing her mother to swivel back to him despite her shock at what she had heard.
"While not an ideal solution, if that is what you wish, Anne, then Richard and I will support you," Darcy replied, hoping she was talking for effect and the situation would not require implementing this drastic plan.
Lady Catherine was so upset by what she was hearing that Darcy knew if she had still been holding the walking stick she would have broken the new one in her rage. "Enough!" she shouted. "You are being ridiculous, Anne. Now come along and get in the carriage. If Darcy is too much of a fool to marry you! I will find someone else who will take you away and leave Rosings Park to me. You will not fail me in this! You have already failed me in everything else since the day you defied me by being born a girl instead of the boy needed to inherit the baronetcy and carry on the glory of the de Bourgh name. You are useless for anything else, but in this you will do as I say! You owe me my security."
To Darcy's surprise, it was Mrs. Bennet who reacted first. "Listen to yourself, woman! If anyone here is being ridiculous, Lady Catherine, it is you. God alone determines whether our children will be born as boys or girls, not the children themselves! Yet you call this pleasant, lovely, intelligent young woman useless because of that? You are a fool!"
Lady Catherine was finally shocked into complete silence. Her look clearly showed she had no idea what to make of this total stranger who was now giving her a lecture.
"So your daughter is not a son? What of it? She still inherited the estate. You both still have a place to live and an income to live on. How is that a failure? I know I have wished often enough that I had a son; many of my problems would have been solved if I had. But I would not trade any of my daughters for that son. I love them all, even when I do not understand or agree with them, and they know it. You appear not to love your daughter in the least or care about anything except using her to keep the status that allows you to make yourself both ridiculous and hated as you meddle in the lives of everyone around you. Your own family has no respect for you and it seems only idiots like Mr. Collins hold you in any esteem, or say they do. Yet you seem to have no clue that the more you try to force your will on them the more foolish you appear. I realize I have pushed my daughters relentlessly to marry, even to marry someone who was completely ridiculous, in the name of security. But I did that, not just for my own comfort, but for the well-being of us all. I have no dower house to go to when my husband passes on and unlike you, with your jointure that brings in more interest than Longbourn brings income, my jointure is barely enough to support me alone. I have pushed them because I do not want to see them starve or go homeless. Yet even if we were turned from this home right this minute, I would not desert my girls or treat any of them as you have treated your daughter. I may have expressed it poorly over the years, but I will always rejoice in each of them and will rejoice even more when I see them in happy marriages with men who respect them. You will simply spend the rest of your life alone if you do not change your ways and start to appreciate all the things you have. Now, get out of this house! Anne is welcome to live here for as long as she wants, but you are not welcome back ever!"
Fanning herself with her handkerchief as she attempted
to recover from so much emotional speech, Mrs. Bennet dropped back into her seat. Lady Lucas patted her gently on the shoulder while Mrs. Annesley offered Mrs. Bennet her teacup. No one said a word, but the looks all the Bennet girls gave their mother showed their pride in her response.
Lady Catherine, also, was stunned speechless, although her mouth gaped and moved like a goldfish – open and close, open and close. She seemed completely unable to take in all the opposition to her.
"Well said, Mrs. Bennet," came Mr. Bennet's voice from behind Bingley and Jane. "I have never before heard you so rational and eloquent. Very well done." He patted Darcy's shoulder as he entered the room. "Darcy, do you think you could escort Lady Catherine back to her carriage?"
Those standing by the doorway stepped back as Darcy took Lady Catherine by the arm and began to lead her out. The movement seemed to revive her, and she tried to brush off his arm. He kept a good grasp on her, even as he accepted her walking stick from Bingley as they passed through the door.
"No, Aunt Catherine, you are leaving now. If you are smart, you will return to Rosings Park and bow to the inevitable. Anne is taking control of the estate. If you make trouble for her, we will find a way to send you to the dower house for good. It is your choice how you wish to behave."
She still made ineffectual, but silent efforts to pull away from him as he guided her down the hall and out the front door, which Mrs. Hill held open for them. The de Bough carriage stood before the front step, the driver and footmen shivering a bit in the cold, although they had thought to cover the horses with rough blankets as they stood. One of the footmen opened the carriage door and Darcy gently propelled his aunt into the vehicle.
Smoky Dreams Page 33
