This proved tremendously pleasing to Georgiana – she had wished particularly for her and Matthew to establish a home, but had known there was no certainty that Lord Anglesey could fulfil his commission so thoroughly as it seemed he had. Upon hearing him describe the estate, she felt and expressed a tremendous degree of happiness, and easily adjusted her plans from taking rooms at the George to travelling with her family to this new potential home. The conveyance in which she should do so became readily apparent, for Murray trotted up with the Stantons’s bays harnessed to their landau.
Bowden saw the cradle strapped down upon the equipage, then took up his old place behind the carriage, and Georgiana was just convincing Moll – who said it was not for the likes o’ her – to travel with her and Caroline, when Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth indicated they would like to travel in the landau as well. As Lord Anglesey intended to take a boat out to the ship and see Matthew, there was still a place for Moll, which she took with some discomfort. Quickly, however, Moll saw opportunity to make herself useful, in helping Georgiana untie the sailcloth wrap so Caroline could be freed and held by her aunt and uncle.
Such happiness Georgiana knew, then, to be travelling along with the family she had not seen in more than a year, to have her daughter with her, to be going to what might become home, and to know Matthew was to follow later. Everything seemed formed to further enhance her happiness, from the green downs of Hampshire to the fineness of the day, and even when she heard reference to what was called a year without a summer, even when they passed through the sad little village of Bishop’s Barrow, which she was informed would belong to her and Matthew if they took the house, even these things could not dampen her spirits.
When the house came into view, she liked the look of it very much; it was just the size she had envisioned, and had a handsome enough facade. Georgiana was reminded that there were other reunions to take place, still, for Moll’s sister came running out, followed by a woman Georgiana did not recognise, but thought bore some familial resemblance. She was correct, for Moll cried, “Now what-for is she doin’ here?”
Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth explained that the Kellys had taken up a portion of Mr. Smith’s old farm, and quietly informed Georgiana that the woman was Moll’s mother.
“Why did Mr. Smith need to vacate his farm?” asked Georgiana, in confusion. While she understood the harvest had been bad during this year without a summer, it was very unlike her brother to require a tenant to vacate his farm for difficulties in meeting one year’s rents.
“You have not had that letter?” asked Elizabeth.
Georgiana replied that she had not.
“It is a rather long story,” said Fitzwilliam. “We shall tell you later.”
Georgiana looked back over at Moll, who sat nervously twisting her wedding ring about her finger: too nervously, Georgiana thought.
“Moll – is anyone in your family aware of your marriage? I did not write to anyone of it, for I felt it must be your news to tell.”
“Nay, ma’am. I only told Sarah that I had a surprise for her, but I thought it was only her as I’d be surprisin’,” Moll said. Then she shrugged, “I suppose there’s naught my mamma can do ‘bout it, if she ain’t happy when she learns. Mr. Stanton promised us it was all right and tight without the banns, since we wasn’t in England.”
Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam were curious witnesses to this conversation, but as the landau had stopped, there was no time for Georgiana to explain. They all alighted the carriage, and Sarah Kelly stepped forward to give her sister a tight embrace. “Glad you’re back safe, Moll. Oh, I’m that glad.”
When the sisters had separated, Moll turned towards her mother, seemingly expecting the same treatment. What she got, however, was a hard slap across the face, and her mother screaming, “Ungrateful child! You ran off and tried to ruin it all, and if it weren’t for Sarah we’d all be starvin’ as now.”
The genteel watched this family drama with shocked expressions on their faces, although after Mrs. Kelly struck her daughter again, Mr. Darcy moved, intending to stop her. Bowden reached the matriarch first, however – Georgiana had not known a man of his size could move so fast – and grabbed her wrist.
“Ain’t for ye to punish her no more,” said Bowden. “For her husband to do.”
“Husband?” asked both Sarah Kelly and her mother, both as shocked as such a statement should make them.
“Aye, husband,” said Bowden. Then, seeming to realise that most in his audience must have thought said husband was him, he added, “Not meself – John Taylor. He’s back on the barky, still, but I ‘spect the captain’ll bring him ‘round to meet ye.”
“That’s right, I’m Moll Taylor now.” Moll, with this having been clarified, held out her hand so they could see the silver ring upon it, and said, “An’ I saved up to pay back what I took, so ye can’t say what I owe, mamma.”
Rather than mollifying her, Moll’s statements caused Mrs. Kelly to renew her desire to do violence to her daughter, and to let loose what sounded a string of Gaelic profanity. She was restrained from the former by Bowden, and with wordless glances amongst themselves, the genteel party determined to go inside the house.
Thus, Georgiana’s first glimpse of the interior of what was to be her new home was somewhat disrupted; she was introduced to the butler, Mr. Norton, and had a quick look around before Elizabeth said, “My apologies – when Mrs. Kelly came down with your coachman, I thought she was eager to greet her daughter.”
“I would not say that she was not eager, but eagerness may take many forms,” said Fitzwilliam drily, and they all laughed.
“I had forgotten how it was that Moll Taylor came to be in England,” said Georgiana. “She has matured so much over the course of our journey. I hope Mrs. Kelly realises it, once they have a chance to talk.”
“She is not the only one who has done so,” murmured Fitzwilliam, just loud enough for his wife to hear.
Darcy was right: Georgiana had matured substantially, Elizabeth thought, as they showed her sister around what seemed increasingly likely to become her new home. She had known her sister before as a young woman: first a young woman in love, then devastated over the loss of her child and struggling with the absence of her husband. Now, there was a contentedness to her features that surely arose from the child in her arms, but beyond this maternal aspect of her, there was also a worldliness. As well there should be, Elizabeth thought, for what little Georgiana had mentioned in the carriage, in terms of stories that should be told, seemed strange and fantastical. It made Elizabeth feel a little jealous of her sister, to have travelled so, but Georgiana seemed pleased to be home, to have her child and a house that she acknowledged still needed a great deal of work, but she could see as her future home.
The drawing-room and dining-room were most presentable, having been the last rooms maintained by the previous family for entertaining, and they were just showing her the library, its shelves wholly devoid of books, when Caroline began to fuss.
“I believe she needs to be changed,” said Georgiana. “So perhaps we ought to see the nursery next. I must beg the use of some clouts from you until our trunks arrive.”
“Of course,” said Elizabeth.
They all climbed the stairs to the nursery, and James and George came over at their most rapid pace to see their parents, until Georgiana exclaimed that they had gotten so big. This drew their attention to her, and while they had met her before, it had been so long ago that she could not be recalled. Moreover, she was carrying a little squalling infant, and as neither boy could remember being such an age and Amelia Bingley had been such a quiet baby, their aunt and the little creature she carried were treated with excessive distrust. George buried his face in his mother’s skirts, and James calmly wrapped his hand about the tassel of one of his father’s hessians, pointed to the baby, and said, “Bad!”
Darcy unwrapped the boy’s hand and picked him up. “No, James, good. That is your aunt Georgiana, and your cousin Ca
roline.”
Georgiana had by now carried the baby over to the table that was used for changing, and was going about that procedure, when Miss Sawyer rushed up and said, “Oh, ma’am, you needn’t do that – I’ll do it, ‘till your nurse arrives.”
“I do not have a nurse, particularly,” said Georgiana. “Let me at least remove the soiled one – Captain Stanton did it, and his usually prove rather tricky to get off.”
“Captain Stanton changes her?” asked Darcy, incredulously.
“Everyone does,” said Georgiana. “Captain Stanton; Mrs. Travis, the master’s wife; Moll Taylor, of course; and Mrs. McClare, the wife of one of the seamen. She is the closest thing to a nurse I have, I suppose, for she is the only one I have hired particularly to look after Caroline. I was unwell for a very long time, so everyone took watches over her, while I rested.”
It had been easy to forget that Georgiana had been unwell, for neither of the Darcys had witnessed it, and a look of very particular relief and affection overtook Darcy’s countenance, as he watched his sister loosen the cloth wrapped about her child and then step aside so Miss Sawyer could complete the task.
“Ye can leave her with us, ma’am,” said Miss Sawyer. “We’re all ready for her. Mrs. Darcy saw to a cradle an’ all.”
“Oh – thank you,” said Georgiana, looking a little startled. “She’ll need to stay with me at night, of course, so we’ll keep her regular cradle in my room.”
“Yes, we ought to show you the bedrooms,” said Elizabeth. “There are only three fit to be used, at present. Your brother and I shall move into the smallest – we should not put you out in your own house.”
Georgiana left her daughter with apparent reluctance, looking back over her shoulder twice before she exited the nursery, and upon being shown the three bedrooms, assured her brother and sister that they need not move, for, as she said, “I believe the little bedroom is twice the size of our sleeping cabin. I suppose we shall take the largest apartment once it is renovated, but for now this will be far more than we are used to.”
Elizabeth caught her husband staring at his sister as if she was a strange, foreign creature, and wondered if perhaps this was the look of her own countenance. Georgiana did not notice, however, and went over to look out the window. She was wearing a dress of very fine muslin, and although it was out of fashion, it became her very well and made her look almost ethereal in the light coming in from the window. For a moment, it felt to Elizabeth almost as though her sister had died months ago in childbirth and had returned to them as a ghost; from the expression on Darcy’s countenance, she thought he might have been struck with the same sensation. But then Georgiana exclaimed that Lord Anglesey and Matthew were coming up the drive and the moment was gone, replaced by the smile and the surety of a true live flesh-and-blood sister.
Lord Anglesey had driven the phaeton back, and thankfully appeared to be a good whip, for Elizabeth suspected Darcy had unthinkingly abandoned his best team in Portsmouth in eagerness to spend the drive back with Georgiana. Lord Anglesey and Matthew were followed by a groom up on his hack, and then a waggonette over-laden with trunks and furniture, with several seamen precariously balanced in this mix. The waggonette came to a halt and with brisk efficiency, the seamen began carrying everything into the entrance-hall, where Georgiana began to survey it with a puzzled countenance.
“Is something amiss?” Elizabeth asked her.
“No – ” said Georgiana hesitantly. “I was not aware we had all of these possessions, however.”
The seamen began unwrapping some of the items, showing them to be furniture: japanned cabinets and commodes, two beautiful side tables, and an exquisite dressing-screen. The other items were crates, and the seamen began prying the tops from them and unveiling what was inside: a porcelain dinner service, several vases, many chests of tea with the E.I.C. mark, and sheets of wall-paper, even more exquisite than the dressing-screen. Bolts of muslin – so many Elizabeth could not count – followed after.
“This ain’t all of it, milady,” said one of the men to Georgiana, “but it’s most. Some of it’s deeper in the hold. We’ll bring it out in the next run.”
The seamen then departed, leaving both Georgiana and Mr. Norton staring at the vast quantity of items in the entrance-hall in consternation. “Did you buy the furniture and wallpaper, Captain Stanton?” asked Georgiana.
“Oh yes, I forgot,” said Matthew. “I thought we should be able to use it, whenever we set up our house.”
Georgiana shook her head, but did not seem entirely surprised by this, and told the butler she thought it could all be stored in the library at present, that room having little purpose without books.
+++
When the items had all been unwrapped and removed from the crates in the entrance-hall, Georgiana had begun to think with excitement that they should be used not at some theoretical house that Matthew had intended them for, but instead here, in this house, in their new home. When her imagination had gone so far as to remove the panelling from the dining-room and replace it with the wall-paper, however, she halted it, for she had not yet discussed the house with Matthew. This she did when they went up to change, asking him very simply if he liked it, and wished to make it their home.
“My opinion hardly matters,” he said.
“It does, Matthew. This would be our home together. I want for you to like it.”
“Oh, I do like it – it is a particularly easy distance to Portsmouth – but dearest, I have not had a home of permanence in a very long time, and that house was not a place I look back on with fondness. I can live well enough anywhere – anywhere you and Caroline are, of course. So that is why I merit your opinion far above mine. Do you like the house?”
“I do – it is strange to think of having so much space to ourselves, but I am sure we shall adjust. And your purchases will certainly help to make it our own.”
“I wish you could have been involved in the purchasing,” said he.
“Yes, but you did quite well with it.”
He kissed her. “I fear I must ask if there is anything you wish for me to purchase in town, for my uncle and I are to travel there tomorrow.”
“Must you, so soon?”
“I must. Word may have already got out about the incident on the river from Lord Amherst’s men, and I need to go to the Admiralty and explain myself. My uncle will help smooth the way politically, if it is needed – I told him of all of it during the drive here, and he agreed it was the right course of action.”
Georgiana could see that despite his uncle’s reassurances, this still worried him – this reckoning that had been so long delayed after the event – and said, soothingly, “If he thinks it was right, I am certain everyone else shall, and if they do not, he will convince them.”
“Yes, it is fortunate to have him in my corner, although it will provide additional fodder for him, in convincing me to run for Parliament. He will note, I presume, that the Admiralty would be less likely to question my actions, were I a member of the Commons.”
“He wishes you to run for Parliament? Would you?”
“Oh yes, he hinted at it the last time I returned to England, and he has done much more than hint this time. You should know, Georgiana, that the purchase of this particular house was not coincidental – it does meet our requirements, but he wanted it for the borough. I expect there has been a sum paid, which he will never tell me of, beyond the value of the house and land.”
“And now he wishes for you to take the seat,” Georgiana stated, still unsure of how she felt about this. It still felt very strange, to be back in England, to be in this very English house. It was almost as though her body had travelled here, but her soul was still caught back somewhere in the Atlantic ocean, in the Caroline’s cabins. To have Matthew not only take up the life of a gentleman, but to also run for Parliament, would be a tremendous change for her, but even more so for him.
“He would prefer I take the seat, but he will not press me on
it, so long as he can put forth his own candidate. That I do not mind at all – we are exceedingly aligned, politically, for he has shaped what political thoughts I have,” Matthew said. “I am inclined to take it, though, so long as you do not mind. I would like to have some manner of active employment.”
“I am not sure how I feel about it,” replied Georgiana. “You would have to be in London more often, but this house is an easy distance to London.”
He took up her hand and clasped it. “I need not decide now. Perhaps we should spend a little time in settling into our life here, and then make the decision.”
“Yes, I think that a good plan.”
“Then we shall wait,” he said. “There was something else I wanted to ask you of, and that was whether you had spoken to Fitzwilliam or Elizabeth about Caroline’s christening.”
“No, I have not – I should have,” Georgiana said, guiltily.
“You mistake me, dearest – I am glad you did not. I was the one who pushed to have Lord Amherst as her godfather, and it ought to be me to give the news to Fitzwilliam. I thought perhaps I might inform him and my uncle tonight, after you and Elizabeth go through to the drawing-room. You might tell her, while you are there.”
Georgiana understood his desire to be the one who told Fitzwilliam he was not to be Caroline’s godfather, and presumed he wished to speak to his uncle and brother about naming them instead as Caroline’s guardians. Yet she was not entirely sure she should be absolved of any responsibility in the matter, and it was a little reluctantly that she nodded her head.
Chapter 42
Once Cook had been allotted a reasonable budget for grocery, dinners at the former Archbolds had gone quite smoothly. This ended, unfortunately, on the day of the Stantons’s return, although the disruption might be deemed their fault, for it was prompted by the arrival of their cook in the kitchen. Rahul and a seaman bore in his ingredients, and he set to work immediately, informing Cook that he was making a curry for the evening’s meal.
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