A Season Lost

by Sophie Turner

  “Aye, milady. He’s hopin’ to help out in the stables sometimes, to learn what he can.”

  “If he does, we shall pay him for it, and I am sure Murray will be glad of the help. Your husband seems a quick learner, so I am sure in a few years’ time he will be ready to manage ostlers and grooms.”

  Moll smiled. “Yes, I think so. And I haven’t forgot that I’ll be leavin’ you in the lurch when it happens, milady, but I think my sister Brigid will be near old enough to take over my position by then. Unless a’course you wish to post for someone else – I only thought of it because I know it’s important for ye to have a maid who don’t get seasick, and nobody in my family was seasick during the crossing, her included. I’d be gone with you if Captain Stanton is sent to the Med, but Brigid can train with Sarah, I’m sure.”

  “I would be very pleased to have another of Sarah Kelly’s protégés working for me,” said Georgiana, “for the first one has worked out very well, and while I will be sad when finally she leaves my service, I would be happy to see her do so for such an opportunity.”

  Chapter 45

  Three days after Matthew and Lord Anglesey had returned from town, Elizabeth came down to dinner contemplating the fact that Lord Anglesey had chosen to return. Perhaps the pace of things in Parliament was slowing, but why Lord Anglesey should return here, rather than go on to his own estate, remained without explanation. Perhaps it was as he had told the Darcys, that he preferred a country house comparably near to town. Or perhaps he, too, like the Darcys, could not bring himself to part from company that had been so long absent from him. The Darcys, certainly, had made no plans to leave. Elizabeth would never suggest it, although she could see the humour in the notion that so many people were living within a place that could barely hold them, when Pemberley could have easily housed them all five times over, in a far greater degree of comfort. Perhaps once the repairs were further underway – this Taylor, Sarah’s new brother-in-law, seemed to have capably taken on the role of clerk of works, requiring less oversight from the genteel and noble of their little house party – Elizabeth might suggest they all transfer to Georgiana’s childhood home, allowing Taylor to make the necessary upheaval in the dining- and drawing-rooms. What she would not suggest was any separation between her husband and his sister; that would need to come eventually, but she would let it come on his terms, as he finally did what distance had not allowed, and settled into an adult relationship with his sister.

  Although Elizabeth had been absenting herself from the kitchen, wishing to allow Georgiana to establish herself as mistress of the house, she still had some awareness of what had been happening there, both from her sister and from Sarah, and knew that Cook had accepted Rahul’s presence, but also taken it as a challenge. Thus, an array of thoroughly English dishes made strong competition with Rahul’s curries, and plates were filled according to everyone’s preferences. They had, by now, generally received a full accounting of the Stantons’s journey, although occasionally Georgiana or Matthew would recall something that would be shared with the table, and so conversation at dinner was comprised in greater part of what had been in the day’s papers, and of the progress on the house and estate.

  The most pressing matter for the latter at present was the hire of a new steward; the former steward had quit, upon coming to understand that the gentlemen in residence, most particularly Mr. Darcy, were to put demands on the position beyond the effort he wished to put forth. This, Darcy said, was no great loss, for he thought a better steward might have seen the estate through the previous year without such losses, and yet it meant the position needed to be filled. Matthew wished to see it filled quickly, likely due to his own lack of experience in estate management, and a letter had arrived that day from a promising candidate.

  “I do like Mr. Wallace,” Darcy was saying. “We shall have to speak to him, of course, but at least in his letter, he seems to know what he is about. I hope we may find him as earnest as your Taylor – I cannot believe he intends to have those two bedrooms done in a fortnight.”

  “I believe he takes very seriously that he has a wife to support, now,” said Matthew. “Although he always was a diligent worker.”

  “When he is ready for the rooms that will be more disruptive, I hope you will come to Pemberley, for a long visit,” said Elizabeth. “You have been so kind to host us in a house you are still making your own; you must allow us to return the favour.”

  “We will be very happy to come to Pemberley at some time,” said Georgiana, “but we shall be out of Taylor’s way for much longer. Matthew had confirmation from the Admiralty today that his command is to continue, in the Mediterranean. We shall be going there as soon as the Caroline comes out of drydock.”

  Elizabeth felt this news as a heavy blow, more for her husband than for herself. She would miss her brother and sister, of course, but she feared Darcy had just gained some semblance of balance with his sister, and this would disrupt it as much as anything possibly could, short of Matthew’s being ordered to China again.

  She was exceedingly surprised, therefore, when without any sign of concern on his countenance, he said, “I hope at least we shall have a few more weeks of your company, and that you shall continue to allow us to trespass on your hospitality here.”

  “Of course, Fitzwilliam,” said Georgiana. “We would be very glad to have you here until we sail, and I am of hopes we can have the Fitzwilliams to visit as well, so long as Marguerite and the baby are able to travel.”

  “Shall you take a house in the Mediterranean?” asked Lord Anglesey, “Or will you continue to live aboard the ship?”

  “I do not know,” replied Georgiana. “It will depend on what the ship is needed for, and how much she is moving about. I would like to see a little of the continent, if I may.”

  “Perhaps you will be the first Darcy since our father to embark on a grand tour,” said her brother.

  The conversation continued in this manner until it came time for the ladies to go through to the drawing-room, with Darcy acting in a manner that was, if not buoyant, at least not indicative of any disapproval or worry. It puzzled Elizabeth exceedingly, but then, she realised, he had seemed much lighter in spirits ever since that ride with Georgiana the day following her return. Elizabeth had thought it due to the removal of all that had concerned him, but now she began to wonder if something more substantial had been the cause.

  Almost as though she had been reading Elizabeth’s thoughts, Georgiana asked, “You don’t think Fitzwilliam was worried, do you, about my leaving again for the Mediterranean? I did give him a little warning that it might be so a few days ago, but he did not seem worried then, nor does he now, but – ”

  “It seems very unlike him to be so, does it not?” asked Elizabeth, when Georgiana could not complete her statement.

  “Yes, precisely!”

  “He did not seem worried to me, either – I cannot know what the cause of it was, but perhaps he has finally reconciled himself to having a naval captain’s wife for a sister.”

  “He shall not have to be reconciled for very long,” Georgiana said. “This will be Matthew’s last command, so long as there is peace – he has promised me that.”

  “Perhaps that has made it easier for your brother, or perhaps he intends we visit you there, which I should like very much.”

  “Oh, I would love for you to visit us there!”

  “I think it will take nothing at all to convince your brother we should do so, if that is not already his intent, so once we know more of where the ship is to be located, let us see if we may plan to join you. The only complexity may be that I am in the family way, so we shall have to be delicate with the timing – I do not think I would like to have a child on board a ship, as you did.”

  “Oh! My congratulations to you, and I cannot say I liked it either,” smiled Georgiana, “but I had little choice, and it has all turned out well in the end.”

  “Indeed it has,” said Elizabeth. “And how do you
feel, about going to the Mediterranean? Will it not be difficult for you to leave England again when you were just beginning to set up your household?”

  “I suppose it shall sound strange, but I am eager to go. The house will always be here, awaiting our return, but we shall not always have such opportunities to travel, and I have been longing to go to the Mediterranean for some time. There are things I would have liked to do here at home – particularly to join an anti-slavery society – but those, too, I hope, shall await my return.”

  Elizabeth recalled the young sister she had gained by marriage, when she had first gained her. That young lady would have been better described as a shy young girl. The woman before Elizabeth now could never be called such; she was fully a sister, never again to be considered like a daughter, even by those who had held her guardianship. Some might have lamented the loss of that young girl’s innocence, but Elizabeth could not count herself among them. She thought Georgiana had gained far more than she had lost.

  +++

  Changed by Sarah in a room now almost entirely cleared of its debris, Elizabeth went into the Darcys’s bedchamber almost warily, still uncertain as to whether her husband was truly at peace with his sister’s impending departure, or whether he had fixed on that mask he had used to wear over his emotions even more firmly than before, and had merely been pretending so as not to distress his sister.

  Her intent to dig at the root, however, was thoroughly undermined when as soon as she had climbed into bed, he drew her into his arms and kissed her fervently – unmistakeably fervently. Elizabeth’s queries were not so urgent that they could not wait until after such an evidently desired round of marital relations, particularly with an husband whose ardour was so substantial it became infectious. He had never been lacking in sensual matters, but in the past few days, he had been so very intense – as though he had a particular relish of his wife.

  Thus it was a rather long time before they were finished, and some time after that before Elizabeth could speak, and when she did, she was still a little breathless: “If your intent was to distract me from what I had intended to ask you about, Mr. Darcy, you have made a valiant effort, but you have not succeeded. I always come back around to what I wish to know about.”

  “That was not at all my intent,” said he, stroking the bare skin of her arm, and then elsewhere. “What was it you wished to know about?”

  “Several things, I believe, but I shall start with why you did not tell me when Georgiana warned you she might be going to the Mediterranean.”

  “I am sorry, Elizabeth, if I have wounded you, for that was not my intent. I merely did not wish for you to worry that I was worried.”

  “But are you worried? I think you must be.”

  He shook his head. “I do not know how you have managed to live with such an husband for so long, but although I am grateful you have done so, it has not been fair to you.”

  “Darcy, what has happened, to change you so?”

  “Georgiana said something to me, which made me fully comprehend what I believe you have been trying to convince me of for a very long time.”

  “She must have said it better than I, then.”

  “Not better – just in a more direct manner. When she realised she was going to have a child, that she might only have months left, she said she knew she had to spend them with Matthew, and to enjoy every day she had,” he said. “It made me finally fully comprehend all of your philosophies. I wrongly – very wrongly – accused you of being naive, of not thinking that those you love can die, when in truth I know you are aware of these things. It is just that it is your nature to seek as much enjoyment from every day as can be had.”

  “I had not thought about it in that way myself, but I suppose you are right. Although you must know that I do not always succeed in taking enjoyment from every day – it is not so long since you found me on the nursery-room floor, weeping my eyes out.”

  “True, and I think we cannot always escape worry – there will always be some kernel of it, whenever there is something to concern us. I intend to take more enjoyment of those blessings I do have, though – most particularly my dearest, loveliest wife and sons, a wife I was once devastated to think I would never gain, and sons I might have lost to fever last year. And I hope that as I did for you that day in the nursery, and as you have done so many times for me, that we shall lift each other up when one of us is low.”

  “Or teaze each other back to optimism.”

  He chuckled. “Yes, and remember your many astute philosophies, and my new one.”

  “And what is your new philosophy, my love?”

  “Seize every day,” he said. “Seize every day in the sun and every day in the rain. Find what happiness you can when it is scarce and savour the happiness when it fills your life. For change is coming: some of it good, and some of it bad, and there will never be another day exactly like today.”

  Journey of HMS Caroline

  Author’s Notes

  With Gratitude

  As the longest book so far in the series, this one proved quite a challenge to manage, and I could not have done it without the many readers who provided feedback along the way to improve the story. Special thanks are due to the “typo squad,” who gave a very long book a very careful read before publication, including Carole Steinhardt, Judith Atkins, Julia Smetak, and Tajana Centis.

  Mary’s Letter

  Mary quotes Hannah More in her letter to Elizabeth.

  David Stanton’s Sermons

  Sermons were very popular among congregations at this time, although it was more common for most clergymen to read from published volumes of sermons, rather than write their own. They were preferred by Church of England attendees over informal, spur-of-the-moment preaching, which risked delving too far into Methodism. We may presume, then, that even if David is yet-unpublished (perhaps that shall change in a future volume), that the quality and thoughtfulness of his sermons is that of those who have published. (Jane Austen’s own cousin, Edward Cooper, had his sermons published.) We may also presume his Easter sermon to be an aberration which did perhaps drift into Methodist territory – not entirely a surprise from a man who likes to read a variety of religious thought – but that it was well-received by his congregation as a thought-provoking novelty.

  Jane Austen and the Clergy by Irene Collins has been very helpful in writing Mary and David’s portions of the book.

  The Weather

  1816 was indeed known as the “Year Without a Summer,” marked by extensive climate upset in England, Scotland, Europe, the United States, and perhaps worst of all, Ireland. Crop failures were widespread, and the price of wheat in England did rise over the threshold set by the Corn Laws. Certain weather events I have aligned with what truly happened, as well as the unrest caused by the combination of job losses in the post-war economy and the rising cost of bread. In other instances, I have made the weather hold long enough to get my characters out of doors to move the plot forward.

  While the locations listed above suffered too much rain, sleet, and snow, one of the accounts of the Alceste’s voyage (more on that later) notes a drought in Brazil during the ship’s stop there (omitted in this story, as they were now running behind). And indeed, it is those on the voyage to China who come closest to witnessing the true cause: the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia, which was immediately devastating to the local area, and spewed an ash cloud into the atmosphere that would disrupt the global climate for years to come. At a 7 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index, it was the most powerful explosion recorded by humans, larger than others that may be better-known to readers, such as Krakatoa in 1883 (VEI 6) and Mount Pinatubo in 1991 (VEI 6). The pumice island observed by those on the Caroline is based on reality; they were encountered by ships in that part of the world following the eruption.

  First-hand accounts of the Alceste’s time in China, off the coast of Korea, and at Lewchew (Okinawa) do not indicate any major climatological events. Areas of China, particularl
y the Yunnan Province, were hard-hit by food shortages resulting from weather events; I cannot tell if the difficulties the ships had in procuring food as described (and taken from one of the first-hand accounts) were related to these food shortages or merely based on mistrust of the foreign British.

  Conditions in India, including the failure of the monsoon, led to what may be described as the first real outbreak of cholera elsewhere in that country. While I have not been able to find as much about the weather in Mumbai (called Bombay by the British at that time), where rainfall was recorded beginning in 1817, I have presumed a similar failure of the monsoon across the country. In some places eventually there was an overabundance of rain, resulting in flooding.

  Although it is called the “year without a summer,” in truth Britain suffered about three years of weather-related agricultural depression due to the eruption of Tambora, and thus this plotline comes to a bit of a “soft ending” in this book, which closes in May of 1817. The estimate of Pemberley’s clearing nine thousand pounds is based on the high price of wheat, which would have enabled most tenants to make all or part of their rents, although with the additional land Darcy has been purchasing, the estate’s income should be higher than ten thousand pounds a year, so it is not a mere thousand-pound loss.

  For books on this event I relied particularly on Gillen D’Arcy Wood’s excellent Tambora: The Eruption That Changed the World, as well as The Year Without Summer: 1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History by William K. Klingaman and Nicholas P. Klingaman.