“Richard, I cannot thank you enough; not for myself, my fatigue is probably temporary and will disappear in time, but for Mr Darcy. I have been concerned that he will not stop working, and if he does not take some rest away from Pemberley, he, like Colonel Fitzwilliam, may suffer a sudden breakdown. Yet I have not been able to persuade him,” said Elizabeth.
Richard sought to reassure her that her husband was unlikely to suffer the fate of his cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam, whose constitution had been weakened considerably through his years in the military and later in the south Asian colonies.
“Mr Darcy is in much better health than the colonel was, but I agree that he does work ceaselessly and could do with time away from Pemberley. I am sure you will both benefit from this journey. It is an excellent decision,” he said.
A week later, Darcy and Elizabeth, with a couple of trusted personal servants, left to join the Bingleys and travel first to London and thence to France and Italy, leaving Julian and Jessica resident at Pemberley, with Cassandra and her son Darcy Gardiner in charge of the estate.
* * *
Anthony Darcy, the young heir to Pemberley, and his cousin James were both delighted to have the run of the grounds while their grandparents were away. Both boys, though too young to fully comprehend the responsibility that would one day lie upon young Anthony’s shoulders, were, nevertheless, well schooled in the importance of the work done on the estate. James’ mother, Cassandra, had had the care of her young nephew since the death of his mother, Josie, and though his father, Julian, had since married again, Anthony had remained by his own choice with the Gardiners, and the two boys were as close as brothers.
Cassy, who for many years had assisted her father in the running of the Pemberley estate, had at all times insisted that the boys knew the significance of the duties that had to be performed, and furthermore, she had, by taking them with her on many occasions, ensured that they knew and often became friends with many of the people who lived and worked on the estate.
After her son Darcy was appointed to the position of manager, Cassy had played less of a role in the supervision of activities on the estate, but had spent more time on the ancillary organisations like the school, the library, and the hospital, which her parents had set up for their tenants and workers as well as the people of the district. Both James and Anthony took an interest in her work and often travelled around the district with her.
On a fine morning, some days after the Darcys had left for Europe, Cassandra was driving in her curricle with Laura Ann and the two boys. They had a basket of groceries for the hospital and were making their way to Littleford, where Cassy had arranged to meet with her son Darcy’s wife, Kate, who was uncharacteristically late that morning.
When she did arrive, Kate had news for them. Cassy had been concerned that their little boy may have been taken ill, but Kate assured her that little Michael was quite well. “But,” she added, “we have new neighbours; they’ve just moved in at Willowdale Farm, and of course, we had to stop and say welcome to the district.”
Cassy was eager to know who they were. Willowdale Farm was an old freehold property left vacant after its owner had died some years ago. Lying across the river from the home she and Richard had shared before they had moved to Camden Park, the main dwelling was a Georgian-style cottage, sitting atop a terraced garden filled with a myriad of flowers and a broad meadow and orchard behind it.
But Cassy’s happiest recollection was of three ancient beech trees that stood like sentinels in the grounds of Willowdale Farm. Her children had loved the trees; both Edward and Darcy had spent hours in their spreading branches, while their grandmother Mrs Gardiner watched, terrified that they would fall, but they never did. The memory brought tears to her eyes.
“Who are they?” she asked, and Kate replied that the family were called O’Connor.
“They are recently come over from Ireland, I believe,” she said. “I met the mother, her son, and two daughters. I did not see Mr O’Connor.”
“Perhaps he works in town or at the mills,” Laura Ann suggested, and Kate said she thought because Mrs O’Connor was wearing black that perhaps he was dead and she was a widow.
“Oh, poor woman, and with three children too,” said Cassy. “Perhaps we should call on her later and take a basket?”
Kate laughed and said, “We could, but they are not very little children,” she explained. “The son seems somewhat older than the girls, in his mid-twenties maybe. The older girl is very tall, and the younger one is tiny and very pretty; she cannot be more than eight or nine years old. I’ve asked them all to tea on Saturday.”
Returning from the hospital, they passed by Willowdale Farm and noted that the O’Connor family were nowhere in sight, which made Laura Ann curious, and Cassy said she could go to tea with Kate on Saturday and meet the O’Connors, if she wished.
“Will Elena be there?” asked Laura Ann, and on being assured that Kate’s younger sister would indeed be present, she agreed that she would come to tea on Saturday. The two had become firm friends since Kate had married Laura’s brother Darcy, and there was the added attraction of the Darcys’ little son to play with.
Elena, recently engaged to a young gentleman from the neighbouring county of Staffordshire, had provided Laura with the sisterly companionship she had missed since her own sister, Lizzie, had married Mr Michael Carr and moved to live at Rushmore Farm.
“May I stay over, Mama?” she asked, and Cassy made no objection.
“Certainly, if your brother and Kate have room for you, and you are not in the way,” she replied.
Before Laura Ann could ask, Kate assured her that she was very welcome to come to tea on Saturday and stay overnight. “Of course you may, Laura; I’m sure Elena will enjoy having you to help with the ladies from Willowdale Farm. Besides, you should have a lot to talk about. I understand from her last letter that Elena and Mr Featherstone have decided to be married next Easter.”
“So soon?” Laura Ann expressed her astonishment, and even Cassy looked surprised.
“Yes indeed, it appears Mr Featherstone’s mother is unwell, and since Simon is her only son, she is keen to see him settled,” Kate explained. The information added a whole new reason for Laura Ann’s desire to see Elena again, and so it was settled that she would go.
* * *
By the time Mrs O’Connor and her daughters came to tea on Saturday, Kate had learned much more about the family. Mr O’Connor had indeed died several months ago, leaving his wife and family with a small inheritance. He had had a clothing business, which had accrued many debts that had to be settled before the family could leave Ireland. Kate’s housekeeper had gathered a good deal of information whenever she had met Mrs O’Connor’s cook at the market in Matlock.
They were not poor; Mrs O’Connor continued to receive a regular annuity from her father’s estate, and she was a very good manager of money, but with little capital left, the somewhat run-down farm at Willowdale was all they could afford. They had no experience of farming, and when Kate mentioned this to her husband, Darcy wondered how they would get on running the place with no men around to organise the farm labour. “I understand the son is a writer; he has taken clerical work with a firm in Derby, probably to help the family, so he is unlikely to have much time or inclination for farming,” he said, surprising his wife with the information.
“It’s a firm we use for some of the supplies we order for Pemberley. I was there yesterday, and I met young Mr O’Connor, who is in charge of inventories. He seemed efficient and obliging, but it must be a deeply frustrating situation for a writer,” Darcy remarked.
“He certainly looks the part; he is very handsome and wears his hair a little longer than most,” said his wife with a twinkle in her eye. “I confess I thought it was a pity Elena was already engaged.”
Darcy laughed and scolded her gently, “You ladies are all the same; you will not cease matchmaking. Tom O’Connor is handsome enough, I grant you, but Elena is much
better off with Simon Featherstone. He is the only son of a respectable middle-class family, whose fortune comes mainly from commerce, which I assure you is much more secure than farming.”
“Or writing,” said his wife, agreeing, but adding that the young man was unlikely to remain an inventory clerk. “I did see some inspirational fire in his eyes, and when his mother introduced him to me as Tom, he said very firmly, ‘Thomas, please, Mother.”’
“Did he indeed? Well, Thomas O’Connor would certainly look better on the cover of a book, would it not?” Kate agreed, and as they retired to bed, she continued to speculate about young Mr O’Connor and his literary career, until her husband muttered sleepily that he was unlikely to become another Charles Dickens and he supposed they could let the tenant farmer tend the cows if they had no other help on the farm.
On Saturday, Laura Ann arrived early to see Elena, whose engagement to Mr Featherstone had been the high point of the Summer. That there was going to be a wedding at Easter added new excitement, and the two young women retired upstairs. Duly warned by Kate, they were ready to greet the visitors when their little pony carriage came up the drive and Mrs O’Connor and her two daughters alighted.
Mrs O’Connor apologised that her son, Tom, would be delayed by a few minutes, since there was not enough room for him to sit in their carriage without crushing his sisters’ gowns and he had offered to walk up to the house, which it was generally agreed was very considerate of him.
The ladies were ushered into the sitting room where tea was laid out in front of the fire, and presently Darcy came down to join them. Introductions were made by Kate, and Mrs O’Connor, who had been shown to the best seat, took to admiring the room and the lovely aspect it commanded of the garden. “This is such a sweet room, Mrs Gardiner; it must surely be your favourite spot,” she declared in a somewhat theatrical voice, as Kate handed her a cup of tea and acknowledged that it was indeed one of her favourite places in the house.
The elder Miss O’Connor, though only seventeen, was very tall, indeed taller by several inches than her mother, and Mrs O’Connor informed them that Marguerite was trained to give singing lessons, while she herself could teach the pianoforte. They had hoped, she said, to find some pupils in the area and wondered if Mrs Gardiner knew of any young ladies in the neighbourhood who might be in need of lessons.
There were footsteps on the gravel drive, and young Elvira O’Connor, who had been standing beside the window, cried out that it was her brother arriving and ran out of the room into the hall as the door opened to admit him. Laura Ann, who had followed Elvira, was the first person he saw as he entered the house and surrendered his coat and umbrella to the servant.
Not having met before, they both stood silently looking at one another until Kate arrived and said, “Please do come right in, Mr O’Connor.”
He apologised, then, for being late and explained that he had gone back to fetch an umbrella because it had looked like rain. “And since I must not crush my sisters’ gowns by crowding into the carriage, I thought I had better bring an umbrella; although I must say I felt rather foolish when the sun came out just as I was walking out again.”
His lighthearted remark allowed him to conceal any awkwardness he might have felt at being late and provided Kate with the opportunity to introduce her husband, Mr Darcy Gardiner, her sister Miss Elena O’Hare, and her young sister-in-law, Miss Laura Ann Gardiner, all of whom he greeted with grace and courtesy before taking a seat beside the fire and accepting tea and cake. Thereafter, while Darcy attempted with only limited success to engage him in conversation about his work or the cricket season just finished, the ladies took over the general discourse for the next hour.
Since Mrs O’Connor and Marguerite kept both Kate and Elena occupied answering questions about the neighbourhood, it fell to Laura Ann to ensure that their guests were fed, which she did with her usual gentle charm, succeeding where others did not in persuading Mr O’Connor to surrender his plate and tea cup and have them replenished. She recommended that he try the apple tea cake, which he did, and when he told her the cake was delicious and asked if she had made it, she agreed with him that it was, but being by nature both modest and truthful, said she had not. “It was Elena; she makes wonderful cakes. My brother declares that Mr Featherstone will have to be watchful or he will become very fat!” and when Mr O’Connor looked puzzled, she laughed softly and explained. “Oh, I am sorry, of course you do not know Mr Featherstone; he is the gentleman who is engaged to Elena, and he is very slim and tall.”
“And does he love cake?” asked Mr O’Connor, to which Laura Ann replied, “Indeed he does; we think almost as much as he loves Elena.”
At this artless response, Mr O’Connor laughed out loud, and everyone in the room turned and regarded him with surprise, for he had sat so quietly for almost an hour. Darcy Gardiner, returning to the room, was quite astonished to see the man he had found rather reticent engaged in an affable and lively conversation with his young sister.
Presently, Laura moved away to where her sister-in-law appeared trapped between her two inquisitors, and Tom O’Connor smiled as he watched her gently extricate Kate and let her herself in between them, continuing to answer their enquiries and press more cake upon them as she did so.
When almost all of the refreshments had been consumed together with several pots of tea, Mrs O’Connor seemed ready to take her leave, but little Elvira, who had been doing some exploring, came in and announced that there was a beautiful pianoforte in the room across the hall.
Mrs O’Connor and Marguerite both expressed a desire to see the instrument, and so the entire party trooped into the formal drawing room, which drew even more admiration from the visitors.
Mother and daughter, both musicians, could not say enough about the very superior pianoforte, which had once been Cassandra’s and upon which all her children including Laura Ann had learned to play. They begged to be allowed to hear it played, and when Kate, unwilling to set herself up for the task, turned to Laura, she, quite unselfconsciously, seated herself at the instrument and obliged.
As her little audience stood around her enjoying the performance, Elena noticed that Mr Tom O’Connor had moved over to the far side of the room, from where he was gazing across at Laura Ann as she played.
Whether it was the glow of the late afternoon sun filtering in at the windows and gilding the young performer’s hair, the sweet music, or her own romantic imagination, she could not tell, but Elena began to suspect that Tom O’Connor was clearly beguiled by Laura Ann. While Kate had been satisfying the curiosity of his mother and sister, Elena had noticed the ease with which Laura had drawn Tom into conversation, where previously he had sat almost silent for the best part of an hour, and now, here he was, apparently entranced by her playing. She wondered whether Laura Ann had been at all aware of his interest, but knowing her well, thought not; it was not the sort of idle pastime Laura Ann indulged in.
Not long afterwards, the visitors, having declared they had rarely heard such exquisite playing, thanked Laura Ann and their hosts and left. As the servants cleared away the remains of the tea, Kate and Darcy went upstairs. Elena, dawdling deliberately, meaning to get Laura alone and tease her, heard footsteps rushing up the drive. She went to the door and opened it to find Tom O’Connor outside.
Coming out of the drawing room, Laura Ann saw him too and before he could speak, said, “You forgot your umbrella!” She rushed away to fetch it as he stood at the door, and when she returned, he took it and thanked her profusely, apologising again for having troubled them, all the time never taking his eyes from her face. Elena was completely convinced that he was already smitten.
“Thank you, and may I say again how much I have enjoyed this afternoon and, most particularly, your performance on the pianoforte, Miss Gardiner. I do hope we shall meet again soon,” he said and left almost reluctantly, leaving Laura Ann standing in the doorway, smiling.
Elena was certain that they would meet again. The g
entleman was so plainly fascinated, he would surely ensure that they met again, as soon as he could possibly arrange it.
Chapter Two
The following day being Sunday, Laura Ann and Elena went to church. Although Elena had changed her mind the previous evening about teasing her young sister-in-law about Tom O’Connor, believing that something of a more serious nature may well eventuate, she could not resist asking one seemingly innocuous question.
“And what did you think of our new neighbours, Laura?”
Laura’s reply, characteristically artless, gave her no scope for speculation at all. “I think they are exceedingly interesting; each one is so different from the other, they appear completely unrelated. Would you not say so?”
Elena, somewhat disconcerted by this opinion, asked, “How do you mean?”
“Why, simply that they appear so unlike one another; Mrs O’Connor is loquacious and dramatic, Miss Marguerite O’Connor is elegant and accomplished but not so animated as her mother, and little Elvira is so sweet and dainty, they are all quite different,” Laura explained.
“And Tom, Mr O’Connor, how do you judge him?” asked Elena, taking great care not to imply anything unusual at all in the tone of her voice.
She need not have been concerned, for her companion certainly was not; answering the question with her usual ingenuousness, she said, “He is different again to all the others of his family, though perhaps he may be like his late father; we cannot tell. I would say his disposition is rather more thoughtful, but open, all the same.”
“Open?” Elena protested. “Your brother Darcy claims he hardly got two sentences from him when he attempted to draw him into conversation.”
“Ah, but then my brother talked to him about cricket, which Darcy loves but Mr O’Connor, having come lately from Ireland, would know nothing about. I am surprised he succeeded in getting two sentences out of him on the subject,” said Laura, smiling. “No, I think he is a little reserved as one expects a newcomer to the district to be; Mama always says it is not pleasing to see all these boisterous young men from Birmingham and London gassing about trying to impress us. I think his manners are very pleasing, and though he is rather quiet, he appears to have a good sense of humour.”
Legacy of Pemberley (The Pemberley Chronicles; Pride and Prejudice Sequel Series) Page 31